Father Flavian Dougherty, C.P., St. Paul of the Cross Province (1923-1990)

Born June 15, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he professed his Passionist vows on August 15, 1944 and was ordained on February 27, 1951. After ordination he was assigned to St. Joseph’s Monastery, Baltimore, Maryland where he served as vocation director and chaplain at Mount Saint Joseph High School from 1953 until 1956. He also preached missions and retreats. From 1956 until 1959 he was associate director of retreats at Holy Family Monastery, West Hartford, Connecticut and in 1959 was assigned to the province preaching apostolate in Union City, New Jersey. In 1962 he was appointed as rector of St. Joseph’s, Baltimore and was a key person in establishing the Spiritual Center as a retreat center. In 1968 he was elected provincial and held the office for ten years. In this position he encouraged the renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council. While provincial he was also elected first president of STAUROS which was the Passionist outreach towards the suffering and the dispossessed. In 1978 he became the United States director with offices at The Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Illinois. In 1979 he put together the Ecumenical Program on Suffering at the University of Notre Dame and later held a three day symposium on the homeless. This was at the United Nations in New York. In Chicago he was an advocate for the disabled and handicapped and promoted a yearly trip to the Holy Land for this group. In 1981 he edited a book entitled The Meaning of Human Suffering and in 1984 published one entitled The Deprived, the Disabled and the Fullness of Life. He died at New York University Hospital after a ten week struggle with a brain tumor.