March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Several new assignments made by Oblates of Mary

LINCOLN — The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have announced new assignments, effective July 1. The new positions were announced by the Rev. George G. Capen, provincial superior for the Northern U.S. Province.

The Rev. Andre Houle will be pastor of St. Leo Parish in Howland. He has just completed nine years as pastor of St. Mary of Lourdes Parish in Lincoln.

Houle was ordained in 1952 in Lowell, Mass., by Bishop Thomas Markham. For many years he was a teacher and librarian at the former Oblate Seminary in Bucksport.

He also will serve as district superior for the Oblates serving in Maine, and is replacing the Rev. Leo Staves, who served as pastor for the past 14 years. Staves is retiring to St. Paul Center in Augusta.

The Rev. George Sirois will be pastor at St. Mary of Lourdes Parish in Lincoln, and for the missions of Winn, Danforth and Kingman.

Sirois was born in Lawrence, Mass., and graduated from the Oblate Seminary in Bucksport in 1945. He received an associate degree from the Oblate College and Seminary at Bar Harbor in 1947, and a bachelor’s degree from the Oblate College and Seminary in Natick, Mass., where he completed theological studies.

He was ordained in 1953 by Bishop Louis Collignon. His previous ministry includes eight years as superior and director at St. Paul Retreat and Cursillo Center in Augusta. For the past three years, he has been pastor at St. Jeanne d’Arc Parish in Lowell, Mass.

The Rev. Henri Lavallee will be parochial vicar at St. Mary of Lourdes in Lincoln. He returned from the Philippines in 1991 after 31 years of missionary work.

Other Oblate assignments in Maine include: the Rev. Michael Lauze, superior at St. Paul Center in Augusta; and Brother Augustin Cote, retreat and program director, and first assistant at St. Paul Center.

The Rev. Gerard Roux, who is completing 13 years of retreat work at St. Paul Center as spiritual director of the Cursillo movement in Maine, is being reassigned to the Oblate Retreat House in Hudson, N.H.


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