Extension magazine - Summer 2023

16
BUILD Extension | Summer 2023 17
Church Building
FAITH COMMUNITY
SURVIVES
FLAMES
OF DESTRUCTION
Ojibwe people open
their new church
In 2017 a fire destroyed the
nearly 125-year-old St. Mary’s
Mission Church.
PHOTO CHRIS STRONG
In the early hours of the morning
on December 2, 2017, St.
Mary’s Mission on the Red Lake
Indian Reservation in the far
reaches of northern Minnesota
went up in flames and was
destroyed. The parish serving the
Ojibwe people was established in
1858, and the building that had
just been reduced to ashes had
stood for nearly 125 years.
The people were crushed.
“It was just the worst feeling the
night that it happened,” recalled
Brandi Jourdain, longtime parishioner
and secretary at St. Mary’s
Mission School, located directly
behind the church. Three generations
of her family—her parents,
siblings and children—had attended
the school and worshiped
at the church that was now gone.
“There were so many memories
that went with that church. That
was a huge loss, not just for me but
for our whole community,” Jourdain
said. “The following weekend
we filled up the school gym and
we all had services together and
tried to make peace. There were a
lot of tears shed. Basically, it was a
funeral.”
A critical presence
After the fire, no
one was ready to
give up on St. Mary’s
Mission, especially
Catholic Extension,
which has invested
more than $1.6 million
in this community’s
church
and school over the
past 45 years. The
church’s presence is essential in a
place that faces many economic
challenges. Its school for Native
American children is a safe and
nurturing environment amid the
high suicide rates and drug addiction
that are all too common in
this area.
Among the many ministries
supported by Catholic Extension
was a suicide prevention and grief
counselor for the reservation.
“The mission of this church has
Students at St. Mary’s Mission School
celebrate Mass in the school gymnasium.
served as that safeguard for the
people,” explained Father John
Christianson, pastor of St. Mary’s
Mission Church and school superintendent
and administrator.
Catholic Extension is now
proudly supporting the new
church’s construction, along with
2,000 other donors across the
country who responded to the
mission’s mail campaign. After six
Catholic Extension is helping build a new church for St. Mary’s Mission on the
Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.
long years, those efforts are finally
coming to fruition.
A place of opportunity
The Catholic Church provides
the community not only shelter
and safety but also resources and
opportunity.
Longtime parishioner Charmaine
Branchaud has seen those
opportunities presented to her
family thanks to St. Mary’s Mission
Church and School. She and
her husband sent their two sons
to the school. One of her sons is
now a case manager for the homeless,
helping people get back on
their feet and becoming part of the
solution after witnessing the struggles
the Ojibwe face in Red Lake.
“He loves helping people, and I
think if he hadn’t gotten his Catholic
education at St. Mary’s, I don’t
know that this would have been
part of his personality and char-
acter,” Branchaud said. “Catholic
education instilled this in him. It
made us giving and loving people.”
Giving and loving people like
the Branchauds make up the dedicated
core group of Ojibwe parishioners
at St. Mary’s Mission. Having
their new church now nearly
complete means getting a permanent
place to call their own again.
“These people have been coming
to St. Mary’s for Mass in the
school gym now for six years, and
they’re still coming back,” Father
Christianson said. “So, to give
those people a place that they can
call church, it warms your heart.”
A home for the Ojibwe
The new church will have signage
up both in English and
Ojibwe. The late Father Jerry Rogers,
a two-time Catholic Extension
Lumen Christi Award nominee
who passionately served St.
Mary’s Mission from 2009 until
his death in September 2022, had
commissioned a statue of Jesus
and Mary depicted as Ojibwe people.
St. Mary’s Mission is welcoming
the people of the Red Lake
Indian Reservation back into a
Catholic church where they will
have a home for many generations
to come.
“The new building will become,
in a very short time, an invitation
to evangelization. It will be a great
gift and blessing to the people of
Red Lake Nation,” said Reathel
Giannonatti, director for the office
of stewardship and development
for the Diocese of Crookston. The
dedication of the new church later
this year will be a capstone for
proud Ojibwe Catholics that they
are not and will not be forgotten
by the Catholic Church.
“I get to be inside of a new,
beautiful building,” Branchaud
exclaimed. “It’s absolutely gorgeous!
I fell in love with it as soon
as I walked in. No amount of
thank-yous can even express our
gratitude for helping us build this
church.”