White River, Mobert & Mtwdge welcome new priest
Changes at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish
Father Manuelpillai Soosaipillai
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Manitouwadge, welcomed a new priest last week. Father Manuelpillai Soosaipillai or Father Manuel as he is fondly named in our country, originally hails from Sri-Lanka where he was ordained in 1980. His initial visit to Canada was in 1990 when he spent two years studying at St.Paul’s University in Ottawa, Ontario. He jokingly spoke of those first years on the ‘other side of the globe’ and how a well meaning professor had emphatically chanted “Bundlop! Bundlop!” in response to his complaints of sub-zero temperatures, and how silly he had looked in the deerskin coat he had been given to wear. Apparently, the deerskin did little to help acclimatize Father Manuel and by the time his fluency with northern dialect improved enough to realize the professor had been advising that he “Bundle up” to keep warm, he was on his way back home to Sri Lanka.
20 years ago when Ottawa felt like the ultimate in cold weather Father Manuel certainly never dreamt of some day traveling further North yet, but in 2006 he returned once again to Canada as the Lord called him to a parish in Sudbury and most recently to a diocese in North Bay. He has arrived in Manitouwadge after speaking with the Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe, Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and the need for a permanent priest who would serve not only there but also at the neighboring parishes of St. Basil in White River and St. Francis Regis in Mobert. In spite of the Bishop’s warning of our isolated northern location and a heavy workload which includes many hours of highway driving each week, he decided to come give Manitouwadge a try. His friends from North Bay almost couldn’t believe it, he was going where?
I asked Father Manuel about what he missed most from home and he was quick to answer Sri Lankan cuisine which unfortunately, is a rather rare find in Manitouwadge. He enjoys playing ping-pong and soccer (football as it is known outside North America) and is already looking forward to next year’s summer having never lived in a region where winter lasts between six and eight months of the year. Of course there are aspects of life in Manitouwadge that Sri Lanka more than adequately prepared him for. The mosquitoes we believe to be in great numbers here are hardly worth mentioning when compared those in his home country; he is also eager to eat partridge once again, having enjoyed the wildfowl growing up as his father hunted these as well as deer and wild boar before the civil war which has so tragically changed life in Sri Lanka forever.
Father Manuel has already put out a request for volunteers hoping to have Children’s Liturgy offered once again at Our Lady of Lourdes. He has also offered that French Hymns might be included in some Sunday masses. This will be much appreciated by the francophone parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes who had enjoyed Saturday Mass in French until it was cancelled to allow the priest in Manitouwadge to travel for masses at St. Basil and St. Francis Regis every weekend. As for other changes he might bring, he said he preferred to get to know members of both the congregation and the community for the time being. A warm Manitouwadge welcome is extended to Father Manuel as well as a reminder that winter is coming so “Bundlop!”
Submitted to The Echo 09.06.09 Published 09.12.09
