Fr. Raymond J. de Souza
This is the 250th anniversary year of the death of St. Marguerite d’Youville, the founder of the Order of Sisters of Charity of Montreal. The first Canadian-born saint, she was canonized in 1990 by St. John Paul II.
Fr. Raymond de Souza: The truth and fiction about Vatican wealth
It was, evident to everyone who knows anything about Vatican finances, a monstrous lie from the beginning. Or at least a monstrous mistake. But that it was believed by many is an indication that what a great number think they know about the Vatican is not true.
Fr. Raymond de Souza: Becket’s freedom fight echoes in pandemic
As 2020 closed, it was regrettable that the public observations of the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom (Dec. 29, 1170) of St. Thomas Becket did not take place due to pandemic restrictions.
Fr. Raymond de Souza: Many dropped the ball, Montreal report finds
The Boucher Report, released on Nov. 25 by the Archdiocese of Montreal, makes for distressing reading. The tale told therein also illustrates how failures in Canada may have contributed to the significant reforms made by Pope Francis last year aimed at changing the culture of episcopal governance.
Fr. Raymond de Souza: Newman’s spirit alive at Toronto’s Oratory
Earlier this year I wrote an appreciation here of the late Fr. Jonathan Robinson, who established the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Montreal in 1975 and transferred it to Toronto in 1979. Last month, I wrote about the 175th anniversary of the conversion of St. John Henry Newman on Oct. 9, 1845, which is now his feast day.
This autumn brings a trifecta of anniversaries for those of us devoted to St. John Henry Newman.
Fr. Raymond de Souza: Discovering the roots that nurtured faith
On Sept. 5, 1920, Laura Cardoso left the family home in which she had been born to marry Salustiano Roque de Freitas. Nearly 100 years later, I visited that home, now deserted, in her village in Goa, India.
Our calendar of liturgical seasons is rather bare compared to some of our sister Catholic Churches. That is never more evident than in our long season of “Ordinary Time,” an uninspired translation of a banal original (in Latin, “Sundays of the Year”).
Anniversaries remind us to learn the lessons of history and, for a Christian disciple, to remember the workings of Providence.
The death of Fr. Jonathan Robinson of the Toronto Oratory is a sadness both for those who knew him and those many more who admired him from afar.