A complex and busy parish

"It's amazing how big this place is!" Father Patrick Tepoorten enthused about the rich, diverse Coquitlam parish that he pastors. Our Lady of Fatima, Coquitlam, hosts "the only dual-track [French immersion and English] elementary school in the archdiocese." The 370-student school has one class in each language for each grade. There is also a pre-school.

The Chinese sisters (belonging to two different religious orders), with their housing and the Immaculate Heart Montessori School and Daycare on the parish property, help to create even more community buzz in the historically French part of Coquitlam known as Maillardville. PREP classes are full, with 130 students.

The multilingual Father Tepoorten is committed to maintaining OLOF's French heritage while also ministering in English. Our Lady of Fatima is the only parish in the archdiocese with a permanent deacon, Reverend Mr. Guy Delionnet, who does "amazing preaching" and focuses mainly on the French side of things.

The parish is also reaching out to other cultures: the church windows display not only Frere Andre of Montreal and early French Canadian Jesuit martyrs, but a 2007 window honours Our Lady of Korea.

Father Tepoorten attributes the parish's commitment to stewardship (synod proposition 34) to the "heart that comes with the French language and culture." However "one challenge [to stewardship] is the very large immigrant population." In addition, "Maillardville is still a blue-collar" community where people are working hard just to make ends meet.

The pastor highlighted the "charism of welcoming" of the parish, in the middle of a "cluster of parishes" with a higher Catholic population (20 per cent) than most in Greater Vancouver. The deanery and various Catholic groups such as Cursillo rely on the parish facilities: "an important part of the parish's evangelization."

Our Lady of Fatima is focusing its synod work, as reflected in proposition 35, on adult education, especially "adult Scripture formation so as to have a stronger connection with the Word of God."
The parish, "starting an ALPHA course for the first time," had "a very large turnout for planning sessions," demonstrating a commitment to adult faith formation.

Father Tepoorten called proposition 1, "Encourage pastors to delegate more of their administrative duties to the laity to allow priests a greater opportunity to be spiritual leaders and teachers," "the biggie to struggle with. So far, we haven't been particularly successful," but "a new liturgical co-ordinator, June Harris, who knows the community well," has lifted "a huge burden" from the pastor. "The key is finding the right people to take over things."

Harris, a secular Franciscan, arranged for "Terry and Anne McLaughlin to give a workshop. They analyzed different parts of Scripture and made a composite picture of various biblical characters such as Peter."

Delegating has worked well in other areas. The pastor feels "very proud of our youth," organized for three years now by a youth co-ordinator, Linder Spasiuk, who also co-ordinates the PREP program." There has been a lot of fund-raising, including a string concert last November and another on February 23, to send members to World Youth Day in July in Sydney, Australia. Father Tepoorten will accompanying them.

The Youth Group gives a lot back to the community through music, particularly at the Saturday evening Mass."

Regarding proposition 31, "Incorporate the Liturgy of the Hours into parish life" and proposition 30's call to "Encourage all parishes to establish perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament," Father Tepoorten remarked that "Liturgy of the Hours and Devotions have always been strong. Lauds is prayed before weekday and Saturday morning Mass."

Our Lady of Fatima offers a holy hour from 3-4 p.m. on Sundays with the Chaplet of Mercy, Vespers, and the Rosary. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is Thursdays, 7-10 p.m.

Father Tepoorten shares the synod's concern (proposition 29) for a deeper practice of the sacrament of reconciliation, and emphasized the pastoral issues: "Lots of young mothers come to Mass on weekday mornings. I receive lots of requests after Mass. The key is to be available. People appreciate that."

Proposition 24 says, "Recruit natural family planning teachers in each parish to counsel couples before and after marriage in managing their fertility in accordance with Humanae Vitae through natural family planning methods."

"We haven't done a lot," the pastor conceded, so he recently attended a conference held by the non-denominational Pregnancy Concerns Society, "a Christian counselling service."