1949

Rev. Roméo Gascon, then pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Chapleau is appointed Chaplain to His Holiness and is given the title Msgr

Msgr Roméo Gascon, P.H.

Father Roméo Gascon was born in St-Placide, diocese of St-Jérôme, QC, on June 13, 1883, and was ordained a priest on September 27, 1908. This was at the beginning of the foundation of the Vicariate Apostolic of Temiscamingue, which had just been detached from the Diocese of Pembroke in 1908. The bishop of this vicariate, Bishop Élie-Anicet Latulipe, who lived in Haileybury, appointed Father Roméo Gascon as vicar of the parish of Cochrane on November 6, 1909.

A year later, on October 10, 1910, Bishop Latulipe appointed him pastor of Chapleau. Father Gascon remained there as parish priest for 47 years.

Later, Bishop Georges-Léon Landry, Bishop of Hearst, obtained for him the distinction of Prelate of Honour for His Holiness. This was on February 9, 1949. From that moment on, he was known as Msgr Gascon.

He had a great ecumenical spirit. When he was in Cochrane, he was saved from certain drowning in Lake Commando by a Protestant minister who gave him artificial respiration. Throughout his life he had as many Catholic friends as friends of other faiths. He died on January 25, 1958, at the age of 74, in Maisonneuve Hospital in Montreal.

His funeral was celebrated by Mgr Louis Levesque in Chapleau. Msgr Roméo Gascon is buried in the Chapleau cemetery.

written by Rev. Gilles Gosselin