From The General

The following was read at the beginning of the funeral Mass yesterday morning. Fr. Barry is our Moderator General in Rome.

Today we celebrate with love and gratitude a confrere who was very dear to all of us. I wish to pay my homage to a very good friend and to a true C.PP.S.er.

From the time Ray was my teacher at St. Joe College back in the ‘60s I admired him very much as a community member and dedicated professor. He taught me Spanish and gave me the necessary language skills so as to be able to face the challenges of mission in Latin America. But not only did he teach me the language skills, but he exuded a true love of language and inspired in me the desire to learn to express myself well in it. I had four years of Spanish with Ray and was his only fourth year Spanish student and that surely was something which also bonded us.

With Ray’s passing, the Congregation has lost one of her greats. He will be remembered by many in the Congregation as a man truly dedicated to the community and above all, in love with our Founder, St. Gaspar. His translations of St. Gaspar’s letters and other works concerning our Founder is invaluable. It was truly a monumental work which he continued for as long as he possibly could, up to a short time before his death. Through this work of love, many of our English-speaking members have come to know our Founder better. Our young men in formation for years have benefited from Fr.Ray’s conferences on St. Gaspar life and works. He brought our Founder alive for them and his love for Gaspar was contagious! THANK YOU, Fr. Ray, for the legacy you have left us. I bet his meeting with St. Gaspar was a very joy-filled one! And Ray probably had more than one question of clarification for our Founder!

From heaven Fr. Ray will continue to care for the Congregation he loved so much, for Gaspar’s sons. We hold you in our hearts, dear friend and confrere. ARRIVADERCI IL CIELO! (Till we meet again in heaven!).

Fr. Barry Fischer, C.PP.S.