By Canadian Press

Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage cancelled, thousands clean up campsite ravaged in storm

Jul 25, 2023 | 3:52 PM

LAC STE. ANNE, Alta. — Thousands of religious pilgrims were cleaning up their ravaged campsite after a heavy storm blew through Lac Ste. Anne, Alta., cancelling events for the first time in decades.

Andrew Papenbrock of the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton says as many as 10,000 people were on the site Monday night, participating in an annual pilgrimage more than a century old. 

Papenbrock says the site was under a tornado warning at about midnight and after the storm hit, portable toilets were tossed about by high winds and old trees were blown over. 

People, swamped from their tents, were forced to shelter in the chapel on the site, as well as the lakeshore shrine where Pope Francis blessed the waters in his visit last year. 

Papenbrock says nobody was hurt. 

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He says the nearby Alexis First Nation is helping shelter people and provide food.

RCMP are on the site, and people are leaving in buses and their own vehicles. 

Papenbrock says several masses have been cancelled, as well as an address by Archbishop Richard Smith that was to reflect on the legacy of the Pope’s visit. 

The Canadian Press