Father Béla Somfai, S.J.
died on April 6, 2015 at the Jesuit Infirmary, René Goupil House, in Pickering,
Ontario. He was in his 83rd
year of life and had lived nearly 63 years as a Jesuit.
Béla Somfai was born in
Hungary on August 5, 1932. He entered the
Society of Jesus in Hungary on September 14, 1952. After his initial formation, he began his
study of philosophy at the Gregorian University in Rome where he earned a
licentiate.
In 1959 he came to Regis
College, then located at 403 Wellington Street, to begin his theological
studies. When Regis moved up to Bayview
Avenue, he moved to Willowdale and was ordained a priest on June 18, 1961 by
James Cardinal MacGuigan in the large, beautiful chapel of the Sisters of St.
Joseph Motherhouse, Morrow Park.
Father Somfai taught for a
year (1965-66) at Loyola High School in Montreal and then went on to do
doctoral studies in moral theology at the University of Ottawa, where he earned
a PhD. He was awarded an S.T.D. degree
from St. Paul University. While still
working on his doctorate, in 1967 he was a member of the faculty of theology of
Loyola College in Montreal. In 1969 he
began teaching moral theology and medical ethics at Regis College in the
Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto.
During his service at Regis,
he became the Dean of Theology and also Prefect of Studies in the
English-Canadian Jesuit Province. When he
retired from Regis in 1994, he returned to Hungary where he taught moral
theology in the diocesan seminary of Szeged and at Sapientia College in
Budapest for ten years.
In 2014, he returned to
Canada and took up residence at St. Elizabeth Parish in Toronto, where over the
years he had done occasional pastoral ministry.
Ill health caused him to be assigned to René Goupil House in Pickering
in early 2015.
Father Béla Somfai was a
very careful thinker, rooted in church teaching, keenly aware of the latest
scientific developments and philosophical approaches, and always attentive to
contemporary problems and pastoral needs.
He taught his students to think and to pastorally care for people in their
struggles. For 25 years at Regis
College, the responsibility of forming young Jesuits as pastoral ministers fell
largely upon his shoulders. He taught
moral theology after Vatican II, at a time when textbooks were not available,
and so he made the latest and most credible journal articles on contemporary
issues the basis for much of his teaching. After his return to Hungary, in
order to assist his students, he wrote three books in Hungarian – on ethics, on
sexual ethics and on medical ethics.
A wake service will take place at Rosar-Morrison
Funeral Home (Sherbourne & Wellesley, Toronto) from 11am-3pm on Sunday,
April 12; there will be a wake that same evening from 7-9pm at St. Ignatius
Chapel, Manresa Retreat House (Prayers at 8 o’clock).
The Funeral Mass will be celebrated Monday, April 13
at 11am at St. Ignatius Chapel of Manresa Retreat House, Pickering, ON, with a
reception to follow.
At a date to be
determined, there will be a Memorial Mass in Hungarian at St. Elizabeth of
Hungary Church, Toronto; burial will be in the Jesuit plot in Courtland,
Ontario.
Requiescat in
pace.
