In Memory of Archabbot Emeritus
Douglas Nowicki
Archabbot Emeritus Douglas Nowicki, O.S.B. P'63, C'68, S'72, H'95
Story: Father Paul R. Taylor, O.S.B. President, Saint Vincent College
In 1888, just two months after his death, Sadlier’s Catholic Dictionary named Boniface Wimmer the greatest missionary of the 19th century. The founder of Saint Vincent had a vision to meet the needs of the poor, the marginalized, immigrants, Native Americans, African Americans, farmers, and many more. He knew that education and pastoral care are the best instruments by which people are raised up from their current situation to become integrated into the mainstream of American society and the way that faith is transmitted and strengthened.
In 1959, Bobby Nowicki arrived at Saint Vincent to study in preparation for monastic life and priesthood at the Prep School. Father Method Mraz, O.S.B., his pastor, told him he could not go to the diocesan seminary because all the students studying for the priesthood from Saint Bruno Parish went to Saint Vincent. It was in this year of 1959, then, that Bobby Nowicki was introduced to the legacy and mission of Boniface Wimmer.
Throughout the rest of his life, as he embraced the cross of Jesus Christ, monastic profession, the Sacred Chrism of Holy Orders, and a rigorous and broad education, he also embraced Wimmer’s mission.
Elected Archabbot on January 8, 1991, he knew that this office of service and leadership could best be motivated by renewing and articulating this clear and simple mission. As Wimmer wrote in 1854, “Forward, always forward, everywhere forward! We must not be held back by debts, bad years, or by the difficulties of the times. Man’s adversity is God’s opportunity.” This famous saying of Boniface Wimmer became the mantra of Archabbot Douglas Nowicki. Quite fittingly, too: many people have called Archabbot Douglas the “Second Founder” of Saint Vincent or the “Second Wimmer.”
Archabbot Douglas dedicates the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve in 2002.
As we see and touch the beautiful campus of Saint Vincent, with the Archabbey Basilica as its crown jewel, we know that every square inch, every brick, every blade of grass, has been transformed by Archabbot Douglas in his almost thirty years as the Archabbot here. Even more importantly though, this place, as beautiful as it is, is even more resplendent because of its mission: to care for, shelter, educate, and minister to the people inside. Everything that Archabbot Douglas did, in all his achievements, in all the campaigns, was for people.
He did this because he was motivated by the mission. He did this because it was his vocation and calling. But he could only do this because many people loved him and supported him. As he would often say, “People don’t invest in things; people don’t invest in institutions; people invest in people.” Archabbot Douglas invested in—and indeed loved—people. In the words of Fred Rogers, the best gift that anyone could give is their “Honest Self.” Archabbot Douglas did that.
He studied in the Prep, College, and Seminary at Saint Vincent. After ordination, he earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Tennessee, writing his dissertation on smiling and laughing in children. Father Douglas also engaged in post-doc studies at the Max Planck Institute in Munich before returning to begin a practice in child psychology at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh and to teach at Saint Vincent College. During his time at Children’s, he was “Dr. Nowicki.” But one of his patients didn’t like the “No” in his name, so the child called him Dr. Yeswicki. Henceforth, he became “Dr. Yeswicki” to patients and parents alike.
His practice gave him the opportunity to work with Fred Rogers on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which he did for twenty-four years. They became the best of friends. Fred wrote of Father Douglas:
“It was our interest in children which first brought Douglas and me together. He was just completing his doctorate in clinical child psychology, and I was, as always, collecting ideas for children’s television programming. When we met, I quickly learned that Douglas cared far more for the children themselves than for their psychological test scores. None of us will ever know all of the children for whom Douglas has made a life-long difference, children who had been physically and emotionally scarred, brought to him for help, and he quite naturally brought the love of God to the informed psychological healing of those little ones. And I know he has delighted in that.”
Father Douglas also served as pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Whenever he spoke of these years, he always had the biggest smile. He cared for the poor, the immigrants, former prisoners moving into a halfway house, and single parents and their families. Children of these single parent families found a generous scholarship to Saint Vincent College through Father Douglas, going on to become very successful.
He went on to serve as vicar for education in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, where he faced challenges of declining enrollments and financial difficulties. In response, Father Douglas created the Extra Mile Education Foundation, which continues to this day. Corporate Leaders rallied around Father Douglas with significant resources to provide a strong Catholic education for three (and now more) Catholic elementary schools in the inner city of Pittsburgh. These students received a great education because of Father Douglas’ vision and the generosity of these leaders.
Then, elected Archabbot in 1991, his vision truly began to transform Saint Vincent.
In his first year as Archabbot, he took seriously his fatherly care for the monks, especially the monks in Taiwan and Brazil. While he normally awoke every day at 4:00 a.m., in that first year he awoke at 3:00 a.m. to study Portuguese for an hour so that he could speak with the monks in Brazil in their language.
He cared for all the monks and took seriously the charge that Saint Benedict puts forth in The Rule: that the abbot be a loving father. He cared especially for the sick and took particular care that the monks had good food to eat. He mentored the monks to engage in education to fulfill their potential and provided jobs and responsibilities to challenge them to grow in their work and ministry. He reformed the Divine Office as it is prayed in this Basilica, strengthening our chant and prayer.
Saint Vincent celebrated 150 years with a year-long sesquicentennial celebration in 1996, which served as a springboard for the renovation of the Basilica as well as the transformation of the Seminary and College. Many people rallied around his vision and enthusiasm for this monastery and its apostolates.
Saint Vincent’s impact and reputation spans the globe. It was started with Boniface Wimmer’s influence in Rome and Germany. It continued with Archabbot Aurelius in China. Archabbot Douglas, however, strengthened all of these and more with great success. He invested in monks and seminarians from around the world to study at Saint Vincent and mentored abbots from other monasteries, fully embracing another Boniface Wimmer maxim: “We belong to the whole world.”
Archabbot Douglas also saw the need for strengthening the connection between the Jewish and Catholic communities. Through the example and friendship of Rabbi Jason Edelstein, Archabbot Douglas established the endowed Chair in Catholic Jewish Dialogue with the support of the Rabbi’s family.
The mission of the College continued to blossom under his leadership across all three pillars of Catholic and Benedictine and liberal arts. He established, with the help of many friends, the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture, the Boniface Wimmer Chair in Monastic Studies, the Endowed Chair for Catholic Family Studies, the Endowed Chair for Ethics and Catholic Social Thought, and many others. He also established the Benedict XVI Chair in Biblical Theology and Liturgical Proclamation in the Seminary.
From his work in Pittsburgh, especially with students in the Extra Mile schools, and through Project Headway, many of Archabbot Douglas’ friends began a scholarship to fulfill his vision of helping those in the most need: the Archabbot’s Minority Scholarship. For over thirty years, this significant endowed scholarship in the College has helped hundreds of young men and women to complete their education at Saint Vincent and to go on to have successful careers and meaningful lives.
Archabbot Douglas’s own theology and spirituality was rooted in a profound understanding of God’s love. Each year when our community received new novices, Archabbot Douglas delivered the same homily; a good homily, the kind that one is better for hearing over and over again.
He told the novices that the religious life is about overcoming illusions—illusions about ourselves, illusions about the church, and illusions about God. He never explained how this worked—each monk must overcome these illusions for himself. But as we slowly but surely strip away these illusions, we come to a deeper understanding and experience of the only thing about which there can be no illusion: God’s love.
When Archabbot Douglas retired from the Office of Archabbot four years ago, he remained a quiet yet steady presence in the monastic community on campus. He appreciated the opportunity to be in Florida for a few months each year, yet Saint Vincent was always home. Faithful to the Daily Office of Prayer and Holy Mass, he remained an inspiration.
“Forward, always forward, everywhere forward.”
“We cannot be held back by debts, by the difficulties of the times, by unfortunate years. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.”
- Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. Founder, Saint Vincent Archabbey and College
