FR. FRANCIS MORRISEY  OMI BUILDING


The Francis Morrisey OMI building has been designed for day groups. It contains a conference room that can seat 50, and a small kitchen. There is also a small meeting room upstairs which will also be available to groups of two-four people


For many years Fr Frank was a regular contributor to the Oblate Retreat Centre’s programme and his presence and pastoral care was appreciated by members of the Oblate family throughout Britain and Ireland. We pray for the happy repose of Father Morrisey’s soul, with the hope that he has been welcomed already into the Kingdom as a good and faithful servant! 


In addition to the new conference facilities the building will have a newly designed art room. This will be a perfect space to get creative in a relaxing atmosphere. Using the art facilities will be an opportunity to contemplate, to express and to explore the unity and mystery of all creation.


Fr. Francis Morrisey was born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., on Feb. 13, 1936, the oldest of Col. E.J.H. Morrisey, OBE, and Lucy Rita Coady’s five children. His family moved frequently as the army moved his father around. But the constant in his life was daily Mass with his mother. He entered the Oblate noviciate Aug. 14, 1955, in Richelieu, Que., and was ordained a priest in 1961 in Ottawa. In 1972 he was awarded two PhDs, one in philosophy at the University of Ottawa and the other in canon law at Saint Paul University, where he was already teaching the subject.


He was dean of the Saint Paul University faculty of canon law from 1972 to 1984, a founder of the Canadian Canon Law Society and an honorary life member of every canon law society in the English-speaking world. From 1985 to 2001 he advised the Vatican as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts. 


He was profoundly influenced by the Second Vatican Council. In a 2019 video created to mark a lifetime achievement award from the Catholic Health Association of the United States, Fr. Morrisey said Vatican II taught him “that the promotion of the dignity of the human person is primordial.” He would frequently quote from Canon 1752, the last paragraph of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, “... keeping in mind the salvation of souls, which in the Church must always be the supreme law.”


In recognition of his generous use of…expertise on behalf of health care professionals in the U.S., Canada, and the world,” Fr. Morrisey received Catholic Health Association’s (CHA) Lifetime Achievement Award on June 10, 2019. CHA commemorated this honour with the video below:


Awarded the Eugène de Mazenod Medal...

On May 6, 2020, Saint Paul University awarded Fr. Morrisey the Eugène de Mazenod Medal. This medal honours individuals who have made significant contributions to make their community, their environment and society as a whole more just and humane.


“The Church has been enriched by Frank’s selfless outpouring and, through the Church, cultures and societies throughout the world have also been enriched,” noted Monsignor John Renken, Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at Saint Paul University. “He was esteemed and admired by a plethora of social innovators, church leaders and professional colleagues. He showed himself to be a faithful son of Saint Eugène de Mazenod, who envisioned bringing healing and hope to the peripheries of his own day. Frank has done the same in today’s world.” From St. Paul’s University (Ottawa, Canada) Reflection on Fr. Francis Morrisey


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