Oblate presence: 1959-2006

What does a Pastoral Institute consists of? Father André Guay answered this question in a document from which we give some excerpts: “A Pastoral Institute, that means a Higher Institute. Therefore, this Institute could also be part of the Graduate School in a way, like the Institute of Missiology. Although the Institute of Missiology is a different legal structure and formally attached to theology by virtue of an agreement with it. […] The Pastoral Institute would be more of a practical institute. When he founded his Institute of Missiology, Father Joseph Champagne had in mind mainly the preparation of doctors of missiology. However, it is this section that has survived, the other one could not be realized. The programs were too good and too broad to be sustainable.”

Another document specifies a little more precisely what would be possible. “An Institute like the one we are considering is something new in this country. […] This Institute will have to win recognition by its intrinsic value. It will have to be led by men who have achieved genuine prestige in the various fields covered. Let us especially emphasize a certain scientific experimentation of true religious sociology which should prepare the advent of such an Institute. However, in this field of practical pastoral care, not much has been done, even by the Oblates. […] We have a huge job to do to bring our parish ministry and preaching into line with recent data from religious sociology. Religion has remained for far too many a matter of external practices with little impact on the various sectors of life, especially on the social, economic and political levels.”

Finally, the beginning of the Codex Historicus of the Sedes Sapientiae Centre ends these discussions by mentioning the rescript of the canonical erection of the house on July 17, 1959 by the Oblates’ Father General. Responding to Father Provincial, the appointed superior, Father Roger Guidon, “took the opportunity to recall that the new Centre of [ecclesiastical] Faculties was the crowning achievement of a priestly and university work of which the scholasticate and the Seminary of Saint Paul had been the main architects.”

On page 7 of the same Codex, the Pastoral Institute is mentioned several times, as well as several members of its staff. The Pastoral program, directed by Father Nazaire Morissette, is also located in the house, but must be clearly distinguished from the Pastoral Institute, since it is a separate canonically erected house.

In a 1969 report, the Rector of Saint Paul University first mentioned: “The University needs the entire central building to accommodate all its services and meet all its needs, new and old. (That is the Sedes Sapientiae Centre building, which is distinct from the canonically formed Oblate community, of the same name, which resides in the Centre and whose purpose is to provide for the spiritual and temporal well-being of the Fathers and Brothers who are in the service of the University) This would mean that there would be no room for a community or student boarders. Faced with such a situation, the Governing Board, at its meeting of January 21, 1969, adopted the following resolution: “The University […] may no longer rent premises in the said central building to the Sedes Sapientiae community and to students.” In a subsequent letter of February 6, 1969, the Superior mentioned the possibility that the community might move “if a real and urgent need became evident in this case (sic).”

After the acceptance of the relocation of the Sedes Sapientiae Community to Deschâtelets, the Superior made the following request to the Provincial Council in a letter dated May 21, 1969: “I submit a request for a new name for the Sedes Sapientiae community. […] We wish to call ourselves the Roy Community. We want to honour Brother Edouard Roy, who died in 1963. He spent his entire life as a religious in the service of Oblate educational work in the Ottawa area. We also want to express our gratitude and appreciation for the priests and brothers who have worked behind the scenes at the University. If the provincial council approves our decision, we will change our name when we move.”

Eugène Lapointe, OMI