Father Francis X. Murphy
Redemptorist
Professor at the Academy 1959 - 1971
June 26, 1914 - April 11, 2002
Redemptorist Father Francis X. Murphy, patristic scholar, historian and prolific author of academic and popular works, died on Thursday, April 11, in Annapolis, MD, U.S.A. He was 87 and had suffered for several years with Parkinson’s Disease; his death came as a complication following cancer surgery.
Father Murphy was a professor at the Alphonsian Academy from 1959 – 1971 lecturing in Patristics and Missiology. He was truly influential in the early development of the Academy. His presence during the years when the Academy was being incorporated as the Moral Theology Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University contributed greatly to the excellence and Alphonsian Spirit of the Faculty during a very important formative stage in its history.
It was as an
historian of the contemporary Church -- writing under
the pen name of Xavier
Rynne -- that he put Vatican Council II on the world stage. In the early
1960s, already a veteran writer for the Catholic press, he reached a much
broader audience by publishing his reports from Rome
in The New Yorker magazine and, later, in book
form with Farrar, Straus & Giroux. His accounts, filled with historical
perspective, insider knowledge, and a political acumen developed in his early
years in the Bronx, caused such an international stir that the question of
“Who is Xavier Rynne?” inspired articles and poetic musings in the
popular press.
Keenly appreciating Pope John XXIII’s declared intention in calling the Council, “to open a window” and “let in fresh air,” Father Murphy not only reported on the Church’s view of the modern world, but in doing so, let the modern world see the workings of the Church. Father Murphy became an inspiration for Catholic journalists pursuing Church news at the diocesan level.
Father Joseph Komonchak of The Catholic University of America (CUA), English-language editor of a five-volume History of Vatican Council II, said in a telephone interview that Father Murphy’s articles in The New Yorker Magazine “had a tremendous effect because his kind of journalism was a new experience for Catholics. It showed a knowledge that was quite extensive, but also theologically significant”.
Jim O’Neill, former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service (then National Catholic News Service), said the publication of the first of the “Xavier Rynne” articles caused “an explosion and uproar” in Rome and the English-speaking prelates sent aides to the Via Veneto for copies of the magazine, which was sold out. They ended up calling back to the States to have copies airfreighted to them, Mr. O’Neill added.
That first article, especially, had an impact on the Council, which was just beginning, Mr. O’Neill said in a telephone interview. For one thing, it prompted the American bishops to establish a press office to provide background and explanation for journalists.
Although
Father Murphy was in the right place at the right time for reporting on Vatican
II, he attributed being “in the wrong place at the wrong time” for being
awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious operations against an armed enemy in Korea
. He served as a chaplain to the U.S. Naval
Academy from 1944 to 1947 and with the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1958.
Father Murphy “wasn’t afraid to get to know people,” as his confrere, Father Francis O’Rourke, said in a telephone interview. Norman Shaifer, a publisher and longtime friend who collaborated on John Paul II: A Son from Poland, said that Father Murphy’s circle grew to include the noted feminist Betty Friedan; Father Vincent O’Keefe, former vicar general of the Jesuits; and Ken Woodward of Newsweek Magazine.
The world was truly his stage and knew and wrote about Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. He wrote with a mind to a time-line, but not a time limit, dipping into his huge fund of historical knowledge for perspective on the issues of the 20th century, including population, birth control, and the politics of perestroika.
Act I of his
life took place in the Bronx, where he was born June 26, 1914, to Irish immigrants, Denis and Anna Rynne
Murphy. His father was one of New York
’s Finest and his mother managed the grill
room at the Concourse Plaza Hotel. He studied at the Redemptorist’s
preparatory seminary in North East, PA, making his first profession of vows in
1935 and his final profession in 1938. He was ordained to the priesthood June 23, 1940, in
Esopus, NY
. He later earned a Master’s and Doctorate in
Medieval History at The Catholic University of America.
In addition to his teaching career in Rome , he served as an adjunct professor in the department of politics at Princeton, the Johns Hopkins University, and the Union Theological Seminary in New York. Besides the six books and 20 articles he wrote under his pen name, he wrote 18 books, two monographs, and a host of articles dating back to a 1937 piece on his favorite Father of the Church, St. Jerome. At the time of his death, he was working on his autobiography.
In a 2001 interview with the Redemptorist Chronicle, he said that what he wanted to do next was to die: “But that’s up to God,” he added serenely. “I say my prayers; I don’t make any fetish about it. I say good morning to God and go about my business.”
Father Sabatino Majorano, President of the Alphonsian Academy , expressed his appreciation for the tremendous contribution that Father Murphy made to the Alphonsian Academy, to scholarship in general, to journalism and to the Redemptorist Congregation. “We are proud to have had Father Murphy as a member of our faculty in those early years and are and will continue to be beneficiaries of his academic and religious legacy.”
We wish to thank Ms. Mary Conway director of public relations for the Redemptorist Province of Baltimore, U.S.A. for providing this summary of Father Murphy’s Life and Work. Please join us in prayers for Father Murphy and his family.