On the weekend, my wife and I went to visit the Martyrs' Shrine in Midland.
The Church was filled with people, including nuns from Mother Teresa's Order (one was barefoot!). The next day was the Polish pilgrimage and they were expecting over 7,000 + people! St John Paul II was at the Shrine and the outdoor papal altar where he sat is still there with a large wooden carved statue of him - he is an additional Saint of the Shrine!
The priest celebrating Mass invoked the 8 canonized Martyrs and St Kateri Tekakwitha. Then he publicly invoked Joseph Chiwatenhwa, a Servant of God - those Jesuits . . .
A walking pilgrimage arrived at the Shrine an hour later with people well in their sixties having made the trek from Toronto - 150 kms!
We then went to visit the site of my dad's old farm which is on land that was once the village of Toanche where Fr Joseph Le Caron developed the French-Huron dictionary and where Champlain wintered. Fr. Le Caron's statue is just outside St Anne's Church in Penetanguishene and I venerate him as he reposed on my birthday and was the first missionary to Huronia. Yesterday marked the 400th anniversary of the first Mass in Ontario by Fr. Le Caron at Carhagouha where Cardinal Collins celebrated Mass to honour the anniversary. It was Fr. Le Caron who established St Joseph as a patron of Canada (St Anne is also such a patron together with the North American Martyrs).
Don't know why there isn't a Cause for Fr. Joseph Le Caron, but hopefully one day . . . His colleague, Fr. Nicolas Viel was the first Martyr of Canada together with his Indian Christian associate, Ahuntsic who were drowned at the Sault au Recollet (they were Recollet Franciscans).
There is a movement now to canonize Joseph Chiwatenhwa, his wife Marie Aonetta, their daughter Therese Oionhaton, Joseph Teondechoren, Eustace Ahatsiri et alia.
I stood on the property of our old farm and didn't recognize very much of what once existed there - it was over 50 years since we sold it and left. What were once open fields as far as the eye could see are now wooded lots. I walked over to a pile of rubble beneath an apple tree and picked up a piece of the old roof of the farmhouse. Holding it brought tears to my heart. My goal is to one day have even a small cottage in the immediate area near to this historical spot for Canada and for me.
Alex
