Archbishop requested priest’s resignation after being barred from church

An extraordinary scene unfolded at Saint Isidore Parish in Kanata, which led to the swift removal of Rev. Matthew Keshwah.

Published Jul 21, 2023 • Last updated 10 hours ago • 4 minute read

Matthew Keshwah resigned as pastor of Saint Isidore Parish in Kanata on May 4. Photo by Doug Hempstead /Postmedia files

An extraordinary scene unfolded at Saint Isidore Parish in Kanata earlier this year as Archbishop Marcel Damphousse was barred from the church by its pastor and some of his allies.

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The scene played out on the morning of Sunday, April 30, and led to the swift removal of Rev. Matthew Keshwah from Saint Isidore.

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Damphousse, the senior-most Catholic church official in the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall, asked for Keshwah’s resignation as pastor and received it on May 4. Keshwah was removed from the parish within hours.

“Events that took place in the parish on Saturday, April 29, and Sunday, April 30, in which Father Matthew and others at the parish took direct steps to undermine the archdiocese and my leadership — including refusing me access to the church on April 30 — have only confirmed the need for immediate action,” Damphousse wrote in an internal staff memo, obtained by this newspaper.

None of the events leading to Keshwah’s resignation involved allegations of sexual abuse, the archbishop noted.

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Rather, Damphousse said, the resignation resulted “from serious concerns regarding his (Keshwah’s) reliability and his ability to fulfill his pastoral duties considering troubling interactions within the archdiocese.”

Those actions, he said, were in breach of the code of pastoral conduct that governs the behaviour of clergy in the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall.

Among other things, the code requires priests to end a personal relationship if it involves “inappropriate attraction or attention.”

Keshwah’s relationship with a female member of the archdiocesan staff was among the issues that led to his departure. The woman is now on leave.

Damphousse said Keshwah continues to be paid as the archdiocese works to support his return to active ministry.

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Now 42, Keshwah was ordained in January 2014 after giving up a job at IBM in order to pursue his calling. He had previously graduated from the University of Ottawa with a bachelor of commerce degree and had embarked on a career in Toronto.

“I felt like I had what people and society had told me would bring me success, bring me happiness in life,” he once said in describing his call to the priesthood. “I thought I had it all, but something was missing. I felt empty inside … I felt like there had to be more.”

It was then, he said, that he heard “God’s call get louder and louder,” and decided to abandon his conventional, corporate life.

“I wanted to save souls for Christ rather than expense dollars for a corporation,” he said. “I wanted to promote life and love rather than capitalism and new business opportunities.”

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Keshwah quit his job, broke up with his girlfriend, gave away his possessions, and entered St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto. After his ordination, he served at a handful of local churches before being appointed pastor at Saint Isidore Parish on Aug. 1, 2018.

Saint Isidore Roman Catholic Parish on March Road in Kanata. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

He was, for years, an immensely popular figure at Saint Isidore, and would regularly post his Sunday homilies online.

More recently, however, trouble began brewing at the church. Keshwah moved out of the parish rectory and into a private home, while other people moved into the church-owned rectory. It’s not clear if rent was being charged, but the code of pastoral conduct limits the use of the rectory to priests, deacons and seminarians.

The parish’s finance committee, an important oversight body, also stopped meeting for reasons that have yet to be explained.

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Keshwah’s temporary replacement at Saint Isidore, Rev. Pierre Champoux, recently told his parishioners that a forensic audit is now underway at the church. (It’s church practice to conduct a standard audit at the end of a pastor’s tenure, not the more involved forensic audit.)

Champoux said the Bereavement Authority of Ontario is conducting its own audit of the parish cemetery. The bereavement authority is an independent agency that regulates the province’s funeral homes, crematoriums and cemeteries.

Champoux also told parishioners that the church has changed the way its Sunday collections are conducted in order to bring them in line with archdiocesan policy.

That policy, introduced in 2012 following a scandal that engulfed Rev. Joseph LeClair at Blessed Sacrament Parish, brought in a raft of checks and balances designed to ensure donations are properly collected, spent and accounted for by church officials.

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Among other things, the policy requires that two people must always be together when collection plate money is stored and counted.

The same policy requires that the parish finance committee meet at least four times a year, keep written minutes and present both a year-end financial report and a projected budget.

Champoux told Saint Isidore’s parishioners that such financial controls will be re-introduced at the church.

“To help re-establish trust in the parish structure,” Champoux said, “the parish finance council and the parish pastoral council will be re-established as soon as possible.”

Catholic churches are registered charities and can issue tax receipts, which provide donors with income tax credits on their federal and provincial returns.

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Like other registered charities, each church must file an annual financial report with the Canada Revenue Agency. Saint Isidore’s information return reveals that its principal revenue stream — donations for which it issues tax receipts — fell sharply in 2022 to $309,450.

It represented a one-year decline of more than 16 per cent, and was also the lowest total at any point in the past five years.

The Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall did not respond to a request for comment.