The first thing Fr. Carter undertook was to put the books in order, regularize the wardens’ meetings and reduce expenses. By the time he left, parish investments and surplus revenue had surged from approximately $66,500 in 1953 to just under $105,000 in 1956.
Next, he empowered the laity to participate more fully in parish and diocesan life and formed a parish council. Within months of arriving, he conscripted parishioner Horace White, the music consultant with the Montreal Catholic School Commission, and Robert Shore, a Grade 7 teacher at Holy Family School, to start a Men and Boys Choir, initiating a tradition for which Holy Family became renown.
During his pastorate, the Sodality Movement for young women emerged as a group. Its members regularly volunteered at Benedict Labre House, a refuge for itinerant men, well into the 1960s.
All the regular activities also flourished – Wardens, CWL, Gentlemen Ushers, etc. – all meeting in the small, cramped hall at 355 Faillon Street, located in the rectory basement.
Fr. Carter was at the helm barely three years. When he left in February 1957, he had not only set Holy Family on a firm footing but had empowered the laity and broadened its outreach to the wider community, a full decade before the Second Vatican Council called for the same.
Fr. Walter Sutton, who succeeded Fr. Carter when he was named Coadjutor Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, possessed neither the organizational panache nor the administrative precision of his successor. Nevertheless, he was in the best position to build upon the work of his predecessor and seminary friend.