Meet Fr. Robert Barringer
St. Augustine’s Seminary welcomes back a familiar face as its new President – Fr. Robert Barringer.
He is a former Academic Dean at the Seminary and takes over the presidential position from St. Augustine’s Rector Fr. Edwin Gonsalves, who had been carrying out the duties on an interim basis as a dual role.
Fr. Barringer brings to the position a wealth of academic and spiritual experience. He was ordained to the Congregation of St. Basil in 1974 and has taught at various universities across Canada, the U.S. and Colombia. He was Academic Dean at St. Augustine’s from 2010 to 2014 and was preparing for retirement when he received a call from Cardinal Collins asking him if he would take over as President at the Seminary.
“He was very clear that what he wanted from me, if I could provide it, was direction for the Seminary in its institutional relationships with the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto and I think, to a lesser extent, a kind of consultative role in dealing with the Roman Congregation.”
Fr. Barringer says he is very conscious of the confidence being placed in him in this role, one he takes very seriously given the importance of the mission of the seminary – the formation of priests, deacons and lay disciples.
“I do think there is something that is at the heart of the reality of the Seminary, which I think is extremely important, and that is formation,” he says. “That formation comes very centrally through the personal witness of the teachers here, the priest professors and the lay professors. Here are people who have dedicated their lives to understanding the shape and the substance of Christian life and the relationship with God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The treasure here at the heart of the Seminary is the witness of that in the lives of the professors.”
Fr. Barringer, a humble and learned man of God, approaches his new position as President with confidence and readiness to serve.
“A person of faith really has nothing to fear,” he says. “This is a creation made by God, not just this tiny little world in which we live, but the whole universe. Our role in it is something that we learn. It’s not all about us. It’s about the gifts that we’ve been given for the good of others. That has informed my own experience as a priest, as a teacher, pretty well all my life.”