Walter Urban Voll

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Walter Urban Voll (October 27, 1922 – January 24, 2021) was an American Catholic priest of the Order of Preachers (Dominican). He is best known for his contributions to the fields of philosophy and theology through his writings, teaching, and thought leadership within Catholic institutions from 1942 to 2018.

His writing, teaching, and ministry centered on gaining knowledge and understanding of the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas as evidenced in several of his published works in historically relevant theological publications including The Thomist and the New Catholic Encyclopedia.

Voll is listed in The American Catholic Who's Who (Volume 23, 1980-1981).

Early life and education

Born Walter John Voll in Syracuse, NY on October 27, 1922, he was the eldest of four children born to Walter and Genevieve (Morrissey) Voll. The elder Walter Voll was a prominent businessman. Genevieve was a homemaker and devout Catholic active in her local church. Young Walter credited his mother with instilling his strong sense of faith that would later shape the trajectory of his service-based life.

Voll's extensive formal education, which began at the age of four, provided the inspiration and opportunity for a long career in theology and academia.

As a young child, he began attending religious-based schools. He first studied at Most Holy Rosary School between 1928 and 1936. During this time, he was schoolmates with Theodore Hesburgh, an influential Catholic priest well known for his role as President of the University of Notre Dame.

Voll's high school years were spent at the Christian Brothers' Academy in Syracuse, NY, where he graduated in 1940. Coming of age during World War II reinforced his commitment to religion.

Firmly dedicated to the humanities by this point, Voll enrolled in Providence College to begin his higher education. He studied in the Guzman Hall pre-ecclesiastical program and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1946.

He went on to study theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. from 1946 to 1950, earning his Lectorate and Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1950.

At the same time, Voll was also studying at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Here, he earned a Master of Arts degree in English Renaissance Literature in 1951.

In 1961, Voll was again awarded a degree from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, this time a Doctorate in Sacred Theology and Moral Theology.

Voll's most notable academic credential came in 1967 when he earned the degree of Master of Sacred Theology by the Master of the Order of Preachers. Having already taken his vows of priesthood, he was one of the last members of the Order to have earned his S.T.M. by sitting for an examination.

In 1997, Providence College awarded Father Voll an honorary doctorate degree.

Priesthood

Voll entered the Order of Preachers in 1942 at St. Rose Priory in Springfield, KY as a novitiate. There, he was given the religious name Urban.

He made his first profession of vows on August 16, 1943 at St. Rose Priory, then made his solemn profession in 1946 at St. Joseph's Priory in Somerset, OH where he also studied philosophy.

On June 9, 1949, Father Voll was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Celestin Daly, O.P., S.T.M. in St. Dominic Church in Washington, D.C.

He served as a Dominican priest for 70 years as a teacher, writer, editor, and in various executive roles within religious and academic institutions.

Academic and leadership service

Voll spent most of his life immersed in theological studies, not just learning, but also teaching and assuming leadership roles in several academic and religious institutions.

Shortly after his ordination, Voll returned to Providence College where he began his long and varied teaching ministry. For the good part of the next two decades, he continued his teaching ministry at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., College of St. Mary of the Springs in Columbus, OH, Xaverian College in Silver Springs, MD, Catholic University and Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, both in Washington, D.C., and Barry College in Miami, FL.

From 1962 to 1964, Father Voll served as one of the early presidents of the Society of Catholic College Teachers of Sacred Doctrine. The mission of the organization, now known as the College Theology Society, is to deliver the best theological education to college students. This mission has translated into a professional society that currently has more than 500 members in which men and women, lay and religious, find common cause in their love of theology as scholars and teachers.

Voll's publication of "The Objective of College Theology" in Reginald Masterson's acclaimed book Theology in the Catholic College was cited as one of the factors in Voll's taking a more prominent role in the organization.

In the 1960s, Father Voll became an assistant professor at Catholic University and then at Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. During this time he was a contributing editor to the New Catholic Encyclopedia which was released in 1967. The fifteen-volume set has been cited by Library Journal as one of the top 50 reference sources of the millennium and has become a standard in public and academic libraries worldwide.

From to , Voll also served as Associate Editor for The Thomist, a quarterly academic journal managed by the Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph. The Thomist was created in the tradition and spirit of St. Thomas Aquinas to promote original inquiry into contemporary philosophical and theological questions.

Beginning in 1966 and continuing until 1970, Father Voll held the position of Editor for Moral Theology for the Catholic Theological Encyclopedia. The Catholic Theological Encyclopedia was an international encyclopedia project based on the reorganized staff of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. Voll, along with the other editors, initially isolated a multitude of theological topics worthy of in-depth evaluation. Each editor then sought authors to submit works on each defined topic. They then edited the authors' submissions and presented the final documents for review to be included in the final publication. This was released in 1979 as the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion. Voll contributed multiple works on a variety of subject matters and was listed as Contributing Editor.

Among the most significant of his assignments was as the first rector of St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, FL from 1973 to 1980. Appointed to this position by Archbishop of Miami Coleman F. Carroll, it was here where Voll had what he'd later consider the most fruitful years of his life. At St. Vincent de Paul, he first re-accredited the institution and restored its ability to retain faculty and students.

Then, once re-established, Voll focused his efforts on making St. Vincent de Paul Seminary a regional and bilingual institution to prepare priests to receive an increasing number of Catholics from Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Mexican communities.

It is from this experience Voll wrote "Towards a Bi-Lingual Seminary: A Catholic Effort", published in 1977 in Theological Education. This piece was cited in 2014 in Theological Education.

As a result of his work at St. Vincent de Paul, Voll was appointed to the Committee of Bishops and Rectors as a subcommittee of the Executive Board of the National Council of Catholic Bishops. The committee met for several years in Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco to increase ministry access to people of Latin America.

He went on to teach at the Pontifical Faculty of St. Thomas (The Angelicum) in Rome from 1981 to 1984, where he taught students from around the world, many of whom were enrolled in pursuit of their doctorate degrees. In the role of dissertation director to doctorate candidates, Father Voll provided guidance to students as they delved into the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, assisting them in successfully completing their dissertations.

In 1984, he returned to Providence College to be close to his aging mother. During this time at Providence College, he was elected Prior of the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas where he was the religious superior to more than sixty Dominican priests and brothers of Providence College's St. Thomas Aquinas Priory.

Later, in 1993, Voll was elected Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, headquartered in New York City. He served there until 1997 when he returned to Providence College. In the role of Prior Provincial, Voll was responsible for guiding the mission of the province of St. Joseph. The province was made up of twenty-one Dominican communities across Kenya and the United States, including Providence College. Associated with this position, he had pastoral care for 300 Dominican priests and brothers that were members of the province.

Father Voll served as a member of the Corporation of Providence College from 1972 to 1968.

He formally retired in 1997.

Full list of academic and leadership assignments

Location	Dates	Role	Institution / Organization
Providence, RI	1950-1952	Instructor: Special Moral Theology	Providence College
Boston, MA	1950-1952	Instructor: Special Moral Theology	Emmanuel College
Washington, D.C.	1952-1956	Instructor: Special Moral Theology	Trinity College
Immaculata, PA	1957-1959	Faculty Member: Theology	Immaculata College
Columbus, OH	1956-1960	Instructor: Special Moral Theology and Philosophy	St. Mary College of the Springs (now Ohio Dominican)
Silver Springs, MD	1960-1961	Instructor: Dogma	Xaverian College
Washington, D.C.	1961-1965	Assistant Professor: Department of Religious Education, Moral Theology	Catholic University of America
	1962-1964	President	Society of Catholic College Teachers of Sacred Doctrine
Washington, D.C.	1965-1967 & 1969-1970	Associate Professor: Sin, Law and Grace / Theological Virtues and Prudence	Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception
	1966-1970	Editor: Moral Theology	Catholic Theological Encyclopedia
Miami, FL	1970-1971	Chairman: Moral Theology	Barry College
Boynton Beach, FL	1971-1974	Professor: Grace, Theological Virtues, Spirituality, Homiletics	St. Vincent's Major Seminary
Miami, FL	1972-1974	Chairman	Committee for the Continuing Education of the Archdiocese of Miami
Boynton Beach, FL	1973-1980	First Rector	St. Vincent's Major Seminary
Dallas, TX	1978	Chairman and Member	Visiting Team for the National Council of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Priestly Formation to Holy Trinity Seminary
Washington, D.C. & Dover, MD	1979	Chairman	Committee for the Provincial Council on Dominican Formation
Rome, Italy	1981-1984	Professore Ordinario: Moral Theology	Pontifica Università di S. Tommaso
Providence, RI	1984-1990	Visiting Professor: Religious Studies, Western Civilization	Providence College
Providence, RI	1990-1993	Prior	St. Thomas Aquinas Priory at Providence College
New York, NY	1993-1997	Prior Provincial	Province of St. Joseph

Publishing and editing

Father Voll was an author and editor on several publications including writing "The Objective of College Theology" for the book Theology in the Catholic College. He served as Contributing Editor for moral theology for the Catholic Theological Encyclopedia which was later released as the Encyclopedia Dictionary of Religion.

He also wrote several entries on various subjects of theology for the New Catholic Encyclopedia. In addition, he had many articles, chapters, translations, and book reviews published in journals and other publications.

The following is a full list of his publications:

Publications

• "The Objective of College Theology." In Theology in the Catholic College, edited by Reginald Masterson, 67-92. Dubuque, IA: The Priory Press, 1961.
• "The Vice of Acedia." Washington: Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, 1966.
• "Acedia." In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1st Edition, Volume 1, 83-84. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
• "Acedia." In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, Volume 1, 66-67. Detroit and Washington, D.C.: Thomson/Gale and Catholic University of America, 2003.
• "Lukewarmness." In New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8, 865-866. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion, edited by Paul Keven Meagher. Washington: Catholic University of America, 1979.
• "Deadly Sins." In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, Volume 4, 565-567. Detroit and Washington, D.C.: Thomson/Gale and Catholic University of America, 2003. Co-authored with Sally A. Kenel.
• “Society of Catholic College Teachers of Sacred Doctrine.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, Volume 13, 289-290. Detroit and Washington, D.C.: Thomson/Gale and Catholic University of America, 2003.
• “Teacher of Religion.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition, Volume 14. Detroit and Washington, D.C.: Thomson/Gale and Catholic University of America, 2003.

Articles

• “The Two Wheel Cart.” Dominacana 30, no. 3 (1945): 161-166.
• “Nuremburg and Viroria.” Dominacana 31, no. 3 (1946): 195-207.
• “Reply to Bacon.” Dominacana 32, no. 2 (1947): 100-109.
• Reviews of “Newman’s Apologia, Grammar & Idea of a University.” The Thomist 11, no. 4 (1948): 503-516.
• “Henry Suso - Dominican.” Dominacana 32, no. 2 (1948): 185-192.
• Review of Theology and Education by Thomas C. Donlan, O.P. The Thomist, vol. XVI, 1953, pp. 411-13.
• "Newman's Apologia, Grammar & Idea of a University." The Thomist, vol. XI, 1948, pp. 503-516.
• Review of "Morals and Medicine" by Joseph Fletcher. The Thomist, vol. XVIII, 1955, pp. 89-101.
• "The Objective of College Theology." Theology in the Catholic College, edited by Masterson, Dubuque, IA: The Priory Press, 1961.
• "Contemporary Development in Moral & Sacramental Theology." Proceedings of the Society of Catholic College Teachers of Sacred Doctrine, vol. 8, Weston, MA: Regis College, 1962, pp. 122-137.
• "The Present Status of Christian Moral Teaching: Presidential Address." Proceedings ut supra, vol. 9, 1963, pp. 7-20.
• "The Role of the Teacher in the Church." Philadelphia: Proceedings of the North American Liturgical Week, 1963.
• "Towards a Bi-Lingual Seminary: A Catholic Effort." Theological Education. Vandalia, OH: Association of Theological Schools, 1979.
• Review of Principles of Catholic Theology, by Edward J. Gratsch et al. Angelicum, vol. 59, no. 2, 1982, pp. 261-62.
• "Beauty of the Interior Castle." Angelicum, vol. LIX, 1984.
• "The Challenge of Peace: What Response" (Reaction to Pastoral Letter of U.S. Bishops on War and Peace). Rivista di Teologia Morale, 1984.

Personal Life and Legacy

Father Voll spent his life in pursuit of theological understanding, teaching, and philosophy.

He had a passion throughout his life for swimming which he saw as a way to stay active and clear his mind. He also mastered several languages and had the ability to speak French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as the ability to read Greek and Latin.

After retiring, he continued an active life of priestly ministry, study, community life, and prayer at Providence College. He maintained his intellectual interests and was a voracious reader and commentator.  

Voll’s alma mater, Providence College, established a scholarship program in his name for students pursuing subjects in the humanities.

He died on Sunday, January 24, 2021 at St. Patrick’s Manor in Framingham, MA at the age of 98 and is interred at Providence College.

References

This article "Walter Urban Voll" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Walter Urban Voll. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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