Our Lady of Victory marks 75th anniversary

Parishioners from surrounding communities gather to celebrate

- WCR photo by Ramon Gonzalez Our Lady of Victory Church in Thorsby welcomes parishioners from neighbouring communities.

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Thorsby

Since 1931, Our Lady of Victory Parish has been the centre of spiritual life in this vibrant farming community of 900 people located 35 km west of Leduc.

And over the past few years, as a result of the restructuring of the parishes in the Edmonton Archdiocese, Our Lady of Victory has also become the spiritual home for Catholics from neighbouring Catholic communities in Warburg, St. Francis, Breton and Sandholm.

"This is truly a community of believers, a community that is strong and raises each other's families together in faith," said parish council chair Margita Bendoritis. "We support one another in good times and bad."

Parishioners celebrate

On the feast of Corpus Christi, June 18, some 130 parishioners from all these neighbouring communities filled the small church of Our Lady of Victory to mark the parish's 75th anniversary.

Archbishop Thomas Collins, Father Mike Mireau, who serves Our Lady of Victory from St. Michael's Parish in Leduc, and Father Jose Sugay, who served at Thorsby from 1986 to 1996, concelebrated the early morning anniversary Mass.

At the end of the service, Collins presented Mireau with an apostolic blessing from Pope Benedict on the occasion of the parish anniversary. And the parish presented the archbishop with a $500 cheque for the Priests' Retirement Fund.

"This is a beautiful little parish. The people here are very committed to their faith and are trying very hard to be united despite some problems in the past," said Mireau.

Even though most sacramental preparation is done out of Leduc, Our Lady of Victory still offers various programs locally.

Over the years, the ladies of the parish and their families have worked faithfully at many fundraising projects to make improvements to the church and to donate to charitable causes, Rosemarie Zurek writes in the parish's history book. "Chicken dinners, catering to weddings, anniversaries and banquets, teas and bake sales, bazaars, making and selling perogies and cabbage rolls and fresh produce at the local Farmers' Market were some of the activities that raised funds for the church."

Family flavour

"This used to be a real community type of church," recalled businessman Richard Hoffman, a parishioner since his birth in 1941. "Everybody pitched in; in fact, life revolved around the church a lot more than it does now."

Things have changed, but Hoffman says Our Lady of Victory still maintains some of that old family flavour that he likes. "You are somebody here. Everybody knows you by name," he smiled.

Hoffman, a father of three, served as an altar boy for many years and recalled having to get up every day at 7 a.m. to assist the priest in the daily Mass. "It was hard to get up so early."

The history of Our Lady of Victory Parish goes back to 1930, when an influx of people settled in the Thorsby area following the completion of the CPR between Leduc and Thorsby. At that time Father Patrick McQuaid of St. Michael's Parish in Leduc would travel to Thorsby to celebrate Mass in a little hall during the summer and in Alec Lepine's barber shop in the winter.

In February 1931, McQuaid paid the Canadian Pacific Railway Land Co. $157.50 for about one-third of an acre of land on the corner of First Avenue and First Street West in Thorsby. That summer Archbishop O'Leary gave permission for a 24x48-foot church building to be erected there. Archbishop J.H. MacDonald blessed the church Aug. 28, 1938.

In 1935, the average attendance was 44 people, with a total collection of $44.40. In March 1936, the Stations of the Cross donated by Elizabeth MacDonald were arranged around the inside of the church. A year later, about half an acre of land was purchased for $30.43 for the cemetery. The present church was completed in the fall of 1951 and was financed by a $5,000 loan from the Edmonton Archdiocese.

In the late 1990s, the parish began to book the Thorsby Community Centre due to overcrowding for special-event Masses, such as Easter and Christmas, where attendance can reach up to 400 people.

Also in the late 1990s the archdiocese closed and merged numerous parishes and missions due to its reduced number of priests. As a result, Thorsby lost its resident priest in 1999.

Two years later, in the fall of 2001, Our Lady of Victory and the parishes of Warburg,Breton, Sandholm and St. Francis were officially merged with Leduc. Today Thorsby is the only parish community that remains open and the only one in the area offering regular Sunday Mass. Since the merger, the number of registered families at Our Lady of Victory has increased by 33 per cent to a total of 100. The Sunday collection has also swelled.

Parishioner Philippe Gibeau, chair of the 75th anniversary committee, said the loss of the resident priest at Thorsby and the closure of the neighbouring communities was and still is painful for Catholics in the area.

"It has been a huge challenge (to do without a priest)," he said. "We miss that daily contact with the priest and we are struggling. We have to have somebody here. Perhaps appointing a deacon is the answer."

Still grieving

As well, many parishioners from the closed communities still refuse to come to Thorsby for Mass.

"They choose not to come from the outer communities, even though we brought the statues of their parishes and placed them in the church so they could keep some sense of identity," said Gibeau.

To reflect the new reality, the parish council also includes members of some of the closed out communities.

Bendoritis, the parish council chair, said the restructuring was difficult for the communities that lost their churches. "It has been very stressful and has caused anger and frustration. But as you can see, we are trying to mend our ways and come together and look after each other."

With no resident priest, the parish sold the rectory in 2002 and began to plan for a different facility to meet its new needs. In 2005, it purchased the adjoining Ukrainian Hall for catechism classes, youth activities and parish functions. It recently made renovations and improvements to both the hall and the church, including new paint, a new confessional in the sacristy and new carpets.

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