Raymond J. de Souza
Father Raymond J. de Souza is a Cardus Senior Fellow, the founding Editor of Convivium, chaplain at Newman House (the Roman Catholic centre at Queen's University), and a parish priest, in addition to writing for the National Post and The Catholic Register.
Bio last updated January 12th, 2022.
Articles by Raymond J. de Souza
Small Talk
By Raymond J. de Souza
August 1, 2013
True north, strong and freer than our neighbours to the south, state sponsored public shaming, and a senior citizen who really just likes playing with lego
Speaking of Al Gore, earlier this year he sold his cable news channel, Cur-rent TV, to Al Jazeera for a cool half billion dollars, of which he pocketed $100 million Dominion Day and the Fourth of July came this year with news that, according to the Heritage Foundation, Canada is more economically free than the United States.6 The conservative American think tank has been tracking such things—size of government, tax rates, deficits, regulatory burden etc Even though it got abysmal ratings, Current TV raked in $100 mil-lion in revenues each year, with some 40 million households paying for it each month whether they wanted it or not.2 Now they will get Al Jazeera, just in time to watch the Arab Spring turn into the long, sweltering Arab summer, before it becomes the long, dark Arab winter So in Vaughan, “adults only” does not always mean what it usually means, but rather may be an attempt to preserve the innocence of children by banning those adults who enjoy the pure, child-like fun that Lego can bring
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The Conversation
Raymond J. de Souza with Conrad Black
August 1, 2013
Conrad Black meets Father Raymond J. de Souza in Calgary for a chat in which any topic is but a suggestion for digression
I think and I believe my actual very last words were something to the effect that when they see it plain and see—as a great many Americans are very uneasy and all the polls show that—when they see just how completely incompatible the conduct of public policy is with the requirements of a great natio...
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God, Greed & Gaming
Raymond J. de Souza, and Mark Carney, Roger Martin
June 7, 2013
In God we trust. Capitalism? Ummm, these days not so much. Mark Carney, Roger Martin and Father Raymond J. de Souza on restoring faith in the financial world.
de Souza joined Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada, and Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, for a Convivium forum on the fundamental threats that still beset global capitalism almost five years after the 2008 financial crisis If the task of financi...
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Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
June 1, 2013
Father Raymond J. de Souza has fond memories of the late Maggie Thatcher and the great Johnny Cash, but can’t recall NBA players being feted on the cover of Sports Illustrated for their monogamy, fidelity and chastity.
I have long argued that in 1979 religion returned with great force as a shaper of geopolitics, with the Ayatollah Khomeini returning to Iran in January and John Paul II visiting Poland for the first time in June The argument that it was Reagan, John Paul and Thatcher who won the Cold War was made mo...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
June 1, 2013
Our Editor-in-chief casts a gimlet eye over wrongful convictions, French National secularism, and Hamilton’s missing map mix-up.
The government of President François Hollande announced last December the creation of a National Secularism Observatory to ensure that groups, including religious ones, are sufficiently compliant with the laïcité that is at the heart of the French approach to faith in common life.3 What might a cour...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza and David Johnston
April 1, 2013
Governor General David Johnston meets Convivium’s editor-in-chief in Rome to discuss faith, diplomacy and a new pope
RJS: Pope Benedict, now retired, spoke on the eve of his election about the contest between proposing Christian truth and the dictatorship of relativism, and he spent most of his life on university campuses before he came to the Holy See DJ: One thing is to reinforce the spiritual life of Canadians:...
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Sea to Sea from Across the Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
April 1, 2013
Father Raymond J. de Souza reports from Rome on the election of Pope Francis
So it is possible to recall with admiration the decision of Blessed John Paul II to suffer to the end and, at the same time, to admire Pope Benedict's humility and courage in laying down, for the good of the Church, the office entrusted to him While the public reaction of cardinals and bishops has b...
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From Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
January 1, 2013
Sporting matters and aboriginal follies
In 1987, Father Richard John Neuhaus published The Catholic Moment, an argument he made while still a Lutheran that Catholics had a special role to play in preserving the American constitutional tradition of limited government, human rights and vibrant religion Notre Dame has a national following, b...
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An Amalgam of Anniversaries
Raymond J. de Souza
January 1, 2013
Our editor-in-chief traces the path from Constantine's victory to Paul Henderson's goal.
Consider: 1,700 years since Constantine I won the Battle of the Milvian Bridge; 500 years since Michelangelo completed the frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling; 200 years since the War of 1812 began; the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II; 50 years since the Cuban Missile Crisis and the opening...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
January 1, 2013
Father de Souza checks out Big Daddy but keeps an eye out for paparazzi. Also: marriage begets babies—who knew?; a sister's true love
The chief executive of the Toronto District School Board, Chris Spence, resigned after being caught in plagiarism of a rather spectacular sort in a column he wrote for the Toronto Star More puzzling were the comments of chairman of the board Chris Bolton to the Toronto Star: "As in all learning situ...
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From Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
November 1, 2012
Christianity's birth pangs; junior hockey's dangerous life; the death of the great liberal, Peter Lougheed
No one expected Lincoln's second inaugural, but President Obama's historic moment fell short of Bush's second inaugural address four years earlier, which made a bold argument for liberty as the heart of America's mission to the nations Christians in the early 4th century likely looked upon Constanti...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
November 1, 2012
The smoke-free posse burgles Santa's pipe; the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson busts a howler, and our editor-in-chief warns of bishops bursting their buttons.
It's the work of "smoking cessation advocate" Pamela McColl, who writes on the cover that the book is "edited by Santa Claus for the benefit of the children of the 21st century So it was instructive that he began his column on evangelical Christians with this frank admission: "We in what is called t...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
September 1, 2012
Our editor-in-chief examines deep-fried lunch, Olympic Original Sin, Nanny State wake-ups, and toys that teach boys.
Was Churchill wrong when he stated in June 1940 "that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour"? He was, for less than a hundred years later, CTV apparently thinks that beach volleyball rather than fighting on the beaches is...
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From Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
September 1, 2012
The weakness of Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG is its lack of love, says Father Raymond de Souza; revisiting Yad Vashem.
The new plaque is an improvement, and while there is nothing in the new caption that was not known in 2005, it is a concrete effort by Yad Vashem to treat Pope Pius XII according to the facts of history rather than the legends of anti-Catholic propaganda The reaction of Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli, to...
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From Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
July 1, 2012
Father Raymond J. de Souza finds Quebec students going forward to the past.
But who are those responsible? An earlier generation that enjoyed lavish social services but refused to pay for them, leaving a legacy of constraining debt? The students' parents, who ought to have demanded higher tuition in the 1970s? Generations of Quebecers who, though paying the highest taxes in...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
July 1, 2012
Our editor-in-chief looks at leisure, literature, and the PM's painted birthday suit.
Deplorable, to be sure, but why was this even a news story, let alone a minor sensation? If some unknown fan in a bar made a racist remark, would that be a story for the sports page, let alone the front page? That sports fans say stupid and bigoted things is not news and is not cause, in the usual c...
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The Blessedness of Faith: Why Politics Needs Religion
Raymond J. de Souza
May 1, 2012
Keynote address to the 47th National Prayer Breakfast, Ottawa, Ontario.
From where do learn about this human nature, and this common humanity? Aristotle would teach us that from careful application of reason to the question we might discover the principles of this good order that we seek, and certainly the long history of political philosophy is not lacking in such deli...
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From Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
May 1, 2012
Our editor-in-chief takes Convivium's message on the road, and wonders why we still cheer the Charter.
Father Neuhaus was an important figure in my life, and our last long conversation, in December 2008, was about this proposal for a new Canadian magazine on faith in our common life Former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler shares the view, and took to the pages of The Toronto Star to make his cas...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
May 1, 2012
Father Raymond J. de Souza's take on a whipper-snapper actress and the wonder of Mark Wahlberg's faith.
On budget night, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Martin was at Hy's Steakhouse and apparently said something rude to the prime minister's former communications director, who promised to speak to the CEO of Bell, which owns CTV, on which Martin's show appears Haffner, executive director of the Relig...
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From Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
March 1, 2012
Father Raymond J. de Souza's continuing survey of religion, culture and public life.
"[In 2002, I asked] why is the man who is prima facie responsible, Cardinal Bernard Law [archbishop of Boston], not being questioned by the forces of law and order? Why is the church allowed to be judge in its own case and enabled in effect to run private courts where gross and evil offenders end up...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
March 1, 2012
An eclectic and ecumenical roundup of incidents, events and oddities that catch our editor's eye.
In a long whine against the federal government's emphasis on the Crown in Canada, she longs for the days when Adrienne Clarkson called herself the "head of state" and served deliciously cosmopolitan fusion cuisine at the sort of Rideau Hall dinners Charlotte Gray got invited to In a long whine again...
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Small Talk
Raymond J. de Souza
October 18, 2011
An eclectic and ecumenical roundup of incidents, events and oddities that catch our editor's eye.
During the G20 Summit in Toronto last year, some 90 police officers removed their name tags to prevent identification in the case of police misconduct, charges of which soon followed This past summer the Toronto police chief submitted his annual recommendations for promotions, and they included nine...
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From Sea to Sea
Raymond J. de Souza
October 18, 2011
McLuhan's incarnate message, the politics of Jack Layton's death, and why Canada needs Winnipeg's new Jets. A continuing survey of religion, culture and public life.
All three were media with a message: God is here, present in the good things He gives us, the greatest of which is communion with God Himself in Jesus Christ In the person of Jesus Christ, a divine person with a human nature, McLuhan saw that God reveals that He is personal and that He freely implic...