Rev. Bela I. Somfai, S.J.

Fr. Béla Somfai, S.J. died on Monday, 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 was born in Hungary on August 5, 1932. He became a Jesuit in Hungary and then came to Canada via Rome to complete his studies. He was ordained a priest in 1961 at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse in Willowdale, Ontario. Béla taught for a year at Loyola High School in Montreal and then went on to do doctoral studies in moral theology at the University of Ottawa. In 1969 he began teaching moral theology and medical ethics at Regis College in the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto. He retired from Regis College in 1994 and then returned to Hungary where he taught moral theology in the diocesan seminary of Szeged and at Sapientia University in Budapest. Béla was a very careful thinker, founded 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 care for people in all their struggles. In 2014 he returned to Canada and took up residence at St. Elizabeth Parish in Toronto, where he had done occasional pastoral ministry over the years.

Friends are invited to visit on Sunday, April 12th from 11 – 3 p.m. at Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home, 467 Sherbourne St., Toronto and from 7 - 9 p.m. at the St. Ignatius Chapel, Manresa Spiritual Renewal Centre, 2325 Liverpool Rd. North, Pickering, ON. Prayer service to be held at 8 p.m. Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 13, 2015, at the St. Ignatius Chapel, Manresa Spiritual Centre. The service will be complete at the chapel. A memorial Mass in Hungarian and interment of cremated remains in Courtland, ON will take place at a later date.

In memory of Fr. Somfai, donations may be made to Regis College, 100 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, ON M5S 2Z5.