Poetically, in the Jubilee Year of Hope, the historic St. Jean Baptiste Parish in Morinville, Alta., has risen from the ashes.

More than four years after the original 114-year-old church burned to the ground on June 30, 2021, a fire deemed suspicious by the RCMP, Catholic inhabitants of this town 40 kilometres north of Edmonton were reunited with their beloved house of worship.

About 300 people entered the newly rebuilt St. Jean Baptiste Church for the first time on Dec. 18 for a poignant dedication and opening ceremony shepherded by St. Paul Bishop Gary Franken. Notable moments included Franken receiving a symbolic key to the building, the sanctification of the building and congregants with holy water and the placement of a St. Maria Goretti relic in a designated spot within the altar’s marble countertop. The new altar also bears an engraved image of the Last Supper.  

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“It was a really joyful moment for our parish,” said Fr. Trini Pinca. “And of course, for me, especially as a pastor, after enduring four years and a half of not having a church, moving from one school to another, maybe sometimes in the rectory, and not being able to decorate and celebrate.”

Specifically, Pinca said being bereft of a sacred space meant no local weddings or funerals. The community had to travel to nearby St. Emile Parish in Legal, or St. Albert Parish in St. Albert. While this reality was more logistically challenging, Pinca said it was a blessing to forge stronger inter-parish relationships.

St. Jean Baptiste’s reopening was also a deeply moving experience for Ron Cust, the chairperson of the building committee. Emotion filled his voice as he told The Catholic Register that on the day of the dedication, his mind flashed back four years to the moment when the town’s fire chief informed him, “it’s done, we can’t save it.” Cust and his son, Joshua, were among the 50 or so firefighters who tried to tame the colossal fire.

Determined to restore this cherished cornerstone for the people of Morinville, a community originally settled in the late 19th century by Fr. Jean-Baptiste Morin, a French priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Cust stepped up to serve as chairperson of the church building committee.

Insurance money and various fundraisers accrued the necessary capital for this new 23-metre-tall $8.7 million establishment, covered with non-combustible siding. It has a capacity of 310 persons. The original 31-metre-tall building, with a brick exterior, was reportedly valued at $15 million and could accommodate 600 people. Importantly, Cust said, “the church was built on schedule, on budget and no debt will be passed on to future generations.”

The new St. Jean Baptiste, emulating the old, wherever possible, was a driving motivation for Cust and fellow churchgoers. Very subtle elements in the new building that evoked memories of the original stirred great emotion.

“Our original church had this steel trim with a certain Z pattern that went around all over the church,” said Cust. “(The) most powerful comment (was) by my sister, now 83. When her father passed away in ’53, her aunt took her to church, and she always remembered that Z pattern around the paintings.

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“She came to (the new) church for the first time and said, ‘the first thing I thought was they did the Z pattern. It’s back.’ It took her back to (the time) of her father, who was killed before Christmas day. But it brought comfort to her because she said, ‘our church is back in a different form, but it's back.’ ”

Cust shared that timbers from the original St. Jean Baptiste were used in the construction of the pulpit, altar and tabernacle. A woodcarver was hired to carve the burnt pieces of wood into a decorative tree with leaves honouring parish donors on top.

Many parish volunteers also reclaimed, cleaned, stacked and stored bricks from the church over the past few years. Some of these bricks are now featured in a common room display, others are incorporated among the new brick of the bell tower, and the rest will be used for outdoor pathways on the parish grounds. One of the paths will lead to a display area for the original bells bearing the names of pioneers and settlers.

Notably, the new bell tower and steeple are not directly connected to the church. At the behest of the engineers, this structure remained separate to ensure the bells don’t rattle the main building. The new bells were imported from a closed parish in Quebec.

Illustrating how determined Cust and others were to grace the new church with elements evoking the original, they completed an extensive search and discovered a European Stations of the Cross of the correct vintage.

The former Strathcona Presbyterian Church, demolished in 2017, also illumined the new St. Jean Baptiste Church by donating five stained glass windows depicting the Good Shepherd, St. Peter, St. Paul, the Holy Family and the Resurrection of Jesus.

In the months ahead, the parish will eventually be graced with new oil paintings depicting major events in the life of St. John the Baptist, akin to some of the originals lost in the fire. One features the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan.

Going forward, the most important goal for Pinca is to invite Catholics to return to the pews. Many stopped attending Mass due to either COVID-19 lockdowns or discomfort with school gymnasium services.

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“I'm hoping that once they learn that we're now having our Masses, they will start coming back,” said Pinca. "Also, (we want) people around us to come to our parish not only out of curiosity to see the new church, but above all, to be part of the church journey.

“If last year is about hope, this is the year of grace.”