The Bishop of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, Thomas Dowd, has spent a week in Elliot Lake for the first time since being named to the post in October last year.
Bishop Dowd characterized his visit as “great” meeting with students at Elliot Lake’s elementary Catholic schools and French high school, visiting with officials at St. Joseph’s General Hospital, meeting with city officials, parishioners at Ste-Bernadette Parish and leaders at the Catholic church in Serpent River First Nation. He has been posting photos of his visit.
At the parish he celebrated the faith with parishioners each evening and will hold mass today (Sunday) on his last day of the visit here.
Despite his busy schedule, he managed to do an interview with Elliot Lake Today on Friday afternoon. The interview touched on several issues related to the diocese and recalled when he was told he was named Bishop of the Sault diocese by Pope Paul. The diocese, which is headquartered in Sudbury where he lives, covers the area from North Bay to the White River.
Bishop Dowd recalled his naming for the post when it became vacant.
“When the job of Bishop was vacant at the time, I got my rosary off my mirror, and I decided to pray for the people and pray for their next Bishop whoever it might be and the next day I got a phone call from the Pope’s ambassador to Canada saying the Holy Father wants you to be Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie. It’s just one of those God having a sense of humor moments,” he said in his response that is frequently laced with humor.
Prior to taking the post, he served as a priest and was named auxiliary Bishop in Montreal in 2011 with a combined service to the church of 20 years.
At 51 he is among the youngest Bishops.
“I was made a Bishop at the age of 40 and at the time I was the second youngest in the world. Somebody asked me what, do you think that means, and I said desperate times call for desperate measures,” he joked with a laugh which is a trademark of his personality.
Bishop Dowd talked about the recent closure of the French Catholic church and amalgamation and renaming to Ste-Bernadette Parish formerly known as Fatima.
“I’m new here so I wasn’t present for the merger part,” he said, adding that he was planning to meet with the transition team on Saturday to talk about it. “My experience of meeting the people here is it’s not easy, there’s a grieving,” he said of the merger. “It’s about building something new.”
In his first visit to Elliot Lake, he was concerned there wouldn’t be enough to do, but with all the activities he has taken part in that concern was unfounded.
In the 2011 national census, the Catholic population in the city was about 4,500 in a population of 11,000 or about 40 percent. The current numbers won’t be known until Canada releases its 2021 census.
He is planning on making visits periodically to the community. Bishop Dowd will be putting together a report on his findings derived from his week-long visit. The power point presentation will be made here in early 2022.
“I will come back in a couple of months with a power point presentation where I’m going to reflect back on what it is I’ve seen, and the purpose is to basically say I’m the Bishop and I need to know what’s going on. Here’s what I think is going on am I wrong correct me if you can’t correct me maybe I’m right,” he said.
The findings of the power point will become part of an overall strategy for the local church to undertake. Bishop Dowd said the findings could lead to an evaluation of what’s being done in about five years.
On the question of church compensation for Indigenous children who attended Catholic run residential schools, the Bishops of Canada have announced a rebooting of the effort to raise about $30 million.
For its part, Sault diocese members may have to contribute about $1.60 annually to meet the local portion of the Canada wide fundraiser.
Bishop Dowd welcomed the recent Vatican announcement of the Pope’s plan to visit Canada. No official date of the visit has been announced and said the Pope is welcomed to visit the Sault diocese.
He stressed his upcoming power point presentation will be open to the public.
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