The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. As part of their mission to evangelize the "abandoned poor",[1] the Oblates are known for their mission among the Indigenous peoples of Canada, and their historic administration of at least 57 schools within the Canadian Indian residential school system.[2][3] Some of those schools have been associated with cases of child abuse by Oblate clergy and staff.[4]: 399–452
The OMI founded the University of Ottawa in 1848, then the College of Bytown.[5] Since the University of Ottawa became publicly funded in 1965, Saint Paul University exists as a separate but federated institution with a pontifical charter to grant ecclesiastical degrees and a public charter, through the University of Ottawa, to grant civil degrees. The congregation has been involved in religious and secular publishing, helping to establish a number of church, community, and ethnic newspapers in Canada including Ottawa's francophone daily newspaper Le Droit.
OMI's Canadian presence is currently administered in three geographic provinces:
- Notre-Dame-du-Cap (French), housed at Notre-Dame-du-Cap Basilica in Trois-Rivières, Quebec[6]
- Lacombe (English),[7] with offices in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario
- Assumption (Polish), based in Toronto, Ontario.
As of July 2019, there were 282 Oblate priests working in Canada.[8]
- ^ "What we do: We are Missionaries". OMI Lacombe. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- ^ Babych, Art; Gonzalez, Ramon (12 June 2000). "Oblates face bankruptcy". Western Catholic Reporter. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- ^ Eugène LeBeuf, Marcel (2011). The Role of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police During the Indian Residential School System.
- ^ Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015), "Canada's Residential Schools: The History. Part 2, 1939 to 2000" (PDF), The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, vol. 1, McGill-Queen's University Press, archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-04-19
- ^ "Since 1848: About U of O". University of Ottawa. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
- ^ "Historical Summary", Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap
- ^ Lacombe also administers OMI's missions to Kenya.
- ^ Greenham, Kyle (July 25, 2019). "Oblates leaving another parish". Canadian Catholic News. Retrieved 31 May 2021.