Tributes pour out for a priest called 'Monte'

A man who worked more than 50 years as a Roman Catholic priest in the Fredericton area is being remembered for his humility, humour, devotion and special relationship with Indigenous people.

Rev. Monte Peters died Tuesday at his home at the St. Kateri Tekakwitha rectory on Hanwell Road, after a brief illness.

Peters was 80 and, until a few months ago, had been working as the priest at Holy Family Church and St. Ann's Church in Kingsclear First Nation.

Over the years, Peters worked at just about every Catholic church in the area. He also spent many years as chaplain on campus at the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University. 

His death is being called "devastating" and "heart-wrenching" by parishioners past and present. They say his absence will "leave a big hole" in many ways.

Graydon Nicholas, the Wolastoqey former lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick and current chancellor of St. Thomas University, said he will miss Peters dearly. 

Nicholas described his relationship with Peters, dating back to St. Francis Xavier University in the 1960s, as one of mutual support.

In 1991, the night before Nicholas was sworn in as the first Indigenous provincial court judge in New Brunswick, he asked a few people to go into a sweat lodge with him to pray that he would fulfil his responsibilities in a compassionate way. Peters was one of those invited.

Peters, in turn, called on Nicholas to help shed light on issues affecting Indigenous people. Sometimes this involved giving up his own preaching time during services to have Nicholas offer "reflections" as a guest.

Notably, Peters was doing this decades before efforts to reconcile with Indigenous peoples over the legacy of residential schools and colonization really ramped up in the church or in the country. 

"Even way back," Peters was sympathetic to the suffering of First Nations communities, said Nicholas.

Nicholas recalled that in 1990, Peters invited him to share his reflections on what was happening during the Oka crisis, an armed standoff in Quebec over a planned golf course expansion in a forest claimed by the Mohawks of Kanesatake.

They subsequently went around town giving talks about it to any service clubs that invited them.

"He was always interested in shining a light on things that needed attention," said Noreen Bonnell, a member of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish. Bonnell is also past president of the Fergusson Foundation, which is dedicated to the prevention of family violence, another issue of special concern to Peters.