By The Associated PressOpens in new window
Published: February 02, 2026 at 7:25AM EST
The Rev. Susai Jesu, recently named archbishop of Keewatin-Le Pas, gives an interview at the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples where he was once pastor, on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
As a teenager in southern India, Susai Jesu led 4:30 a.m. prayer services in his small Catholic village before the farmers went into the fields. He directed the choir, helped at Mass and soon began training for the priesthood.
Little did he know that this dedication would take him halfway around the world on a vast cross-cultural journey — ministering among Canada’s Indigenous Catholics, learning their language, culture and historical traumas. He hosted Pope Francis at his Edmonton parish when the late pontiff visited Canada in 2022 to apologize for the Catholic Church’s collaboration with the “catastrophic” system of Indigenous residential schools.
And as of Jan. 26, Jesu is now an archbishop for northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. He’ll oversee ministry to about 49,000 Catholics, mostly Indigenous, dispersed across a region larger than Texas.
In a ceremony punctuated by traditional drumming — as well as songs and prayers in an unusual combination of Cree, Dene, English, French, Oji-Cree and his native Tamil — Jesu was consecrated archbishop of Keewatin-Le Pas.
Jesu’s first order of business is simply to spend time with the people. At each of the far-flung parishes he visits, he plans not only to preside at worship but to be “physically present with them,” he said in an interview. He hopes to build trust over time in a population that includes many loyal Catholics but also many who remain wounded and alienated from the church.
“For the first year, let us build a relationship,” said Jesu, 54, who was appointed archbishop by Francis’ successor, Leo XIV, in November. “With all those residential schools (and their legacy), what kind of Jesus are we giving today?”
As a teenager in southern India, Susai Jesu led 4:30 a.m. prayer services in his small Catholic village before the farmers went into the fields. He directed the choir, helped at Mass and soon began training for the priesthood.
Little did he know that this dedication would take him halfway around the world on a vast cross-cultural journey — ministering among Canada’s Indigenous Catholics, learning their language, culture and historical traumas. He hosted Pope Francis at his Edmonton parish when the late pontiff visited Canada in 2022 to apologize for the Catholic Church’s collaboration with the “catastrophic” system of Indigenous residential schools.
And as of Jan. 26, Jesu is now an archbishop for northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. He’ll oversee ministry to about 49,000 Catholics, mostly Indigenous, dispersed across a region larger than Texas.
In a ceremony punctuated by traditional drumming — as well as songs and prayers in an unusual combination of Cree, Dene, English, French, Oji-Cree and his native Tamil — Jesu was consecrated archbishop of Keewatin-Le Pas.
Jesu’s first order of business is simply to spend time with the people. At each of the far-flung parishes he visits, he plans not only to preside at worship but to be “physically present with them,” he said in an interview. He hopes to build trust over time in a population that includes many loyal Catholics but also many who remain wounded and alienated from the church.
“For the first year, let us build a relationship,” said Jesu, 54, who was appointed archbishop by Francis’ successor, Leo XIV, in November. “With all those residential schools (and their legacy), what kind of Jesus are we giving today?”
