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
Iceland’s Slippery Slope on Climate Change
By Raymond J. de Souza
August 22, 2019
Father Raymond de Souza tempers this week’s dust-up over Elections Canada limiting partisan climate debate with the reminder that elsewhere only anti-warmers are welcome.
The recent fracas about what Elections Canada considers “partisan” speech in regard to climate change got me thinking about Iceland and how advocates talk – or don’t talk – about the changing climate Peter Stockland rehearsed the controversy recently here, namely that Elections Canada has determined that asserting that climate change – of the anthropogenic kind that gets the environmental lobby both hot and bothered – is partisan speech for the purposes of the upcoming federal election
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A Judge’s Misjudgment on SNC-Lavalin
Raymond J. de Souza
August 16, 2019
Former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci broke no rules handling the file that has ethically compromised Justin Trudeau but his role seems unbecoming, argues Father Raymond de Souza.
The ethics commissioner also reported that Iacobucci solicited an opinion from his former Supreme Court colleague John Major (1992-2005), on why the director of public prosecutions did not act properly in denying SNC-Lavalin a deferment from prosecution Especially if at the very same time as he is m...
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Finding An Amazonian New Eden
Raymond J. de Souza
August 9, 2019
The agenda of an upcoming meeting of Catholic bishops looks heavy on romantic primitivism, but more than a little light on understanding of original sin, detects Convivium Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza.
Indeed, the document appears to entertain the idea that the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon might have been better off without the introduction of the Gospel by the early missionaries Life in the Amazon is integrated and united with the territory; there is no separation or division between the part...
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Putting Putting Ahead of Prayer
Raymond J. de Souza
August 2, 2019
Convivium Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza reminds us that cathedrals are built not for mini-golf but for the greatness of God.
Convivium friend John Robson did some cracking wise, taking the line of being more shocked than appalled: “The Anglicans really did just install a mini-putt in the nave of Rochester Cathedral, originally founded in 604 by the first Christian king in England, Æthelberht of Kent, and rebuilt in the tr...
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Passing Through Airport Obscurity
Raymond J. de Souza
July 29, 2019
During his summer travels, Father Raymond de Souza finds his way to San Jose where the airport honours a little-known politician with a story that deserves to be told.
Norman Mineta was born in 1931 in San Jose, a bit late to be part of the “greatest generation” that fought and won the Second World War Norman Mineta was mayor of San Jose before serving 20 years in Congress The San Jose city council considered naming the airport after Mineta in 2001 ...
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The Lion, the Beach and the War Horse
Raymond J. de Souza
July 19, 2019
Our intrepid Editor-In-Chief Father Raymond de Souza surveys the animal kingdom for tales of leonine pride in Africa, shaggy dog stories in California, and sorry sagas at Calgary’s Stampede.
I corrected that on this trip, venturing out to Long Beach which, in part, has gone to the dogs LONG BEACH, California – I have been to California perhaps three or four times and have seen the ocean, but never actually gone to the beach Chuckwagon horses are thoroughbreds who no longer race at the t...
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No Holding Out for a Hero
Raymond J. de Souza
July 12, 2019
With the Château Laurier fight over, our eyes turn towards those who didn’t act when they could have – and where the blame lies in the aftermath.
In June 2018, the council unanimously – unanimously! – approved a heritage permit for Larco to build the extension, leaving it up to city staff to approve the final design What remains incomprehensible after all this is why Larco, which presumably purchased the Château Laurier in part due to its his...
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Ottawa’s Chateau Shipping Container
Raymond J. de Souza
July 5, 2019
Convivium Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza looks at expansion plans for the capital’s grand old Chateau Laurier and apprehends an act of architectural vandalism.
While there is plenty of blame to go around – Parks Canada, National Capital Commission, Ottawa City Council – the primary blame for this assault on the Chateau Laurier belongs with its owner, Larco Larco Investments, which owns the Chateau Laurier, hired the former Ottawa city planner to shepherd i...
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The Graduation Watch
Raymond J. de Souza
June 27, 2019
Father Raymond de Souza looks back in time to his friends' high school graduation and recalls a lasting lesson about importance of the past to the present.
Graduation addresses often evaporate even as they are being delivered; Dinning’s address at Bishop Grandin has stood the test of time Yet I remember one address clearly, delivered 30 years ago this week, at the graduation exercises of Bishop Grandin High School in Calgary ...
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Diversity, Moral Superiority, Tattoos: Welcome to Jurassic Park
Raymond J. de Souza
June 13, 2019
In advance of tonight's big game for the Toronto Raptors, Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza muses on the ins and outs of the group's fan base, diversity in the crowds and temporary tattoo shows of support.
I was at Jurassic Park in downtown Toronto for Game 3 of the NBA Finals That moral superiority took a nearly lethal blow in Game 5, as the Raptors fans – both in the arena and in Jurassic Park – initially cheered the injury to the Warriors star player, Kevin Durant There are many queuing up early th...
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The Beginning of the End: Lessons on the Fortieth Anniversary of St. John Paul II’s First Visit to Poland
Raymond J. de Souza
June 6, 2019
The following remarks are being delivered this evening by Convivium Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza at Polonia Night, an event hosted by the Canadian Polish Congress in Mississauga Ontario.
The royal and ancient capital of Poland is also the spiritual capital of the twentieth century – it is there that the great battle between good and evil took place, and where in the darkest hours of our time, the light of faith still shone That the Ukrainian Catholic Church is now free and regained ...
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Crossed Standard
Raymond J. de Souza
May 23, 2019
Not being a regular runner, Father Raymond de Souza admits he does not know the perfect Planck’s Constant needed for someone in Paris to run five kilometres along the Seine in under 20 minutes. But the race, he says, is not to the swift. It is to the Cross.
“The standard kilogram has been the mass of a lump of metal sitting nestled under a series of bell jars, in a vault in a suburb of Paris,” the May 18 issue of The Economist reports Indeed, for the Christian, the good news is that we have a standard against which to measure, a divine standard that al...
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By Virtue of Being Tiger
Raymond J. de Souza
May 16, 2019
More than winning another Major championship, Father Raymond de Souza writes, Tiger Woods needs to gain the reward of being redeemed as a truly virtuous man.
And with Tiger Woods winning the Masters last month, the sports world will be all-Tiger all-the-time for the next four days But then virtue is its own reward, is it not? That’s the prize the Tiger really needs and, independent of the number of majors won, is the one his fans ought to hope that he, a...
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Jean Vanier’s Human Communities
Raymond J. de Souza
May 10, 2019
The late founder of L’Arche, Father Raymond de Souza writes, was so profoundly Christian that the communities he created around people with disabilities celebrated the human dimension of the mystery of Redemption.
Consider how Vanier describes the life at L’Arche, and how “assistants” – those who live with and serve the disabled – are chosen In founding L’Arche and living with the developmentally disabled, there is no doubt that Vanier was living out his vocation as a Christian disciple Even though L’Arche wa...
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Alberta's Show of Hands
Raymond J. de Souza
May 3, 2019
Premier Jason Kenney’s no-frills swearing in gives Father Raymond de Souza time to turn from politics to art and find beauty in the work of human hands.
The Government House collection includes Group of Seven works which include the people of the prairies, and the roads they built, the land they cleared, the farms they tended, the churches they consecrated and yes, the refineries The Government House collection gives the visitor a fuller account of ...
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Notre Dame as Cultural Moment
Raymond J. de Souza
April 25, 2019
The burning of Notre Dame de Paris sparked an inferno of journalistic ignorance about Christianity, writes Father Raymond de Souza.
It reported on the heroic fire chaplain, Father Jean-Marc Fournier, who raced into the burning cathedral – the “waterfalls of fire” from the roof looked to him like a vision of hell – to rescue the two most precious things in Notre Dame, the reserved Eucharist and the relic of the crown of thorns Th...
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Razing the Temple
Raymond J. de Souza
April 18, 2019
In the light of Good Friday, the Holy Week burning of Notre Dame de Paris provides spiritual illumination for the broken – then gloriously resurrected – body of Christ, writes Convivium’s Father Raymond de Souza.
Matthew’s Gospel, they will hear the testimony against Jesus against the news of the near-destruction of Notre Dame: “At last two came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days This Good Friday, will we feel – at the moment that the d...
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No Sniffing at Liberal Diversity
Raymond J. de Souza
April 4, 2019
Father Raymond de Souza’s diverse Small Talk roundup of news, views and vice-presidential smell tests.
Last week, I noted that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prattles on endlessly about how the Liberal Party embraces the splendid diversity of different views and exults in accommodating a breadth of opinions In any case, Biden now says that social mores are changing and he “gets” that in the MeToo era,...
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Defining Diversity Downward
Raymond J. de Souza
March 29, 2019
Is it conceivable Prime Minister Trudeau doesn’t know the meaning of his own favourite D-word? Father Raymond de Souza delves into his dictionary to find out.
That came to mind this week as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was widely denounced, from the chief of the Assembly of First Nations to the front page of the National Post, as being arrogant, rude, dismissive and smug at a Liberal Party fundraiser in Toronto on Wednesday night At this another proteste...
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Mulroney’s Awful After Party
Raymond J. de Souza
March 21, 2019
As the former PM becomes an octogenarian, Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza notes his years leading Canada showed courage but his after-office shenanigans were unbearably shabby.
Mulroney was never in the league of his contemporaries Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher as a political leader of unshakable convictions, but his premiership was one of great ventures on major files, in which he was willing to suffer sustained unpopularity in order to advance an agenda he thought r...
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The Meaning of My Land
Raymond J. de Souza
March 14, 2019
In Israel, Father Raymond de Souza examines the claims of indigenous identity from the Holy Land to Canada.
JERUSALEM – In Israel this past week I have been thinking about a former Liberal attorney general of Canada In a Canada and a world ever more sensitive to the rights of indigenous peoples, Cotler thought that Jews ought to argue for a secure state on the grounds that the land of Israel was their ind...
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Friends Against Scandal
Raymond J. de Souza
March 7, 2019
Whatever comes of the SNC Lavalin debacle facing the Trudeau government, Father Raymond de Souza writes, the friendship between Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott points us to noble things.
To which the question was raised – or actually, whispered sotto voce: Did the friendship between the two influence the decision of Philpott to resign from cabinet because she had lost confidence that the prime minister was respecting the independence of criminal prosecutions? Norfolk is not a good f...
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Canada’s Mr. Saturday Night
Raymond J. de Souza
March 1, 2019
Who’d have thought, Editor in Chief Father Raymond de Souza asks, that Justin Trudeau would be Canada’s version of Tricky Dick Nixon?
JWR would have been quite sure that, had she resigned without being able to explain why – cabinet confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege – she would simply have been replaced with a more compliant attorney general who would have done the prime minister’s bidding Every attorney general knows ...
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Gaming the Law
Raymond J. de Souza
February 14, 2019
Former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s miscue, Father Raymond de Souza notes, was to insist on the rule of law in a game where the rules are rigged.
After all the herculean effort of SNC-Lavalin – illegal donations, sinecures for retired federal officials, untold hours spend in lobbying, the sheer stubborn determination of having favours-for-friends rammed through in the omnibus budget bill – could it be possible that the federal justice departm...