COCHRANE— A former Cochrane priest was awarded the prestigious Meritorious Service Medal by Canada's Governor General for his work with the Catholics in the Diocese of Calgary outreach program Mission Mexico on Wednesday (July 1).
The day Fr. Fred Monk received the phone call informing him he would be receiving the Meritorious Service Medal was auspicious, because it marked the anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.
Monk had several calls that day from friends “pranking” him in celebration of the momentous date, because of this when he received the call from the office of the Governor General, Monk said with a chuckle, at first he did not believe them.
“We don’t expect to get a call like that and I was in shock when I received it because there are so many people in Mexico, especially Mike McDonald [Mission Mexico boots on the ground employee]. There’s so many people who deserve this recognition,” Monk said. “It was quite humbling.”
The Meritorious Service Medal recognizes Canadians for exceptional deeds and contributions that span advocacy initiatives and health care services, to research and humanitarian efforts and bring honour to Canada.
He added that the Mission Mexico project would not have been possible without the support of the people of Cochrane and the sacrifices and donations they made to the project over the years.
“It’s been very humbling and it’s been very, very rewarding,” Monk said. “All of us who’ve been involved have been very, very blessed by being associated with those communities.”
All of Southern Alberta now participates in the project, he said, explaining that all the Catholic churches and schools in the area take a day every year to fundraise for the project.
“I never dreamt that I would ever do this,” Monk said. “Because of our privilege I think we all have an obligation to do something— We can change the world.”
Monk served as a priest at St. Mary’s Parish Cochrane from 1998 to 2007. After building the church he relocated to Bow Island, Alta. where he lived for 10 years until he retired in on Aug. 1, 2016.
St. Mary’s played a critical role in helping Mission Mexico take root and grow.
As the year 2000 approached people were talking about ways to celebrate the start of the new millennium.
Monk saw this as an opportunity to reach out to the poor and give support to those in need.
He reconnected with his former teacher Father William Morran who was living in Mexico and discovered there was a need for an orphanage in the area.
The project would need $100,000 to take off Monk said.
“I had a dream and in the dream, I did the math, if you will, and figured if everyone in the parish would give just a loonie a week for a year we would have $100,000,” Monk said.
He began fundraising on Jan. 1, 1999 and on Christmas Eve they had not only reached their goal to raise $100,000 for Mission Mexico, they had exceeded it by $10,000.
“It’s now been 20 years and those loonies have produced just over five million dollars,” Monk said.
The outreach project now provides funding for micro-economic, education, health and human rights projects to one of the poorest regions in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. The area has more than 400,000 people nestled in the mountains of southern Mexico.
Mission Mexico has seen hundreds of young people go through the program to complete high school and some have gone on to attend post-secondaries.
The group has also created sewing co-ops to help women establish a source of income providing sewing machine and materials to make clothing to sell at local markets.
“It’s changed those communities forever,” Monk said. “They really feel that they have witnessed miracles.”
It has been a privilege building relationships in Mexico and having the incredible opportunity to work with such a dedicated and brilliant team, he said.
“I just feel that we have a responsibility of people in the first world, we are very privileged here, we have an obligation to share that and to do what we can not to give a hand-out but a hand-up,” Monk said. “That’s been the focus of Mission Mexico.”
Monk said he focuses on raising money to support the project but has had the opportunity to travel down to Mexico four times over the past 20 years.
His first visit to Mexico will be forever etched into his mind, Monk said, because he had never witnessed such poverty. Coming back to the abundance of Canada was a difficult experience because of the inequity he played witness to.
“We were simply giving crumbs from our table of abundance to people there, and they were so delighted and so grateful,” Monk said. “We don’t recognize the gifts we have in this part of the world."
