N.B. community builds chapel in place of century-old church lost to arson

A small New Brunswick village is rising from the ashes less than a year after their century-old Catholic church burned down.

Shemogue, N.B. residents are building a small chapel in its place that they intend to use as a museum, showcasing the history of the community.

Roseline Cormier and her nine siblings were born in a house across the street from Saint-Timothée Catholic Church.

She attended mass every week, got married there, had her children baptized there, and regularly visits her father’s grave in the graveyard behind where the church used to be.

She and other community members were having difficulty processing their grief after the church burned down in December 2021 until the day her son, an engineer, came up with a solution.

“So one day he says, ‘Maman go open your computer.’ So I opened his message and there it was…a blueprint of the chapel. So how did I feel? I feel the same way I’m feeling today. I was so touched. He gave me hope. He gave me a plan,” she said while tearing up.

She said she and a committee of community members are overseeing the construction of the small chapel which they hope will be completed in late December.

The $200,000 needed for the construction will be paid for using the insurance payout from the fire of the previous church.

She said $70,000 of that insurance money will go into its maintenance, while the remaining funds will go into the maintenance of the large cemetery on the grounds.

While it won’t host mass, weddings or funerals, Cormier said there are talks of displaying objects saved from the old church along with the history of the families who founded Shemogue in the chapel.

“They’re doing the geneology of the 11 founding families of the village so they’re going to look at that,” she said.

A 27-year-old man from Cap-Pelé was charged with arson in connection with the December 2021 fire.

Cormier has a message for him: “I never felt any hate. I never felt any anger. I felt the pain of the loss (…) I hope that in life that he and others that go through difficult times can feel the support of the people around them.”