1904
Fr. Jean-Baptiste Lévesque, o.m.i. is ordained to the priesthood
He is the 2nd parish priest (1923-1926) of Immaculate Conception parish in Kapuskasing
2021
Death of Rev. Clément Filion
Rev. Clément Filion was born on June 10, 1926 in St-Sébastien, QC to a large family. He did his classical studies at the Collège de Lévis and his theological studies at the Séminaire St-Paul in Ottawa. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Ottawa on June 12, 1954, at the Colisée de Québec, on the occasion of the Marian Congress, by Archbishop Maurice Roy of Québec. He first did parish ministry in the Archdiocese of Ottawa as curate in the parishes of L’Orignal, Plantagenet and Rockland.
He then asked to be loaned to the Diocese of Hearst and was appointed pastor of Frederick House and Norembéga from 1965 to 1971. He was then appointed pastor of St-Jean-Baptiste Parish in Longlac from 1965 to 1971. In 1971 he took a sabbatical year for pastoral studies. On his return he did two short terms as parish priest of Cochrane for one year and parish priest of Hornepayne for one year. He then spent six years as pastor in Smooth Rock, from 1974 to 1980.
Father Filion had on several occasions expressed to the bishop his desire to enter a monastery to live the life of a monk. Bishop Despatie had always hesitated to support his project. He therefore suggested that he take another year, this time as parish priest of Geraldton and Nakina, to make sure he had discerned. At the end of this year, given Father Filion’s repeated insistence, Bishop Despatie agreed to release him. In September 1981, Father Filion entered the monastery of the Trappist Fathers in St-Norbert, Manitoba. But he stayed there only one year. In June 1982 he returned to the Archdiocese of Ottawa, his place of incardination. For several years Father Filion held various positions. He was in turn chaplain of religious communities, hospital chaplain, and pastor of the parishes of Marionville, Russell, Vanier and L’Orignal. He was then chaplain at the St-Louis residence in Orleans and at the Monastery of the Visitation Sisters in Ottawa until his retirement in 2004.
In a 1982 letter, Bishop Jacques Landriault, Bishop of Timmins, described Father Filion in these terms: “This man of faith and great charity was always a happy, joyful priest, deeply attached to the Lord and to his Church, with a life of intense and profound prayer, generous with his time and very devoted – full of energy, vitality and good will, he never ceased to exercise an excellent priestly and apostolic ministry in the service of those whom the Lord put on his path. Father Filion died at the Sarsfield Colonial Home in Sarsfield, ON, on February 27, 2021, at the age of 94.
written by Rev. Gilles Gosselin