The Essence of Franciscan Spirituality

Obituary

Eric Doyle OFM (1938–1984) was a Friar of the Province of the Immaculate Conception in Great Britain. A gifted scholar, theologian, orator and writer, his prime concern was always to bring the Franciscan message to the world at large, a task at which he excelled. These hitherto unpublished talks offer something for everyone interested in Franciscan Spirituality, be they Religious, Secular Franciscans or others. The Franciscan Christology which Doyle so ably elucidates is not only for Franciscans and the Church, but indeed for the ‘universal friary’, as he called it.

Born in Bolton on 13 July 1938, the son of a mill-worker, Martin William Doyle was educated at St Joseph’s R.C. primary school and then, having obtained an academic scholarship, at Thornleigh Salesian College. He entered the Order of Friars Minor at the age of 16, having been inspired to do so by a book on the life of St Francis (probably G. K. Chesteron’s Francis of Assisi). He made his solemn profession the day after his twenty-first birthday and was ordained to the priesthood on 16 July 1961. This was followed by studies in Rome, 1962-64, where Doyle trained as an ecclesiastical historian and where he received his doctorate summa cum laude.

  Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, Doyle was at the forefront of the renewal process and was tireless in his efforts to put the teaching of the Council into practice. The breadth of Doyle’s learning was immense and his vision wide, so that he brought astute and far-sighted observations to bear on many areas of theology including Christology, Ecclesiology, Franciscan Spirituality, Ecumenism, Ecology, Eschatology and Religious Life. He was a founding father of the Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury, where he introduced Franciscan Studies, and a pioneer of the newly established ‘group-style’ of community living there. He lectured at home and abroad, gave many retreats (principally to priests and religious), took part in ARCIC I debates, and made over 500 programs for Anglia TV’s The Big Question and BBC Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day. He was a participant at the Second Scotistic Congress in Oxford/Edinburgh, at the first International ‘Terra Mater’ Seminar in Gubbio, an International Bonaventurian Congress in Rome, as well as numerous conferences on the work of Teilhard de Chardin, of which Association he was also vice-president. In addition, his enormous capacity for work enabled him to publish over 100 articles and two books during the course of his career.

Recognized as an international scholar and lecturer, this theological multi-tasker’s focus was always on the present moment, ‘doing theology’, because standing as he did in the Franciscan intellectual tradition, theology of necessity always included a practical dimension, and for Doyle, also demanded contemporary relevance. Much of his work was ahead of its time, prophetic even. Doyle was a humble and self-effacing man who did not seek his own aggrandizement; his was always a life of service. Extremely likeable and memorable, his irrepressible character, gentle humor and great kindness won him many friends and admirers, including some amongst the hierarchy of both the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion. A gifted speaker, he became the first Roman Catholic to address a huge congregation in Canterbury Cathedral since the Reformation.

After Doyle’s sudden death at the early age of 46, Conrad Harkins OFM commented:

Friends of St Francis throughout the English-speaking world, to whom perhaps he was most familiar, know that in Eric’s transitus has departed one of the most vibrant Franciscans of this century. Doyle was buried at the Friary in Chilworth on 31 August 1984 where the church was full to overflowing, and where over 100 priests concelebrated his Requiem Mass.