Jesuit in the Legislative Gallery: A life of Father Carl Matthews, S.J.

Jesuit in the Legislative Gallery A life of Father Carl Matthews, S.J. WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED BY Michael Power, 2005 ISBN: 0968610730, Softcover, pp. 184, $12.00 CAD

On the fourth of this month, Father Carl Matthews, S.J. celebrates his fiftieth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. The hero of Ontario separate school system financial parity and completion is no stranger to long-time readers of Catholic Insight. His seminal articles, "Suppression in Newfoundland" and "Will Ontario's Catholic Schools survive the next 25 years?" appeared in our January/February and March 1998 issues. When his mission church on Christian Island needed to be replaced that year, Fr. Matthews' May advertisement in C.I. generated an average donation of $1,100 from twenty-two people.

Michael Power's biography has had two printings in 2005 of 1,000 copies each. The book offers detailed documentation of the extraordinary accomplishments of a gifted and holy priest: teacher, school trustee, and board chairman; consummate lobbyist; newspaper editor; parish priest and pastor. The timing of the publication is appropriate not only to Fr. Matthews' ordination anniversary, but to the centennial later this year of his church, St. John the Evangelist in Waubaushene, ON.

Power is a respected writer, and there is ample evidence that he has worked carefully to portray the impact of his subject. There are 411 footnotes to the eight chapters; a glossary of abbreviations and a comprehensive bibliography; and touching photographs throughout. That Power has perused five boxes of personal papers and 32 publications from Fr. Matthews is no mean feat.

Nevertheless, there are certain aspects of this biography which may frustrate the reader. The focus of the book is on Fr. Matthews' efforts to achieve funding parity for every grade in Ontario's Catholic schools. Significant prior and outside knowledge is needed to contextualize the material. Power states in the introduction that his biography "should be read with three other [specified] works (p. viii)." Only a researcher or specialist would be likely to access all four volumes.

Yet in the same sentence, Power also identifies his book as a "popular biography," even though his book does not stand alone, as it should in this genre. Fr. Matthews' tireless efforts with pedagogical associations, the Church, and legislators to bring justice to Catholic schools have consumed most of his lifetime. He endorsed the Foundation Tax Plan, produced annual finance trends documentation and innumerable briefs, and defended the former Separate Schools acts. Fr. Matthews' intelligence, solid facts, cunning strategies, persistence, and flair for persuasion are made obvious with Power's telling.

However, the general reader would be additionally helped by separate annotations of the numerous personalities, committees, legislation and policy proposals that appear throughout the book; as well as a more accessible explanation of the funding situation before and after parity. Fr. Matthews has several times ghostwritten speeches, and was in the habit of offering both solicited and unsolicited opinions to education stakeholders. His clarity of style and precision convinced even holdouts such as Cardinal G. Emmett Carter to heed Fr. Matthews' views. Either more excerpts of Fr. Matthews' existing writing could have been reproduced with the book, or Fr. Matthews could have been asked to assist his biographer by contributing appendices. Fr. Matthews is undoubtedly Ontario's most familiar and articulate historian of his beloved cause, and he would be the most successful presenter of the more technical material.

Further, it is unclear from the text why interviews have been downplayed, when Power had the luxury of access to a living and cooperative subject. "This is Carl Matthews' story, as told through forty years of correspondence, his published and unpublished writings and to a lesser degree his recollections (p. viii)." The reasons for the stated emphasis are not elaborated, but the stronger parts of the book are those which rely less directly on the file boxes.

More personal interviews might have allowed Power to better draw out Fr. Matthews' character. Three examples will suffice: First, Fr. Matthews was raised in a stable family of well-educated men and women; but his own education was in an all-male, all-Catholic environment until he was 26. When Power notes that Carl entered a mixed classroom for the first time in 1958, we are not told whether there was any and what was the significance of this change for him.

Power uses the term "lone wolf" three times in the text in reference to Fr. Matthews' individualism. Sometimes the trait has been adaptive, as when Fr. Matthews stubbornly defended his ideals against compromises that would have harmed the constitutional right to Catholic schools. Other times, his behaviour seem less defensible, as with his acting solo as chairman of the Metropolitan Separate School Board rather than waiting for the available support of his Advisory Committee. Indeed, the reactions to such episodes render puzzling Fr. Matthews' subsequent action as an otherwise excellent publisher/editor of the Catholic Register. His last minute decision, without consultation, to promote the Charlottetown Accord was used as the justification for his controversial firing from that newspaper. It would be good to know directly from Fr. Matthews, and not just from his excerpted resignation letter, how he now assesses his place on the learning curve.

One would also welcome the inclusion of Fr. Matthews' opinions on the epilogue to his story. Fr. Matthews never wanted funding parity and completion to come at the price of Catholic identity in the schools. At the high point of his success, he was somewhat betrayed by the sudden addition of nasty amendments to Bill 30 (which granted completion). The most troubling amendment was Section 136, which briefly ended the hiring preference for Catholic teachers. A subsequent court ruling found the amendment unconstitutional, so the justifiable discrimination continues to be allowed. (Power does not make this clear.) However, Catholic identity has indeed been weakened in the system, largely by internal dissent from Catholics. Sadly, the problem is so great that Fr. Matthews' decades-long struggles have now been eclipsed by a new Catholic education goal: a tax credit for parents who send their children to independent schools. In many communities, independent schools represent the preferred choice for a truly Catholic education. The Constitutional rights gallantly defended by Fr. Matthews remain available at least in Ontario, but their exercise has been tarnished.

Power wants Fr. Matthews' biography to "give a measure of the man, so that his many and various good works will be remembered and be a positive lessons for generations yet to come (p. viii)." While he has fulfilled the basic requirements of this goal, one hopes that Power proceeds to a more polished second edition. Fr. Matthews has long been eager to talk, and both he and the readers deserve a fuller account of his marvelous deeds. Still, out of gratitude to its subject, I am pleased to have read this book and to recommend it.

The book is available from Fr. Carl Matthews, S.J., P.O. Box 238, Waubaushene, ON L0K 2C0, for $12.00 CAD incl. postage.