Michael William Higgins (born October 24, 1948) is a Canadian academic and writer. He was the interim principal of St. Mark's College and president of Corpus Christi College from July 15, 2020- July 31, 2023. Higgins and his wife Krystyna, a professional piano accompanist, liturgical musician and freelance editor, have four adult children---Rebecca, Andrew, Sarah and Alexa.[1]
Born in Toronto in 1948,Higgins attended St. Thomas Aquinas School for his primary education,and received his secondary education from the Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute,where Higgins is now on the school's "Hall of Fame".
Higgins also did graduate work in Theology at the University of St. Michael's College (Toronto),later teaching English and Religious Studies (1974-1982 and 1981-1983) and English (1979-1982),at both the College School and the University College,before moving to St. Jerome's College in Waterloo,Ontario (1982–2006). There,from 1989 to 1995 he served as Associate Dean,before becoming Academic Dean and Vice-President (1995–1999) and President and Vice-Chancellor (1999–2006). In 2006 Higgins became President and Vice-Chancellor,as well as Professor of English and Religious Studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton,New Brunswick. In August 2009,eighteen months after a controversial lockout (before the faculty union had taken a strike vote) and subsequent strike,Higgins announced his resignation as President of St. Thomas,effective December 31,2009.[2] Four days later,on January 4,2010,he commenced as a Visiting Senior Executive in Residence at Sacred Heart University (SHU). From 2010 - 2017,Higgins served as Vice President for SHU's Mission and Catholic Identity department. In this role Higgins was responsible for leading initiatives that preserve,promote and integrate Catholic mission,vision and values throughout the University. He directed such programs at the Spidlik Center for Ecumenical Understanding as well as the new and developing Institute for Vatican II Studies. In 2012 Higgins was a Senior Fellow at Massey College,University of Toronto. Higgins became the Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at SHU (2017-2020) before accepting the positions of Principal of St. Mark's College at UBC and President of Corpus Christi College (2020–2022). He is a Professor Emeritus of SHU,and an Affiliate Professor of Graduate Studies at the San Antonio Oblate School of Theology. He is also the Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought,University of St. Michael's College,University ofToronto (2022-present).
Higgins has been a columnist for The Toronto Star,The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo),The Catholic Register,The Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick),The Irish Catholic (Dublin),and is a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail,Commonweal (New York),The Tablet (London,England) and The Literary Review of Canada. He has been a documentarian/script writer for the CBC's Ideas,Open Circuit,Celebration,and a regular commentator and analyst for CTV,TVOntario,and CBC networks,specifically with Morningside and SundayEdition. He is a Vatican Affairs analyst for CTV. Higgins' editorial responsibilities include Book Review Editor for the Catholic New Times (1981-1991),Poetry Editor for The New Quarterly (1983-1986),Advisory Editor for Gamut International and Arts and Media Editor for Grail:AnEcumenical Journal (1985-1987),Editor for Grail:An Ecumenical Journal (1987-1998),Advisory Board member for the University of Waterloo Magazine (1999-2006),and Editor of the John English Symposium on Ignatian Spirituality Interviews (July 19–21,1999).
In 2009,Higgins spoke out about the lifting of the excommunications of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X,saying bishop Richard Williamson must apologize for his negationist views or be expelled from the Roman Catholic Church.[3] As a radio documentarian for the CBC,he has prepared more than 60 one-hour scripts for Ideas,Celebration,and Testament,and has been a regular contributor to Morningside,This Morning,Sunday Edition,as well as to CTV's Canada AM and to TV Ontario's Studio 2 and Agenda. Several of Higgins' programmes have been nominated and short-listed for public-broadcasting awards. Higgins was the main consultant for John McGreevy's six-hour television series,Sir Peter Ustinov's 'Inside the Vatican',and for John Bailey's film version of Ron Hansen's novel,Mariette in Ecstasy. He has also served as a consultant for CBC's Man Alive,[4] and was a writer and consultant for Knopf Canada on the publishing of Pope John Paul II's Crossing the Threshold ofHope.
Higgins was working on a CBC documentary series,when,in April 2010,it was announced that he would serve as biographer of Henri J.M. Nouwen,the only biographical account of Nouwen's life and works to be authorized by Nouwen's Legacy Trust.[5]
In November 2010,Higgins released Suffer the Children Unto Me:An Open Inquiry into the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal,which was co-authored with Peter Kavanagh. The book deals with the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis in Canada and the media. The authors describe it as "an exploration of the modern sexual abuse scandal from a number of perspectives".[6] The authors go beyond simply chronicling the issue and its players. They also carefully scrutinize how the media have both reported on and influenced the crisis.[7][8] In June 2011 The Catholic Journalist,the newspaper of the Catholic Press Association of the United States &Canada,awarded the book first place in their category for gender issues. With the award the CPA stated that "The gift of this book is its clear,story-telling language and its richly nuanced entry into deeply troubling but necessary questions that involve media coverage,social mores,systemic and cultural factors,legal procedures,theological understandings,and institutional demands."[9]
Trudeau's Spirituality
Higgins has been noted for his research on the spirituality of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau was a Roman Catholic and attended church throughout his life. While mostly private about his beliefs,he made it clear that he was a believer. Trudeau maintained,however,that he preferred to impose constraints on himself rather than have them imposed from the outside. In this sense,he believed he was more like a Protestant than a Catholic of the era in which he was schooled.[10] Higgins found that Trudeau's spirituality incorporated elements of three Catholic traditions. The first of these was the Jesuits who provided his education up to the college level. Trudeau frequently displayed the logic and love of argument consistent with that tradition. A second great spiritual influence in Trudeau's life was Dominican. A third spiritual influence in Trudeau's spirituality was a contemplative aspect acquired from his association with the Benedictine tradition. [citation needed]
Trudeau was convinced of the centrality of meditation in a life fully lived,according to Higgins. He took retreats at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac,Quebec and regularly attended Hours and the Eucharist at Montreal's Benedictine community.[11] Trudeau's spirituality,according to Higgins,"suffused,anchored,and directed his inner life. In no small part,it defined him."[11]
Recognition
Among his awards are an Ontario Arts Council Award (1988 and 2001),Faith Today's God Uses Ink Award for Non-fiction (1999),the Queen's Jubilee Medal for Leadership and recognition as a 'notable alumnus' of St. Michael's College School. He has been listed in the Canadian Who's Who (1997),was named among TVO's 'Top Ten Lecturers of Ontario' (2005) and was a Senior Fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto in 2012. His CBC Ideas series "Genius Born of Anguish" won the New York Festivals' gold medal in 2013.
He has won several book awards from the Catholic Press Association (First Prize for Suffer the Children in 2011,Second Prize for Genius Born of Anguish in 2013 and Impressively Free in 2020),and from the Association of Catholic Publishers (First Prize for GeniusBorn of Anguish in 2013). Higgins was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from Sacred Heart University (2008),[12] and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Waterloo (2013). He had been nominated by the publisher for the Governor-General's Award in non-fiction (1990,My Father's Business). With co-author Kevin Burns,Higgins received the second place award for sacraments for Impressively Free:Henri Nouwen as a Model for a Reformed Priesthood from the Catholic Press Association's 2020 Catholic Media Conference. In 2020,Dr. Higgins received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from his alma mater St. Francis Xavier University,Antigonish,Nova Scotia.
Higgins was named an Honorary Citizen of the Commune di Grimaldi,Provincia de Conzena,Italia in the spring of 2003,and inducted as an Honorary Member of the Honour Society of Jesuit Institutions of Higher Education Alpha Sigma Nu in 2003. Dr. Higgins was Knighted by Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic as a member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre at St. Michael's Cathedral in September 2004,and was promoted to the rank of Knight Commander in October 2008.
Publications
Higgins is the author or editor of over a dozen books,including:
Faith and Literature Matters, edited with introduction by Michael W. Higgins,Toronto:Novalis,2014.
Thomas Merton:Faithful Visionary,Collegeville:Liturgical Press,2014. (Published in German by Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk in 2015 and scheduled to appear in Italian by Libreria Editrice Vaticana in 2017.)
Heretic Blood:The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton,Toronto:Stoddart,September,1998. [U.S. edition in 1999;Sangue Eretico:La Geografia Spirituale di Thomas Merton (Garzanti) Italian (2001) and French edition ThomasMerton:La voie Spirituelle d'un hérétique (Bellarmin) (2000)].[20][21][22]
The Jesuit Mystique,co-authored with Douglas R. Letson,Toronto:Macmillan,1995;London:HarperCollins,1995;Chicago:Loyola University Press,1995.[23]
Catholic Education—Transforming Our World:A Canadian Perspective,co-edited with Trafford,McGowan and Murphy,Ottawa:Novalis,1991.
Christian Culture Lecture,Assumption University,October 8,2000:"Spirituality as Subversion:Chicken Soup be Damned".
The Swanson Lectures in Spirituality,University of Calgary,September 21–24,2000.
1998 Elizabeth Seton Lecturer,Mount Saint Vincent University,Halifax,September 30 - October 1,1998:"Religion and the Canadian Media".
Graduate Association's Lecturer (1995),St. Jerome's University,October 13,1995:"Sexual Politics vs. Papal Politics:Never the Twain Shall Meet?".
Christian Culture Lecturer,Campion College,University of Regina,January 26–27,1995:"Thomas Merton and the Jesuit Poets";"Ruminations on the Writing Life".
Christian Culture Lecturer,Assumption University and the University of Windsor,February 5,1989:"Autobiography as a Mode of Theological Inquiry:Muggeridge,White and Newman".
Keenan Lecturer,St. Thomas More College,University of Saskatchewan,last week of October and first week of November,1988:several lectures given for the Departments of English,Philosophy and Religious Studies,as well as the Keenan Memorial Lecture "The Making and Re-Making:The Many Masks of Thomas Merton " [published lecture series].
Columbus Day Lecturer,Brock University,October 14,1986:"The Laity and the Kairos".
University of St. Dunstan's and the University of Prince Edward Island's Department of English and Religious Studies co-sponsorship,November 24 and 25,1983:"Thomas Merton,Humanist","Thomas Merton,Diarist","Thomas Merton,Mystic".
Higgins has also published over 60 articles,essays,film reviews and book reviews (general and academic). He is credited with over 75 published interviews,documentaries,dramas,and radio and television commentaries (including appearances on CTV's Canada AM,CBC Newsworld,CBC Radio's Ideas and a CBS Washington Special. Higgins also provided the ethical and humanistic perspective on the Discovery Channel's @discovery.ca twice per month,along with Dr. Pauline Mazumdar,Dr. Kee Dewdney,Rob Sawyer and Jay Ingram.[24]
1 2 Higgins, M. 2004. "Defined by Spirituality", in English, J. Gwyn, R. Gwyn and P.W. Lackenbauer, eds. The Hidden Pierre Trudeau: The Faith Behind the Politics. Ottawa: Novalis. pgs. 26–30.
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his non-consecutive terms as prime minister, he served as the leader of the Opposition from 1979 to 1980.
Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and given the name "Father Louis". He was a member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
The University of St. Michael's College is federated with the University of Toronto. It was founded in 1852 by the Congregation of St. Basil and retains its Catholic affiliation through its postgraduate theology faculty. However, it is primarily an undergraduate college for liberal arts and sciences.
Jean Vanier was a Canadian Catholic philosopher and theologian. In 1964, he founded L'Arche, an international federation of communities spread over 37 countries for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them. In 1971, he co-founded Faith and Light with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, which also works for people with developmental disabilities, their families, and friends in over 80 countries. He continued to live as a member of the original L'Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France, until his death.
Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. His interests were rooted primarily in psychology, pastoral ministry, spirituality, social justice and community. Over the course of his life, Nouwen was heavily influenced by the work of Anton Boisen, Thomas Merton, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, and Jean Vanier.
L'Arche is an international federation of non-profit organisations working to create networks of community where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together. Founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier, Raphaël Simi, and Philip Seux, L'Arche emerged as a reaction and community-based alternative to the ill-treatment and dismal living conditions in the psychiatric institutions of the 1960s.
Michael Enright is a Canadian journalist and radio broadcaster. A high school dropout, Enright became a journalist after taking a University of Toronto extension course. As a journalist he held numerous positions at organizations such as The Globe and Mail, Time and Maclean's. He is best known for his long tenure as a CBC Radio host. Enright was the host of CBC Radio One's The Sunday Edition from 2000 to 2020 and previously hosted As It Happens from 1987 until 1997 and co-hosted This Morning from 1997 to 2000. From 2009 until 2019, he hosted the archive show Rewind on CBC Radio One. He retired from CBC radio in 2020. Enright was the recipient of two honorary doctorates and was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2017.
Thomas Mulvihill King, S.J. was a professor of theology at Georgetown University. King entered the Society of Jesus in 1951 after completing undergraduate studies in English at the University of Pittsburgh. As a Jesuit, he undertook further studies at Fordham University and Woodstock College and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1964. After completing a doctorate in theology at the University of Strasbourg in 1968, King began teaching at Georgetown. A member of the American Teilhard Association, he has written or edited several books on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, including Teilhard's Mysticism of Knowing (1981), Teilhard and the Unity of Knowledge (1983) Teilhard de Chardin (1988), The Letters of Teilhard de Chardin and Lucile Swan (1993) and Teilhard's Mass (2005). His other works include Sartre and the Sacred (1974), Enchantments: Religion and the Power of the Word (1989), Merton: Mystic at the Center of America (1992) and Jung's Four and Some Philosophers (1999). He also wrote the introduction for a new 2004 translation by Sion Cowell of Teilhard's The Divine Milieu.
St. Joseph's College School, formerly known as St. Joseph's Academy for Young Ladies is a girls' Catholic high school in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada operated by the Toronto Catholic District School Board, formerly the Metropolitan Separate School Board in which the school is a member since 1987. Founded in 1854 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, it turned 150 years old in the school year 2004-2005 and turned 160 years old in the school year 2014–2015. In the year 2010–2011, the Fraser Institute ranked St. Joseph's College amongst the top 5% of Ontario schools.
Mary Jo Leddy, is a Canadian writer, speaker, theologian and social activist.
Gerhard Albert Baum, better known as Gregory Baum, was a German-born Canadian priest and theologian in the Catholic Church. He became known in North America and Europe in the 1960s for his work on ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, and the relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews. In the later 1960s, he went to the New School for Social Theory in New York and became a sociologist, which led to his work on creating a dialogue between classical sociology and Christian theology.
John Richard English is a Canadian academic and former politician.
Thomas Christopher Collins is a Canadian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto from 2007 to 2023, the Bishop of Saint Paul in Alberta from 1997 to 1999, and Archbishop of Edmonton from 1999 to 2006. He was elevated to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI on February 18, 2012.
Ronald Samuel Dart, BA (Lethbridge), DCS, MCS, MA (UBC), is a university professor and author. In 2022, he was hooded as Doctor of Ministry and Humanities by St. Stephen's University.
Sue Mosteller is a writer and teacher who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School, officially Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School and Regional Arts Centre is a Catholic secondary school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, formerly the Metropolitan Separate School Board and serves about 740 students in grades 9 to 12.
SEED Alternative School is a small Toronto District School Board alternative high school now located in Toronto's east end.
Below is a bibliography of published works written by Dutch-born Catholic priest Henri Nouwen. The works are listed under each category by year of publication. This includes 42 books, four of which were published posthumously, along with 51 articles and 4 chapters which are lists in process. Also listed below are 31 of the forewords, introductions, and afterwords which he wrote for others' works. Finally, the list of 32 readers and compilations continues to grow as material from his work is incorporated into new publications.
George G. Epoch was a Canadian priest, a member of the Jesuit Fathers of Upper Canada. From 1971 to 1983, Epoch abused over 120 children at the Jesuit mission of Wikwemikong and St Mary's church of Cape Kroker and Saugeen, all of which are first nations reserves in Ontario, Canada.
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