Voices November 03, 2022
Archbishop offers 75th anniversary challenge at Precious Blood Parish
By B.C. Catholic Staff
The follow is an excerpt from Archbishop J. Michael Miller’s homily at the 75th anniversary of Precious Blood Parish in Cloverdale on Oct. 19.
Like every family, a parish, too, has a story to tell. It has a history to be recalled with gratitude and celebrated with joy. Allow me now to review the origins of your parish and to mention just a few highlights of your life as a parish family. What we prayed in the Responsorial Psalm this evening are words that come from our hearts: “Praise, O servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time on and forever more” (Ps 113).
Your parish community has a truly distinguished history. You can trace your roots back to 1878, when the first Mass in the Cloverdale area was celebrated in the home of the Michaud family. In September of 1947, at the urging of the Lavoie family, Archbishop William Duke established Precious Blood Parish and appointed Father Patrick O’Sullivan as its first pastor. For the first year, worship took place in a local hall and, on major feast days, in a local theatre.
The following year a small new church was built with volunteer labour, and all within a month – something that would be impossible today! A small house on the property that was purchased served as the first rectory. This spirit of collaboration is but one example of the strong community bonds that have characterized your Parish since its inception. In 1950, on the feast of the Precious Blood, then celebrated on July 1, Archbishop Duke blessed the new church.
Appreciating the value of Catholic education, the parish purchased land for a parish school. September 1954 witnessed the opening of the first Cloverdale Catholic School. By 1958 it offered Grades one to 10, with the School Sisters of Notre Dame serving as educators. A new school building was opened in 1966 with several subsequent additions.
In 1979 the current church was completed and dedicated by Archbishop Carney on September 8. The design of the new church had been the subject of controversy – as sometimes remains the case today! – but was completed according to the original plan.
To mark the Parish’s Golden Jubilee the current parish centre was opened on June 15, 1997. Plans for further building are on the horizon but have not yet been finalized.
But a parish is not all about buildings. It is about the people, about the parishioners and their priests. With your many organizations and ministries, the Precious Blood community has, I believe, fulfilled what Jesus asked of his disciples: “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16). This you have been doing as a parish family since your founding in 1947 – bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God.
Starting from today and building on your remarkable and inspiring past, you are well positioned to foster even more intentionally your mission as a parish, which is to live and proclaim the Gospel. To mark this anniversary, I think that the good Lord is calling you to be a parish of “missionary disciples.”
What does this mean? First, you must be friends or disciples of Jesus, men and women who live the Gospel in action wherever you are – but first of all within your families. But disciples must also share the Good News they are living. They are to share their personal relationship with Jesus and how he has changed and continues to change their lives. You are called “to come out of yourselves and to share with others the goods you possess, starting with the most precious gift of all – your faith.”[1]
As missionary disciples at Precious Blood Parish, I invite each of you personally to stretch yourself, to get involved in the parish and to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ into the often sad and trying situations of the people around you.
As a last word, let me now put an anniversary challenge before you. As a parishioner, ask yourself honestly: have you taken up the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel that was entrusted to you on the day of your baptism, and reaffirmed when you were anointed with chrism at your Confirmation? Precious Blood Parish, the Archdiocese of Vancouver, indeed the whole Church is counting on you, and no one else, to make known to others the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1]. St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 49.