In each issue as we countdown toward the new millennium, we are bringing you the countdown of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY as voted upon by the readers. We will spotlight each of the 100 Top Catholics chosen by readers over a three month period of time earlier this year. We received a total of 23,455 votes nominating 728 candidates for "Top 100 Catholics of the 20th Century" consideration. The top five vote-getters garnered 9,477 with the top ten registering a total 13,470. The Top 100 chosen received 21,603 votes with those 628 candidates not making the list receiving 8% of the vote.
Caliber-wise in the final tally, DAILY CATHOLIC readers made excellent choices and there is a good balance throughout the century list. Eight of the nine Roman Pontiffs of this century made the list except for Pope John Paul I whose pontificate lasted only one month. There are five Saints and six Blesseds as well as seven whose cause for Beatification has been introduced to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The voters selected fifteen cardinals, seven bishops, nineteen priests, seven nuns and two lay brothers. The laity is well represented with four entertainers, four politicians, six renowned secular authors, and numerous dynamic Marian luminaries that have proved their worth through the fruits they have produced by their efforts. Education checks in with several who made the list in all aspects of scholastics including two university presidents and the pro-life movement also has several organizers who made the list as well as well-known leaders of various Catholic non-profit organizations dedicated to upholding the truths of the Church.
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88. Dr. Tom Dooley
The voters chose as the 88th selection Dr. Tom Dooley, a man who lived the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy and who had his share of controversies as politicians, lobbyists, rebellious reactionaries, and military spinmeisters tried to downplay his contributions and blame him for the Vietnam War and a whole slew of sins in covering up their own mistakes. He died prematurely of cancer at the age of 34 in a New York City hospital, a half world away from where his heart truly was - southeast Asia and the people who he cared for and in return who loved and venerated him.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri on January 17, 1927, he was brought up as a cradle Catholic, attending Catholic grade school in his parish, then High School before being accepted at Notre Dame where he delved into a career in medicine. Still young and caught up in the "now," without realizing his true vocation in life, he resented the strict discipline of the Holy Cross Fathers as he admitted in a letter to Notre Dame President Father Theodore Hesburgh on December 2, 1960 from Hong Kong six weeks before he would die after being flown from there to New York: "Notre Dame is twice on my mind...and always in my heart. That Grotto is the rock to which my life is anchored. Do the students ever appreciate what they have, while they have it? I know I never did. Spent most of my time being angry at the clergy at school...10 p.m. bed check, absurd for a 19 year-old veteran, etc., etc., etc." But he was no longer bitter for the fourteen years since he was a freshman in South Bend transformed him from a resentful, rebellious teen to an introspective saint to many. Because of his lack of commitment in his teens his grades suffered at Notre Dame and he left the University. He returned home, enrolling in another Catholic institution whose requirements were not as strict as the former - St. Louis University's School of Medicine. Though he struggled in keeping his grade level above water, he did graduate in 1950 and, rather than going into private practice, entered the United States Navy and was sent to Indochina as a Navy doctor. During this time, as a young lieutenant, he spearheaded a Navy operative called "Operation Freedom," helping to evacuate nearly a half million people from North Vietnam to South Vietnam in 1954-55 after the French had abandoned their presence there.
Some detractors hint that Dr. Dooley was merely a CIA plant scouting the area for the military, but no proof has ever been provided for this claim. Had that been true, it is highly credible that Dooley would have remained in the service and risen through the ranks. Yet, they still blame Dooley for initiating America's involvement in Southeast Asia and the ultimate, tragic Vietnam War. Again, these statements hold no credibility. The same with slanderous statements that he was homosexual. They base this on wild rumors of his sympathy for those who were gay, the fact he never married, and his successful recruiting of young men at Notre Dame to serve as doctors. Again, these are slanderous statements with no credibility, only more persecution to slur Catholics and the man, perpetuating the ridiculous myth that if one doesn't marry, they must be gay; sinisterly implying that priests as well were gay and there was a vast homosexual network within the Catholic clergy in America. It was merely more Catholic-bashing by many in the secular media who were unabashedly anti-Catholic, a trend that began with Nast in the 19th Century and continues to our present day. The truth is Dr. Dooley never married for he did not have the time. He was married to his vocation in life. Though not a priest, nevertheless he lived a celibate life and held his faith dear to him. Yes, he was sympathetic to gays, but he was sympathetic to everyone. Rank had no privileges with Dr. Dooley. Like Mother Teresa he saw in each person Jesus Christ and used his God-given talents of healing and reaching people in his mild, bedside manner to heal both body and soul.
Though he had charm, talent, came from a well-to-do family, and enjoyed social position to become a "society doctor," he chose to practice medicine in the poorest of the poor countries and when he was discharged from the Navy, rather than returning home to reap the spoils of his profession, he opted to remain with the people of Laos. He founded MEDICO, recruiting young dedicated doctors and medical personnel from the states to give a few years of their lives to others. He worked closely with the missionaries in that region, especially the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate who had been a motivating force in evangelizing that area of Southeast Asia. This editor can remember Dr. Dooley personally speaking to our class at the Oblate Seminary in Carthage, Missouri in 1958 during one of his states tours, entreating all of us to be dedicated in our lives, to give all to God and see Christ in every person, regardless of race or color, man, woman or child - to treat them all as we would if it were Jesus in person. That struck quite a chord with all of us. It also struck a chord with a man who would go on to become President of the United States the same year Dooley died, John F. Kennedy who, many believe, established the Peace Corps due to the efforts inspired by Dr. Dooley, publicized greatly through his best seller "Deliver us from Evil."
When criticized for practicing 19th century medicine, his reply was that prior to his efforts, the people he served were practicing 15th century medicine. When asked by a fellow doctor "What do you get out out of it?" he answered, "I get lenty. All of us have the same quiet, inner joy that you have when you see your patient's eyes light up just a little bit because of you. But take that patient and put him in a hospital, in a high mountain valley, half a world away, where without you he has black magic or sorcery: you heal him and glow inside of you is a wonderful thing, a thing full of wonder." He felt this way until his death and we gain a greater insight into the man and his empathy for others in his letter to Fr. Hesburgh when he wrote, "It has become pretty definite that the cancer has spread to the lumbar vertebrae, accounting for all of the back problems over the last two months. I have monstrous phantoms...as all men do. But I try to exorcise them with all the fury of the middle ages. And inside and outside the wind blows. But when the time comes, like now, then the storm around me does not matter. The winds within do not matter. Nothing human or earthly can touch me. A wilder storm of peace gathers in my heart. What seems unpossessable I can possess. What seems unfathomable, I fathom. What is unutterable, I utter. Because I can pray. I can communicate. How do people endure anything on earth if they cannot have God?"
He established seventeen medical programs in fourteen countries and always stressed throughout his very brief career that his efforts were to be financed by private entities, that his was a job that needed to be done by individuals, not governments (further proof he was not a CIA plant in the Navy). He also insisted that his was a medical effort, not a religious effort. But it was his religion that spurred him on even on his death bed and no doubt converted countless patients he served over the years as a loyal servant of God.
He finally received his degree from Notre Dame on June 5, 1960 when he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Fr. Hesburgh. In attendance to honor him was the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Giovanni Baptiste Montini who three years later would become Pope Paul VI. Seven months later, on January 18, 1961, shortly after receiving the last rites, Dr. Dooley died of cancer, a hero to many of his peers. In his last days, he received a letter addressed "Dr. Tom Dooley, Saint." Although he scoffed at this, many of the young people of his generation made a hero of him and, we suspect, many a young man considered a career in medicine hoping to perpetuate his legacy and emulate the virtues exhibited by this "Jungle Doctor" who accepted his own suffering, but could not accept the suffering of others without doing something about it in the manner Christ taught. Truly he was a man who lived the Works of Mercy and God took Him Home, mercifully shortening his own suffering from the devastating cancer that cut short a life of dedication to others.
We are grateful to Tracy Dowling for her contributions to this biography.
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