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Fr. Raymond J. de Souza is the pastor of Sacred Heart of Mary parish on Wolfe Island, and chaplain at Newman House at Kingston, Ont.'s Queen's University.

Dante, with his Divine Comedy, stands next to the entrance to hell in this 15th-century Domenico di Michelino fresco.

Fr. Raymond de Souza: A treasured teacher puts Dante in focus

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In a few weeks, his many admirers will celebrate the 30th priestly anniversary of Fr. Paul Pearson of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Toronto. 

Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin poses beside U.S. flag during the Apollo 11 mission on the moon July 20, 1969.

Fr. Raymond de Souza: Moon event a metaphor for our place in Heaven

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YORBA LINDA, CALIF. -- The Apollo space program was heavy on Scripture in its great public moments. In the live television broadcast on Christmas Eve 1968, the three astronauts read from Genesis 1:1-10: “In the beginning God created….”

Clerics reverence the statue of St. Peter after Pope Francis celebrated Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica June 29.

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza: Feast of Peter and Paul is more than ‘ordinary’

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Detailed knowledge of our liturgical rites is sometimes derided as arcane or obscure. It’s true that sometimes liturgical matters are arcane and obscure. But in the liturgy lie lessons which teach us about important matters which are neither obscure nor arcane. Thus it is good to know the ins and outs of such matters.

The feast of the Ascension of the Lord celebrates the completion of Christ’s mission on Earth and His entry into Heaven.

Raymond de Souza: Biblical sense of time lost on Church calendar

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Ascension Thursday. Forty days after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, as it says right there in Acts 1:3, the first reading for Mass on that solemn feast. 

The cathedra of the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, in the apse of St. John Lateran in Rome.

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza: Re-thinking best spot for the bishop’s chair

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Archbishop Michael Mulhall, our new chief shepherd in Kingston, was installed on the feast of Philip and James, May 3. It was a fittingly grand occasion, with much joy among the priests and the people at receiving our new archbishop.

Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino brought his message to the St. John Fisher Dinner in Kingston, Ont., last month.

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza: Venezuelan cardinal fights the good fight

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Each year in Kingston, we have the honour of hosting our annual St. John Fisher Dinner, a fundraiser which supports the mission of Catholic Christian Outreach at Queen’s University. We invite a distinguished speaker and have been blessed to highlight places where the Church is under persecution.

Blessed Paul VI is pictured on copies of L’Osservatore Romano prior to his beatification Mass. Blessed Paul, who served as pope from 1963-1978, is most remembered for his 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae.

Fr. Raymond J. De Souza: Canada took wrong side in Humanae Vitae debate

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The summer of 1968, with France undergoing a social revolution and America burning, was not a congenial time for a reaffirmation of traditional morality in face of the sexual revolution. But the courageous Blessed Paul VI did just that in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, published 50 years ago this month.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1819.

Fr. Raymond J. De Souza: Ave Verum stirs the soul and memories of Rome

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A former student sent me a notice that caught my attention, for both artistic and pious reasons. The Cantata Singers of Ottawa will be at St. Joseph’s Church later this month where the entire program will consist of settings of the brief Eucharistic and Marian hymn, Ave Verum, including those of Lassus, Byrd, Mozart, Elgar, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Poulenc. 

Writing for the April 2 issue of America Magazine, Fr. Rosica addressed Trudeau’s position on the Canada Summer Jobs “attestation.”

Fr. Raymond J. De Souza: Rosica pulls back curtain on ‘a new dictatorship’

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Fr. Thomas Rosica, CEO of Salt & Light Catholic Media Foundation, published a blistering assessment of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the pages of a Jesuit magazine, identifying in practice what Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger memorably called the “dictatorship of relativism.”

MP Peter Fonseca, fourth from right, with a Knights of Columbus honour guard at the Mass for the relic of St. Francis Xavier at the Mississauga parish named after the saint.

Fr. Raymond J. De Souza: Catholic politicians fail to walk the walk

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In January, I had the great blessing of preaching at the Holy Mass for the relic of St. Francis Xavier in the parish in Mississauga named after him. There was an immense congregation, and in the very first pews were various political figures from the federal Parliament, provincial legislature and city hall.

More than 13,000 people are estimated to have descended on St. Francis Xavier Church in Mississauga, Ont., for the relic of the parish’s patron saint.

St. Francis Xavier relic highlights vital role of immigrants

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The visit of the relic of St. Francis Xavier to the Mississauga, Ont., parish named after him will likely be the largest Catholic event of the year in Canada. Numbers are not the most important part of any pilgrimage, but they do tell part of the story. And the 13,000-plus pilgrims that came to St. Francis Xavier parish to honour their patron is an important story about the state of the Church in Canada.
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