Father Monsour remembered as one who ‘loved the priesthood’

Father Ray Monsour was part of history when he joined a group of priests from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to begin serving in Venezuela in 1970. Father Monsour, who served in that country for five years and helped establish the mission parish of Jesucristo Resucitado, died Oct. 4 at age 85.

Serving in a Latin American country — and the priesthood itself — were unimaginable to a man who grew up in the west side of St. Paul and was raised in the Maronite Rite. His parents emigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon, and raised their six children in Holy Family Maronite Catholic Church, which at the time was located in St. Paul and now is in Mendota Heights.

Father Monsour began thinking about priesthood while going to St. Matthew School, and had a desire to attend Nazareth Hall. But, he was told he could not become a priest of the archdiocese because he was a Maronite, according to Father John Forliti, a retired priest of the archdiocese and Father Monsour’s longtime friend. Father Monsour cleared that hurdle a few years later when he joined the Latin rite while also maintaining his membership in the Maronite Rite.

That move cleared a path to attending the St. Paul Seminary, which is where he met Father Forliti. He was one year behind Father Forliti, and was ordained in 1963. The two priests later joined a priest support group that met monthly for 50 years. They also took vacations together and cooked meals together. Father Forliti is well-known for his Italian dishes, even writing a cookbook, while Father Monsour specialized in Lebanese cuisine.

But, far more than a good cook and a wonderful friend, Father Forliti considered Father Monsour an excellent priest.

“He was very faithful,” said Father Forliti, 86, who five years ago wrote a brief biography on Father Monsour. “Just a very, very solid human being, and man of deep faith. He loved the priesthood. He loved to serve and work with people, especially around the margins. I was able to help him quite a bit when he was pastor of Ascension parish in Minneapolis.”

Father Monsour came to Ascension in 1981, first serving as co-pastor (1981-85), then as pastor (1985-93). During that time, the school was struggling, with enrollment dropping to 163 students. With Father Forliti’s continued support and help with financial networking to increase school funding, Father Monsour helped turn things around at Ascension School.

One important step was hiring Dorwatha Woods as principal in 1987. At the time, she was working at St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis, and liked it so much she never dreamed of leaving. She also had never been a principal before, but Father Monsour invited her to step into the leadership role at Ascension. Her time at Ascension lasted 29 years, with numbers increasing steadily and the quality of education improving to the point where, in 2015, 100% of the 2011 eighth-grade graduating class had graduated from high school and 90% had gone on to college.

Woods, who left Ascension in 2016 and now continues her work in education at Flaherty Family Foundation, traces the success of Ascension back to Father Monsour and how he led the parish and school. Together, they helped boost enrollment to nearly 300 students, and served primarily African-American students and other racial minorities. Along the way, they helped develop an educational and academic partnership with Holy Name of Jesus School in Medina that they called Children’s Hands Across Town (CHAT), an outgrowth of a relationship between the two parishes started eight years prior called Hands Across Town. Father Monsour continually welcomed Woods’ ideas and initiatives, she said.

“He allowed me to be the educator that I am and to use my expertise,” said Woods, 64, the regional scholarship facilitator for Minnesota at the Flaherty Family Foundation. “He understood that I was the educator, and he trusted me and my expertise in being able to do what was good for that school, for those young people.”

After 12 years at Ascension, Father Monsour spent the next 12 as pastor of St. Mary in LeCenter. He spent seven months as parochial administrator of St. Henry in Monticello before retiring from parish ministry in 2006. He served as director of the Retired Clergy Office in the archdiocese from 2006-2011. Other assignments included St. James in St. Paul (1963-67), St. Luke in St. Paul (1967-69) and Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul (1974-81).

Through all of those assignments, Father Monsour remained faithful to the priest support group, with only two of the original six left, and was “like a brother” to Father Forliti.

“He was always a strong supporter of what I was going through,” Father Forliti said. “He was there when you needed him.”

And still is, said Woods, who carries 29 years of memories in her heart of the man she knows as “Father Ray.”

“Yes, his presence is gone,” she said, “but he’s not far away. He’s still very near. His soul is alive, and that’s something to celebrate.”

A visitation is noon to 8 p.m. Oct. 11 at Klecatsky and Sons West Chapel in West St. Paul, with a rosary at 3 p.m. and a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. The funeral Mass is 11 a.m. Oct. 12 at Holy Family Maronite Catholic Church in Mendota Heights. Interment will be at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights.