A great Canadian

Fr. Quinn's life can inspire us and make us proud

By Peter Tassi
January/February 2008

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I have had the opportunity to meet many great missionaries, men and women around the world who serve the poor and oppressed, who work hard to support the people's efforts for a better life by improving access to food, water, education and opportunity. There are few who have impacted as many people as Scarboro missionary Fr. Louis Quinn. He spent 42 years working with the poor in San José de Ocoa in the Dominican Republic. Fr. Lou replaced Fr. Arthur MacKinnon (Padre Arturo) who had been assassinated and in those initial years he faced danger, oppression and great injustice. He overcame many obstacles and adversities. Fr. Lou was determined to serve the poor and bring to the people of San José de Ocoa a better life.

When I asked him how he began this work he said, "I started with a shovel, digging my way up the mountain, building roads to get to the people. Soon, others joined me." Then he said, "Do what you believe in and others who share in your vision will join with you and help make the dream a reality."

Fr. Lou's efforts alongside the people are both staggering and inspiring: more than 500 kilometres of roads carved into the mountains, thousands of homes repaired or built, more than 66 schools built, along with 11 medical clinics, an old age home, a soup kitchen, a rehabilitation centre, community centres and much more.

He helped establish the Padre Arturo Centre teaching woodworking and craft-making to Dominican youth as a successful source of income for them. He was also instrumental in helping the people to reforest hundreds of acres of land with trees grown in greenhouses. As well, hundreds of miles of pipelines were laid, aqueducts built to provide fresh drinking water for mountain communities, and latrines and solar panels installed at homes in mountain villages.

Fr. Lou's innovative system of land reform convinced large landowners to share their land with the poor by providing the landowners with irrigated water so that they could turn their scrubland into fertile, growing fields.

As a result of Fr. Lou's accomplishments, he has been given numerous awards including the Order of Canada, honorary doctorates and the title of Protector of Ocoa conveyed by the Dominican government. Recently, Fr. Lou was nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This is one great Canadian whose life can inspire us and make us proud.

Peter Tassi is a retired high school chaplain who has done work and fundraising for missions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Rwanda and Mexico. Peter is also a published author with non-fiction books, musical plays and feature film (www.petertassi.com).

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