Born: 28 June 1956, Rimpa Skyline, Karachi, Pakistan
Entered: 23 September 1976, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin (HIB for GER S)
Ordained: 16 August 1991, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Basilian Fathers)
Died: 26 September 2017, Anglin House, Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre, St Joseph Street, Toronto, ONT, Canada

Left Society of Jesus: 26 October 1982

Father was of Goan origin settled in Karachi. Father (Archibald) died not long before entry. Mother was Ophelia (Xavier) - lecturer in Persian and Ecnomics at Karachi University, and Economic advisor on Pakistan to the UN. She came from Hyderabad, India. One younger brother (Melvin). Family were friends of the Bhutto family.

Educated at St Paul’s Catholic High School, Maliz Road, Karachi and Karachi University

Baptised at St Francis, Karachi, 22/07/1956
Confirmed at St Jude’s, Karachi by Dr Geisoe OFM of Karachi, 20/01/1963

1976-1978: Manresa House, Dollymount, Novitiate
1978-1979: Clongowes Wood College SJ, studying at ST Patrick’s College Maynooth
1979-1982: John Sullivan House, Monkstown, studying Arts at UCD
Leave of Absence granted 26 October 1982

On leaving departed immediately for Calgary, Canada. There he did a Masters in Education at Calgary University. Address at that time, Pennoworth Road, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Address 2000: University of St Michael’s College, South Mary Street, Toronto, ONT, Canada

https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/thestar/name/mario-d-souza-obituary?id=42130687

REV. Mario O. D'SOUZA C.S.B.

Mario D'SOUZA Obituary

Mario D'SOUZA Obituary
D'SOUZA C.S.B., REV. Mario O. Mercifully from cancer at home in Anglin House with his fellow Basilian Fathers on Tuesday, September 26, 2017. He was predeceased by his parents Archibald D'Souza and Ophelia Xavier and his only brother Melvyn. He is survived by his sister-in-law Cynthia D'Souza and her daughters Michelle and Melanie. Fr. Mario was born in Karachi, Pakistan on June 28, 1956. Shortly after immigrating to Canada, he joined the Basilian Fathers and four years later made his first profession in 1988. He then earned a PhD in the Philosophy of Education while pursuing his theological studies in Toronto. He was ordained to the Priesthood on August 16, 1991 in Calgary where his family lived. Fr. Mario taught in universities in Edmonton and Windsor but mostly at the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto. He served as a member of the Basilian General Council from 2002 to 2006. Fr. D'Souza dedicated his priestly life to the scholarship of Catholic education in the Basilian tradition. His academic publications were many and distinguished but he knew their greatest value was in how they illuminated his ministry as a Teacher. Visitation will be held on Friday, September 29th from 6:30 p.m. with a wake service at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel of the Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Center, 95 St. Joseph St., Toronto. Visitation will also be held on Saturday, September 30, 2017 at St. Basil's Church, 50 St. Joseph Street from 9:30 a.m. until a Funeral Mass there at 10:30 a.m. Interment will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery, Thornhill, ON.

https://ccsta.ca/a-tribute-to-fr-mario-dsouza/

A Tribute to Fr. Mario D’Souza

CCSTA is saddened to hear of the passing a great promoter and leader of Catholic education, Fr. Mario D’Souza.

A member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Toronto, Fr. D’Souza made a wide and deep contribution to Catholic education, in particular to its philosophical underpinnings in contemporary culture.

Fr. D’Souza was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1956, and moved to Canada as a young adult. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1991, celebrating his 25th anniversary of ordination last year. He began teaching at St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology in 1991, and, other than his time at Assumption (Jan., 2005-Aug., 2006), the Faculty remained his home until his death. He held the Basilian Fathers Chair in Religion and Education, and was named a Fellow of St. Michael’s College in October of 2014. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Theology from 2009 to 2014.

He died peacefully at the Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre on Sept. 26 after a brief illness.

The University of St. Michael’s College paid tribute to Fr. D’Souza after his passing.

He brought to the classroom a rich academic history of his own, having received degrees from Boston College, the University of St. Michael’s College, the University of Toronto, the University of Calgary, and University College, Dublin,” the university wrote. “Loved by his colleagues, his friends, and, most importantly, his students, Fr. Mario will be deeply missed.”

Just last year, Fr. D’Souza released his latest book, A Catholic Philosophy of Education. The Church and Two Philosophers (McGill-Queen’s University Press. 2016).

The two philosophers Fr. D’Souza draws on are the neo-Thomist Jacques Maritain and the Jesuit Bernard Lonergan, while “The Church” refers to the various documents on education issued by Rome in a time range of prior to, during and following Vatican Council II.

Fr. D’Souza writes: “My interest has been to explore the universal themes and challenges of a Catholic philosophy of education: human flourishing and the subject as developing in relation to the good, as Lonergan sees it; the role of Catholic education in the heuristic discovery of the common good, as Maritain envisioned; and how the tremendous advances in working for human unity, liberation, and freedom are also beset with dangers leading to the diminishment of the student as a person, as laid out in the Church’s educational documents” (218).

Dr. Bonaventure Fagan of Newfoundland outlines how Fr. D’Souza’s book was on his Catholic education summer reading list.

“The result is a work that is bound to stir within the reader a deeper appreciation of the underlying roots and essence of Catholic education, the contemporary challenges it faces, and a holistic vision of how our youth can best serve our Creator and the diverse human community,” says Dr. Fagan. “A Catholic Philosophy of Education… gives us an insight into Fr. D’Souza’s broad contribution to Catholic education. In the classroom and in his many scholarly articles, he reflected on and argued for a more precise understanding of what constitutes Catholic education in the contemporary world. He respected those who articulated a contrary position. In Toronto and elsewhere teachers who studied with him must have marvelled at his wisdom – he pointed out how much he learned from them, for education, he said, is never a solitary exploration. In short, Mario D’Souza will be sorely missed by the university community, by the Catholic education community, and most dearly by his Basilian community.”

A funeral mass was held for Dr. D’Souza on Sept. 30, 2017.

https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/news/usmc-mourns-the-passing-of-fr-mario-dsouza-csb

USMC Mourns the Passing of Fr. Mario D’Souza, CSB

It is with great sadness but in the abiding hope of the Resurrection that we announce the death of Fr. Mario D’Souza, CSB. Fr. D’Souza, former Dean of the Faculty of Theology, former President and Vice Chancellor of Assumption University, Windsor, and a world leader in the field of religious education, died peacefully at the Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre on Tuesday evening, Sept. 26 after a brief illness.

Fr. D’Souza was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1956, and moved to Canada as a young adult. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1991, celebrating his 25th anniversary of ordination last year. He began teaching at St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology in 1991, and, other than his time at Assumption (Jan., 2005-Aug., 2006), the Faculty remained his home until his death. He held the Basilian Fathers Chair in Religion and Education, and was named a Fellow of St. Michael’s College in October of 2014. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Theology from 2009 to 2014.

He brought to the classroom a rich academic history of his own, having received degrees from Boston College, the University of St. Michael’s College, the University of Toronto, the University of Calgary, and University College, Dublin.

A passionate educator and prolific researcher, Fr. D’Souza produced many works over the course of his career, his most recent being Catholic Philosophy of Education: The Church and Two Philosophers, published in October, 2016 by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Earlier this year, the process had begun to consider Fr. D’Souza for full professorship.

Loved by his colleagues, his friends, and, most importantly, his students, Fr. Mario will be deeply missed.

https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/alumni-friends/in-memoriam/09-26-17-fr-mario-dsouza-associate-professor

Fr. Mario D'Souza, Associate Professor

September 26, 2017
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Fr. Mario D’Souza, CSB. Fr. D’Souza, former Dean of the Faculty of Theology, former President and Vice Chancellor of Assumption University, Windsor, and a world leader in the field of religious education, died peacefully at the Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre on Tuesday evening, Sept. 26 after a brief illness.

Fr. D'Souza began teaching at the St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology in 1991, and, other than his time at Assumption (Jan., 2005-Aug., 2006), the Faculty remained his home until his death. He held the Basilian Fathers Chair in Religion and Education, and was named a Fellow of St. Michael’s College in October of 2014. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Theology from 2009 to 2014.

He brought to the classroom a rich academic history of his own, having received degrees from Boston College, the University of St. Michael’s College, the University of Toronto, the University of Calgary, and University College, Dublin.

Loved by his colleagues, his friends, and, most importantly, his students, Fr. Mario will be deeply missed.

Born: 18 March 1962, Churchtown, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 25 September 1980, Manresa House, Dollymount, Dublin
Died: 18 August 2019, Galway Cheshire Homes, Merlin Park Lane, Curraghagrean, Galway City, County Galway (Roscahill, County Galway)

Left Society of Jesus: 1986

Address 2000 & 1991: The Manse, Hollymount, Claremorris, County Mayo & Lower Churchtown Road, Churchtown, Dublin City, County Dublin

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/frank-stapleton-obituary-pioneering-irish-film-maker-1.4002362

Frank Stapleton
Born: March 18th, 1962
Died: August 18th, 2019

Frank Stapleton, prolific writer and talented film director has died following a long illness. Stapleton was a leading light in Irish filmmaking in the 1980s and 1990s before his career was cut short by the onset of multiple sclerosis.

The Whole World in His Hands, an award winning documentary filmed 10 years after Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979, Dr Brown Also Spoke, a polemic documentary with Dr Noel Browne (Minister for Health from 1948-1951) and Michael D Higgins and The Fifth Province (1997) were his best known films.

The Fifth Province which was about a frustrated writer living the rain-soaked Midlands, won Best First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh and the Audience Prize at the Fantasporto Film Festival in Porto, Portugal. Stapleton worked with Michael D Higgins on a number of film proposals and his film crew made a documentary with Higgins at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro called, 12 Days to Save the World.

Frank Stapleton grew up in Churchtown, Dublin with one older and one younger brother. He attended Belvedere College, Dublin from the age of eight to eighteen where his friends included Fintan Connolly who also went on to become a filmmaker. Reminiscing about their school days, Connolly said that Frank had a strong interest in photography and social justice and was “fizzing with ideas”.

With fellow Belvedere students, Stapleton and Connolly pushed a bed from Dublin to Cork and later the same year, a telephone box from Knock to Cork to raise money for Concern. They made their first documentary, No School is an Island while still at Belvedere College.

After school, Stapleton joined the Society of Jesus and lived in Manresa House, Clontarf where he completed his 2 year novitiate. He then moved to a Jesuit residence in Monkstown in 1982 while studying English and Philosophy at University College Dublin. In 1984, he made his first film, A Second of June, a drama documentary inspired by Ulysses about a day in the life of two ordinary Dubliners when Ronald Regan visited Ireland. After graduating from UCD in 1985, Frank lived for a time in one of the Ballymun Towers while working on social projects with Peter McVerry and other members of the Jesuit community.

To broaden his horizons, he moved to London. Around this time, he also left the Jesuits and immersed himself instead in contemporary film and the psychoanalysis of R D Laing. In 1989, he founded Ocean Films with producer, Catherine Tiernan and over the following decade, they made many documentaries and dramas together.

“Frank had an uninhibited imagination, huge energy and motivation to bring his ideas to the screen and to make dreams a reality,” says Tiernan. “In the beginning, we went abroad to seek commissions as RTÉ had not yet opened up to independent production. There was no TV3 or TG4 and the Irish Film Board had yet to be re-activated. The Whole World In His Hands - which was funded by Channel 4 - was among the first Irish independent documentaries to be screened on RTÉ.”

In 1999, Stapleton married Katharine West and the couple bought a Presbyterian manse and church in Hollymount, County Mayo with the intention of restoring it to provide them both with living and working accommodation. However, a year later, Stapleton was diagnosed with hydrocephalus and then in 2001, with multiple sclerosis which quickly limited his ability to write and direct films. Their daughter, Alice Mimosa was born in 2002 and for a number of years, Frank was a wonderful home-based father to her while Katharine, a ceramic artist, lectured at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology.

In 2004, the family moved to Roscahill, County Galway where they had great support from the local community. With Galway based poet, Mary Dempsey as his scribe, Stapleton completed an MA in Film Studies at the Huston Film School at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in 2006. In 2008, his condition had deteriorated to the extent that he needed to move to supported accommodation in the Cheshire Home in Galway, returning home at weekends and during the holidays.

In 2012, the Galway Film Fleadh showed five of Stapleton’s films in a retrospective of his work. In the catalogue for the festival, Tony Tracy, from the Huston School of Film at NUIG, wrote that Stapleton was part of a vanguard of Irish film directors who attempted to launch a career in the 1980s. “Like others from that period, his work was defined by daring and determination, balanced between an ambition to create a personal cinema and the need to make a living.” Tracy said that Stapleton had a commitment to exploring the condition of Irishness that is imaginative, engaged and wide-ranging. His six-part series, Irish Dreamtime (2000) explored concepts of Irish heritage at the turn of the millennium.

In a tribute piece, the Irish Film Institute archivist, Sunniva O’Flynn said that much of Stapleton’s work was “distinguished by a delightful air of whimsy tethered to a foundation of deep erudition. He was a man of endless intellect, kindness, compassion and fun who bore his long illness with great fortitude and dignity.”

Frank Stapleton is survived by his wife Katharine, daughter Alice Mimosa, his mother Catherine, brothers John and Colum.

https://ifi.ie/frank-stapleton-a-tribute/
The staff and board of IFI have learnt with great sadness of the passing of film director Frank Stapleton.

Frank was an enormously talented writer, director and producer, a leading light of the Irish filmmaking world in the 1980s and 1990s before his career was cut short by the onset of multiple sclerosis. He established Ocean Films with producer and great friend Catherine Tiernan and together they made a series of memorable documentaries. Frank directed Irish Dreamtime, a series about Irish identity and heritage; Dr Browne also Spoke, a biographical film about Noel Browne; and The Whole World in his Hands, a film about Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979.

His Poorhouse was, for many years, one of very few dramas set during the famine. A Second of June a Ulyssean meander through Dublin on the day of Ronald Reagan’s visit was a documentary/drama hybrid which perfectly captured the texture of 1980s Dublin. Frank’s surrealist feature The Fifth Province about a frustrated writer living in the rain-soaked midlands was a fitting vehicle for his colourful story-telling and his wry sense of humour. His work was the subject of a retrospective at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2012.

Much of Frank’s work was distinguished by a delightful air of whimsy tethered to a foundation of deep erudition. He was a man of endless intellect, kindness, compassion and fun who bore his long illness with great fortitude and dignity.

We extend our deepest condolences to Frank’s family and many friends.

https://ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Frank-Stapleton-by-Tony-Tracy.pdf
Tony Tracy
from Flynn & Tracy, Historical Dictionary of Irish Cinema, 2nd Ed. (Rowan and Littlefield, 2019)

STAPLETON, FRANK (1962–). It is easy to forget just how difficult it was for the first wave of Irish directors who attempted to launch a career in the 1980s. Frank Stapleton was part of that vanguard. Like others from the period, his work is defined by daring and determination: balanced between an ambition to create a personal cinema and the need to make a living. At first glance, his oeuvre seems characterized by an eclecticism of topics and formats, but on closer consideration, continuities can be traced through a portfolio of creative documentaries, TV drama, short-film and feature film output, and a TV documentary series. Across these works, we encounter an intellect that is both limpid and ludic, a visual sense that is ambitious and original, and a commitment to exploring the condition of Irishness that is imaginative, engaged, and wide ranging.

A native of Churchtown in Dublin’s southern suburbs, he attended the distinguished Belvedere College, where, like the impressionable James Joyce before him, he came under the spell of the Jesuitical mind-set. However, unlike Stephen Daedalus, he did not initially choose an artistic vocation over a priestly calling and spent several years studying within the Society of Jesus. While still appending an “SJ” to his director credit, Frank commenced a career in film, directing the subversive and inventive A Second of June (1984), a contemporary drama-documentary inspired by Ulysses focusing on a day in the life of two ordinary Dubliners against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 visit to Ireland. Two years later, Frank finally uttered “non servium” and left the Jesuits. After a few years in London (where he developed an interest in R. D. Laing’s psychoanalytical techniques), he returned to Dublin and formed Ocean Films with producer Catherine Tiernan in 1989.

The absence at that point of either a film board or state funding structures for independently produced television saw Ocean Films apply for funding wherever it could. Its first success was a prestigious but controversial com- mission—The Whole World in His Hands—a documentary about what Ire- land had become in the 10 years since the visit of Pope John Paul II made for U.K.broadcaster Channel 4. Several similarly polemic documentaries fol- lowed, including two with Noel Browne (Requiem for a Civilisation [1991] and Dr. Browne Also Spoke [1992]) and two in collaboration with Michael D. Higgins just before he became Ireland’s first minister for arts, culture, and the Gaeltacht.

Moving away from documentary and able to secure funding from Radio Telefís Éireann, Frank directed the short film Poorhouse (1996), an evoca- tive adaptation of a Michael Harding story setduring the Famine that featured strong central performances and memorable visuals. Its success paved the way for what proved to be the creative high point of Frank’s career as a filmmaker, The Fifth Province (1997), an artfully realized, unclassifiable feature from a script that Frank cowrote with the late Pat Sheeran and Nina Witoszek (aka Nina FitzPatrick). Attracted by its startling originality, it was British Screen (Simon Perry) that first offered funding to the project, with the Irish Film Board subsequently contributing to its production. Evocative- ly shot by celebrated French
cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer (who contributed a European sensibility to the film’s quirky tone), the film is set in the Irish Midlands and is a worthy cinematic successor to the surrealistic perspective of that liminal zone inaugurated by Flann O’Brien. Once again, it offered an alternative view of Ireland and its culture, challenging official or sanctioned narratives (notably in an amusing but pointed scene about what makes a successful Irish screenplay), and centers on a maverick and dreamer in the figure of Timmy Sugrue (Brian F. O’Byrne).

The Fifth Province was well received at film festivals (winning Best First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh [Festival] and the Audience Prize at the Fantasporto Festival) but didn’t manage to find a distributor outside of the United Kingdom and Ireland, perhaps because it was not perceived as “Irish” enough. In its aftermath, Frank worked on a range of documentary series before the onset of multiple sclerosis prematurely ended his career. These included Irish Dreamtime (2000), an ambitious six-part series exploring con- cepts of Irish heritage at the turn of the millennium. Each, in different ways, continued the work of his fiction and nonfiction films in seeking to interrogate and articulate the distinctive qualities of the Irish condition at a specific moment in time with a bias
toward the marginal, the excluded, and the unorthodox.