Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Bishop Michael Mulhall, Bishop of Pembroke announced on Monday that I'm being transferred from my current assignment as pastor of St. Anne's Parish in Mattawa, Ontario to take up the same position on the Quebec side of the Diocese... in Chapeau (St. Alphonsus), Sheenboro (St. Paul the Hermit), and St. Joseph's (St. Joseph's) effective September 12th, 2013. This will be a bit of a home coming for me as I have twice before served in Chapeau (as both assistant and pastor) and already love the people and place. I look forward to renewing many old acquaintances there just as I do with those good folk I know from Sheen and St. Joseph's. Moving is the reality of life for all parish priests and this is far from St. Anne's Church - Mattawa being the first time I've changed parishes over the past 25 years. Still as much as I look forward to returning to the Upper Pontiac, it is always sad to say good-bye to a place such as Mattawa. Typical of communities in ...

Today is the day for voting for Mattawa to be a recipient of a TSN visit and broadcast and a prize of $25,000 towards are goal of building a free water park for kids. Click on the link below and vote before 11:59 AM tomorrow (Friday) to help our town. We have to compete against Pembroke, Ontario, a city 100 miles to the east of us. They have a population of 15,000 (30,000 including Petawawa which is just a few miles to their west) whereas Mattawa is a town of 2000 with about another 2,000 in the neighboring townships that surround it. Mattawa is going through some very tough times with the collapse of the forest industry. The two mills that were the employers in town have permanently shut their doors throwing all of their employees out of work. It is going on two years now with no work and still no future employers on the horizon. The only way that we'll be able to realize our goal of building this water park is if we will this competition... an accomplishment that will give fami...

Help bring some good news to our little town of Mattawa!  We've made the final cut in the TSN Kraft Celebration Tour and are competing against the City of Pembroke in the voting to win our segment of the population. On July 14 - til noon the next day, please go to the TSN-Kraft voting website and help us win this David & Goliath competition to bring the TSN Sportscentre crew to Mattawa... and the $25,000 they will grant the winner to help us develop a water park for our local kids. We have suffered greatly during this 'Great Recession' with the complete collapse of the forest industries that sustained employment for the past 150 years. Unemployment runs into the 20% range with many people having to leave their families behind in search of work so that they can financially help their family (and by extension the whole town) survive,  keeping their families sheltered and fed. We could really use the boost that winning this competition will bring. The project we are p...

Sure hope not! Times are here dire in Mattawa with a sharp decline in the local population because people are leaving town to find work. Long periods of separation with couples living in different regions of the country is hard to sustain in the long run and the stresses upon families lives is becoming all too clear. We need some enterprise to move into the town to offer at least a chance at long term employment for people living in the area to replace at least some of the jobs lost in the collapse of the forestry industry. That's not likely to happen if economic factors are pointing to another period of stagflation in our immediate and near term future. The folks of the Ottawa Valley are a resilient lot, but it's hard to defy the law of economics that states it takes a rising tide to lift all ships... even for the most tenacious and deeply rooted of people. CTV News | Did Canada's economy stall out in February?

Michael Pineau, missing in Ottawa Luc Joly, missing in North Bay Please pray for this lad, Michael Pineau from our little town of Mattawa. He has been missing since Tuesday and his family is deeply distressed and worried. Also, please pray for another lad from my neighboring parish, Luc Joly. He has been missing since last Saturday when he was seen leaving a bar in North Bay, Ontario. The news in this case is not looking good as the police have now transferred it to their criminal investigations unit. Holy Mary, Mother of God, please bring these boys home to their mothers. Teen missing since Tuesday

Folks:  We here at St. Anne's Parish in Mattawa need HELP!! With the mills closed down and there being almost no forest industry work left, our unemployment rate as SKYROCKETED!!! As a result, while we have not seen a decline in attendance (if anything it's up a bit) our collections have almost collapsed. The parish is on financial life support from the Diocese, but we need to do all that we can to try and raise some revenue or it will be necessary to lay-off the lay staff at the parish. Already they have accepted deep cuts in their hours of work, but even this is becoming unsustainable. If you are able, and are willing to make a donation to help us out, you could do so in two ways: 1. use the donate button in the left hand column, or 2. mail us your donation to:   ST. ANNE'S PARISH, BOX 160, MATTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA P0H1V0 Tax receipts will be issued for all donations.  THANK YOU!

Mattawa is a small town located in North Eastern Ontario, nestled along side the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers. Of late, it has been a town plagued with the same issues of most small one industry towns which sprang up and nurtured throughout its' 100 years by the forestry industry: closed mills, high employment, families suffering through seperations of one parent or the other moving to different regions of the country to find work. Happily today I can post a bit of pleasant news from our town: the football team from our local High School, F.J. McElligott Secondary School has captured a local regional football championship, winning in an exciting victory over a team from the much larger schools from the City of North Bay, Ontario. What makes this story of even greater joy for the locals is that this is the first time in over 40 years that "FJ" even fielded a team! Congratulations to the victorious "Voyageurs"! You have Mattawa PROUD!!! http://www.nugget.ca/A...