Dante: Hope for the Unheroic | Fr. Paul Pearson- 2022 Keith Cassidy Lecture

The Very Reverend Fr. Paul Pearson, Superior of the Toronto Oratory, and Rector and Dean of St. Philip’s Seminary, presents Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College's annual Dr. Keith Cassidy Lecture.
Drawing on his deep and wide knowledge of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Fr. Pearson demonstrated that the Paradiso contains some souls who, while they ultimately made the choice to give their lives over to the service of God, were not always heroically virtuous. Indeed, some of these souls who find their way to paradise were for a time attracted by lesser things, such as carnal pleasure or fame, but they were, in the end, able to achieve holiness by allowing God to reorient their desires towards Him. Fr. Pearson’s lively speaking style as well as his erudition, notable also in his series of three books on Dante titled "Spiritual Direction from Dante," kept the audience enthralled.
The event, which took place on November 17, 2022, was the college’s fourth annual Dr. Keith Cassidy Lecture, a lecture series established in honour of Professor Emeritus of History and past president of the college, Dr. Keith Cassidy.