Founder of the Radio Maria service in Toronto and Montreal and Holy Mother World Network on the Internet, author of books about Catholic history in Canada, high school religion teacher by day and adult faith formation leader by night, Mr. Pautasso died Dec. 16.
Mr. Pautasso was born in Italy Dec. 27, 1931. As an immigrant to Canada he dedicated his life to learning and transmitting what he learned to others. He taught religion at Dante Alighieri Academy in Toronto and earned his PhD at age 58 in 1989.
Mr. Pautasso and his wife Adele returned from a trip to Italy in 1993 determined to start a radio service in Canada based on the Italian Radio Maria model. But he faced an uphill battle. Canadian law rules out full-time singlefaith broadcasting on the open airwaves. To get Canadian Radio- Television and Telecommunications Commission approval, Radio Maria had to be broadcast on a closed circuit — what the CRTC calls a subsidiary communications multiplex operation. This meant buying space on the band from the Toronto AM station CHIN and then distributing modified radios that could receive the sub-frequency of Radio Maria.
Radio Maria Canada began broadcasting in Toronto April 5, 1995 and in Montreal Dec. 16, 1996. By 2005 Mr. Pautasso launched an Internet-based English language service called Holy Mother World Networks.
While 85 per cent of the content came directly from Radio Maria in Italy, Mr. Pautasso was on the air regularly teaching about the catechism.
Mr. Pautasso began his 20-minute Catechism broadcasts with prayer, then a word of reassurance.
“We need not be professional theologians to defend or to present what we believe,” Mr. Pautasso said.As founder and president, Mr. Pautasso would advise Radio Maria and HMWN volunteers to “Pray before you go on air, keep the vigil lamp lit and do God’s will well,” recalled Radio Maria volunteer Sharon DiCecco.
“He was a man who loved his faith and wanted to spread that love of the Gospel to everyone,” said Lou Iacobelli, host of Family Matters on HMWN and a former colleague at Dante Aligheiri.
Mr. Pautasso loved music, spoke French, Italian and English, read Latin and Aramaic and was fascinated by history and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
He published a book on the Jesuit martyrs of Canada and pamphlets to help people with eucharistic adoration and the rosary. He wrote biographies of significant figures in the Italian community of Toronto, including Fr. Luigi Lavagna and Fr. Louis Griffa.