Official Biographical Note from the Passing of Father Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. (1903-1976)
Brief Translator’s Remarks
The text below is an official notification regarding the life and work of Fr. Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I., who remains far too unknown in the contemporary theological scene. In the spirit of filial piety toward a great master from the past, I wished merely to reproduce in English this notification for those To Be a Thomist readers who might be interested in this forgotten but great thinker of Thomism from the first half of the 20th century.
I would like to thank Mathew C. Martin, CA, the Provincial Archivist for the United States Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, for his speedy communication regarding the files containing this notice, as well as for the time he spent petitioning for permission from the Notre Dame-du-Cap Provincial Council to publish this translation on To Be a Thomist. Likewise, I would like to thank my research assistant, Mr. Mitchell Kengor, who first happened upon this notice and who helped prepare this text for translation. Finally, also, I thank the OMI Provincial Council (the Notre Dam-du-Cap Province) for permission to present this text publicly online.
For some further bibliographical details regarding Fr. Doronzo’s works, the reader can also consult this brief overview that I penned for a republication of several of his small late-life works: https://www.academia.edu/88733388/Emmanuel_Doronzo_A_Forgotten_Giant_of_American_Thomistic_Theology
Original Notice from 1978 (by André Guay, O.M.I.)
Father Emmanuel Doronzo, who died on October 7, 1976 in Middleburg, Virginia, USA, and was buried in our Richelieu cemetery on the following October 12, had been a member of the Saint-Joseph province [of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate] since 1948. However, very few of us—barely a handful—had the privilege of knowing him. For this reason alone, it is all the more important for the Province to ensure that a biographical note be written about his life, let alone to mention the other reason for doing so, namely Father Doronzo’s exceptional career. The present notice intends to make him better known, as well as the remarkable theological apostolate he exercised without faltering over the course of a long career as a professor and writer.
I. His Priestly “Career”
Childhood in Barletta
Emmanuel Doronzo was born in Barletta, Italy, on February 7, 1903, to Pasquale Doronzo and Concetta Vermella. Barletta is located on the Adriatic coast, a short distance from Bari, the region’s major seaport. The town has a long and glorious history. It is mentioned as far back as the time of Alexander the Great. Over the course of more than twenty centuries, powerful princes passed through the town, the Crusaders set sail for the East, and the Teutonic Knights, then the Knights Templar and finally the Knights of Malta in turn built hospitals, churches and monasteries there. This entire history is written upon the monuments and ruins throughout the town. It is impossible not to be deeply affected by the history of one’s homeland, and even if one does not necessarily feel the blood of the heroes who made it famous running through one’s veins, nonetheless, merely knowing this history leaves a lifelong impression.
Emmanuel belonged to a large family of middle-class farm owners. Papa Pasquale was hard-working and austere, directing the work of his employees. Mama Concetta was especially concerned with the children’s religious education, gathering them together every evening to recite the rosary.
In such well-prepared family soil there fell the good seed of a religious and priestly vocation, which was soon to grow auspiciously in the hearts of two of the children: Emmanuel and his brother Matteo, who was three years older than him. Little Emmanuel was extremely lively. He was “quick to the draw,”1 as one used to say, with those his age. “No one could count the number of licks he gave to us,” says Matteo.
A “juniorist” at ten
The term “juniorist” is not entirely accurate, however. In 1913, when Emmanuel was still only ten years old, two Oblate Fathers came to preach a mission in Barletta. Faithful to the missionary recommendations of the Blessed Founder, they visited families. Father Jacques Nanni came to the Doronzo home and won the family’s sympathy. This visit naturally stimulated the children’s desire to become missionaries. Papa Pasquale and Mama Concetta resigned themselves to Matteo’s departure but were firmly opposed to Emmanuel’s, both on account of his young age and because his lively temperament made him unbearable.
Emmanuel frequented the parish “Oratorio.” In Italy, the “Oratorio” is a parish-based youth group, which later developed into a Catholic Action movement properly so-called. Was this the result of the move to the “Oratorio”? In any case, it was Emmanuel’s tenacity that enabled him and his brother Matteo to leave for the Apostolic School of Santa Maria a Vico, near Naples, the training ground for so many Oblate vocations.
At the time, the institution was not then, strictly speaking, a
juniorate. Originally a Dominican convent, the building had been
constructed by the King of Naples: it was the "Real Convento,” the royal
convent. Saint Pius V once lived here. The royal convent later became
the
“Real Collegio,” the “Royal College.” The Oblates settled there in 1902.
In Emmanuel’s day, it was known as the “Istituto l’Aquinate,” a boarding
school that was well known in the region. It was a privilege to be
admitted. Alongside the college, the young Italian province had
organized an apostolic school which was flourishing at the time. In
1928, as space began to run out, the boarding school was sacrificed to
promote the development of the Apostolic School: it soon housed 124
juniorist, the “Apostolini” as they were called.
During his five years of study, Emmanuel had made a name for himself with his extremely keen intelligence. And when he finished high school, he entered the Oblate novitiate at Saint-Pierre d’Aoste.
Novice at fifteen, Oblate at sixteen...
It was at Saint-Pierre d’Aoste that he took the religious habit on August 14, 1918. During his novitiate—the point is expressly stated—"he had neither visions nor revelations, and performed no miracles”… Moreover, he was not at all the kind of man to have visions and perform miracles. But he gave clear signs of seriousness and commitment, in great simplicity. His character was maturing rapidly.
On September 21, 1919, he took his first vows and received his obedience for the Oblate International Scholasticate in Rome, via Vittorino da Feltre. He arrived there the following October 12 and began his studies at the Gregorian University. There he obtained a doctorate in philosophy cum laude. He then moved to the Angelicum to study theology, graduating summa cum laude. On February 17, 1925, he received his perpetual oblation. Required, like all seminarians, to do military service, he served in the barracks in Rome itself, from April 1923 to March 1924. An absence such as this furnished an opportunity for Emmanuel to mature further. Frequently returning to the Oblate house at the Scholasticate, we bore witness to his attachment to his vocation and to the community.
His brilliant intelligence had been noticed for a long while. At one point, it seems, this brilliance even worried some of the Fathers: he could well have been judged to be skeptical!... Fortunately, this was not the case. His superior, the great spiritual master Father Albert Perbal, knew how to read the depths of Emmanuel’s soul. Quickly realizing that the Lord had placed in his hands a subject of choice, he guided him towards the summits.
Brother Emmanuel possessed a demanding, critical, and subtle intelligence, constantly prone to finding flaws in the explanations given to him in class. It was difficult for him to remain content with them, to the point of giving the impression of systematic incredulity. The extreme subtlety of his mind would certainly have put him in danger of deviation. But the maturity of judgement that came with the extra year of vows (1923–1924), compulsory for those returning from military service, was to ward off this tendency, undoubtedly stemming from his excessive youth: Emmanuel was only 16 when he took his first vows...
A priest at 22...
Tonsured in 1924, sub-deacon and deacon in 1925, he received the priesthood at the same time as his brother Matteo on July 5 of the same year, at the age of just 22, by virtue of an indult.
It’s worth reading Father Perbal's penetrating analysis of Emmanuel's character at the end of his scholasticate:
A well-developed sensibility and imagination. Firm will. Calm and gentle in a way that depends upon his own will. General equilibrium, the product of true inner discipline. Remarkable intelligence, somewhat subtle. Very diligent in penetrating matters both speculatively and practically. He has the tendency of the analyst who dissects and produces his synthesis only a posteriori, but who, perhaps because of this, is a little learned and dwells on details more than is reasonable. Style easily ample, but also incisive and biting. Reserved in judgment, cautious, good-natured, discreet, and sure. No talent for singing. A truly interior and profoundly supernatural spirit, of great generosity. Docility... He’s one of the scholastics in whom I have noticed the most progress, especially since his military service… Perfectly suited to teaching dogma and philosophy in a scholasticate. He has been criticized for his tendency towards subtlety, refinement and depth. He knows that there is a gulf between studying a question for oneself or for a doctoral thesis, on the one hand, and repeating the principles for scholastics of average or inferior abilities. The admiration he professes for Fathers Brown and Garrigou-Lagrange (two extremely solid and brilliant professors at the Angelicum), the advice and warnings he has received on this point, his beautiful generosity and supernatural docility, and his prudent common sense all lead me to believe that he will avoid this pitfall, which he certainly himself first realized. He will want to be sober and clear, and the two years he spent at the Angelicum will provide him with models of this teaching method. We consider him a very good subject, and we ask that he be given the opportunity to give his full measure by teaching in a scholasticate. (Signed: Albert Perbal, O.M.I, May 28, 1927)
It’s not clear what is more deserving of admiration, whether the remarkable analysis of such a subject, or the Lord’s generosity in multiplying in one soul so many precious qualities of mind and heart, or, finally, for the generosity and response to grace by a young priest about to embark on a career from which he was not to deviate for a single moment of his life.
For Emmanuel, this career in his life as an Oblate, to which he would dedicate himself to the fullness of his abilities, was like a wholly particular, special call, which he clearly perceived within his religious vocation: the apostolate of teaching theology. He saw it on a truly higher plane, as a career to which he would devote his whole life, generously sacrificing anything that might hinder his apostolic output or diminish it in the slightest. It has been written that the greatness of a life is made up of an ideal conceived in youth and realized little by little over the course of one’s entire existence: this was exactly the case for Emmanuel.
“We ask that it be possible for him to give his full measure by teaching in a scholasticate,” Father Perbal had written to Monsignor Dontenwill. Obedience arrived in 1927: Emmanuel was transferred from the International Scholasticate in Rome to the Province of Italy, teaching dogmatic theology at the scholasticate in One di Fonte. Armed with a doctorate in theology, a second doctorate in philosophy and a bachelor’s degree in canon law, the young professor arrived with a heart full of hope for an apostolic career that would fully satisfy his most cherished wishes.
One di Fonte and San Giorgio Canavese, Italy
It was at the scholasticate of One di Fonte, later transferred to San Giorgio Canavese, that he took his first steps in his teaching career. He remained at both scholasticates from 1927 to 1936. Obviously, these establishments were not like those in Rome, with its universities and libraries. And a teacher who wished to deepen his teaching and engage in theological research would quickly feel limited in his efforts in such a situation. Return to Rome and teach at one of its universities? An impossible dream: the great Roman institutions were well-guarded fiefdoms back in those days. Therefore, in a letter dated March 2, 1936, Emmanuel addressed his problem to the Very Reverend Father Labouré, the Superior General: “I would also like, humbly and without pretension, to be able to use the little experience I have acquired in teaching the sacred sciences in another part of the Congregation. Personally, I have always wished to find myself in an environment where one has more ample and easy conditions for intellectual work, but I am always entirely in your so paternal hands to go anywhere, whether in a province or vicariate.”
San Antonio, Texas
Prior to his election as Superior General, the Very Reverend Father Labouré had worked in Texas. He instinctively thought of the province to which he served as a missionary. Upon Father Emmanuel’s request, he responded by transferring him to the Mazenod Scholasticate in San Antonio, Texas. The year was 1936. Father Emmanuel adapted easily and happily to his new surroundings. “In this new environment,” he wrote to the Superior General, “I feel completely at ease and have already become accustomed to the minor moral and material differences that are necessarily encountered in these changes of country, especially of continent. My theology teaching seems to be going well, at least as far as the students are concerned, who are following the course with interest… I am also beginning to know and appreciate more and more this beautiful province of Texas, which is truly one of the finest jewels in the Congregation’s crown, and where you yourself labored with such zeal.” (Letter of October 25, 1936 to the Very Reverend Father Labouré).
It was at the San Antonio scholasticate that Father Emmanuel began his work as a writer. We will come back to this later. His teaching in Texas lasted ten years. But as his work as a writer grew day by day, and became more demanding as a result of the research it required, he felt the need to be in an even more supportive environment: “The work here is quite difficult, due to the lack of books and reference libraries. I hope that, in the near future, I will obtain permission to go to Europe during the summer (I have been in Texas for more than ten years) and thus have the opportunity, among other things, to look into a number of matters [consulter] and finalize a bunch of notes and texts regarding the volumes to follow.” (Letter to the Very Reverend Father Hilaire Balmès, Assistant General, September 23, 1946). His intention was to complete the publication of his course on the Sacraments (14 volumes), in order to have a complete theological series, “before I embark on another field that includes the ‘De Deo uno et Trino,’ ‘De Verbo incarnato,’ the Treatise ‘De Beata Maria Virgine,’ etc. The closing “etc” is interesting and revealing!
The Very Reverend Balmès immediately understood the situation. He was an author himself and, as Father Emmanuel pointed out to him, “only those who know this sort of labor and have sweated over the preparation of a book are capable of appreciating such hard work” (letter to the Balmès, September 23, 1946). Father Balmès’ response was almost immediate. A few weeks later, Father Emmanuel was transferred to Washington D.C., where he could teach at Catholic University and find ample resources for his research and publications.
In anticipation of this transfer, he asked Father Balmès for permission to bring a few books and submitted a list, or rather two lists: “The first list contains books I had permission to buy when I was a scholastic in Rome, and which Father Dozois, then vicar general, allowed me to bring to San Giorgio Canavese, and then the late Father Labouré gave me permission to take from San Giorgio to San Antonio. The second list contains books I bought last summer with the money we are given here to provide us with some rest and distraction during the long vacations. I made this sacrifice—and not just this year—because it was the only way I could find the books I needed for my work” (Letter on December 14, 1946). And, in the same letter, he added these few lines that make one smile: “Besides, almost all these works would have little chance of being consulted by others after me, either because of the French or even Latin language, or because of the character of the subjects treated therein, for even educated people here have no attraction for such things, and Americans don’t easily run after someone like Cajetan, Gonet, or John of Saint Thomas.”
Washington, D.C., January 1947
Therefore, Father Emmanuel would go to Washington and stay at the scholasticate of the first American province. He was warmly welcomed. He would pay his board and rent through his Mass stipends, Sunday and vacation ministry, and book royalties. Would he belong to the first province? Personally, he preferred to remain attached to Texas, at least for a while, so as not to offend, or better still, he would have liked to be attached to the General House. The situation was to be settled definitively in 1948, when the Very Reverend Léo Deschâtelets, recently elected Superior General, attached him to the province of Saint-Joseph in Canada, with permanent residence in Washington and a mission to teach at the Catholic University of America and continue his theological writings: an exceptional and somewhat surprising solution, at first sight, though in the end, flexible and intelligent. Having received this good news, Father Emmanuel hurried to write to Father Eugène Guérin, provincial of Saint-Joseph, expressing his joy at having been attached to the province and at the same time his feelings of filial and religious obedience towards him. Careful in every detail, he asked for permission to indicate his name for the Imprimi potest in the forthcoming volumes, which had already been seen by the censors and received the Imprimatur of the Archbishop of Washington. It was granted.
In Washington, Father Emanuel would meet a fellow Oblate, Father Arthème Dutilly, also working at the Catholic University. Although they did not live in the same place, during the years that followed, they saw each other every Saturday on a regular basis. They remained faithful companions until 1968, when Father Dutilly returned to Canada for good.
As for Father Emmanuel, various practical circumstances later led him to change residence. He hardly ever went out, absorbed as he was in the preparation of his courses and even more so in the long, exhausting research that his work and vocation as a writer demanded of him. At most, he would meet with a compatriot and friend, Monsignor Pietro Parente, then in residence in Washington, who later became a cardinal, and whose “Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology” he translated into English.
II. THE TEACHER
By all accounts, Father Emmanuel was a born teacher. Very lively in class, brilliant, playful, with a fine, communicative smile on his lips… “An infectious chuckle,” as one woman religious put it. And with this, a soul as clear as a child’s. But he was not at all naive, not Father Emmanuel. He was a man who was speculatively solid, and concretely too, with both feet firmly planted on the ground. At the same time, like all true scholars, he was an extraordinarily humble man. He once asked: “What is a theologian?” And responding to himself: “Not much.” And of his work he would say: “I have not done that much.”
As Fr. George Kirwin, O.M.I., Superior of the Oblate College in Washington, indicated in his homily at Father Emmanuel’s funeral, “This was perhaps an echo of the sentiments of his Master Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose wisdom enabled him to appreciate how far he was from being able to adequately express the wonders and depths of the riches of God.”
As the saying goes: “What is well conceived is clearly stated, and the words to say it come easily.” Such was the case with Father Emmanuel. His language? Simple, clear, peppered with anecdotes and understandable, striking metaphors [comparaisons]. Despite his immense erudition, he knew how to put himself within the reach of all his students without exception, even the humblest, and wanted everyone to fully understand what he was explaining.
He always found teaching to be a joyful, refreshing, and never tedious task. For many years, it was a source of consolation. There came a day, however, when for him, as for many other theology teachers, even the most astute, the task proved more arduous: the conciliar and especially the post-conciliar years… This was a time when students, spurred on by the prevailing atmosphere, fell in love with the boldest novelties. With access to all the books and periodicals they could get their hands on, they were faced with problems for which they lacked the necessary training. Hence the interruptions in class: “Father, what do you think of this or that theological advancement… by so-and-so?” Father Emmanuel, who had read all this well before his students, as evidenced by his numerous reference cards, would simply reply with a brief, “Nonsense,” and continue with the lecture. Thus, the reaction of certain listeners was often less interested in the fundamental doctrine being taught than in what was new. Besides, wasn’t this something that can periodically be found over the course of the past twenty centuries?
But, for the serious student, what a boon is a clear lecture, satisfying for the intellect, presented by a teacher who doesn’t merely repeat word for word the lesson he once upon a time learned but, rather, understands it thoroughly and knows how to make others understand it! One of his former students declared: “One of the best teachers I’ve ever had.”
III. THE WRITER-THEOLOGIAN
However, teaching was not his primary work, nor was it the task that absorbed most of his time and energy. Words pass, writings remain. Father Emmanuel was well aware of this. He was first and foremost a “scholar” in the strongest sense of the term, as evidenced by his considerable and remarkable written output. It earned him the “Cardinal Spellman Award,” presented to him at the Congress of American Theologians at Notre Dame University, Indiana, in 1952.2 Nor is it surprising that he was appointed an expert to the Theological Commission at the Second Vatican Council.
Conceived—one might say dreamed up—at San Giorgio during his teaching at the Schoalsticate, this written work began to take shape in San Antonio, Texas, with the mimeographed publication of a vast course in dogmatic theology: over 2,000 pages of Latin text, forming an 11-volume set. That was quite a bit. And yet a mere start.
The young professor had his sights set so much higher: he planned to publish a complete, in-depth course in dogmatic theology in as many volumes as necessary. This work would be aimed primarily at teachers of theology, who in many places do not always have abundant scientific resources at their fingertips. At the very least, they would find in the work envisaged by Father Emmanuel an abundant, orderly, and reliable scientific arsenal. Seminarians themselves, eager to delve deeper into a particular problem, could also benefit from the work. Father Emmanuel saw his vocation fulfilled: not only to teach theology, but to help teachers teach it well; clearly a very special apostolate, a special vocation. There must be a few courageous researchers in the Church who, in the name of all, scrutinize problems to their depths and on whose true science the Church can always rely.
But where to find a publisher for such a work? Two came forward: Herder and Bruce. The latter, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was chosen. Thanks to their efficient collaboration, Father Emmanuel published an imposing collection: 14 large-format volumes, all covering the treatise on the Sacraments alone. Note: only the treatise on the sacraments. Each of these volumes contains between 600 and 1,200 pages. Two of them deal with the Eucharist, two with Extreme Unction, four with Penance… Each volume includes five indexes: biblical, exegetical, Thomistic (references to the Summa, etc.), onomastic, and analytical. What an enormous amount of work merely to compile those indexes!
The first volume to go to press, “De Sacramentis in genere,” appeared in 1946, with a glowing letter from Cardinal Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve, O.M.I. Archbishop of Quebec. Cardinal Villeneuve, during his time as Superior of St. Joseph’s Scholasticate in Ottawa, had had the opportunity to attend a famous theological “dispute” in Rome in 1927 by Father Emmanuel at the Gregorianum, a dispute presided over by Cardinal Billot. Throughout the event, the young student proved himself to be extremely brilliant. Already, it was quite evident that he possessed a thorough mastery of his subject matter, and he knew how to present it with vigor and a crystalline clarity.
In his letter of praise, Cardinal Villeneuve commended Fr. Emmanuel’s work thus:
Very clear order, luminous exposition that is adequate to the subject matter, precise doctrine, subtle argumentation, and a considerable discussion of positive theology, though never overabundant beyond measure. The author has thorough command of the doctrine of Saint Thomas and his most remarkable commentators: Cajetan, the “Salmanticenses,” John of Saint Thomas, and Gonet. He presents St. Thomas’s teaching in a methodical, elegant, and solid way.
The Cardinal closed his remarks by voicing his wish that “Such authentic and fruitful doctrine be taught in all theology faculties around the world.” It is well known that Cardinal Villeneuve held Saint Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy and theology in high esteem, this “Intellectual Master” ever recommended by the Church in order to ensure the depth and coherence of teaching in philosophy and theology, a recommendation that was reiterated by Paul VI in a speech following Vatican II (cf. Paul VI, speech at the International Thomistic Congress, April 17–24, 1974).3 Moreover, as will be seen later, one of Father Emmanuel’s greatest sorrows was witnessing, at the beginning of the post-conciliar period, the eagerness of certain professors to decry the doctrine of the Angelic Doctor and even ridicule it in front of students.
In his first printed volume, De Sacramentis in genere, Father Doronzo took great care to express very clearly what he understood by theology, how to deepen it, and how to teach it. He saw in this knowledge a true science worthy of the name, that is, precise knowledge based on principles of faith and leading to certain conclusions drawn by the human intellect in light of the principles of faith, the latter being clearly4 known through sound exegesis and critical historical research, illuminated and above all guided by the infallible Magisterium of the Church.
As he himself put it: “Unless one abdicates sound theological science and becomes an exegete of dogma and history, it is absolutely necessary, even today, not to deviate in any way from the royal path of the ancients, but to amicably combine the two methods. This is what, from the time of our ‘theological infancy,’ we were taught to seek with a particular kind of love (A theologica infantia peculiari affectu prosequi edocti sumus).”
The fourteen large volumes of the Sacraments collection followed one another on regular schedule, almost one per year. In a letter to the Very Reverend Father Deschâtelets, dated November 2, 1963, Father Emmanuel described the difficulties he encountered in preparing his manuscripts. He knew how to get help with his exegetical and patristic research and proceeded methodically in transcribing theological sources; however, his main problem was delivering the final typed text to the printer. In this letter, he requested permission to go to Europe. In those already-distant years, permissions for overseas travel were harder to obtain than they are today. He wrote: “I would like to come to Europe next summer to take care of the manuscript for one of my volumes. I have about 2,000 pages to be typed, and here it is impossible, given that professional typists do not know theology, Latin, or how to decipher my European handwriting. Besides, even for an English text already typed up, they charge 40 cents per page, whereas in Italy and France, I can get this done for 20 cents per page. As for sending the manuscript, that is out of the question, the risk is too great, as I have only one copy, and I need to be there to supervise the work. When I came to Rome in 1958, I managed to get 1,000 pages typed satisfactorily.” Of course, the permission was granted.
This testimony hints at the difficulties and psychological struggles faced by Father Emmanuel in achieving his life’s work, as well as those of the Superiors, who often found themselves caught between two fires in such special cases, which were not very numerous in our Congregation and which some did not understand.
Father Emmanuel worked methodically. The entire school year was absorbed by his teaching and the preparation of a substantial manuscript. Thanks to the synchronization of his manuscripts, when the holidays arrived, he had in hand the proofs of the previous manuscript. He would then go on vacation and focus on proofreading. A fellow countryman and friend, Father Ferrechia, O.M.I., from Palisades Park, N.J., helped him with this task. Proofreading was his primary occupation after the hard work of the year. Once this was finished, he knew how to wisely relax by reading detective novels! Such a discipline of intense work and sensible rest allowed him to keep up the pace and deliver his full output: one volume per year for fourteen years!
Needless to say, the theological work of exemplary quality by Father Emmanuel received high praise. Once this immense work on the Sacraments was completed, he had embarked on another substantial project: the writing of a four-volume treatise on dogmatic theology, also in Latin, titled “Theologia Dogmatica.” By 1968, two large volumes had already been printed in Spain.5 Unfortunately, the profound upheavals in the teaching of theology following Vatican II around those same years were a painful shock for Father Emmanuel. In October 1968, having turned sixty-five years old, it was time for him to retire from the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University in Washington, DC. However, he was determined to remain in the university environment to enjoy library privileges and other benefits. He intended to peacefully continue, in his new leisure time, the work of composing his “Theologia Dogmatica” series. He could also teach one or two additional courses without being a regular member of the Faculty.
However, this was not very appealing for him. As he explained to the Very Reverend Father Deschâtelets: “The profound change that theology has undergone here in the past two or three years, to the point that it is unrecognizable, increasingly degraded to the level of a mere diluted religious instruction, and even of poor quality, which seems to doubt everything, even the dogmas of faith, such as the Magisterium of the Church, the Real Presence, Transubstantiation, and, a fortiori, the existence of angels, purgatory, and hell...” He continued: “What is one to do amid the intellectual crisis that the Church was going through at this time? We have worked long enough on the right path of Tradition and the Magisterium, and we are too convinced of the truth we have been taught since the beginning of our life of study, for us to leave the one and betray the other. There is much that is right and good in the so-called “aggiornamento” willed by the Vatican Council. But this (i.e. the present situation) is not what the Council intended; it is only a dangerous and ephemeral path opened up by the adventurers of the “new theology.” (Letter of March 26, 1968). The situation has since been restored at the Catholic University of America.
He therefore gave up regular teaching at the Faculty. In a note written on September 28, 1976, just a few days before his death and intended for the provincial house in Montreal, responding to the question, “What sectors or fields did you specialize in?”, he replied: “Professor of dogmatic theology for forty-one consecutive years (1927–1968), specializing in sacramental theology.”
And now, what to do? Faced with this situation, and considering on the one hand that his great theological undertaking was practically at an end, and on the other, the small hope of seeing his “Theologia Dogmatica” series continue usefully, he nevertheless did not lay down his arms. “I still continue to work in my line, which is theology, and for which I still have an attraction and sufficient strength, for the Lord has so far spared me any illness or other physical trouble. After the series on the Sacraments… I shall need to complete the series with a second volume on marriage, after the canonical and moral questions, currently disputed in the Church and everywhere, have matured enough. These volumes, less useful for many young people in the present crisis, will perhaps be of more interest later on, for crises in the Church do not last and only recur every fifty years, as history itself teaches us” (Letter to the Very Reverend Father Deschâtelets, January 6, 1970). Father Emmanuel knew this history well, and with good reason.
Aside from these more or less distant and uncertain projects, Father Emmanuel still desired to continue exercising an effective and practical apostolate in the circumstances in which he found himself. His friend, Monsignor Eugène Kevane, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the same Catholic University, had also just retired. By mutual agreement, they planned to set up a publishing center for the teaching of faith and theology, this time in English. Father Emmanuel would be the doctrinal advisor and superintendent of this new organization, and later, perhaps, co-editor of the publications. This opened up a new, more practical field of teaching apostolate for him, without overburdening him physically. Fifty years after his first oblation, he was beginning to feel the weight of the years.
The higher institute for theological studies planned by Monsignor Kevane and Father Emmanuel came to fruition in 1970, thanks to the willing and generous collaboration of the Sisters of Notre Dame (S.N.D.). In Middleburg, Virginia, approximately 45 miles from Washington, they run the renowned Notre Dame Academy in the peaceful, verdant countryside. The new Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies would be based there. The Institute now offers courses in catechetics and theology to religious women teaching in secondary schools and colleges, as well as to priests. Its courses lead to the Higher Diploma in Catechetics, under the authority of the Sacred Congregation of the Clergy, and to a Master of Arts in Religious Education, by virtue of an affiliation with the Faculty of Theology of the University of St. Thomas, Rome.
All the while acting as a theological consultator, Father Emmanuel began publishing small works in English under his own name: “Introduction to Theology,” “Revelation,” “The Channels of Revelation,” and “The Church,” the last being 310 pages long. Others were still in the works: God, the Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The indefatigable Father Emmanuel!
IV. Working into the Eventide
Father Emmanuel followed to the letter the Lord’s example and recommendation: “While it is day, I must do the works of Him who sent me; evening comes, when no one can work” (Jn. 9:4). Evening came for him after a long day of incessant, mortifying toil. Only an ardent love for the Church and the cause—vital to Her—of theology understood and well taught, could have sustained such uninterrupted activity of such intensity.
At the Institute for Advanced Studies in Middleburg, in its beautiful, silent countryside, he partially provided the religious services [for those at the Institute], always courageously pursuing his work as a writer, edifying everyone by his absolute fidelity to his priesthood, his poverty, and his courage at work. He was up as early as six in the morning and did not stop working until late at night. Sisters of Notre-Dame helped him with the transcription of his texts. Likewise, a faithful collaborator, Miss Anna O'Brien, from Middleburg, rendered him a host of services, saving him precious time, trouble, and the various errands he would have had to run himself. Father Emmanuel’s health had held up so far. On September 28, 1976, he returned to Middleburg from his last vacation feeling very ill, perhaps the result of a very long bus journey: he did not travel by plane. The doctor prescribed medication, and he seemed to recover. By the evening of October 6, he was feeling happier and more relaxed than ever. And then, on October 7, the devoted religious sister who had been caring for him found him in his room, lying face down on the parquet floor: Father Emmanuel had died. “An absolutely instantaneous death,” the doctor declared. Probably a heart attack, or cerebral embolism,6 had struck Father Emmanuel.
Thus ended in silence and mystery a life devoted in its entirety to the “apostolate of Theology,” Theology in the strongest sense of the word: “the science of God.” Upon learning of the death of his compatriot, friend, and collaborator, Cardinal Pietro Parente exclaimed: “What an immense sorrow! The Congregation has lost an excellent religious and the Church a great theologian.”
On the afternoon of October 8, Father Emmanuel’s mortal remains were laid to rest in the chapel of Washington’s Oblate College, where teachers and friends came to pay their last respects to the deceased. The funeral took place at the same location the following day. In addition to the College's Oblates, some fifteen priests joined in the concelebrated Mass presided over by Father Gilles Cazabon, O.M.I., Provincial of Montreal. Father Frederick Sackett represented the Oblates of the San Antonio Scholasticate, where Father Doronzo had taught; Father Ioppolo, O.M.I., a compatriot and friend, from Palisades Park, N.J., also came. Father George Kirwin, Superior of the College, gave the homily.
Father Doronzo's remains were then transported to Montreal. A second funeral Mass was celebrated in Richelieu, presided over by Father Elzéar Béliveau, Vicar Provincial. In his homily, Father Sebastiano Pagano, O.M.I., a confrere and friend of the deceased, summed up Father Emmanuel’s life and concluded by highlighting the outstanding features of his life: attachment to the Church and the Supreme Pontiff, piety towards the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary. Father Emmanuel Doronzo now rests in the Richelieu Oblate cemetery.
Allow us to draw to a close with these closing words from Father Kirwin’s homily:
Father Doronzo’s deepest thoughts were rooted in the experience of his faith in Christ and the Church. He paid the price of science: each day, long hours of physical isolation; patience with the enormous resources that had to be gathered before valid conclusions could be reached; the sacrifice of pastoral ministry, so dear to the heart of every priest. He devoted himself totally to his task, in the conviction that this was the mission Christ had entrusted to him. We can be sure that he now understands in all its clarity the profound meaning of the Master’s promise: “Blessed is the servant whom his master will find working when he returns” (Mt. 24:46).
André Guay, O.M.I.
Richelieu, Québec.
May 21, 1978
Literally: “light armed”.↩︎
Translator’s note: The Catholic Theological Society of America lists him as receiving the Spellman Award twice. Once in 1947, the first year it was granted, then again in 1952. See https://www.ctsa-online.org/resources/CTSA.PDFs/JohnCourtneyMurray/RECIPIENTS_OF_CSA_AWARD.pdf↩︎
Translator’s note: See St. Paul VI, “Discorso del Santo Padre Paolo VI Al congresso per il VII Centenario di San Tommaso d’Aquino,” https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/speeches/1974/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19740420_vii-centenario-daquino.html (accessed June 19, 2024).↩︎
Translator’s note: This is how the original text is written. It is important, however, to recall that such truths of faith are, in our wayfaring state, known only with certainty, not evidence. Nonetheless, such certainty suffices for “science” (on the Aristotelian understanding thereof), even if in an imperfect state. However, it is quite possible that clear is being here contrasted, in the rigorous logical sense, to obscure. See Francois-Xavier Maquart, Elementa Philosophia, vol. 1 (Paris: Andreas Blot, 1937), p. 12–13.↩︎
Translator’s note: An edition was also printed by The Catholic University of America Press.↩︎
Trans. note: Reading embolie for ambolie.↩︎
