Adolph Terre

 ADOLPH TERRE

Father Adolph Terre was as excited as many congregants in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide when he learned of the Vatican reforms of the early 1960s. He was a newly minted parish priest in Barrhead, Alberta, and the idea of making the church more accessible to his parishioners was appealing to him. The reforms meant that mass could be said in English or any other local language rather than Latin, and the church would focus more effort on helping the poor and showing greater openness to non-Catholics.  But his enthusiasm wasn’t matched by his more tradition-bound bishop and many of his colleagues. That conflict set him on a different path in life. The church as an institution never failed him, but his superior and colleagues did.  Adolph, who died in Pembroke, Ontario, on February 6 at 93, was born on a farm in central Alberta and raised, along with six siblings, near the francophone community of St. Paul, Alberta. His parents, John and Procina Terre, were Volga Germans who survived the ravages of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution. Almost all members of their extended families were killed or died from hunger during the fighting. John and Procina survived and escaped to a refugee camp in Germany and then to Canada. They worked on a farm in Saskatchewan and managed to buy their own place but lost it in the drought and Great Depression of the 1930s. They relocated north to the St. Paul area and started again on a rented farm. His parents were devout Roman Catholics. When Adolph finished high school, he was encouraged by members of the clergy to study for the priesthood. He was accepted at a St. Joseph Seminary in Edmonton, where he discovered that theological studies suited his introspective and compassionate nature. After several years in Edmonton, he spent a year at a seminary in Belgium and then completed his religious studies at the Grand Séminaire in Quebec City. His first language was German, he learned English during his primary and high school years, and he became fluent in French in Belgium and Quebec City. Adolph was ordained as a parish priest in St. Paul in 1960, to the immense pride of his family. He spent several years serving as secretary to the bishop before being assigned to his own parish in Barrhead. There, he found the work fulfilling. Parishioners remembered him with affection and respect. But the Vatican reforms opened a window for him on how he might be able to more helpfully administer to the psychological needs of individuals and families. He obtained permission to travel to Brussels to take a course on the reforms. He returned inspired and eager to put into practice what he had learned. Instead, his ideas were greeted with distain and hostility. About the same time, he met Clare Wren, a Sisters of St. Joseph nun from the Prembroke area, who was living in Whitecourt. He confided his frustrations to her and eventually concluded that if the reforms weren’t welcome, he might be better able to help people by studying psychology and family counselling.In the fall of 1973, he moved to Ottawa, with church approval, and began a master’s degree. He graduated in 1975 and found work at a community health centre in Gatineau. That spring, he wrote to his sisters Ann and Mary to tell them that he was working “mostly with separated and divorced persons and their families. I do individual counselling, family life education and marriage counselling. I like my work very much. The needs are great and the opportunities to help relieve pain are many.” It was a tender and touching letter assured his sisters that he wasn’t experiencing a “loss of faith or a turning from the church. The Christian faith means more to me than ever…I see my present work as an authentic way to live the call of the Gospel— to help liberate people from their pain and suffering.” He pleaded for his sisters’ help in explaining his decision to his parents. And he confessed that although he had no definite plans for his future lifestyle, he “wasn’t excluding the possibility of marriage. Around the time he wrote the letter, Clare moved to Ottawa, left her order and began working as a lab technician at the Ottawa General Hospital. She and Adolph reconnected, married a year later, and bought a house in Aylmer, Quebec. They were both in the early 40s and this was the first home they had that wasn’t a convent or church rectory. A relative who visited them there noted that everything was new, from the snow shovels to the silverware and sofas. It had a cozy fireplace, which Adolph fed with firewood he cut, split and stacked every year.As a couple, they were inseparable. They biked and skied the trails in Gatineau Park and attended church in Aylmer, although the parish priest wasn’t welcoming. They continued their religious studies, attending conferences and seminars in Montreal and elsewhere. They read works by their favourite theologians and followed the daily news closely. They retired in the late 1990s and moved to a new house near the Experimental Farm in Ottawa. They lived simply and frugally, their one extravagance an annual 10-day winter trip to the Caribbean.In 2020, Adolph began exhibiting the early stages of dementia. They sold their house in 2021 and moved into a seniors’ residence in Ottawa. Clare was unhappy there and pressed for a move to Pembroke, where many of her family members live. They relocated to a senior’s residence in Pembroke in 2022 and, shortly after, both were admitted to Marianhill LTC. Clare still lives there. Adolph was predeceased by his parents, his brother John (Pincher Creek), and his sisters Ann and Mary (St. Paul) and Emma (Winnipeg). He is survived by his wife, Clare, his brother Alex (Devon, Alberta) and 14 nieces and nephews.

Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Douglas Ontario in the Spring of 2026 
 

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