Fr. Willy Raymond, C.S.C

National Director, Family Theater Productions (Hollywood, CA.)

Biography

  Father Wilfred “Willy” Raymond, CSC, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross and immediate past provincial superior of its Eastern Province, has served as National Director of Family Theater Productions since September 2000.  The mission of Family Theater, which was founded in Hollywood in 1947 by Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton, CSC, the “Rosary priest,” Catholic media pioneer and now sainthood candidate, is to evangelize culture by using mass media to entertain, inspire and educate families. Family Theater’s famous slogan is “The family that prays together stays together."

Father Raymond leads Family Theater in producing television dramas, documentaries and special programs, including a celebrity Rosary DVD currently in production, the award-winning “God, Country, Notre Dame: The Story of Father Ted Hesburgh, CSC,” which has aired on The Hallmark Channel and is currently airing on public TV stations across the country; producing Voz Latina Radio programs in Spanish – dramas, documentaries and public service announcements – which have won more than 30 prestigious awards; in the digital re-mastering and distribution of Family Theater Classic Radio programs; in conducting the annual Angelus Student Film Festival, now it its 13th year, to honor exceptional quality college-level student films that respect the universal human family; a nationwide public-service billboard prayer campaign; and in offering Hollywood Prays {Praise}, which he created. It includes Prayer-and-Pasta nights for young people in the media industry, “Going Deeper” in the Catholic faith seminars and an RCIA program designed for people in the entertainment industry. Also, he was the co-facilitator of The Rosary Bowl, held May 19, 2007,  that drew more than 35,000 people to the Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena, to pray the Rosary for world peace and families everywhere.

Before coming to Family Theater Productions, Father Raymond was provincial of Holy Cross’ Eastern Province from 1998 to 2000. As such he served as Chairman of the Corporate Members and President of the Board of Directors of Holy Cross Family Ministries, of which Family Theater Productions is a member, and served on the Boards of Directors and the Executive Committees of both Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., and King’s College in Wilkes Barre, PA. He was Assistant Provincial and Vicar of the province from June 1994 to 1998.
 
A native of Maine, Wilfred Raymond entered the Holy Cross Novitiate in Bennington, VT, in 1965, making his First Profession on July 16, 1966. He earned a B.A. in Philosophy in 1967 from Stonehill College, professed final vows April 1, 1970 at Moreau Seminary, Notre Dame, IN, earned a Master of Theology degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1971 and was ordained to the priesthood on April 3, 1971. In addition to English, he speaks French and Spanish.