Richard Boileau: Theology grad seeks harmony

By Scott McRae

Richard Boileau, 56, decided it was time to bring the two halves of his life into closer harmony.

Since graduating with a journalism degree from Ryerson, he had worked in corporate communications, including a recent foray as Bell Canada’s Director of Corporate Communications. However, Boileau, who was ordained nine years ago as a deacon in the Catholic Church, wished to merge his vocation and his profession.

For the past nine months he has held the post of Executive Director of Strategic Planning for Health Partners International of Canada, a humanitarian organization that distributes analgesics, antibiotics and other drugs donated by pharmaceutical companies to Canadian physicians and non-governmental organizations working in the least developed countries of the world.

“The fact that they were providing aid to some of the poorest people in the world was something that resonated with me,” he said in an interview.

He felt that working closely with the world’s poor was also a way to better understand Christ. This is the model of Francis of Assisi, and it is a model Boileau knows well. For his master’s thesis, he investigated the historic, cultural, and sociopolitical context of Francis of Assisi’s teachings to discover why he communicated as he did so as to learn how Francis’ spirituality should be expressed in modern times.

“I tried to demystify the Francis of Assisi that one finds in birdbaths,” he said with a smile. “When I found the historical Francis, I found a man who was substantially more interesting than the devotional Francis.” He also found a man who struggled, as Boileau had done.

Although he was raised in a religious environment, Boileau turned away from the Church in university and did not return until age 35 when his eldest son was born. Wrestling with the question as to whether or not he should have his son baptized, Boileau did what came naturally to him and turned to books for an answer. This deep searching set him on his route to his master’s, and to some important discoveries.

“I’ve discovered in theology that it’s not at all a mark of infidelity to ask questions,” he said. “I’ve gained the courage to ask questions and the wisdom to consider the insights I get from them.” He is graduating with a BA in Theology this spring.