Men of prayer, preaching and
intelligence(continued)
Passionist office holders in the CTSA.
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| Father Aloysius McDonough, C.P. |
Aloysius McDonough was a work horse for the CTSA. He was named to the Committee on Research and Publications in 1946 and reappointed to the same in 1947. Sources show he held the post of secretary from 1949 until 1959.
McDonough was born November 6, 1902 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He was educated at St. Peter's School. In 1916 he went to the Passionist Preparatory Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland. He professed his vows on September 20, 1921 and was ordained on June 2, 1928. He obtained a doctorate in theology from the Angelicum in 1930. From 1930 until 1945 he was professor of dogmatic theology in the Passionist Seminary system. From 1945 until 1948 he was director of sacred eloquence in Baltimore, Maryland. He then took on editorship of the question and answer column "Sign Post" in The Signuntil 1959. He was also province prefect of studies from 1955 until 1965. In the mid-1960s he became editor of the Passionist magazine Verbum Crucis. He wrote articles in a number of popular journals. For the last eighteen years of his life sickness was his companion. In 1962 he died a member of the Jamaica, New York community.
In 1962, he and retiring CTSA treasurer Monsignor James E. Rea were both praised for "their intrepid devotion over a period of fifteen years to the welfare of the Society, of high admiration at their sheer slavery of the plain routine of ordinary tasks, of deep gratitude for their continuous and cohesive influence in directing the affairs of the Society and providing, with characteristic and apostolic zeal, for its cause, which is that of Christ and His Church."
Kudos continued: "Father Aloysius McDonough, Passionist, has served the Society nobly and well as its secretary from the time of its foundation fifteen years ago. Distinguished scholar and author in his own right, he yet found time to pursue the elusive minutiae involved in keeping the Society together and informed, working steadily the while for its progress and development. Ever the expansive host at our annual meetings, by deft efficiency he absorbed in his own genial personality the burden of routine and detail, pared the business meetings to manageable size, instructed presidents in their duties of office, and generally provided unobtrusive skill for a well ordered and smooth functioning administrative unit."
McDonough was on the Committee on Admissions from 1952 till 1956 and Advertising Manager for Proceedings in 1952 and 1953 and 1956 till 1962. Theodore Foley held that post in 1954 and 1955. In 1953 McDonough was part of the Committee for revision of the Constitutions. Evidently all this service was appreciated, because when his secretarial service ended in 1959 he was asked, that same year, to be on a Committee to review the work and structure of the CTSA. From 1961 till 1962 he was president of the CTSA; on the Board of Directors from 1961 through 1963; Chair of the Committee on the Cardinal Spellman Award in 1961 and a member of that committee in 1962 and 1963. That same year he filled in again as Advertising Manager upon the resignation of Father Thomas Dolan, O.P.
McDonough's 1961 CTSA presidential address, published in the 1962 Proceedings, was "The Professional Theologian—An Instrumental Cause in the Ecclesia Docens." He ended his talk with this thought. "The theologian is less concerned about IQ, than about a normal telepathy between his own spirit and the Holy Spirit, upon the development of the graces of a lifetime—the graces of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders. In harmony with the successors to the Apostles, the theological auxiliaries of the Ecclesia Docens [Church teaching office] are intent upon the more influential presentation of the Word of God, the more devout celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice, the more fruitful reception of the sacraments. That unearthly objective, and theology as a means thereunto, are the reasons for existence of The Catholic Theological Society of America."
Other Passionist officers were George J. Staniszewski on the Committee on Admissions in 1954. In 1956 he resigned as a member of the CTSA Regional Committee. Theodore Foley was Advertising Manager of Proceedings in 1954 and 1955. In 1959 Forrest J. Macken was a member of the Board of Directors. On the Committee on Admissions were John Baptist Pesce, 1956; Norman Demeck, 1959; Robert O'Hara, 1961, and Paul Boyle, 1962. Bertin Farrell was on the Committee of Nominations in 1963. Jude Mead was on that same committee in 1964. After 1965 no Passionists are CTSA officers.
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