Shauna Sylvester, Panel Speaker — Remi De Roo The Person
Shauna Sylvester
Volume 39 Issue 1,2,&3 | Posted: April 5, 2024
It’s not often that I have the opportunity to speak publicly about my mentors. This weekend the University of Victoria Centre for Religion and Society celebrated the 100th birthday of liberation theologian, Bishop and Canadian social justice activist Remi De Roo. Remi passed away two years ago but his legacy within the Catholic Church is profound. He was named one of youngest Bishop in the world and he played a leadership role in Vatican II.
He was the Co-Chair of the Canadian Conference of Bishops’ Social Justice Committee that published Ethical Reflections on the Economic Crisis, a major critique of the unemployment and concentration of capital in Canada in the early 1980s. He was a major advocate for increasing the power and role of women in the church, increasing the role of the layity and a strong supporter of ecumenism globally. Remi was part of the church that emphasized the “social teachings of Christ” and while
I am no longer an active Catholic, his influence on my life began at the age of 15 when I was a youth coordinator at the Ecumenical Centre in Nanaimo, through my years working in peace and nuclear disarmament, to my role in advancing dialogue at Simon Fraser University. It was wonderful to see my close friend Pearl Gervais and former diplomat and Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament Douglas Roche launch their new book Remi De Roo, Pilgrim and Prophet and to be surrounded by over 120 of Remi’s former colleagues, friends and family.
I also appreciated the depth of University of Toronto – University of St. Michael’s College Senior Scholar Dr. Michael Higgins’ review of Remi’s contributions. He noted that Remi would be Pope Francis’s ideal bishop. I write about Remi here because he was attacked many times over for standing up for human rights, advancing the rights of the poor and workers, and promoting peace. He “never went gently into the night”, he believed strongly in the need to live one’s faith by engaging with current realities and standing up to injustice.
Whether or not you come from a religious background or a spiritual practice, the act of standing up against social and environmental injustice is never easy. And yet, Remi never judged or blamed those who condemned him. He recognized very early in life that being a disrupter and an advocate for change was never going to be a popular role.
Shauna Sylvester