On 30 July, the outstanding canon lawyer of the twentieth century, Ladislas Orsy SJ, celebrates his hundredth birthday. His influence on several generations of Catholic theologians has been profound

An encounter with “Les”, as he is known, is always electrifying. You feel charged by his energy, his ­buoyancy. He’s engaging, welcoming, witty; he delights in irony; he’s affirming, consoling, a natural storyteller; and he’s always upbeat, hardly pausing to catch his breath as he skips from one humorous insight to another.

You would never guess the struggles Orsy has faced, nor the pain and anxiety he has borne, nor the matter-of-fact way that he understands the Catholic Church, with all its (what shall we call them?) contradictions. The man who invites us – perhaps more compellingly than any other living Catholic theologian – always to be open to the Spirit is someone who has himself walked with the Spirit his entire life.

I am one of many former students whose lives – and understanding of their ministry – have been transformed by Orsy’s personality and teaching. The canon lawyer Sharon Euart RSM told me that Les shared with her his motto – dum spiro, spero – which he translates as “As long as I breathe, I hope.” “When I think of Fr Orsy or talk with him or visit him,” Euart says, “even as he nears 100 years of life, this hope is evident in his expression and in the joy with which he looks towards boundless new horizons of God’s love for all people and Creation.”