Mass in ruins of first English Catholic church in Ontario.St. Raphael's, ON -- Cardinal Mare Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec City and Primate primate, member of the mammalian order Primates, which includes humans, apes, monkeys, and prosimians, or lower primates. The group can be traced to the late Cretaceous period, where members were forest dwellers. of Canada, celebrated Mass in the ruins of St. Raphael's Church, twenty miles northeast of Cornwall Ontario. It commemorated the 200th anniversary of the arrival of Alexander Macdonell Alexander Macdonell or McDonell may refer to:
A legendary figure, Macdonell secured work for many of his destitute des·ti·tute adj. 1. Utterly lacking; devoid: Young recruits destitute of any experience. 2. Lacking resources or the means of subsistence; completely impoverished. See Synonyms at poor. Scottish Highlanders in the mills of Glasgow, raised a regiment of "Glengarry Fencibles" to fight in the Napoleonic Wars Napoleonic Wars, 1803–15, the wars waged by or against France under Napoleon I. For a discussion of them see under Napoleon I. Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) Series of wars that ranged France against shifting alliances of European powers. and acted as its chaplain, secured the grant of a tract of land in Glengarry County, Upper Canada Upper Canada: see Ontario. when the regiment disbanded, and brought many of his former soldiers and others as immigrants to the new world. He was largely responsible for the building of St. Raphael's Church, big enough to hold a thousand people. It was consecrated con·se·crate tr.v. con·se·crat·ed, con·se·crat·ing, con·se·crates 1. To declare or set apart as sacred: consecrate a church. 2. Christianity a. in 1821. A fire gutted it in 1970, but its walls and large circular altar were left standing. In 1974 its ruins were designated a provincial historical landmark, and in 1999 they were declared a national historical site. The federal and provincial governments have contributed $1.5 million towards preservation of the site, but the Friends of the Ruins of St. Raphael's are seeking to raise the rest of the funds required to stabilize the church's walls and foundation. They want to ensure that the site is preserved as a permanent memorial to one of the founding settlements of Canada. In his homily homily (hŏm`əlē), type of oral religious instruction delivered to a church congregation. In the patristic period through the Middle Ages the focus of the homily was on the explanation and application of texts read or sung during the during the commemorative Mass, Cardinal Ouellet praised Macdonell as "a man celebrated in his own time for being unfailingly courteous and respectful of the dignity of others;" as a visionary; and also as a man of deep faith and conviction. Kingston Archbishop Anthony Meagher, Macdonell's successor, said that the Mass provided an opportunity for people to appreciate the area's heritage. "The faith that we have today was won by people who've gone before us," he said. They "suffered a lot so that we can have this faith today" (Prairie Messenger, July 28, 2004). |
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