Francis P. Duffy

Francis Patrick Duffy (1871 - 1932) [http://www.sixtyninth.net/duffy.html Fighting 69th: Father Duffy] ] was a Roman Catholic priest.

History

Francis Duffy was born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada and immigrated to New York City, where he taught for a time at the College of St. Francis Xavier and where he was awarded a Master's degree (the school survives as Xavier High School). He became a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, being ordained in 1896. He attended The Catholic University of America where he earned a doctorate.

After ordination, Duffy served on the faculty of St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, which trains priests for the Archdiocese of New York. He was professor of Philosophical Psychology (a course more related to the Philosophy of the Human Person, than to Clinical Psychology, in today's terms), functioned as a mentor to numerous students, and was editor of the "New York Review" -- at the time, this publication was the most scholarly and progressive Catholic theological publication in America. Extremely popular with students, Duffy was part of a group of members of the Dunwoodie faculty that attempted to introduce ground-breaking innovations in seminary curriculum, putting the institution in the forefront of clerical education.

When authors in the "New York Review" fell under suspicion of the heresy of Modernism, the archbishop of New York, Michael Augustine Corrigan, broke up the faculty and reassigned them to other work. The New York Review itself never published an article that was suspect, but it did print papers by leading Catholic Biblical experts who were part of the newly-emerging schools of Biblical criticism, and several of these authors' other works (which would be uncontroversial today) raised eyebrows in Rome. Duffy himself wrote few signed items in the journal (though he did author parts of it), but was responsible as editor for the whole publication.

Duffy's new assignment was creating the parish of Our Saviour in the Bronx, New York. There, he organized the parish and built a physical structure that combined parish school and church, one of several innovations he introduced.

Throughout this period, Duffy was active in both the Catholic Summer School, a sort of adult summer camp and continuing education system that foreshadowed the explosion in Catholic higher education for the laity today, and in the military -- he was regimental chaplain to the 69th New York National Guard Regiment which was federalized for a time during the Spanish-American War.

Already famous in theological circles, Duffy gained wider fame for his involvement as a military chaplain during World War I when the 69th New York ("The Fighting 69th") {Coat of arms at right} was federalized again and redesignated the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment. When the unit moved up to the front in France, Duffy accompanied the litter bearers in recovering the wounded and was always seen in the thick of battle. Recognized by the regimental commander, Lt. Col. William "Wild Bill" Donovan (who would go on to found the OSS in World War II), as a key element in the unit's morale, Duffy's role in the unit went beyond that of a normal cleric: the regiment was composed primarily of New York Irish immigrants and the sons of Irish immigrants, and many wrote later of Duffy's leadership, with even then-Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur admitting later that Duffy was very briefly considered for the post of regimental commander. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York State), the Legion d'Honneur (France), and the Croix de Guerre.

Following the war he wrote of his exploits in "Father Duffy's Story" (George H. Doran Company, New York 1919), a book that grew out of a manuscript originally started by Joyce Kilmer, the poet and convert to Catholicism who had joined the regiment and had become a close friend to Duffy -- when Kilmer was killed in France, he was working on a history of the regiment's involvement in the war, which Duffy intended to continue, but Duffy was prevailed upon to include his own reminiscences of the war.

He then served as a pastor of Holy Cross Church in Hell's Kitchen, a block from Times Square, until his death. While there he had one last opportunity to make a contribution to Catholic thought: in 1927, during Al Smith's campaign for president, the "Atlantic Monthly" published a letter by Charles Marshall, a Protestant lawyer, which questioned whether a Catholic could serve as a loyal president who would put the nation and the Constitution before his allegiance to the Pope (a common thread in American anti-Catholicism). Smith was given a chance to reply: his article, a classic statement of the intellectual ideas behind American Catholic patriotism, hinted at notions of religious freedom and freedom of conscience which would not be spelled out by the Church itself until the Second Vatican Council's "Declaration on Religious Freedom" in the 1960s -- Smith had gone to Duffy and asked him to ghostwrite the piece.

Legacy

Duffy Square, a part of Times Square in New York City, is named for him. Currently, funds are being raised to reconstruct Duffy Square and preserve the monument to Duffy located there.

In the fictional 1940s movie "The Fighting 69th", Father Duffy is portrayed by Pat O'Brien.

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References