| Priest comes to Taber all the way from India |
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| Local Content - Local News |
| Written by Trevor Busch |
| Thursday, 25 February 2010 17:28 |
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St. Augustine’s Catholic Church has a new priest, one that hails from a continent away. Father Patrick Furtado took over the parish since coming to the community from another parish in Calgary. “It’s been four years since I came to Canada. I worked in Fort Saskatchewan, close to Edmonton, and then three years of city life in Calgary, and now further down south. Prior to that I worked in India.” Furtado grew up on the Indian subcontinent and has served as a priest for 18 years. “I come from India, from the southwestern province of Goa. I did most of my studies in India itself. I belong to the religious congregation known as the Palatines. It’s an international congregation. A number of Palatines have been working in Canada for a very long time. So basically, it’s like an exchange program, because there has been not very many vocations and because we belong to the same family of the Palatines, we thought we’d just help out and see how it works. So it’s an Indian exchange program for the country. That’s how I came and landed over here.” Everything is a new experience for Furtado since coming to Canada to serve. “It’s quite a bit of an experience for me basically because I did it more as an experience. The place that I come from, I worked in Bombay (Mumbai) for a couple of years. It was a huge parish in Bombay, it’s a big city, and when I came over here to adjust to different places, it’s been an experience for me. It’s a learning experience in a sense. It’s not the same as back home, different cultures, different practices, things like that. To live the last four years in a different place, I’ve had quite an experience, and the best that I can do is try to work with my community, help them in their faith-life and also to reach out to others around them.” Furtado praised the qualities of the faith community he now serves. “I have to say that I’m very pleased with the community in which I’ve been invited to work, and I’m very happy about the type of people that I’ve got to work with, and I’m very proud about them.” Furtado admits in Canada the weather can be trying at times. “One of the biggest challenges has been the weather. I come from a southwestern province on the western coast, and I come from a pretty popular tourist destination with a shoreline of 115 kilometres. It’s great weather most of the year, except in summer it gets a little hot. So weather and winter driving has been a bit of a challenge. As I said, it’s been a different experience altogether, and so I take it in that stride. I appreciate the congregation which makes a good church, despite the type of weather that we get sometimes, and the long distances that they have to travel to come and be a part of the community on a Sunday. So I truly appreciate that, because it’s not always easy.” Choosing to become a priest is a choice Furtado has never regretted. “I joined the seminary after my 10th grade, and one of the reasons for it was I lived very close to a church, where I went regularly. And I also lived very close to a seminary. There was a priest there, in fact he was a German by origin. He was a missionary priest who had a lot of influence on me. So I made a choice pretty early in my life, but I don’t regret it. I’ve always been happy in my life, it’s always given me a lot of fulfillment and joy in what I do.” Furtado has been keeping busy since taking over serving the Taber parish and the Vauxhall parish, and working with the schools. “I should say I have been, because it’s been a learning experience. It’s the first time I’ve been looking after two parishes, along with Vauxhall. Both are not the same, both are different, and both of them have their own challenges. But both of them have their own joys to give. It’s been a learning experience for me, and besides this I connect with the two Catholic schools here in Taber, namely St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s. But I’m learning the community, and learning the work, because it’s a lot different from what I have encountered.” A new elevator being installed at St. Augustine’s Church should make the building more accessible for all, added Furtado. “They’re trying to make it a parish that is senior-friendly, they’re putting in an elevator that should be ready in another month’s time.” The mixed nature of the congregation is something that Furtado has viewed as a blessing since taking over the parish in August. “One of the great things about these two parishes of mine that I did not have in Calgary I would say, is that I have a congregation which is of all ages. There’s a lot of young families, which is really something very positive. St. Augustine’s is also looking forward to it’s centennial as a faith community, so that will be something beginning next year, in June. We’re excited and we’re looking forward to that.” |
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