All operations at the Holy Redeemer Retreat House located in Eggleston have been ordered to cease and the facility will be closing down following heavy damage suffered during the passage of Hurricane Maria last September.
Fr. Rodney Olive, C.SsR., Director and Religious Superior of the Retreat House, confirmed to Dominica News Online that the Provincial Council of the Redemptorists, the Catholic religious order that built and was running the facility, has decided to close it in the wake of the devastating hurricane.
“The Redemptorist staff of the Holy Redeemer Retreat House was informed by the Provincial Council (Redemptorist Missionaries – Baltimore Province) that the council has decided to close the Holy Redeemer Retreat House,” he said. “We have been instructed to cease all operations and ongoing repairs immediately.”
He stated that the Provincial Council in the United States will be exploring all options concerning the Holy Redeemer Facility and property.
Fr. Rodney explained that there were three reasons for the closure.
“The rising costs to rebuild the Holy Redeemer Retreat House,” he pointed out. “The operating costs of running the Retreat House, both present and future and the likelihood of hurricanes, like Maria, destroying the Retreat House again.”
The Holy Redeemer Retreat House was the vision of Fr. Charles Vermeulen C.Ss.R, from Belgium, who saw the need for a Catholic retreat house in Dominica.
At the 1985 Redemptorist General Chapter in Rome, he began to collect money for the project from Redemptorists in more wealthy countries.
A property at the Ridgefield Estate in Eggleston was offered by Clem Dupigny and Fr. Charles started the project that was to become the Holy Redeemer Retreat House. Fr. Charles died on December 4, 2016, at the age of 85.
After its official opening 28 years ago the facility quickly became well known in Dominica, serving not only the people of the island but a number of religious and lay people from neighboring countries.
The only church in the St. Ann’s Parish…. the Massacre Catholic Church have never been opened or no service held since hurricane Maria. !!! The Church!! Much less for the Retreat house. so sad
If Dominica was a prosperous nation and population was growing then the church would have enough people who have extra cash put in collection so they can afford insurance and to rebuild. Instead the bishop there encouraging the BS happening in the country. I am Catholic and was raised to work hard for what i want. I also learned God hates laziness. Let the church pay cause it to is responsible for the state it is in. They sat silent while murder and abuae of our young ran rampant. The church should be out on streets. Instead they there giving honour to PM for 500k donation of the public money under false pretense. God does not play. Dominica have more to come.
sad
what a wonderful property
they should put it up for auction
aaaallllllllllllllll de money ROME has
and refuse to use it to help its people
continue to put de money in de collection baskets
E. D yots
I think this is a case of putting money over spreading the Word and saving souls. I know there are costs to running such a facility but can’t something be done other than just closing such a place that has become a part of the landscape in Dominica.
I believe that if the European Redemptorists were still around, men like Fr. Werner and Fr. Charles, the retreat house would be rebuilt.
However the American Redemptorists appear to see things differently: if something isn’t profitable, why keep it. Typical capitalist thought.
What a shame. Happy I got to spend many weekends there.
Dominica will lose a lot from the closing of the Retreat. A commentator says turn it into a hideaway . That can never be as valuable as a retreat for spiritual upliftment. Dominicans claim to be so religious, but religiosity is not the same as spirituality. Here religiosity flourishes like unpkemt weeds, but spirituality withers on the vine. Man cannot live by bread alone. A nation or community needs ideals; without them, it remains a wasteland of empty material consumerism. I challenge Dominicans to let us get together and raise the funds to turn this wonderful facility and turn it into a Dominica Centre for leadership and life skills training.
All so sad in Dominica and for the Church too. Really discouraging time for DA. All the people must WANT change
No money from the rogue regime for things like that. But millions are wasted on ‘donations and help ‘ to DLP farmers, DLP entrepreneurs, DLP house owners, DLP sympathetic business owners etc. Welcome to Socialism a la Skerrit. What a country!
That goes to show who or what comes first, in this case money comes before GOD!!
,Will the cathedral in Roseau ever be repaired. No redemption for Dominica again. The beginning of the end trust me.
The end is nigh. Our paradise home has become a hell for many of us. Today is the day of reckoning and we must drive out satan.
Americans pulling out left and right
Maria give Dominicans a nasty wakeup call worse part is laborites that sending their children away more 
Put it up for sale. Would make a nice hideaway resort.
The Russians could buy it from the church and turn it into their embassy when they are coming.
All joking aside, you make a valid point. We have ambassadors from Cuba, Venezuela and China resident in Dominica and the Russians would complete a quartet of countries of similar political persuasion with a full blown diplomatic presence in our country.