Holy Cross founder to be beatified said to offer lessons for today

Published: 2007-09-07

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- The only known portrait of Father Basil Anthony Moreau shows a stern, impassioned face. And by some accounts, the 19th-century French cleric lived and thought intensely. But those from the religious congregation he established know him as much more -- an enterprising and adaptive man in many ways ahead of his time. Father Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, was to be beatified Sept. 15 in LeMans, France. The beatification rite officially recognizes Father Moreau's holiness and is one step in the process of naming a saint. "He was a great entrepreneur," said Holy Cross Father Bill Dorwart, campus minister at the University of Portland. "He was a diocesan priest and a teacher who pulled a whole group of people together to give energy to a mission." Born to a peasant family, Father Moreau hit his prime as the sheen had substantially worn off the French Revolution. He envisioned laity, religious and clergy working together to re-evangelize the French countryside. He advised his followers to cultivate a preference for the poor.

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