The feast of All Saints’ Day (November 7) was particularly joyful for our community this year, as we witnessed the first profession of Sr Marie Angelica de l’Incarnation! The Eucharist was celebrated by fr. Pierre Leblond O.P., fr. Maxime Allard O.P. and Father Andrew L’Hereux. It was a beautiful and moving ceremony, with the surprise of a violin offertory played by one of our other young sisters. We thank God for Sr. Marie Angelica’s vocation, and wish her all the joy of the Lord as she continues to follow Jesus in consecrated life for the next three years.
“Should you trust your love life to algorithms and dating apps?” was the question posed by a group of students that evening at the Dominican Center in Montreal. The Dominican Student Center – Universtité de Montréal (CéDum), run by the friars under the direction of Gustavo Ortega, offers a wide range of activities. Since last year, the liturgies and traditional prayer and adoration groups have been joined by more surprising activities: encouraged by the prior of the Saint Albert convent and the Prior Provincial, the CéDum has become an OPTIC Lab. It has joined the network of places where students and young professionals reflect together on their relationship with technology, ethical issues and the impact on society.
The evenings they organize are part of an activity developed by the OPTIC network, which consists of debating around a film or an episode of a TV series. The project, entitled Bright Mirror, refers to the Netflix series Black Mirror, which is very popular with young people, and features universes that are both very realistic and highly dystopian. With the help of OPTIC, students themselves host debates for other young people.
And that evening, the conversation was animated around the subject of the dating apps that most students use. “Do they make it easier to find the one you’re looking for? Or, on the contrary, do they lock us into an endless quest for perfection, for a person who should meet a multitude of criteria, and whom we choose from an infinite network? How are these algorithms parameterized? Do they help you find the right person, or do they encourage you to remain a customer for as long as possible?” These were just some of the questions posed by Clément Augustin and Marc de Preaumont, the evening’s hosts. Both students at HEC Montréal, they are keen to stimulate reflection among their friends and chaplaincy members, so that technology is always used for the common good and with respect for human dignity.
Network OPTIC is offering an animation kit to help brothers and sisters or lay people leading groups of students or young professionals to raise their awareness of the challenges posed by these digital technologies, which have infiltrated every aspect of our lives: getting information, working, consuming, meeting people, exchanging news… The kit includes suggestions for videos to watch together and, for each one, questions to guide the debate.
Such an approach is extremely important to make young people aware of the benefits, but also the risks, of these technologies, to enable the new generation to be more mature and responsible in their choices. In this way, we can make full use of digital technology for our personal, human and spiritual development, but also to build a society in line with Gospel values.
Far from being pessimistic, the OPTIC network wants to ensure that technology brings the best to the greatest number. It’s a way of preaching to the frontiers, even if they’re not physical or social, but digital.
If you’d like to set up your own OPTIC Lab, ask for the OPTIC network’s animation kit and support at contact@optictechnology.org.
OPTIC is an international network initiated by the Order and at the service of the Dominican family. It is a project under the direct supervision of the Master of the Order. For further information, visit optictechnology.org.
Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, of Algiers (Algeria), Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto (Canada) and Brother Timothy Radcliffe, OP, are among the 21 new cardinals to be created by Pope Francis at the Consistory to be held on December 8, as he announced on Sunday, October 6, after praying the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square.
Mgr Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, was born in Lyon (France) in 1962. He joined the Order of Preachers in 1995, after studying law and working as a lawyer. He was ordained a priest in 2001. His first contact with Algeria came a year later, when he moved to the Dominican convent in Tlemcen, in the diocese of Oran. In 2005, he was appointed vicar general, then bursar in 2007. He returned to France at the end of 2010 when he was elected Prior Provincial of the Province of France. He held this position for a few months, before being appointed Bishop of Oran by Benedict XVI on December 1, 2012. On December 8, 2018, Bishop Vesco welcomed to his diocese the beatification of the 19 martyrs of Algeria, including Mgr Pierre Claverie, former bishop of Oran, killed in 1996, and the monks of Tibhirine. Mgr Vesco took part in the Synod on the Family held at the Vatican in 2015. On December 27, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him metropolitan archbishop of Algiers (Algeria). In 2023, by presidential decree, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, granted him Algerian nationality.
Mgr Francis Leo, a member of the Saint-Dominique priestly fraternities, was born in Montreal (Canada) in 1971. He was ordained a priest in 1996. He has held various positions in teaching and parish ministry, as a seminary formator, in judicial ministry, in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, as General Secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Montreal. He entered the Dominican Third Order on November 18, 2007 in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, while in formation at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. He then made his profession in the priestly fraternities of Saint Dominic on May 11, 2008 in the same Italian Dominican convent. In what might be a fitting tribute to his link with the Dominicans, he quotes the motto of the Order of Preachers as expressed in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas: “As it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so it is better to share with others the truths contemplated than merely to contemplate them”. On July 16, 2022, he was named Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal by Pope Francis, who on February 11, 2023 appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto.
Brother Timothy Radcliffe, OP, was born in London in 1945. He joined the Order of Preachers in 1965. He was ordained a priest in 1971. After studying at Oxford and Paris, he taught Scripture at Oxford University and at the Dominican center known as Blackfriars Hall. From 1982 to 1988, he was prior of the Oxford convent. He was elected Prior Provincial of the Province of England in 1987 and Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001. An internationally renowned speaker, preacher, writer and theologian, he has received honorary degrees from Oxford University and other academic institutions in France, Italy and the United States. In 2007, he was awarded the Michael Ramsey Prize for his writings in theology. In 2023, Pope Francis commissioned him to preach the preparatory retreat for bishops from around the world taking part in the synod on synodality. This year, he was also asked to lead the preparatory retreat for the second session of the Synod. The meditations of fr. Timothy were published by the official Vatican media.
The Dominican family welcomes the consistory’s announcement of the appointment of the new cardinals, whose “origin expresses the universality of the Church, which continues to proclaim God’s merciful love to all the peoples of the earth”, and whose inclusion “in the diocese of Rome manifests, moreover, the indissoluble bond between the See of Peter and the particular Churches scattered throughout the world”, as Pope Francis emphasized when he asked for prayers for the new cardinals, so that, “confirming their attachment to Christ, the merciful and faithful High Priest”, they may assist him “in the ministry of Bishop of Rome for the good of all the holy people of God”. We join in the prayers for the new cardinals and commend the ministry and mission of our brothers to the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary and our Father Saint Dominic.
On August 30, 2024, during the elective chapter of the Province of India, held in Satyagiri, at the Dominican Retreat Center, fr Peter Mendonsa, OP, then superior of the community of Saint Dominic in Delhi, was elected Prior Provincial.
On the same day, he was confirmed by the Master of the Order, fr Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, with the signature of his vicar, fr Pablo Carlos Sicouly, OP, and accepted the office on the same day.
Bro.
Peter succeeds fr Prasad George, OP, who has served as provincial since 2020.
Born in 1967 in Shankerapura, Udupi district, Karnataka state, India, Brother Peter joined the postulancy of Saint Dominic, Mangalore, in 1983.
He joined the novitiate of the Order of Preachers in Pachmarhi, Madya Pradesh, made his simple profession in 1987 and his solemn profession in Nagpur in 1993.
Fr.
Peter completed his first cycle of philosophical and theological studies in Nagpur, where he was ordained deacon.
He was ordained priest on May 31, 1995.
He holds a doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich (2001-2006).
Brother Peter has had many assignments.
In particular, he was parish priest of Saint Dominic Parish in Mangalore until 2000, first superior of the Immaculate Conception House in Bellore, Mangalore (2007-2010), novice master (2012-2015), rector of Saint Charles Seminary (2015-2021) and superior of Saint Dominic Delhi, also being parish priest of Saint Dominic Church, Delhi (2022-2024).
Fr.
Peter is a well-known preacher.
He accompanies spiritual retreats and teaches pastoral theology, homiletics and interreligious dialogue at the seminary.
