Every year, Benoit Ouellet from Montreal consecrates his vacations to the apostolate. He mobilized three young people for two weeks of door to door on the North Shore of the Province of Quebec: Dominique Bourdon, 18 years of age, Guillaume Rodrigue, 17 years of age, and Vincent Rodrigue, 15 years of age. They began their door-to-door crusade in Beauce, in Saint Prosper and Ste. Aurelie, and then left for the North Shore. They were warmly welcomed by the population, and many people generously received them for meals and night's lodgings.
However, since there is no rose without a thorn, in a few towns, our Pilgrims were bothered by the presence of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who came before them in the door to door. This made some people suspicious of our Pilgrims, but these difficulties and humbling did not stop our fiery apostles. When the people realized that our apostles were Catholics, they were happy to receive them, and said to them: "Come back next year. It has been too long since your last visit. See how the Faith has diminished."
Benoît Ouellet says: "It's true, when Catholics do not hold the ground, it is other sects that do so. We have part of the responsibility in this. We must go everywhere, attack for 'Michael'. We will return to the North Shore next year."
They had very good results in Sept-Iles, 18 and 19 subscriptions per day. Our four Pilgrims had the advantage of attending Mass every day. Ladies said to our young Pilgrims: "It is really nice to see young people who come to Mass and who pray and wear the Miraculous Medal."
Benoît Ouellet and Vincent Rodrigue met a man who did not want to know anything about the "Michael" Journal. Here is how Vincent Rodrigue relates the event: "Mr. Benoit Ouellet said to him, 'It is written in the Bible: 'When I was hungry, did you give Me to eat?..., 'It so happens that we are hungry!' The man answered: 'All right, you will eat here." His wife made us hot dogs. We explained our Movement. They thought it was pretty good. They had changed religion, before they were Catholics, they had become Baptists. The lady said: 'In our group they do not accept the Blessed Virgin. You have a beautiful medal. It seems to me that the Blessed Virgin, She is the Mother of Jesus, not a woman like other women.' Benoit answered: 'If I spoke to you against your mother, would you be happy? The Blessed Virgin is the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God.' The woman turned to her husband: 'I told you that the Blessed Virgin, she is good.' In the end they were both very happy to have received us and they did not want us to go, we prayed with them. God can convert them. They subscribed for 4 years."
Our four fellows took in their tour of apostolate 308 subscriptions, and recited 152 decades of the Rosary in 152 families. Dominique Bourdon said: "We cleared some ground because it had been twenty years since the Pilgrims had been to the North Shore. Our sacrifices bore fruit." These young apostles don't give up: in August, they go to Nova Scotia with Claude Bourque and other local apostles.