In Canada, as in other countries, the shortage
of priests has made it necessary to merge existing parishes. In our case three
parishes are concerned:
- Saint Michael of Sillery,
erected in 1852 by the architect
Goodlatte Richardson Browe and the first chapel to be built in Sillery,
in front of the Jesuit house.
- St. Charles Garnier, a
church established by Cardinal Villeneuve on the August 7th 1944 as
a new parish in Sillery and inaugurated in 1947.
- The Most Holy Sacrament, a
parish founded in 1921 by Father Auguste Pelletier and opened in 1924. The Blessed Sacrament Fathers had previously
built a small wooden church.
Last March, the
Religious of Jesus and Mary were invited to propose a name for this new parish
to be established in January, 2019. The following April Father Busque sent
these suggestions, together with those of the parishes of St. Charles Garnier
and St. Michael, to the Archbishop of Quebec. His Auxiliary Bishop, Mgr. Pelchat, replied on April 19th . The
following is an extract from his reply:
“ I received your lettet of April 11th,
which was part of the consultation carried out among the parishioners of St.
Charles Garnier and St. Michael of Sillery, with reference to the judicial
merger to take effect on the 1st January 2019. After consultating
Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, Archbishop of Quebec, concerning the proposals
received in the consultation, it is with
pleasure that I confirm that the chosen name is that of BLESSED DINA BÉLANGER.
Let us rejoice to have the name of
one of us – entitled Blessed by the
Church – as the name of our new parish and let us pray to her for our
respective Christian communities.”
The three parishes are
asking their new patron to obtain for them the grace of unity and communion.
