Bishop attends premiere of parish documentary
After facing the music for recent hard times and failed fundraisers at Assumption Church, Bishop Ronald Fabbro was back in Windsor Tuesday for the premiere of a movie celebrating the parish’s storied past.
Fabbro joined parishioners for the first public viewing of A Community in Transition: 250 Years of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Windsor produced by Salt and Light Catholic Media. Former prime minister Paul Martin is among those featured in the documentary.
“I think it’s a celebration of Assumption’s great history,” said Fabbro. “It is connected with the church but also it’s significance with — Paul Martin talks about this — the link between the two countries, the Indigenous Peoples that first donated the land, the French community that was here. So the history of Canada is related closely to this site and to this church. The movie brings that out very well.” The film details this history of Ontario’s oldest Catholic parish, founded in 1767 for French settlers and the Hurons. Construction of the church that still stands at Huron Church Road and University Avenue was finished in 1845.
The movie airs across Canada on Aug. 26 at 8 p.m. on the Salt and Light Catholic Television Network.
“It’s a real historical place,” said Rev. Thomas Rosica, CEO of Salt and Light. “Outside of Montreal this is the first English church. The rich history that comes out in the movie is really something. The Huron territory that was here, the Jesuits that were here.” Rosica said he interviewed dozens of people, and the film doesn’t gloss over anything.
“It was a difficult one, because on one hand it’s a bit of a sad history, but it also speaks about the past and the future,” said Rosica. “There was very little editing of what the people said. It was very moving testimonies.”
The movie premiere comes on the heels of a critical report released Saturday investigating the plagued history of fundraising efforts at the church.
The diocese stopped holding regular masses at the church in 2014 because of problems with the heating system and other deterioration conditions in the building. The cost of restoration has been pegged as high as $15 million. The report by lawyer Paul Mullins revealed the first campaign, run by Philanthropic Management Consultants, Inc. under a confidential agreement with the diocese, was shut down after 2 1/2 years.
It cost the diocese and parish $450,611.