A Discussion with Rev. Gerald McDougall, Jesuit Priest, Anishinabe Spiritual Centre, Ontario, Canada
With: Gerald McDougall Berkley Center Profile
June 9, 2015
Background:
As part of the Education and Social Justice
Fellowship, in June 2015 student Caitlin Snell interviewed Rev. Gerald
McDougall, S.J., a Jesuit priest who serves at the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre
in Ontario, Canada. Established in 1985, the center offers a spiritual and
educational space, promoting values such as dialogue, healing, ecology, arts,
and hospitality. In this interview, McDougall reflects on the intersection of
Catholicism and Aboriginal traditions, as well as his involvement in the Jesuit
order.
What inspired you to join the Jesuit order?
Well, to make a long story short, the charism of the order was the thing that drew me in. I knew I was [searching for my] vocation, and I knew through prayer that I was being led and called and drawn by God to something, and I just lucked upon the Jesuits. At one point as I was looking for a spiritual director and it was the charism of the Jesuits, that charism—everything for the greater glory of God—but that being summarized into the service of faith and the promotion of justice, particularly with the preferential option for the poor, and again, to do more for God and for the advancement of God's kingdom in the world. That was really what drew me in. There were many other ways I could have went, I guess, but that was really the heart of it all for me.
What are some of your roles and responsibilities as a member of the Jesuit order?
One of the responsibilities, one of the main ones is that I've been given some assignments to be a pastor at various parishes, so it's to care for people, their spiritual needs, helping them to pray, helping them to find God, and to do so a lot of times through difficult circumstances, those life changing moments; there's a lot of being with people when they're grieving, being with people who are going through difficult times. That's sort of the main responsibility, I think, is the pastoral work. I guess I'm gathering the longer I stay here, that one of the tasks coming up—and it'll be a very communal task—is envisioning our role in the future, particularly when it comes to this center, because the center itself began with a certain purpose, but maybe it has to evolve a bit. The central purpose is still supporting the education, the training of ministers for the church of First Nations people in this region in Canada of North America.
How long have you worked in this region and at this center?
Lately, only about a month. I've been here before; twenty years ago I did my regency in Wikwemikong, which is a reserve nearby, so I was here from 1994 to 1996 in Wikwemikong, and the center—I've been associated with in one way or another—been back here since about 1989 when I entered the Jesuits, but this is the first time back in ministry among, directly for, with and for, First Nations people in 10 years for me. I was also a pastor in the Thunder Bay area, where we have an urban Native parish, and we also serve in some other First Nations out there. I was there from 2000 to 2006, so my association here has been rather short actually, right now, just getting started again.
What are some of the cultural influences you notice in your work in this region?
About 20 to 25 years ago when I was first up here, there was a lot of Native people, Aboriginal people who were coming to the center for training, and there was a large team here; we had a Jesuit who was a director of the center and one of the co-founders of the center, and the director who was a Jesuit who was a professional theologian. In fact there were two who had Ph.D.s, so their ministries training program was quite rich and quite busy. The theme of enculturation was very prominent, and the study of enculturation; we used to do a lot of self-study just among the group of Jesuits who worked here.
You know, when we gathered on Mondays for our day off, community day, we very often had papers we had to read first and got together and discussed them, just what enculturation meant and evolving, and there was a lot of adaptation of the traditional First Nation culture with Catholicism at that time. For instance, vestments and religious articles were done in the style of Native art. There were introductions to the Mass, for instance; the use of smudging in the Mass is something that we still use in some places here, but that was being introduced at that time. There was the diaconate; deacons and their wives were ordained and mandated to serve as leaders in the church, and it was quite a good number of them in those days too. The use of Native Ojibwe language in the Masses and prayers was becoming, not more prominent because in the past, years and years have gone by and you know, our ancestors of the Jesuits did almost everything with the people in their own language. It was only really in the last century that that got lost, but it was coming back again, and being revived.
There was a real focus on, I guess, from our point of view, the way that God was calling us was to help the people establish a true Aboriginal Catholic Church, so coming back now, I still see that a lot of those things have been carried on, they seem to have waned in some places, but they're strong in others. For instance, M'Chigeeng still has a very strong sense of identity as a Native Catholic Church, and I think that's probably because of the leadership that's been there, and I haven't been to Wikwemikong since I've been back, but my sense is that the leadership there is very strong and has been keeping things going there too.
What are some of the communities you currently serve?
I serve three Aboriginal communities, three First Nations: Sagamok, which is on the north shore; M'Chigeeng; and Sheshegwaning, which are on [Manitoulin] Island. Then I serve two non-Native communities, Mindemoya and Gora Bay, which are both on the island as well.
What are some of the challenges of your position?
I think a challenge might be, and it's not for me because I tend to be very flexible, but one challenge would be not to force what I interpret as the right way to do things on the churches, so for instance, I'd go to one church and they have a very strong identity as being both Aboriginal and Catholic and that's great, you know, I'll embrace that. If I go to another and they tend to do everything in English, and they might shy away from some of the other cultural things that were perhaps there in the past, or perhaps they weren't. I think it's important to talk, to dialogue, to listen, to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the people and to move at that pace.
You know, in the past there were a lot of these Jesuits I didn't even know, but I still have the impression when I came here, you could feel it that you were standing on the shoulders of all these people who went before you. Jesuits, but non-Jesuits too, leaders in the community who had the courage to move things forward, and you felt you were sort of standing on their shoulders, you know. I'm too laid back to be experiencing any challenges right now. I mean, I find right now as I'm just starting, it's getting to know the people, that's the first thing you got to do, get to know the people; it might take a year, it might take two, but trying to find out what their lives are like, and, you know, how I can serve them, but what they want, what kind of a church do they want to have. ‘Cause the Holy Spirit is speaking through all of them.
Just one of the things that's been a big theme for me throughout my whole Jesuit life has been Ignatian spirituality, which means listening to the Holy Spirit in my own life but also the life of the communities that I'm in, that I'm sent to serve, and, you know, in Thunder Bay we did a lot of work, and they're still doing a lot of work promoting the spiritual exercises, so every year a group of people will go through a group of exercises in daily life and for that it's been building up the leadership of the church there. I think that, for me, it’s something that would be important. I'm not sure how much we're doing that here right now, but in the future, I think it would be important to get the people who are interested and feel called to go through the spiritual exercises. Now that being said, flashback 15 years and we did do the spiritual exercises with the ministries program; we finished about 15 years ago and we published a book, you might have seen it outside there, but that was the fruit of their experience with the exercises. Now that was 15 years ago, so I don't know what's happened since then.
Well, to make a long story short, the charism of the order was the thing that drew me in. I knew I was [searching for my] vocation, and I knew through prayer that I was being led and called and drawn by God to something, and I just lucked upon the Jesuits. At one point as I was looking for a spiritual director and it was the charism of the Jesuits, that charism—everything for the greater glory of God—but that being summarized into the service of faith and the promotion of justice, particularly with the preferential option for the poor, and again, to do more for God and for the advancement of God's kingdom in the world. That was really what drew me in. There were many other ways I could have went, I guess, but that was really the heart of it all for me.
What are some of your roles and responsibilities as a member of the Jesuit order?
One of the responsibilities, one of the main ones is that I've been given some assignments to be a pastor at various parishes, so it's to care for people, their spiritual needs, helping them to pray, helping them to find God, and to do so a lot of times through difficult circumstances, those life changing moments; there's a lot of being with people when they're grieving, being with people who are going through difficult times. That's sort of the main responsibility, I think, is the pastoral work. I guess I'm gathering the longer I stay here, that one of the tasks coming up—and it'll be a very communal task—is envisioning our role in the future, particularly when it comes to this center, because the center itself began with a certain purpose, but maybe it has to evolve a bit. The central purpose is still supporting the education, the training of ministers for the church of First Nations people in this region in Canada of North America.
How long have you worked in this region and at this center?
Lately, only about a month. I've been here before; twenty years ago I did my regency in Wikwemikong, which is a reserve nearby, so I was here from 1994 to 1996 in Wikwemikong, and the center—I've been associated with in one way or another—been back here since about 1989 when I entered the Jesuits, but this is the first time back in ministry among, directly for, with and for, First Nations people in 10 years for me. I was also a pastor in the Thunder Bay area, where we have an urban Native parish, and we also serve in some other First Nations out there. I was there from 2000 to 2006, so my association here has been rather short actually, right now, just getting started again.
What are some of the cultural influences you notice in your work in this region?
About 20 to 25 years ago when I was first up here, there was a lot of Native people, Aboriginal people who were coming to the center for training, and there was a large team here; we had a Jesuit who was a director of the center and one of the co-founders of the center, and the director who was a Jesuit who was a professional theologian. In fact there were two who had Ph.D.s, so their ministries training program was quite rich and quite busy. The theme of enculturation was very prominent, and the study of enculturation; we used to do a lot of self-study just among the group of Jesuits who worked here.
You know, when we gathered on Mondays for our day off, community day, we very often had papers we had to read first and got together and discussed them, just what enculturation meant and evolving, and there was a lot of adaptation of the traditional First Nation culture with Catholicism at that time. For instance, vestments and religious articles were done in the style of Native art. There were introductions to the Mass, for instance; the use of smudging in the Mass is something that we still use in some places here, but that was being introduced at that time. There was the diaconate; deacons and their wives were ordained and mandated to serve as leaders in the church, and it was quite a good number of them in those days too. The use of Native Ojibwe language in the Masses and prayers was becoming, not more prominent because in the past, years and years have gone by and you know, our ancestors of the Jesuits did almost everything with the people in their own language. It was only really in the last century that that got lost, but it was coming back again, and being revived.
There was a real focus on, I guess, from our point of view, the way that God was calling us was to help the people establish a true Aboriginal Catholic Church, so coming back now, I still see that a lot of those things have been carried on, they seem to have waned in some places, but they're strong in others. For instance, M'Chigeeng still has a very strong sense of identity as a Native Catholic Church, and I think that's probably because of the leadership that's been there, and I haven't been to Wikwemikong since I've been back, but my sense is that the leadership there is very strong and has been keeping things going there too.
What are some of the communities you currently serve?
I serve three Aboriginal communities, three First Nations: Sagamok, which is on the north shore; M'Chigeeng; and Sheshegwaning, which are on [Manitoulin] Island. Then I serve two non-Native communities, Mindemoya and Gora Bay, which are both on the island as well.
What are some of the challenges of your position?
I think a challenge might be, and it's not for me because I tend to be very flexible, but one challenge would be not to force what I interpret as the right way to do things on the churches, so for instance, I'd go to one church and they have a very strong identity as being both Aboriginal and Catholic and that's great, you know, I'll embrace that. If I go to another and they tend to do everything in English, and they might shy away from some of the other cultural things that were perhaps there in the past, or perhaps they weren't. I think it's important to talk, to dialogue, to listen, to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the people and to move at that pace.
You know, in the past there were a lot of these Jesuits I didn't even know, but I still have the impression when I came here, you could feel it that you were standing on the shoulders of all these people who went before you. Jesuits, but non-Jesuits too, leaders in the community who had the courage to move things forward, and you felt you were sort of standing on their shoulders, you know. I'm too laid back to be experiencing any challenges right now. I mean, I find right now as I'm just starting, it's getting to know the people, that's the first thing you got to do, get to know the people; it might take a year, it might take two, but trying to find out what their lives are like, and, you know, how I can serve them, but what they want, what kind of a church do they want to have. ‘Cause the Holy Spirit is speaking through all of them.
Just one of the things that's been a big theme for me throughout my whole Jesuit life has been Ignatian spirituality, which means listening to the Holy Spirit in my own life but also the life of the communities that I'm in, that I'm sent to serve, and, you know, in Thunder Bay we did a lot of work, and they're still doing a lot of work promoting the spiritual exercises, so every year a group of people will go through a group of exercises in daily life and for that it's been building up the leadership of the church there. I think that, for me, it’s something that would be important. I'm not sure how much we're doing that here right now, but in the future, I think it would be important to get the people who are interested and feel called to go through the spiritual exercises. Now that being said, flashback 15 years and we did do the spiritual exercises with the ministries program; we finished about 15 years ago and we published a book, you might have seen it outside there, but that was the fruit of their experience with the exercises. Now that was 15 years ago, so I don't know what's happened since then.
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