From missionary Father to bishop 1897-1903

Even though his work in the southern missions of Alberta was unrewarding and strenuous and Bishop Grandin wanted to transfer him to more fulfilling Catholic communities, Bishop Émile Legal always politely refused and kept on serving his mission to the Blackfoot with great fidelity. In a letter he wrote to Bishop Grandin, he reiterated: “I prefer to stay with my Savages even though our ministry’s work bears few fruits. It will take many years, generations maybe, to transform these nations. A few missionaries must experience these unsuccessful times: I have no objection to be of those first few.”

One can understand why Bishop Grandin had a keen interest towards Father Legal since his arrival in the Northwest and why he wished to see him at his side, guaranteeing a passionate successor to the diocese of St. Albert. As many articles on the subject have pointed out, Father Legal learned that he would become the coadjutor to Bishop Grandin in similar manner to how Saint Bonaventure learned that he was a cardinal. Saint Bonaventure was washing dishes in a Franciscan monastery whilst Father Legal was digging a grave for a baptised child who had recently passed away on the Kainai nation reserve May 6, 1897. Father Legal was consecrated Bishop of Poglia and coadjutor to Bishop Grandin on June 17. At the diocesan’s wish, he was also named vicar to the missions.

From then on, Bishop Legal took care of many of the affairs of the St. Albert diocese which was divided in five districts: St. Albert, Edmonton, Calgary, Lake Laselle, and the Blackfoot district and subdivided in forty-six different missions, parishes, or posts. He administered a diocese that had considerably changed since his arrival at St. Albert in 1881. During that time, the mostly francophone Fathers and Sisters worked towards the evangelisation of the First Nations. They also served a very minimal White and Métis population around the trading posts. The arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Calgary in 1883 considerably changed the Churches role in the Northwest Territories. The White population went from 3 500 in 1881 to more than 570 000 in 1901. The clergy still tried to evangelize the First Nations, but there were more and more priests busy serving multiethnic and multicultural parishes.

Bishop Legal had the arduous task of developing the missions, opening new parishes and working with the meagre finances of his diocese. This situation did not allow many parishes to pay themselves an architect when building their church. Bishop Legal personally traced plans for churches and he sometimes designated their location. This was the case of the Edna church in 1897, the Macleod church in 1899, and many other small churches of central and southern Alberta. When Bishop Legal received complete plans, he would examine them very thoroughly and he often modified them. He also prepared plans for his priests residences. His knowledge in architecture allowed him to trace the plans for the residential schools on the Peigan reserve at Brocket and for the Kainai nation at Standoff in 1897. He once again planed schools in 1899 at Blackfoot Crossing and at Saint-Paul-des-Métis. For his work, Bishop Legal sometimes even went on location to learn of the materials’ cost, to meet a contractor and to start the process to obtain building authorisation.

As for the multicultural parishes, the diocese’s challenge was quite unique. Most of the Catholic clergy was from France. Because of this, Bishops Legal and Grandin did not have the nationalist sentiment of the French Canadians towards the importance of French in the Northwest. They were first and foremost Catholic missionaries who believed that everyone deserved to experience Catholicism in their own language. The Oblates were the first to publish many dictionaries and grammars for many of Western Canada’s First Nations. Bishop Legal understood well that if the European immigrants were not served in their languages, they would start speaking English, and from there, convert to Protestantism. The making-up of the Saint-Joachim parish clearly presents the challenge to which the St. Albert diocese was faced. It was composed of 195 French Canadians, 175 Métis, 116 Irish, twenty-nine English, sixteen Germans, ten Poles, nine French, two Galicians, two Belgians, and one Swiss. In some parishes, it was not uncommon to hear the sermon in four different languages.

Many priests of the diocese had studied languages other than French in Europe or in Canada. However, the diocese was not ready to accommodate the 20 000 Ruthenians (Ukrainian Galicians) who came to the Prairies at the turn of the century. They were members of the Ruthenian Catholic Church, itself following the Byzantine rite, of which none of the priests were familiar. There language was just as unknown. The Ruthenians arrived here with very little and the Bishop did not want to see them be lured by the Protestants. This why, after an unsuccessful trip to Austria and a refused to demand to the Pope, Bishop Legal sent his most zealous missionary, Father Lacombe to Rome and to negotiate with the Austrian government. His passage opened the way and the following year, Father Jan, an Oblate missionary ended the negotiations and brought back with him two Basilian Fathers from Galicia (Ukraine) who begun serving their compatriots in their own language and with their own rite.