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January 13, 1938
French Fishermen and the Grenfell Association
The Reverend Umberto Mozzoni, (later Cardinal Mozzoni) secretary of the apostolic delegation to Canada wrote to Archbishop Edward Patrick Roche of St. John’s on 13 January 1938 with concerns about the “The necessity of providing to the spiritual assistance of the fishermen who come every year from France to the coast of Labrador”
Rome was seeking information “about the number of these fishermen and what is done to protect them in their faith.”
Archbishop Roche responded to the Apostolic Nuncio’s secretary that “With regard to the French fishermen, he does not know their number, as Labrador is in the jurisdiction of Harbour Grace Diocese.” (Now known as the diocese of Grand Falls)
Archbishop Roche also suggested in his letter that it may be the priests of St. Pierre and Miquelon who are providing to the spiritual assistance of the fishermen who come every year from France to the coast of Labrador and suggests he contact the Prefect Apostolic of St. Pierre and Miquelon, for more information.
Officials in Rome, Mozzoni noted were aware of the existence and the work of the Grenfell Institute in Labrador and the fact that the French fishermen are assisted “From the social point of view” by the Grenfell Institute. (later the International Grenfell Association. IGA)
He laments however that “the Greenfield [sic: Grenfell] Institute, is, unhappily, of Protestant inspiration.”
The International Grenfell Association (IGA) was established in 1912 to support the work of Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell, a medical missionary dedicated to the establishment and improvement of medical, educational, and economic facilities on the Great Northern Peninsula and the Labrador. The IGA maintained hospitals, nursing stations, medical steamers, boarding schools, and an orphanage.
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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Larry Dohey
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