VANCOUVER -- In a society more comfortable with cancel culture than counterculture, Pope John Paul II’s 1990 call for Catholic universities to speak “uncomfortable truths” that may challenge public opinion can be a daunting task. But for the incoming president of St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi colleges in Vancouver, it’s job one.
As the legend goes, Haitian-Canadian Dr. Saint-Firmin Monestime was persuaded to join the team at Mattawa Hospital after an impromptu stop for lunch on his way to Timmins in the summer of 1951. The northern Ontario town’s previous doctor had passed away earlier that year and the community successfully convinced Monestime to remain and take his place.