1925 – 2012 (November 16)
Joseph Aloysius Duffey was born on June 16, 1925, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Duffey and Anna Callahan Duffey. He had two sisters. He was baptized at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, Philadelphia, on June 28, 1925, and attended that parish’s grade school and Saint Thomas More High School. He spent a year as postulant at Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, New York, before being received as a novice at Good Counsel Novitiate, New Hamburg, N.Y., on September 9, 1944. He professed simple vows on September 10, 1945, and attended Villanova College, Villanova, Pennsylvania, where he received his B.A. degree in 1949. He professed solemn vows on September 10, 1948, and studied theology at Augustinian College, and at the Catholic University, Washington, DC, where he received an MA in 1952. On June 9, 1952, he was ordained to the priesthood in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC.
Father Duffey was assigned to teach at Archbishop Carroll High School, Washington, DC, from 1953 until 1959. He was then appointed Vocation Director of the Province, while a member of the Saint Thomas Monastery community, and then the Saint Mary's Hall community, Villanova. In 1965 he was appointed Director of Students at Augustinian College, Washington, DC. In 1968 he was assigned as pastor of Saint Rita of Cascia Parish, Philadelphia, until 1975 when he became pastor at Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish, Bryn Mawr. At the Provincial Chapter of 1979, he was elected as Assistant Provincial and Director of the Province's Parochial Ministry, and was a member of Saint Thomas of Villanova Friary community, Rosemont. With the resignation of the then Provincial, Robert Wesson, in 1981, he was appointed Rector Provincial, and then elected to two terms as Prior Provincial. In 1990 he served as pastor and subsequently as assistant pastor at Saint Genevieve's Parish, Flourtown, PA. In 1998 he became assistant and at Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish, Bryn Mawr. Due to failing health, he was assigned to Saint Thomas Monastery, Villanova, in 2005. He died in Kindred Hospital, Havertown, Pennsylvania on November 16, 2012.
Father Duffey’s funeral Mass was held on the evening of Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at St. Thomas of Villanova Church, Villanova. Prior Provincial, Mickey Genovese, O.S.A., was the celebrant and Father Donald F. Reilly, O.S.A., was homilist. Father Duffey is buried in the Augustinian plot at Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
Father Duffey was a gentle, sociable man, a devoted pastor and a compassionate leader. Shortly after completing his long tenure as Provincial, he suffered a stroke which left him partially paralyzed on one side. His disability did not thwart his entusiasm for ministry, however, nor did he allow it to impede his active participation in the life of the province.
