by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

INUVIK (May 01/98) - It was a good month, but Inuvik is again without a priest.

Father Pat Murphy, who took over Our Lady of Victory Catholic Parish in March, left town after conducting Sunday Mass to assume St. Patrick's parish in Yellowknife after the priest there, Father Basil Boudreau, retired.

Inuvik had been without a priest for two years following the retirement of Father Dowling. The difficulty of recruiting priests, especially for the North, meant that no replacement was immediately named and services there were conducted by a deacon in the absence of a priest.

"I have enjoyed my stay in the community and will be thinking of the friends I have made here, but the bishop decided I would be going south," Murphy said last week.

"I will be staying in the diocese, but at St. Patrick's instead of here."

No priest has been named to replace Father Murphy and he did not know if there were any candidates. The services will probably go back to being led by a deacon for a while, he said.