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Fire destroys Kugluktuk's Catholic church

Blaze ends dream of reviving church's historic role in community

JANE GEORGE

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Flames tear through Kugluktuk's Our Lady of Light church on April 14, destroying the wood and plywood structure as firefighters struggle to find enough water to knock down the blaze. Priceless wall hangings depicting the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Stations of the Cross were lost in the fire. (PHOTO BY PAUL GERTZBEIN)

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Kugluktuk's Roman Catholic church burned down last week, delivering a blow to its small congregation's efforts to revive the church's activities and its historic role in the community.

"Burned rubble, that's all that's left, and a greenhouse next to it that survived," said one resident who watched as firefighters battled to save the church for 12 hours.

There's no guarantee the staff-poor and cash-strapped Catholic diocese of Mackenzie will or can rebuild in Kugluktuk, as the church was not insured for its full value.

"I'm going to Kugluktuk on May 14, and I won't make a decision about rebuilding the church until meeting the people and seeing what they think," said Bishop Denis Croteau, in an interview from the Mackenzie Diocese headquarters in Yellowknife.

Kugluktuk's history with the Roman Catholic Church is long, but checkered, starting from the murder of two Oblate missionaries in 1913, to a slew of recent lawsuits filed against the Church by former residential school students who say they were abused at these Catholic institutions during the 1950s and 1960s.

This did not deter a group of Catholics in Kugluktuk who began organizing weekly services last year at "Our Lady of Light." They wanted to show their congregation was still functioning and faithful.

Their dream was to operate for a full year and demonstrate that a priest would find a warm welcome and strong flock in Kugluktuk.

Some also thought the presence of a priest could help deal with the increasing level of alcohol abuse and social unrest in this community of 1,200.

According to the RCMP's most recent newsletter from Kugluktuk, last week, police dealt with 25 drunken individuals and responded to 17 calls in which booze was a contributing factor.

"Everybody seems to recognize a priest. A priest has a little moral clout," said one man. "A priest can do things that aren't politically correct."

Croteau said his diocese won't abandon Kugluktuk's congregation, but sending a full-time priest is out of the question.

The Mackenzie Diocese has been struggling for years to find priests. In 1950, there were 60 priests for a population of 12,000 Catholics. In 2002, there were only nine for nearly 25,000.

"We don't have any priests. I can send a priest every two months to spend a weekend there, but there won't be a priest in residence," Bishop Croteau said. "I divided the diocese in regions, and each priest looks after four to seven missions. The same priest would be in Holman, Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk. It's better than nothing, isn't it?"

The late Father Olvia Lapointe, who lived in Kugluktuk for 50 years, retired in 1992. Following his departure, a lay couple lived for three years in mission residence to help the congregation learn how to take over certain aspects of running the church.

But, before last year, when the congregation began holding regular services once again, Kugluktuk's church had been empty and unused for several years.

Inside the church, Father Lapointe had commissioned the Stations of the Cross to be recreated in sealskin.

"As long as he was there, nothing would have happened to it," said long-time Kugluktuk resident Kerry Horn, who lives right next door to the ruined church.

Behind the church's altar, there were two sealskin wall hangings, one of the Crucifixion and another depicting the Last Supper.

"It was tourist attraction in its own right," said Horn.

But firefighters didn't have a chance to save the landmark, which was constructed in the early 1960s of wood and plywood and had no firewall.

The varnish on the interior walls was attractive, but also extremely flammable.

"It was a difficult fire to fight. When we arrived we weren't sure exactly where the fire was from and there was a lot of fire in the building. Once we opened windows to try to see where the fire was, it just sort of took off," said fire chief Ted Dupont.

The fire had likely been smouldering for some time before anyone noticed it last Tuesday.

"We arrived on the scene at about 10 minutes after 11," Dupont said. "We could see smoke coming from one of the windows in the building."

Kugluktuk's firefighters were also hampered by the limitations of their firefighting equipment.

"We didn't have the water supply to throw on it. We'd knock it down, and then it would come back again. We had two fire trucks and we just couldn't get enough water on it when we needed it," Dupont said.

Firefighters couldn't tell where the fire had started, either, because they couldn't see anything in the smoke-filled church and only had three air packs that could be worn by firefighters inside the building.

Ten firefighters aided by hamlet workers did the best with what they had.

"There are other communities that are more poorly equipped than we are. We could have used air packs, so I could have got more guys in there," Dupont said.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, although the wiring, installed before the days of inspection, is suspect.

"We still can't figure out how it started. I don't suspect any arson or any foul play," Dupont said.

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