Yukon who is who

Jean-Louis Antoine Joseph Coudert O.M.I. (1895 – 1965)

Jean-Louis Coudert was born in Menat, France.¹⁾ He studied at the Catholic seminary in Clarmont-Ferrand, France and then in Baltimore, United States and was ordained as a priest in San Antonio, Texas in 1919. In 1922, he was posted to the apostolic curacy of Mackenzie and managed the missions at Fort Smith and Fort Chipewyan. He then succeeded Father Camille Lefebvre as the procurator of the Mackenzie diocese. In 1936, when he asked for lighter duty he was instead ordained as a bishop and named bishop coadjutor of the huge territory of Prince Rupert and the Yukon.²⁾ He was coadjutor to Bishop Bunoz that year.³⁾ He was also appointed the Titular Bishop of Rhodiapolis.⁴⁾ In January 1944, the territory became the Vicariate Apostolic of Whitehorse and Bishop Coudert became the first Vicar Apostolic.⁵⁾

Bishop Coudert’s intention was to strengthen ties with First Nations.⁶⁾ He set up a network of missions and visited them by dog team, boat, horse, and plane. He followed First Nation travel routes and slept in their winter shelters. He visited the military camps along the highway by jeep, truck, and bus.⁷⁾

The upheaval in the territory during the construction of the Alaska Highway and other wartime projects diverted his attention from the Indigenous missions. An increasing number of Catholic families moved to Whitehorse in 1941-42 and they wanted a school of their own. Coudert built a two-storey frame building near the church to serve as a convent school for day pupils and boarders from out of town. After the highway was completed, it provided an avenue for Coudert to establish missions and day schools in a number of hitherto remote villages that had rarely been visited by Anglican missionaries.⁸⁾ After the Yukon and Prince Rupert territories were divided in 1944, Coudert took charge of the vicariate in Whitehorse. Under his watch a number of missions and schools were built: a convent and school in Whitehorse (1945), a school at Carmacks (1945), the Mission of St. John at Champagne (1947), a mission at Old Crow (1951), a mission at Upper Liard (1955), a new church at Haines Junction, and chapels at Snag, Aishihik, Klukshu, Calumet and Bear Creek.⁹⁾

As soon as the Christ the King school was built in Whitehorse in 1946, Coudert was lobbying for more and secure funding from the territorial government. The school and St. Mary’s in Dawson, operated with an annual per capita grant from the territory. In 1952, Commissioner Fraser announced a twenty-five percent cut in funds. Coudert wanted a school comparable to the Whitehorse public school then under construction. An agreement was signed in 1952, after prolonged negotiations, for the construction of an eight-room school. The cost was shared by the Department of National Defence, the Department of Northern Affairs, the Yukon government, and the trustees of the school. Christ the King taught all grades from one to eight until 1953 when grade nine was added. In 1956, students were allowed to stay through grade 10 as the public school was overcrowded. In 1958, Indian Affairs planned to construct a hostel in Whitehorse for Catholic First Nation students from the upper grades of the Lower Post residential school. The Christ the King Parent Teachers Association presented a petition to the territorial government asking for a separate Catholic high school for students in grades nine to twelve. Superintendent of Schools Thompson recommended a new public high school to serve all the community’s students instead. Commissioner Collins was advised to hold out no hope of federal grants for two high schools in such a small community. Advised of this in April 1959, Bishop Coudert broke off all discussions on the grounds that minority educational rights were being denied. Both sides sought legal advice but the lawyers could not resolve the issue. The Commissioner suggested to Coudert that he should submit a new petition for funding once a Catholic high school was built. The Yukon Council postponed a decision by forming a Committee on Education to study the Yukon school system and submit recommendations. The report was completed in August 1960 and concluded that separate schools should receive the same financial support as the public schools. In 1962, an agreement between the Commissioner and the Catholic Episcopal Corporation met Coudert’s long-standing request for a revision of the operating grants paid to his schools. The agreement integrated the Catholic schools into the general system for the establishment and operation of Yukon schools.¹⁰⁾

Jean-Louis Coudert was the Bishop at Whitehorse from 1944 to 1965.¹¹⁾ He was the first Roman Catholic bishop to live in Whitehorse. After he left the Yukon, he held a position at the Vatican in Rome until his death. Jean-Louis Coudert is buried in Whitehorse.¹²⁾