The archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela, was the principal celebrant at the Votive Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Eternal High Priest in St. Michael’s Cathedral Sept. 25. it was part of the year-long celebrations to mark the centenary of the seminary located on the Scarborough Bluffs in east-end Toronto.
“Our formation was very demanding,” Urosa Savino told the priests gathered for a mid-day Mass Sept. 25 at the cathedral. “But it was to help us grow in human, Christian and pastoral qualities.”
The call that brought nearly 2,000 men to St. Augustine’s over the last century is a call “to be good shepherds of the Lord’s own people,” said the cardinal. “We are called by bishops, the successors of the Apostles, to make Christ present in the world.”
Urosa Savino noted that the 100th anniversary of St. Augustine’s happened to fall during the Year of Faith. The two events compliment each other perfectly, he said.
“Our years at St. Augustine’s we lived and stayed with Jesus, because our purpose was a personal relationship with Him,” he said.
Urosa Savino studied at Toronto’s diocesan seminary through the years of the Second Vatican Council, 1962 to 1965. There he formed life-long friendships with the likes of the late Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, the late Archbishop Tony Meagher and Clem Wilton.
Wilton never did get ordained, opting instead for marriage and a family. But he remembers the years of discipline and comradeship at St. Augustine’s with fondness. In 1962 the future Cardinal Urosa Savino was an exotic presence on campus — a bit of an outsider, struggling with English and a very different culture.
Come Christmas holidays young Jorge had no place to go. An 18-year-old Wilton stepped up and invited his classmate to his house for Christmas dinner.
“He was from a very well-to-do family in Venezuela, so he didn’t know that in Canada you help out in the kitchen when you’re invited over,” recalled Wilton. “But he caught on.”
Urosa Savino became so comfortable in Toronto he’s been coming back ever since, staying with the Wiltons for his annual vacations every year he can.
The Wiltons were invited to Rome when Urosa Savino was made a cardinal and last year they visited him in Caracas.
Given the Toronto connection, Urosa Savino jumped all over an invitation from Cardinal Thomas Collins to celebrate the 100th anniversary of St. Augustine’s Seminary, along with about 200 priest alumni of St. Augustine’s concelebrating.
As usual, the cardinal camped out at the Wilton house and polished his sermon for the anniversary Mass, asking his old friend to look it over for him.
What impressed Wilton is that the cardinal didn’t opt for a stroll down memory lane. It was a real homily, based on the Gospel reading.
“He got the message out,” said Wilton. “It was a reinvigoration of their calling. You need that every once in a while.”