Raymond De Souza is a Catholic parish priest in an Ontario Church, a Chaplain at Queens University and on the teaching faculty of the Departments of Education and of Economics at the University. He is a religious columnist at the National Post, one of the country’s major newspapers and a columnist at other major Catholic publications.
He is the son, I am told, of Cedric De Souza a chemistry teacher at Strathmore in Kenya in the1960s. This was a timely topic of discussion among concerned Catholics in Toronto even before this article. Some Church sources were even quoted saying anonymously that 40% less churchgoers would return for regular services once restrictions were completely lifted. If that were true, it would have severe financial implications for this diocese which though having other sources of income, are overdependent on regular church donations. Filomena must be already knowing, but will take heart with the fact that if this trend takes place throughout the developed Catholic world, the non-Caucasian section of the flock is bound to have a more powerful voice in its affairs. Even to me as a non-believer, I wish it didn’t happen. A traditional sense of community and activity should not be lost. Ivan Pereira should be able to tell us how from complete control of the population in every aspect of their lives, the Catholic Church in Quebec today can only muster a few stragglers in rural and even suburban churches. Raymond J. de Souza: COVID may have hastened Christianity's decline in Canada | National Post https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-covid-may-have-hastened-christianitys-decline-in-canada Roland. Toronto.
