St. Kateri Tekakwitha Mission in Bay Mills hosts groundbreaking ceremony

Two years following an early morning May 5, 2021 fire that resulted in a total loss of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Mission’s church in Bay Mills, a groundbreaking ceremony gave concrete evidence to the new place of worship’s rebuilding. On June 14, Father Dominic Yamoah Afrifa, pastor, and Father Timothy Ekaitis, vicar general of the Diocese of Marquette, took a shovel and broke ground for the upcoming construction.

“I’m so happy,” said Fr. Yamoah Afrifa, noting his parishioners are ready to return to services at their own church.

Lifelong parishioner Wanda Perron said members are attending Mass at other area churches and are looking forward to returning to Bay Mills. “People ask, ‘When’s the church being built?’” said Perron. “It will bring us all back together again.”

“There is a big void here now. It (the mission) was here before I was born. It’s aways been a part of my life and that part’s missing,” said Perron. She noted that her grandmother lived near the church and donated the property on which it is situated.

Parishioner Pat Brighton, who has been a member of the tightknit parish community since 2000 said, “You pretty much know everybody.” She noted, “I just can’t imagine not having a church here. Everybody feels that way, I’m sure.”

Wanda Donnay, sister to former pastor Father (Bro.) John Hascall, OFM Cap. who died May 22, 2022, said her brother “would have been devastated” by the loss of the church. A member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and fluent speaker of the Ojibwa language, Bro. Hascall (Capuchin priests go by the title Brother) was immersed in his Native American culture and the lives of his parishioners.

“It’s just a magnificent thing,” Donnay said of the construction of the new church building. She is a member of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Brimley just down the road. “I’m just happy for the people here.”

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