I graduated from RMC in 1959, and then went to a
civilian university (as we all did in those
days) for the final and degree year – in my case
it was UBC and an engineering degree in
engineering physics. I had gone through the
college on a reserve force “cadetship” and had
no obligatory military service to accomplish. I
felt myself to be very much an unfinished
product, and after a year of engineering went on
to prepare for ministry in the Anglican
priesthood. In this field of service I enjoyed
variety – 3 “regular” parishes (if such a thing
exists), and then a parish of prisoners at the
Montreal Prison of Bordeaux, a parish of Haitian
immigrants where we worshipped in French, a
parish of francophones from all over the world
meeting in Hull, and finally a “parish” of
chaplains in the (federal) Correctional Service
of Canada where I was associate to the Director
and then Director General of the Chaplaincy
Programme.
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RMC prepared me for making peace however it
turned out to be in a different sphere than I
expected. I originally expected the peace to be
the product of protecting our country against
external enemies. Instead it turned out to be
the search for resolution of the internal
conflict and violence of crime. Much of my work
in corrections was helping communities develop
internal and voluntary structures of safety, and
sometimes of reconciliation between victims and
offenders. It was an agreeable surprise to
learn that colleagues in the military were
undertaking similar peacemaking initiatives at
the international level. Sometimes we in
corrections inverted an old advertising verse of
the steel industry: “Our strength is steel, our
product is people.” Since retiring from federal
corrections, I have taken on a new challenge: un
curé de campagne, and am now priest in charge of
the Anglican Parish of Wolfe Island. |
