EWTN series host and spiritual life expert Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
ronn...@gmail.com
Father Thomas Edward Dubay, S.M. died Sunday, September 26, 2010 at
the age of 88 years at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD. He
had been admitted to Holy Cross the previous day from the nursing care
facility, Springbrook Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where he had
been living for less than a month. On Friday night he was found to be
unconscious and unresponsive and was taken by ambulance to the
hospital emergency room. After tests on Saturday, doctors diagnosed a
steady bleeding in the brain for which there was no relief or remedy.
Father Dubay never regained consciousness and died early Sunday
morning, 4:45 a.m., September 26, 2010, fortified with the sacraments
of Holy Mother Church and the prayers of his Marist religious
confreres.
Father Dubay was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 30, 1921,
one of the seven children of Elie Albert Dubay and Leah Caron Dubay.
The Dubay family had a French Canadian background, but both parents
were born in the United States – his father in Minneapolis and his
mother in Superior, Wisconsin. He attended public elementary school
in Minneapolis and De La Salle High School, run by the Christian
Brothers. Upon graduating from high school in 1939, he entered St.
Mary’s Manor, the minor seminary (or junior college) of the Marist
Fathers and Brothers located in South Langhorne, Pennsylvania to begin
his college studies. After two years there, Father Dubay entered the
Marist novitiate Our Lady of the Elms on Staten Island, New York.
After one year of novitiate studies, he professed first vows in the
Society of Mary on September 8, 1944.
After religious profession, Thomas Dubay moved to Marist College in
Washington, DC for two years of studies in philosophy, followed by the
required four years of theology. On June 8, 1950, Fr. Dubay was
ordained a priest by Bishop Michael J. Keyes, S.M., the bishop
emeritus of Savannah. The next 60 years of his priestly life and
ministry stand as a glowing testament to his dedicated service to
God’s people through his work first in seminary education and then his
tireless initiatives in all areas of spiritual renewal: education,
writing, personal counseling, correspondence, assisting religious
orders and parish congregations.
His first assignment in the fall of 1950 was to remain in Washington
and continue with postgraduate education. He earned a masters degree
in 1951 from The Catholic University of America. Six years later, in
1957, he would be awarded a doctorate in education from the same
Catholic University. His dissertation bore the title: “A
Philosophical Study of the State as Educator.” In 1952 he began a
distinguished tenure as seminary professor and spiritual director at
Notre Dame Seminary, the major seminary for the Archdiocese of New
Orleans which the Marist Society staffed and administered at that
time. He spent two years on the faculty of Marist College back in
Washington where he had done his theology, and then returned to New
Orleans and Notre Dame Seminary for eleven more years of training
priests for the various dioceses of Louisiana and elsewhere in the
South. In 1967 he served for a year at the Marist seminary called St.
Joseph’s Manor in Bettendorf, Iowa, and was then invited to teach with
the Sisters of Mercy at Russell College in Burlingame, California,
where he stayed for two years. Following Russell College, he joined
the faculty of Chestnut Hill College, run by the Sisters of Saint
Joseph in Philadelphia. After three years at Chestnut Hill, he
returned to Washington in 1973 to lecture seminarians at Marist
Seminary for the next four years. This assignment gave him ample time
to continue his writing of books on the Church and religious life
which were being so well received.
In 1977 Father Dubay entered the second phase of his ministry to
God’s people. He essentially left the classroom to step into the
pulpit and the broadcast studio and, above all, into an airplane
seat. At the recommendation of his provincial superior, he took up
the challenges that all religious orders were facing then after the
Vatican II Ecumenical Council. The council called for all religious
congregations to adapt and renew their forms of life according to
their original, founding inspiration taking into account the reality
and needs of the contemporary world. Father Dubay assisted dozens of
groups of Sisters in their efforts at renewal and adaptation,
especially in bringing their rule of life, or Constitutions, into line
with Vatican directives. Sometimes, his collaboration with a
particular order stretched over several years.
During those years, more and more people, both religious and lay,
realized what an inspiring speaker he was and how deeply effective he
was at spiritual counseling. He began to respond to invitations from
all over the country to direct retreat programs for seminarians,
cloistered monasteries of both men and women, parish congregations,
lay associations, new religious orders in their infancy, hermits,
prison inmates, and many, many others. At the same time, Fr. Dubay
continued his invaluable contribution to spiritual people everywhere
as the author of books on prayer and the inner life and countless
articles for theological and spiritual journals and various
compendiums and encyclopedias.
Starting in 1977, Fr. Dubay became a constant traveler, an itinerant
spiritual master and counselor of the soul. His travels took him all
over the United States, to big cities and small towns, even to
isolated communities of monks and hermits. He gave retreats and
courses in England, Scotland, Ireland, Poland, Rome, Toronto and
Halifax in Canada, Tonga in the South Pacific, Australia, Singapore
and Malaysia. He visited Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity at
their headquarters in Calcutta several times to give courses to the
young Sisters and retreats to the older nuns.
He seemed to be always “on the road,” to use his own expression, and
became thoroughly familiar with the vagaries of modern air travel.
Whenever he returned to “home base” (another of his favorite terms,
meaning the local Washington community), he could regale community
members with stories of canceled flights, missed connections, lost
baggage, and after visiting foreign countries, he had stories of
unfamiliar food, unfamiliar insects and unfamiliar customs. He
recounted a heart-palpitating ride at breakneck speed along a
treacherous jungle road in Malaysia with a young local Sister behind
the steering wheel, oblivious to his pleas for caution. He also told
of an otherwise rewarding retreat he was giving at a beautiful retreat
house perched in the Colorado Rockies in early December. Before
retiring for the night one evening, he stepped out of his room onto
the adjoining balcony to retrieve a carton of milk he left there to
cool in the near-frigid air. When the balcony door slammed shut and
locked behind him, Father’s great dilemma was either to endure
freezing quietly or risk waking up any number of sleeping retreatants
by his loud shouts for rescue. He chose the latter.
Anyone who knew Fr. Dubay, even casually, would remember his
wonderful intellectual curiosity and indefatigable research into
subjects new and old. This, of course, can be seen as an aspect of
his lifelong search for the Truth. Science and the study of nature
fascinated him endlessly. He read the monthly publications “Discovery
Magazine” and “National Geographic” from cover to cover. Every
Tuesday he requested to see first the “Science and Nature” section of
the New York Times. He would show delight at the announcement of a
hitherto unknown galaxy or a new article on the life cycle of the
earthworm. He would listen as intensely as a student preparing for a
final exam while a former missionary from the South Pacific described
the reproduction process of the malaria parasite in the stomach lining
of the anopheles mosquito. This information will not come as a
surprise to anyone who has read Fr. Dubay’s masterful 1999 book “The
Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet.”
Another enduring interest for Fr. Dubay year after year was the
success of Notre Dame University’s football team. He was an
unapologetic fan and followed their games faithfully.
Father Dubay’s voluminous written output, tapped out on his portable
typewriter for so many years, could easily lead one to conclude that
here was a person who would find it difficult to adapt to the modern
wonders of computer science. It was with a little hesitation, but
then with a whole-hearted conversion that he embraced the ease and
convenience of the laptop. All his recent books and articles he wrote
on his computer. And then after several years of drawing the line at
using the internet and e-mail correspondence, he learned how simple it
could be and became an avid fan. While he was still traveling widely,
a grateful and generous couple asked if they could give him an MP3
player. He said he was not quite sure what they were talking about.
When they showed him how they had already downloaded a few hundred
hours of Mozart, Brahms and Puccini, among others, he was thrilled and
thankful to accept it.
Father Thomas Dubay penned more than 20 books on topics such as
religious life, interior renewal, prayer, Carmelite mysticism,
Ignatian spirituality, spiritual discernment, religious authority and,
as already mentioned, science and theology. Forty years ago his
principal publishers were Alba House and Dimension Books. At that
time, there were also numerous cassette tapes commercially available
of his lectures, retreats, instructions, etc. In recent decades his
publisher has been Ignatius Press, which has produced not only the
print version of his books but also audio versions on Compact Disc
format. And within the last year, Fr. Dubay learned that several of
his books would soon appear as electronic books to be downloaded to
electronic readers. He wondered if that might be a little too modern
for his message. Some of his books have been translated into a dozen
or more languages. His publisher sent him a Lithuanian version as
well as a Polish translation of “Fire Within,” for his perusal. On
looking at them, it was clear that he was simply amazed at how
widespread his writings and ideas have already become, but he joked
that he would never really be able to tell how faithfully the
translations adhered to his original message.
Among his most popular and best read titles are, “Authenticity: a
Biblical Theology of Discernment,” “Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer,”
“Evidential Power of Beauty,” “Faith and Certitude,” “Fire Within: St.
Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Gospel, on Prayer,” “Happy
Are you Poor: the Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom,” “Prayer Primer:
Igniting a Fire Within,” “Saints: a Closer Look,” and “Seeking
Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within.”
Through the years, Fr. Dubay was a frequent contributor to The
American Ecclesiastical Review, Review for Religious, Sponsa Regis,
New Scholasticism, Pastoral Life, The Priest, Theological Studies, La
Vie Spirituelle, America Magazine, Communio, First Things, and
Homiletic and Pastoral Review. He wrote articles for, among others,
the New Catholic Encyclopedia and the Catholic Youth Encyclopedia, and
number of Catholic newspapers, including the National Catholic
Register. He was a member of several academic and professional
fraternities, including the American Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Another outstanding aspect of Fr. Dubay’s contributions to the Church
has been his remarkable association with EWTN (Eternal Word Television
Network) and Mother Angelica. In 1988 he was first a guest on “Mother
Angelica Live” and then as a host of a baker’s dozen of series of
courses and lectures, appearing often on “EWTN Bookmark” episodes. He
was fond of saying that he never wrote a book or made a TV series
unless it was on a topic about which there was a real need for more
information. He visited the network in Irondale, Alabama every year
(or more often) for 20 years to record popular series on his favorite
saints – St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila – and his
favorite topics – prayer, heroic virtue, science, nature and beauty.
Many of these television series have been available for purchase on
video cassette or DVD, as one other outlet for disseminating Fr.
Dubay’s most needed and most appreciated spiritual richness. He also
appeared numerous times on various Catholic radio programs, including
those on the EWTN international radio network. These were interview
shows, call-in programs, and sometimes lectures or readings from one
of his books.
An appreciation of Fr. Thomas Dubay’s life and ministry would not be
complete without mentioning at least some of the religious groups and
associations he worked with most closely and with whom he had strong
bonds of affection. He was devoted to Mother Theresa’s Missionary
Sisters of Charity, and to many monasteries of Carmelite nuns.
Included there would also be many fraternities of Secular Carmelites
(sometimes known as the Third Order of Mount Carmel). He was close to
many convents of Poor Clare Sisters, Dominican Sisters, Passionist
Sisters, and the Sisters of Life. He had a special relation of
affection and respect for Christendom College in Front Royal,
Virginia, where he gave mini-courses and retreats at various times.
He was quite fond of, dedicated to and indebted to the Little Sisters
of the Poor, especially as he spent the last nine months living in
their St. Jeanne Jugan Residence in Washington, DC.
Hundreds and even thousands of people knew Fr. Dubay, through his
television and radio appearances, his writings, his many years of
giving retreats and spiritual direction, written correspondence and,
of course, personally. Virtually all of them can attest to his
holiness, his sincerity, his intensity, his values of honesty and
integrity. To use the metaphor of fire, which appears in several of
his book titles, Fr. Dubay was aflame with love of God and love of
neighbor. Those closest to him know of his incredible generosity with
his time and interest to those who came in person to see him, or
telephoned or wrote him. He had a keen sense of humor, an innate
sense of hospitality, interest in others that always came across as
genuine and warm. He obviously earned admiration for his intellectual
and academic achievements, but also showed the most complete
humility. Some who knew him well might admit that he actually seemed
shy at times. For so many who knew him well, the sense of grief and
personal loss will be deep, but our faith teaches us, as Fr. Dubay
himself so frequently reminded us, that the fullness of life and
happiness comes only in the Transforming Union with the Most Blessed
Trinity.
A little over two years ago, doctors told Fr. Dubay that they had
discovered the first stages of bladder cancer. He immediately began
the protocols of regular chemotherapy and radiation. This lasted for
several months, and resulted in successful remission of all
malignancy. It also meant, however, that he would have to end all his
traveling and cancel all the commitments that he had already made,
some of them of several years’ standing. This was most difficult for
him to do, since he valued so highly his word that he had given on
taking on the commitments. But it soon became clear that he would
never be able to resume the rigors of traveling or the strenuous pace
he set for himself in giving retreats and lectures. He wisely chose
to remain at the Marist Community in Washington taking on various
nearby commitments that meant little travel and congenial encounters
with various parish renewal sessions in the local area, lectures to
high school students and to high school teachers, and spiritual
direction and counseling for those who could come to see him at the
community residence.
A year ago, Father’s equilibrium in walking and using the stairs
began to deteriorate. It was not clear for a long time whether the
problem lay in a muscular issue, the inner ear or perhaps a
neurological source. After a number of medical tests and a worsening
of the ability to handle steps, Fr. Dubay left the three-story Marist
community residence in February of this year and entered the Little
Sisters of the Poor facility, named for their Foundress, St. Jeanne
Jugan. He received extraordinarily loving care from the Little
Sisters and was holding his own until the last days of August when
both the Sisters and his doctors noticed a decline in his overall
health. A gradual failing of the kidneys was diagnosed, and his
doctor ordered regular dialysis treatment. Finding another nursing
facility that had onsite dialysis was imperative. Thus, Father Dubay
was admitted to the Springbrook Nursing and Rehabilitation Center just
after Labor Day. He duly received the dialysis treatments three times
a week and was adapting to his new surroundings. But very late last
Friday evening or early Saturday morning, the nursing staff found him
unconscious and unresponsive. He was taken immediately by ambulance
to Holy Cross Hospital, where the diagnosis pointed to a bleeding in
the brain that could not be stopped. Twenty-four hours later, our
loving Savior called Father Thomas Dubay to his heavenly home, Sunday,
September 26, at 4:45 a.m.
Father Dubay is survived by his sister, Marie Dubay who lives in
Australia, another sister, Vernanne Dubay Paquette of Minneapolis, and
by two brothers, Alan Dubay of Vanuatu, South Pacific, and Eli Dubay
of Minneapolis. He was preceded in death by his brother, a permanent
deacon, Rev. Mr. Frank Dubay, and his sister, Mrs. Norma Dubay
Schepers. He is also survived by numerous, nieces and nephews and
grandnieces and nephews, as well as by his brother priests and
religious in the Society of Mary, the religious community that he
called his family for almost seven decades.
Father Dubay lived his Marist religious life with the utmost fidelity
and always with joy. He had the remarkable happiness to celebrate
with his fellow Marists the Golden Jubilee (50 years anniversary) of
religious profession as a Marist, and then the Golden Jubilee of
priestly ordination in 2000. It was earlier this year, in June, that
he celebrated 60 years of ordained ministry.
Tributes have already begun to pour in in loving memory of Fr.
Dubay. His provincial superior, Father Ted Keating, S.M., stated that
the whole Marist Society is honored by Fr. Dubay’s amazing service and
dedication. He said, “Father Dubay’s contribution to the American
Catholic Church, and to religious life in particular, is simply
incalculable.” From an earlier tribute in October 2008, Dr. William
E. May, the noted philosopher, theologian and professor hailed Fr.
Dubay as “certainly among the greatest experts on the spiritual life
in the Catholic Church today.” Father Dubay’s local superior, Fr.
Bruce Lery, S.M., noted that he shared “Fr. Tom’s personal journey
from strength to less strength and weakness.” He said, “I have
learned from the experience of Fr. Tom’s transition a sense of
gentleness and patience that will be his lasting gift to me.”
There will be viewing and wake on Wednesday afternoon, October 6,
from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the chapel of the St. Jeanne Jugan
Residence, Little Sisters of the Poor, 4200 Harewood Road, NE,
Washington. The funeral Mass will be celebrated the next day,
Thursday, October 7, at 10:00 a.m. in the Little Sisters’ chapel.
Burial will follow in the Marist section of Mount Olivet cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in loving memory of Fr.
Thomas Dubay, S.M. to the Marist Retirement Fund, Marist Center, 4408
8th Street, NE, Washington, DC, 20017-2298.
All funeral arrangements handled by Collins Funeral Home, Silver
Spring, MD.
---------
It was also rumored that Dana Carvey based his "Church Lady" character
on Fr. Dubay.