LATEST
2017-07-21T07:53:09+02002017-07-21T07:52:43+02002017-07-21T07:51:36+02002017-07-21T07:46:16+02002017-07-21T07:46:06+0200

Father Raymond J. de Souza

Home
Father Raymond J. de Souza

Father Raymond J. de Souza
SPECIAL_TO_CRUX
Father Raymond J. de Souza is the editor-in-chief of Convivium, a Canadian online journal that explores the place of faith in common life. He serves as parish priest on Wolfe Island, in the Thousand Islands in the St n. Lawrence River, and as chaplain at Newman House, the Catholic chaplaincy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He teaches in the Queen’s Economics Department and is chaplain of the Queen’s football team. He is Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto, and a Senior Fellow at Cardus, Canada leading Christian think tank.

Author's Posts

New method for declaring saints welcome in an age of Christian persecution
- Commentary
- July 19, 2017
Pope Francis’s ‘Mairoem hac dilectionem’ does not create another category of martyrdom, but an alternative category. Martyrs, for example, do not require a miracle for beatification; oblatio vitae cases still do. On the other hand, candidates for beatification are required to have lived a life of “heroic virtue.” The oblatio vitae category requires a life of “ordinary virtue,” which should be reasonably easy to demonstrate for anyone proposed for beatification.
READ MORE
Article by pope’s confidantes adds little to understanding Trump’s America
- Commentary
- July 15, 2017
A recent article in the influential Rome-based ‘La Civiltà Cattolica’ – which is reviewed by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State before publication – politics of the Trump administration has its roots in an unholy alliance between “Evangelical Fundamentalism” and “Catholic Integralism.” But does it patronize Evangelicals and mischaracterize certain Catholics to make its point?
READ MORE
Canada offers a better model on religious freedom
- Church in the US, Commentary
- June 30, 2017
Tolerance for religious minorities was written into the very establishment of Canada, more than a century before the country was established in 1867. Today, religious liberty and religious pluralism are under siege the world over. The 150 years – and more – of the Canadian experience have much to offer.
READ MORE

The curious Vatican diplomacy in Venezuela
- Commentary
- June 24, 2017
Pope Francis has not mentioned Venezuela since an extraordinary meeting with the nation’s bishops on June 8. Is this silence a sign the Vatican’s diplomatic efforts have been counterproductive in solving the country’s current political crisis?
READ MORE
Jerusalem fifty years after the Six Day War
- Commentary, Global Church
- June 8, 2017
In the 50 years since Israel took control of the West Bank in the Six Day War, the Vatican has continued to call for a special “international statute” to protect the special status of Jerusalem. The holy city is just that, holy to all history, and while it can serve as the eternal capital of the Jewish people, it cannot only be that.
READ MORE
Vatican should help build bridges between Israel and its neighbors
- Commentary, Vatican
- June 2, 2017
Sixteen Muslim countries – Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen – simply forbid Israeli passport holders entry. Period. There is little Vatican diplomacy could do to reverse the general ban on Israel at the border, but there might be small practical steps that might be proposed; some exceptions to the rule which might open a path toward future reform.
READ MORE