Oblate presence: 1955-1995

On January 28, 1955, a delegation representing the “Committee for the Classical College of Jonquière”, the Bishop of Chicoutimi and a number of businessmen, came to meet the Very Reverend Father General, Léo Deschâtelets, and the Reverend Father Albert Sanschagrin, provincial, in Council, at the Monastery of Cap-de-la-Madeleine. The purpose of the visit was to offer our Congregation the opportunity to found and run a classical college in the city of Jonquière.

Project to sell the College. In a letter dated August 29, 1968 to Father Samuel Côté, treasurer of Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire Province, we read the following text: “Included are the documents necessary for the sale of the Jonquière college to Cegep [of the Ministry of Education of the Province of Quebec]. The certificate of authorization from Rev. Fr. Yvon Isabelle is sufficient, because it is an authorization to the corporation of the Jonquière College which will provide the resolution as we read it in the documents you sent us yesterday.”

Closure of the Mary Queen of the World House (1955-1995). In a short article, Normand Harvey, OMI, wrote the following about the closing of the Oblate residence at Jonquière College: “The Mary Queen of the World House (1955-1995), recently closed its doors. It is a beautiful page in Oblate and regional history. The day school was driven by a concept that was quite new at the time: a classical college serving a working-class population. And this spirit continues in the current Cegep according to the explicit desire of the first corporation. In four decades, the institution made a rich contribution to the development of Quebec’s education during the Quiet Revolution. It also made a rich contribution to the Congregation and the Church.”

Eugène Lapointe OMI