Obituary of Fr. Regis Duffy

Fr. Regis A. Duffy, O.F.M. ST. BONAVENTURE, NY — Fr. Regis A. Duffy, O.F.M., S.T.D., Board of Trustees Professor and longtime member of the St. Bonvaventure University community, died Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2006. Fr. Regis was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Oct. 15, 1934. He was professed a Franciscan friar in 1955 and ordained to the priesthood in 1961. Since earning a bachelor's degree from St. Bonaventure in 1957, he earned six additional academic degrees, including two from the Institut Superieure de Liturgie in Paris and a doctorate of sacred theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris. For 20 years, he was the regular Sunday preacher at the Jesuit parish of Holy Trinity at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., while teaching for 18 years at the Washington Theological Union. He also taught for six years at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Fr. Regis was the first Franciscan scholar-in-residence at The Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure, which serves the Franciscan family and scholarly world through its research, publications and teaching program. He published five books, including An American Emmaus: Faith and Sacrament in the American Church, which was honored by the Catholic Press Association in 1996, and Liturgy in the Catechism: Celebrating God's Wisdom and Love. He also wrote numerous scholarly articles and edited books and encyclopedias. In 1997, he served as Commencement keynote speaker and received an honorary doctorate from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y., an interdiocesan graduate school of theology, divinity and pastoral ministry. On May 11, 2002, during the Baccalaureate Mass during which Fr. Regis -- a gifted speaker known for interweaving characters from the comic strip "Peanuts" into his homilies -- had served as homilist, then-University President Dr. Robert J. Wickenheiser announced that Fr. Regis had been named a Board of Trustees Professor. The University's Board of Trustees established the designation in 1996 to recognize select professors who have "truly distinguished themselves in their teaching, devotion to students, professional publications and contributions, and service to the University throughout the years." "Fr Regis is widely respected as a theologian and in particular as a liturgist, often viewed as the liturgist's liturgist," Wickenheiser said, recognizing the friar as "a scholar who never sacrificed being a teacher who cared about students; a scholar and a teacher who never sacrificed being a friar in service to others. He brought theology and Scripture alive in the written word, in the classroom, and in the homily; with scholarly sources, with anecdote, and with Lucy, Peanuts and Linus." A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m., Saturday (Jan. 7, 2006) in the University Chapel, Doyle Hall, with Fr. Dominic V. Monti, O.F.M., Vicar Provincial of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, as celebrant and Fr. Xavier J. Seubert, O.F.M., Guardian of the St. Bonaventure Friary, as homilist. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. with the Friars' Office of the Dead. Burial will be in St. Bonaventure Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of the Casey, Halwig & Hartle Funeral Home, Olean.