Terence Fay

Terry Fay is a Jesuit priest who has co-edited Spiritual Roots: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto at 150 Years of Age (1991) and was research director of the Dictionary of Jesuit Biography: Ministry to English Canada, 1842 1987 (1991). He is past president of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association and the editor of its Bulletin and is a member of the Executive Council of the American Catholic Historical Association. He has published articles and reviews in historical journals in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Italy, United States, Asia, and the United Kingdom, and his biographical articles on the Canadian Jesuits are being published in Spanish and English at Rome in an historical encyclopedia about Jesuits.

Dr. Fay holds masters degrees in history from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington and in theology from Regis College in Toronto. He has earned a doctorate of history in Canadian American Relations from Georgetown University in Washington DC. His dissertation was on Rush-Bagot Agreement: A Reflection of the Anglo American Détente, 1815 1818. This work was subsequently turned into the book length manuscript of Disarmament 1817. Terry Fay is a faculty member of the Toronto School of Theology teaching in the history of religion for St Augustine's Seminary and the University of St Michael's College at the University of Toronto.

He lectures in Canadian, European, and world religious history. He has recently published articles on popular Catholicism, including "The Canadian Messenger of the Sacred Heart: A Window on Ultramontane Spirituality" in Historical Studies (1998); "Changing Image of Irish Spirituality: The Irish Messenger of the Sacred Heart," in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review (1999); and "Primordial Call of Land or Journey of Faith? St Peter's Colony, Muenster, Saskatchewan, 1903 1926" in Ultimate Reality and Meaning: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Philosophy of Understanding 25:1 (March 2002).

From his research and reflection on the struggles of Canadian Catholics over four hundred years, he has written A History of Canadian Catholics: Gallicanism, Romanism, and Canadianism. This volume was published by McGill Queen's University Press in May 2002. He utilized available research to create the first comprehensive history of Catholics in Canada. The history begins with the struggle of French Catholics in this new land, the conversion of Amerindians, conflict caused by the arrival of the Scots and Irish, the upset provoked by the advent of the Germans, Ukrainians, Polish, Hungarians, and Italians, and the eventual drawing together of these disparate groups by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. This contribution is especially relevant in Canada where Catholics are forty three percent of the population (2001).

In recent years, Dr Fay has published "The New Faces of Canadian Catholics: The Filipinos, Chinese, and Tamils" in Africana in 2003, "Dialogue on Differing Asian Spiritualities: Filipinos and Thais" in Prajñã Vihãra: Journal of Philosophy and Religion, Assumption University of Bangkok (Thailand) in 2004, and "From the Tropics to the Freezer: Filipino Catholics Acclimatize to Canada, 1972-2002," in Historical Studies in 2005. He has prepared for publication by Novalis Press in 2009, The New Faces of Canadian Catholics: The Asians. At a recent Colloquium on Vatican Two at the University of St Michael's College May 2009, he contributed "The Reception of Vatican Two by Asian Canadians."