Fr. Jerald D’Souza, OCD

Growing up, Fr. Jerald D’Souza showed signs of his vocation early. Fr. Jerry comes from Madanthyar, near Mangalore in India, an agricultural region.  One of his duties was to watch the cows and make sure they did not escape the pasture, and so by the age of 12, he would practice preaching to the Gospel to a bovine congregation.

Fr. Jerry lost his father at the age of one, leaving his mother widowed at a young age with three young children, of which he was the youngest. His mother never remarried, and made many sacrifices for her family in their poverty.

In one particular instance, he remembered that his mother once worked for a whole day, and made a meal of rice porridge or congee for her family.  His mother ensured there was enough for the family, and went into the kitchen to drink the cooking water of the congee for her own dinner. It was his mother’s sacrifices that led him to understand the sacrificial action of Christ on the Cross and how God the Father would sacrifice his Son.

His mother’s actions would also help him to understand the pains of his parishioners in their day-to-day lives. Fr. Jerry has also been blessed to have a spiritual mother as well, in a woman who would come and pray at the Carmelite Monastery where he spent his theologate. He recalled going through a dry spell in prayer, and was impressed by a woman who would come and pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament in the Carmelite way. Fr. Jerry asked her to pray for him, and this was the beginning of her spiritual motherhood to Fr. Jerry.

Fr. Jerry has had his trials during his formation. He first discerned his vocation to the Discalced Carmelites when he was in Grade 12, influenced by Carmelite seminarians coming to his high school. Upon entry into the novitiate, Fr. Jerry was not the ideal candidate, being noticeably timid and having low-self esteem. He remembers begging St. Teresa of Avila to take his vocation into her hands if he was to continue, praying “if you would like me to continue in the Carmelite life, then you have to take me.”

In his second year of theology studies, Fr. Jerry experienced a moment of crisis. He was assigned to the Shrine of the Infant Jesus in Mangalore, where each Thursday, roughly 2000 people would turn up to the 6pm Mass for the novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague. Each seminarian was expected to lead the novena prayers in turn, and to deliver a 3-5 minute sermon. In the midst of his crisis, Fr. Jerry says he became like Abraham at Sodom, saying “If I do well, then I will stay; if I do poorly, I will leave.” Ultimately, there was no reason to fear. He had no reason to fear — many people came up after the Mass, asking who was the seminarian who did so well!

Fr. Jerry was ordained in the Octave of Easter, on April 16th, 1998.  Immediately following ordination, he was assigned to the Carmelite farm house in Goa for a year, before being made the first director of the Shrine of the Infant Jesus in Mangalore. Afterwards, he served as rector and formator at the Carmelite minor seminary in Goa for a year and a half, before being asked to be one of the first two missionaries to Canada from his province, the Karnataka-Goa Province, arriving July 25, 2003. 

He served in a number of roles throughout the Archdiocese of Vancouver, watching the mission grow from a pair of priests to two monasteries in Mission, BC and Edmonton, AB, while fostering the first Canadian vocation, Fr. Frank Sharma, OCD. 

Fr. Jerry arrived in Calgary to be pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in 2019, and was immediately asked to complete the renovation of the sanctuary with little knowledge of the work in progress. The following March, COVID struck, putting the work at a standstill, and leaving him in a conundrum of having negligible cooking skills and suddenly having to fend for himself. For Fr. Jerry, the eight deepest months of the pandemic carry some of his happiest memories, having care extended to him by the parishioners of St. Thomas More.

In his ministry, Fr. Jerry has found that his biggest challenge has been to strengthen spirituality in the family, which St. John Paul II declared to be a domestic church. He believes that when the family is strengthened in its spirituality, prayer life and faith, the family will strengthen the parish; strong parishes will create a strong diocese, and strong dioceses will create a strong universal church.

As for prayer, Fr. Jerry’s favourite space is his meditation of 5 to 10 minutes in front of the Blessed Sacrament every morning, and his breviary is his source of strength. He also cites frequent confession and spiritual direction as the two wings to allow the spiritual life to take flight.

To grow close to Jesus, Fr. Jerry suggests taking the example of Christ Himself, being humble and simple. He suggests relaxing and being yourself, without baggage or lists of requests — in other words, being naked before Christ. All of this is done in the spirit of Carmel, which is both intellectual and simple, having St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross as great models of intellectual life, and St. Therese of Lisieux as a model of simplicity.

When asked for advice for those discerning religious life, Fr. Jerry advises the potential discerner to be honest before God and one’s superiors in the face of failure. God will send his “angels” to guide — formators, spiritual directors, confessors, and lay faithful.  His life as a religious has yielded excellent advice.

Fr. Jerry has served for some time as superior of the Carmelites, and leading into an election for a continuance of his term, he was advised that if there is a split in the vote, he has done the will of God. If the vote was unanimously in favour, it would mean that he spent his term trying to please others; if against, it would mean that he was a poor choice for superior.

His spiritual father also gave him the advice that a joyful Carmelite is a joyful religious — that the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience should lead to joy. In Fr. Jerry’s case, they most certainly have.

Throughout his interview, Fr. Jerry radiated a consistent, confident joyfulness throughout his office. It is evident he finds great joy in his vocation, where work can be tiring, yet never a burden. ​There can be no doubt that this joy will carry Fr. Jerry onward into the next 25 years of his priestly ministry, full of contentment and fulfilment.

Fr. Jerald D'Souza, OCD

Pastoral Assignments in the Diocese of Calgary:

• Regional Supervisor of the Carmelites in Canada (2017)
• Provincial Delegate of the Carmelites in Canada (2020)
• Spiritual Advisor of the Calgary Catholic Charismatic Renewal Society (2021 - present)
• Pastor at St. Thomas More Parish (2019 - present)

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Written by Solomon Ip for Faithfully. ​Solomon is a born and raised Calgarian. He studied music history in Lethbridge, and is now a seminarian in his pre-theology studies at St. Joseph's Seminary in Edmonton. He has been worshipping most recently with Canadian Martyrs Parish in Calgary, and with St. Mary's Parish in Banff where he has been working as a heritage interpreter with Parks Canada. He is an oboist by training, a chorister by grace, hobby wordsmith, amateur calligrapher, and museum enthusiast.