October 13, 2016
Rev. Paul J. Philibert, O.P. ’58; theologian and Renaissance man
Rev. Paul J. Philibert, O.P. ’58, who prepared for the seminary as a Providence College student, taught theology at PC for five years, and returned decades later as the Rev. Robert J. Randall Distinguished Professor of Christian Culture for the 2013-14 academic year, died April 14, 2016, weeks after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
At a memorial Mass celebrated in St. Dominic Chapel in May, College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. ’80 recalled the year he spent as Father Philibert’s roommate during a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Notre Dame. It was a challenging time not because Father Philibert was difficult to live with, but because he was so accomplished at everything he undertook, from theology to cooking to music, Father Shanley said.
Father Philibert served in all four provinces of the Order of Preachers in the United States. In 1988, he became one of a select group of Dominicans to be awarded the Order’s highest honor, the Magister Sacrae Theologiae, or Master of Sacred Theology, presented by the master of the order for singular intellectual contributions to the Church and the Order. He taught in colleges around the country and the world, including the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and was an accomplished musician, skilled in flute, keyboard, and organ.
Father Philibert was born in Baltimore. As a high school student, he accompanied a local Dominican priest in travels throughout the South, spending two summers evangelizing portions of the region that had never been introduced to Catholicism. Sometimes the two went house to house, knocking on doors. Other times, the priest set up camp chairs and spoke outdoors.
“The idea was evangelization from scratch,” Father Philibert recalled during an interview in 2013. “He established seven or eight parishes as a result.”
The experience drew Father Philibert to the Dominicans and sparked his interest in his academic specialty, pastoral theology — the study of life in the Church and its ministry.
Father Philibert arrived at PC as a pre-ecclesiastical student in 1954, and after graduating summa cum laude with a degree in humanities, entered the novitiate of the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, which includes the College. He completed his seminary studies at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and was ordained to the priesthood in 1963 at St. Dominic Church in Washington.
While initially a member of the Province of St. Joseph, the Dominican Order’s eastern province, Father Philibert moved to the southern Province of St. Martin de Porres when it was established in 1979, and he served as its third provincial from 1988-1993.
Father Philibert studied for his advanced degrees at the Dominican House of Studies, including, in 1972, a doctor of sacred theology degree awarded after research and studies in France under the direction of Père Christian Duquoc, O.P. Fluent in French, Father Philibert translated Cardinal Yves Congar’s classic work, True and False Reform in the Church, and At the Heart of Christian Worship: Liturgical Essays of Yves Congar.
Father Philibert was an assistant professor of theology at PC from 1968-1973. He taught and worked in administration at many colleges, including the University of Notre Dame, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, Calif., The Catholic University of America, and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. He served on the directorium of the Angelicum University in Rome and on the Commission on Studies of the Dominican Order.
His many published books and articles include Stewards of God’s Mysteries: Priestly Spirituality in a Changing Church, The Priesthood of the Faithful: Key to a Living Church, and Scanning the Signs of the Times: French Dominicans in the Twentieth Century.
Father Philibert returned to PC in 2013 as the Rev. Robert J. Randall Professor in Christian Culture. He taught two seminars to juniors and seniors in the Liberal Arts Honors Program and presented two lectures to the College community, including one that assessed the approach of Pope Francis just six months into his papacy.
“So don’t look for a ‘liberalizing’ of the church, but rather a synodalizing — not new doctrines, but new dialogue to embrace the world and frame conversation with the world,” said Father Philibert. “Don’t look for a new morality, but a new anthropology — not new principles that will change the rules, but new attention to lay experience, feminine insight, and cultural diversity. That is coherent with Pope Francis’s choice to be a spiritual father who listens to his people.”
Father Philibert then approached a friend, the poet and author Kathleen Norris, and convinced her to become the Randall professor for the 2014-15 academic year.
Father Philibert died in St. Louis, Mo., where he had been serving as a senior fellow at Aquinas Institute of Theology. A funeral Mass was celebrated on April 25 at St. Dominic Priory in St. Louis. He was buried in Ponchatoula, La., following a Mass at Rosaryville Spirit Life Center there.
