Yukon’s ‘golden’ priest dies at age 77

Pictured left: Father Jim Bleackley, OMI, left, and Victoria Bishop Gary Gordon (right), present Joan Darragh of Whitehorse with a certificate of honour from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace in 2007. Father Bleackley, the first Yukoner to become a priest, died April 8 at age 77. (B.C. Catholic file photo)

Father James Murray Bleackley, who died April 8 at age 77, was hailed on the front page of The B.C. Catholic as a “real gold strike for Yukon Oblates” when he was ordained in 1973.

Although born in Vancouver, he had moved to the Yukon at the age of nine. When he was ordained at age 25, he was celebrated as the first Yukoner in history to become a Catholic priest. Amid much excitement and a “frontier-type potluck” in September 1973, the local bishop praised the newly ordained priest as good as gold.

Father Bleackley’s ordination came during a crisis of priests in the North. Bishop Hubert O’Connor, OMI, said “with the opening up of the country,” including new mining and exploration, and the sheer size of his enormous diocese, the demands on the Church were increasing, but the area’s source of new priests – most of them from Europe – had “dried up.”

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who had been missionaries in the area for 75 years, were thrilled that Father Bleackley was not only joining them, but serving alongside them as an Oblate, too.

“The Yukon is one of the last great frontiers, where priests serve many small, isolated communities, where there is often lack of sufficient resources to develop your work effectively,” Father Bleackley said.

“I used to ask myself why these men would come here, when they could choose much easier areas in which to work. And the answer I found was that, in spite of hardships, they realized the word of God had to be brought to the people of the Yukon.”

He was born Oct. 14, 1947, in Vancouver and moved with his family to Whitehorse nine years later, receiving the rest of his elementary and high school education at Christ the King School. His religious formation and studies took him to Ottawa and Edmonton before his ordination at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Whitehorse. His first post was as a missionary there.

He also served as pastor in Watson Lake, Lower Post, Fort St. James, in Ottawa at St. Joseph’s Parish. He also served as diocesan administrator in the Diocese of Whitehorse from 2001 to 2002.

After decades of priesthood and service, Father Bleackley was remembered as “humble, kind, considerate, and generous,” and a “man of deep faith and conviction.”

Father Bleackley’s funeral took place at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Whitehorse. He was buried at Grey Mountain Cemetery in Whitehorse, fulfilling his wish to be buried with the pioneer Oblates in Canada’s great North.

By Agnieszka Ruck

Published on The B.C. Catholic website