www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Father Charles Coughlin

Someone asked what became of Fr. Coughlin. While I doubt that the question was meant literally, the information is:

1966 - retired as Pastor at the Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, Michigan;

1979 - died in old age.

He is of positive interest because he brought Eddie Doherty back to the Church. Eddie was himself ordained to the priesthood about thirty years later; so far as I know they did not remain in contact.

The method Father Coughlin used on Eddie Doherty was highly unusual, to put it mildly. Eddie was a journalist and very well thought of. Father Coughlin very seldom gave interviews, but he did at least agree to see Eddie. On learning that Eddie had left the Church on the death of his second wife, Father Coughlin wasted no time, but offered to give Eddie the interview provided that Eddie would return to the active practice of the Faith. Stunned by this suggestion, Eddie agreed, earning himself the sobriquet: "The man who sold his soul for a story!" Father Eddie and his third wife, Catherine Doherty, are buried in the parish cemetery at Combermere, Ontario.

Fr. Serge

Dear Fr Serge,

Greetings with the Feast!

A very interesting story! So the fact that Eddie Doherty was married three times was not seen by the Melkite Bishop as a canonical impediment to his ordination? I find that incredible.

Respectfully Yours,

Fr David Straut

Dear Father David,

Father Edward Doherty and his third wife, Catherine (wives one and two were reposed) had taken paramonastic vows almost twenty years before the ordination and lived in community with quite a number of "witnesses to the priest's chastity." He kept their bedroom and Catherine lived in a hermitage elsewhere on the property.

Those of us who knew them and found them a great joy also found them unique - even though they were of course not sleeping together, spiritually they were closer than ever. He was purely Irish and she was purely Russian, which was quite a combination.

The story of the ordination is, as you can imagine, Something. If you want to ring me on one of those inexpensive telephone cards, I'll be happy to give you the details.

fraternally in Christ,

+ serge

Dear Father Serge,

That is very interesting. In those days would a Melkite Bishop in the United States (or Canada) have dared to ordain a non-celebate priest?

I am intrigued with your telephone card idea!

Yours in our Ascended Christ,

Fr David

Bless, Father David,

Well, Father Eddie was ordained in August 1969. At that point in history, there was not yet a Melkite see in Canada (would not be until 1980) and the Apostolic Exarchate in the US was vacant - Bishop Justin (Najmy), of blessed memory, having reposed the year prior and Bishop Joseph (Tawil), also of blessed memory, being 3 months or so from enthronement as Exarch.

So, a definitive answer is speculative, and I believe that it it was 1977 (33 years ago, last week) before a married Melkite presbyter from the US was ordained on North American soil - in Canada, as it happens, and then by the Patriarch. Subsequent to that, all such ordinations occurred in the Old Country until Bishop John (Elya) performed his now famous ordination on Christmas Eve, 1996.

Interestingly, the presbyters ordained on both of those occasions (1977 and 1996) are members of this forum.

Many years,

Neil

In any event, Father Eddie was ordained in Nazareth, in the chapel which decades earlier had been Blessed Charles de Foucauld's. All of these cross-connections are interesting.

Fr. Serge