Oblate presence: 1925-1968 – Location: City near Ottawa, located north of the Outaouais River.
Establishment of the Hull closed retreat house. On July 5, 1925, the solemn blessing of the Sacré-Cœur House on Lévis Street in Hull took place. The house was for the work of closed retreats in the Diocese of Ottawa. It was pointed out that the work was diocesan and that Catholics in Ottawa, Hull and the entire diocese, should benefit from it. The Oblate provincial made the same remark and insisted that the religious only wanted, as always, to assist the secular clergy. The first retreat ended on July 12, 1925.
Blessing of the cornerstone of the new Sacré-Cœur church in Hull. On October 23, 1949, Bishop Hilaire Chartrand, Vicar General, blessed the cornerstone of the new Sacré-Cœur church in Hull. Located on the east side of the Sacré Cœur Closed Retreat House, on Sacré-Cœur Boulevard in Hull, it would replace the chapel of the said House where parishioners had been attending Mass since 1946.
The end of closed retreats and sale of the house. At its meeting on March 15, 1968, the Provincial Council took some formal decisions regarding the closed retreats in Hull, which it had already considered abandoning. It was therefore unanimously resolved:
1) that the Hull Closed Retreats cease operations in July 1968;
2) that, as far as possible, the Oblates who worked there be assigned, directly or indirectly, to a more flexible pastoral care in the Diocese of Hull, and in particular to the project for the social and pastoral renewal of Old Hull;
3) that the house be rented or offered for sale, preferably for religious or social purposes, for example to the Hull Social Service;
4) that the General Administration be requested to authorize the sale at the best conditions that could be obtained.
The parish priests and vicars remained at the Retreat House until 1960. A presbytery was built near the church.
The sale was authorized by the General Administration on June 28, 1968.
Eugène Lapointe OMI
