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Inside COMMUNITY
Year 141, Issue 47
Thursday, May 31, 2012 • 52 pages
www.yourottawaregion.com
Queen Elizabeth II has a big, big fan in Renfrew. – Page 33 –
NEWS
Cross-Canada runner Scott Cannata is coming to RCI next week with a motivating message for youth. – Page 30 –
SPORTS COMMUNITY
Survivor Lap
Cancer survivors start their way around the track for the annual Survivors Lap at Ma-Te-Way Park last Friday. With 61 teams, including participation from St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, this year’s Renfrew Collegiate Relay for Life raised a record amount of close to $120,000, as participants got into the swing of the theme, Relay Around the World. See Pages 3 , 4 and 51 for more Relay for Life coverage.
Most precious celebration of Father Blake Theresa Fritz theresa.fritz@metroland.com
The Renfrew Collegiate Raiders dominate the county’s high school girls soccer playoff scene. – Page 29–
Mercury photo by Peter Clark
Rev. Patrick James Blakeʼs love of sport and community go hand-in-hand with his faith. For the past five decades, ʻFather Patʼ, as he is widely known, has made it his lifeʼs work – whether in the hockey rink as a member of the legendary Flying Fathers or celebrating mass in all the churches in which he has had appointments across the Diocese of Pembroke – to bring God to everyone and everyone to God. Saturday, May 26 marked 50 years to the day Father Pat was ordained to the priest-
hood at Most Holy Name of Jesus Church in Pembroke. And the milestone did not go unnoticed. Family members, parishioners and the Most Rev. Michael Mulhall, Bishop of Pembroke, were among those at Most Precious Blood Parish in Calabogie to celebrate the ordination as Father Pat said mass. He is also the parish priest for St. Patrick Parish in Mount St. Patrick and members of that congregation were also in attendance, although they will be having their own celebration for him in June. Born to James Patrick Blake and Lillian Needham on Feb.
25, 1934 in Pembroke, Father Pat was the only boy in a family that included four sisters – one of whom became a nun (Sister Margaret Blake). Father Pat said his vocation took hold at an early age. “It was a calling. It was something that was always with me,” he recalled. “Faith is a gift. It is something you receive. But you also have to keeping working at it.” He attended elementary school at Holy Name School in Pembroke, and high school at St. Columbaʼs Boys School. He pursued his philosophy and theology education at St. Peterʼs Seminary in London,
Ont. Following his ordination, Father Pat served at St. Martinʼs parish in Whitney for the summer of 1962. From 1962-65, he was at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Pembroke. From there he served at St. Francis Xavier in Renfrew from 1965-69, St. John Chrysostom in Arnprior from 1969-1976, St. Columbkille Cathedral in Pembroke from 1977-1994 and from 1994 to present he has served at Most Precious Blood and St. Patrickʼs. “I have found it rewarding to be available to people and help them,” he said.
“You look at the dates (of service) and you wonder where the time has gone.” An avid athlete, Father Pat spent nearly 30 years as a member of the Flying Fathers – the group of Canadian Roman Catholic priests who toured North America and Europe as a hockey team, playing exhibition games against local teams to raise money for charities. The organization folded in 2009. Father Pat received high praise during his celebratory mass from Bishop Mulhall. During his homily, he said it was “an honour” for him to speak on the priestʼs behalf.
See FLYING FATHER, Page 2
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