Ron Rolheiser OMI: "the charism of the oblates is to plant churches and then we give them over to a diocese"

The history of the Oblates in Canada, where they founded almost all the dioceses.

An interview with Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI, writer and retreat director, about the history of the Oblates in Canada. The interview appeared on the website of the Archdiocese of Edmonton.

Is it accurate to say that the Oblates of Mary Immaculate founded the Archdiocese of Edmonton?

Yes, except I want to give you a different verb. The verb I like to use is that we “planted” the Church in this area.

And you know, it’s not just the diocese of Edmonton, but virtually every diocese in Western Canada west of Winnipeg was planted by the Oblates. There are some that we did not found but the major dioceses of Edmonton and Calgary, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Prince Albert. They were planted by the Oblates. Other priests came too, but the dioceses were largely planted by the Oblates.

And you know, the charism of the oblates is to plant churches and then we give them over to a diocese. So the whole idea is to spawn a diocesan clergy. That’s true in most other dioceses [that we have founded]. We plant a church, we get it going, and then it becomes a diocesan church.

A missionary priest (name unknown) at Our Lady of the Prairies church in Daysland, Alberta, circa 1901-1917.

And in one regard we move on sadly – because it’s hard, emotionally – to move on. And so we leave churches (parishes) just when they’re really thriving and that’s what it means to be a missionary.

I’ll give you an example. The American Oblates, in the last 20 years, have let go of over a hundred thriving parishes, taken over by dioceses. And you know, in some ways it’s satisfying. It’s like, if you raise a child, the child leaves home, but it’s also emotionally hard on us. You know, you plant yourself there, you get embedded with the people and so on. And just when it’s really thriving and you move on. That is what has happened all across Canada, including in Edmonton.

But that’s also deeply Christian. Remember, Jesus said, everybody must leave something. Everybody who’s called by Jesus is asked to leave something. You leave something behind. And yet Christ promises that there is always new life after the sacrifice.

A gathering of Catholic community with Oblate priests and bishop in Beaumont, Alberta, circa 1905, 1907-1910.

You’ve talked a lot about the missionary charism of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and how founding dioceses and parishes has been essential to your work in history. What does your missionary charism look like now? Is your order still founding dioceses?

Excellent question. Both! First of all, we’re worldwide. So we’re still in a lot of places like Asia, India, and Vietnam. We’re still founding churches in Africa.

In the Western world, like North America, there aren’t new churches to be founded. But what we’re doing is we’re going to those places where most people don’t want to go. So you’re gonna find us in inner cities. You’re going to find us in parishes and places where others don’t want to go, to be with the poor.

If you go to places like London or Leeds or Dublin, If you go into the inner city where the cops are scared to go, that’s where you find the Oblates. We’re down on the borders in Mexico. So we try to find out where the poor hang out and then we try to move towards them.

As Jesus said, “the poor you’ll always have with you.”

What is a memory of yours that sums up what it means to be an Oblate of Mary Immaculate?

So one day I went to Edinburgh, Scotland. I went to our parish there and the whole area was barricaded. It was in a palace where the cops were scared to go. And I’m sitting there with the pastor, and we’re having a beer. He’s talked about how wonderful it is to be in this place and yet there are cameras for security and his rectory is like a fortress, for safety.

I remember he said “Well, the police are scared to come, but I feel pretty comfortable here.”

And I remember thinking “that is right.”

This is where we should be. Where no one else will go. With the poor. I was proud at that moment, proud to be an Oblate.

While I was still living in Edmonton, I went on a sabbatical to Oakland and we were in a rough part of the city and the pastor had built a bathroom that the homeless could use.

They could come at night, and they could sleep on the church grounds, and so on. And I had a car, and my car stood there for 6 months but it was never touched, because they knew I was a priest. That I was an Oblate. If anyone else had parked their car there, it would be gone in the morning, the tires would be gone.

And you know it was interesting, we’re in this really rough area of Oakland, and we’re probably the only 5 white people there, and I felt completely safe. The people on the streets, they knew we were for them. The pastor would go out at night, and he’d ask the guys to hand in their guns and one night he brought in 22 guns. He gave them back to them in the morning.

And I thought, “yah this is what it means to be an Oblate.”

You know, I also love working in urban, affluent parishes [where it’s more comfortable]. There can be more emotional satisfaction. But we’re called to be missionaries!

That is my invitation to young people.

I don’t say – do you want a “good” life? A comfortable life? I ask them do you want something hard? You want a real challenge? Join us! The adventure draws young people, and the Cross. But it’s a different kind of adventure. It’s the Adventure that Jesus assured us of, that we would also receive a hundredfold back.

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Father Rolheiser has been a priest with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate for over 50 years. He was ordained as a priest in 1972 and he served in the Archdiocese of Edmonton from 1972-1991. He currently resides in San Antonio, Texas at the Oblates School of Theology.

(source: https://caedm.ca/interviews-on-frontier-evangelism-serving-the-poor-and-reconciliation-the-future-of-the-priestly-order-of-the-omi/)