Obituary Notice: Charles E. O’Neill, S.J. (1927–2009)

The Reverend Charles E. O’Neill, S.J., church historian, coeditor of the Diccionario Histórico de la Compañía de Jesús, and member of the American Catholic Historical Association from 1967 to 2005, died onDecember 19, 2009, at the Jesuit Infirmary in New Orleans after a lengthy struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Born in New Orleans on November 16,1927, Father O’Neill (or Charlie, as he was known to his family and friends) grew up with the influence of two strong American cultures: his father was a native of Lowell, Massachusetts, while his mother was a native of New Orleans. The family lived in New Orleans where Father O’Neill attended Holy Name of Jesus School and Jesuit High School. He entered the Society of Jesus in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, on August 14, 1944, and followed the usual course of studies, which included theology studies at Collège Saint-Augustin in Enghien, Belgium. Following his ordination in 1957, Father O’Neill remained in Europe for his licentiate studies at Collège St. Louis in Chantilly, France, and completed his doctoral studies in church history at the Pontifical GregorianUniversity in Rome in 1963.

From an early age, Father O’Neill showed particular interest in the French heritage of Louisiana, which he pursued during his doctoral research and which emerged in his first book, Church and State in French Colonial Louisiana (New Haven, 1966). In fact, he so mastered the French language that he was regularly assigned to read at table during his studies in Belgium and France—a significant distinction for an American, especially in Paris. Tothe end he enjoyed conversing in French, Spanish, or Italian with friends and visitors to New Orleans.

In both his teaching and research, Father O’Neill’s hallmark was precision, attention to detail, and a subtle but real attention to the spiritual andmoral elements of history. While teaching at Loyola University New Orleans and at the Jesuit Juniorate at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, he insisted that his students memorize a full-page list of dates at the beginning of each course.When he taught courses in Latin authors, he checked out every translation from the library for the whole semester, thus “encouraging” his students to grapple with the original language. His city tours of New Orleans and Rome were legendary. While his knowledge of both cities was encyclopedic, he enjoyed being stumped with a question he couldn’t answer and usually researched the answer within a week or so. When he gave larger tours, they often ended with a celebration of the Eucharist where a prayerful reflection on the inconstancies of human history blended well with the constant mercy of God.

Father O’Neill served for three years (1970–73) as vice-provincial for the education of Jesuits (he would not call it “formation”—“clay is formed, people are educated”) during a time of great upheaval in the Church and the Society of Jesus. While extremely attentive to maintaining the highest standards of education for Jesuits, he was also aware of the changing needs of the young Jesuit and sought superiors who could respond to them. After a brief returnto Loyola University, Father O’Neill was sent to Rome, where he served as Superior of the House of Writers (1976–83) and as director of the Jesuit Historical Institute (1976–93). As superior of the House of Writers, he made considerable changes to the house to improve the quality of life for the community. But it was also during this time that he imagined and initiated a projectthat would be his defining contribution to Jesuit history.The Diccionario Histórico de la Compañía de Jesús was intended to be a multivolume reference work providing short articles in English and Spanish on basic terms, significant places and events, and noteworthy members of the Society of Jesus.The work consumed the vast majority of his last seventeen years in Rome. When he left there in 1993, the project required eight more years before the Spanish-only edition was published.

Shortly after Father O’Neill’s return to New Orleans, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. By 2004 he was relocated to the Jesuit infirmary to receive better care as the disease advanced. In the midst of this last challenge, Father O’Neill managed to complete several projects for the Vatican Library and to continue his research in colonial Louisiana (he had added Spanish colonial Louisiana to his repertoire during his tenure at Loyola). He increasingly turned his interest to researching “free persons of color in Louisiana,” an area he thought needed further exploration and development. In that context he also served as a notary in the preparation of the cause of Venerable Sister Henriette DeLille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans. A true professor to the end, Father O’Neill had his files of completed projects moved to the Jesuit Provincial archives at Loyola shortly before his death and had arranged for his body to be made available for the purposes of scientific research.

MARK A. LEWIS, S.J.
New Orleans Province S.J. (Provincial)

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