IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO SAY YES TO JESUS

OTTAWA — After nearly a lifetime on a circuitous path, Gérard Lafrenière will finally realize his childhood dream when he is ordained as a priest at a Catholic church in Orléans tonight.
“This is something that has been in my life for the past 65 years, if I could say that,” he says. “You know, it took all those years, but you never know what the Lord has in store for you.”
Lafrenière, 80, first knew he wanted to be a priest when he was a child of about nine or 10, growing up on a farm in Plaisance, Que., a small town just east of Thurso.
At 14, he began studies at the Ottawa junior seminary. After about two and a half years there, the overworked Lafrenière had to leave for health reasons.
“I had to put that aside for a while and take a different avenue,” he says.
That different avenue included a 49-year marriage, a son and a 25-year career in insurance.
Throughout it all, faith continued to play an important role in his life. Lafrenière has been a deacon at Paroisse St. Joseph for nearly 30 years.
ince his family moved to Orléans from Gatineau in 1967.
His wife, Gisèle Viau, knew of her husband’s dream to become a priest and, a few weeks before her death a year and a half ago, suggested he pursue it.
“On a regular basis she would come back with this in her mind,” Lafrenière says.
Both Viau and their son, Georges, kept on him about his dream to become a priest.
After his wife’s death, friends in the priesthood also suggested that he consider entering the priesthood. Initially, because of his age, he was not convinced.
“I told them, are you nuts? I’m 80 years of age.”
But at a church event last June, Lafrenière realized he was needed.
“We used to have two priests in here, but now (the pastor)’s alone. I felt that I could do maybe a little more to help him if I was a priest.”
Lafrenière lives in Orléans, about a five-minute drive from St. Joseph, with his 45-year-old son.
He will be ordained by Archbishop Terrence Prendergast tonight at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph, where he will say his first mass this Sunday morning at 10.
Lafrenière’s involvement in the church over the years has generated a lot of enthusiasm over his ordination on the part of the parishioners.
“They are more excited than I am,” he says.
Since 2000, nine people have been ordained by the Archdiocese of Ottawa. Lafrenière is one of two priests who will be ordained this year, and has been told by the archbishop that this is the first time a person of his age will be ordained in Ottawa.