Father Leo John Dehon, SCJ
When Leo Dehon was a sophomore in high
school he experienced a powerful, yet unexplainable attraction to the
priesthood. While attending midnight Mass on Christmas Eve he felt
an intense urge to give himself completely to God as a priest and to bring
others closer to God. Although this
feeling was still vague, none of the turmoil and confusion of his high school
years did anything to dispel it.
Upon graduation he intended to enroll in a seminary.
But Leo’s road to ordination would not be so direct and free of obstacles.
Leo’s family, in the person of his father, had other ambitions
for the youngest son. The Dehons were prosperous landowners whose
extensive holdings included rich farmland, prized livestock, and thoroughbred
race horses. The elder Dehon envisioned a career for his son in business,
law or politics (various family members held public office in local government
for several generations). Despite Leo’s dream of priesthood, his father
insisted that he pursue a professional education that would prepare him to
assume a proper role in society.
In 1859,
Leo went to Paris, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in science and then
enrolled at the university to study law. Legal studies came easily to him
so he made the most of his free time, experiencing many of the vast cultural and
artistic opportunities that the city offered. He also was active in his
local parish where he attended daily Mass, gave religious instructions to the
neighborhood children and, as a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, made
home visits to the poor and elderly. One of the parish priests served as
his regular confessor and spiritual director. As a result, when Leo
emerged after five exciting years of living in the big city, his dream of being
a priest was still very much alive.
His father, however, remained adamant,
insisting that Leo pursue something other than the priesthood. The elder
Dehon arranged for Leo and his college roommate to go on a nine-month tour
through Greece and the Middle East. For two young men in their early20s this proved to be the adventure of a lifetime. They were shot at by
bandits as they rode horseback through the Balkan mountains; in Egypt all
their clothes became infested with lice and had to be burned; they sailed
on a barge down the Nile River and they rode camels across the Sinai desert,
camping out in tents under the stars. But the trip also had a spiritual
dimension. They spent two weeks in the Holy Land, where Leo was able to
follow in the footsteps of Jesus and relive the great moments in the life of the
Man who changed the world. And returning home by way of Rome he had an
audience with the pope, who affirmed him in his vocation. His dream was
more alive than ever.
Finally, his father relented and
the following October Leo entered the French Seminary in Rome. He would always refer to this time
of his life as his “golden years.”
He not only excelled in his theological studies but he also learned how to
meditate, and this method of interior prayer (which he kept up all his life)
brought him
into
personal contact with the living love of the Heart of Jesus. He soon became convinced that this
love should be the foundation of his life and that sharing this love with others
could be the remedy for much of the disorder and misery of modern life. At his ordination to the priesthood
he had the additional joy of giving Communion to his father who had returned to
the practice of the faith. But
Leo’s ordination was not simply the fulfillment of a personal dream. Instead, it was the beginning of a
mission of helping others to know the great love that God has for each of us.
Armed with three more academic degrees — one each in philosophy, theology, and church law — he returned
to his home diocese. His bishop, surprisingly, assigned him to a large urban parish in the blue-collar
town of Saint-Quentin. It had a population of about 35,000, most of whom were so poor that they were
barely able to earn their daily bread. The majority were nominally Catholic, but few went to church or
saw a priest. Almost immediately Father Dehon saw that the Church was losing the people because its
pastoral methods were out of sync with the times. He knew that it was not enough to simply celebrate
Mass and administer the sacraments; the priest had to get out of the sacristy and go to the people.
Father Dehon began by organizing a youth group. At first only a handful of teenagers were involved
but in a few years the group had its own building and playgrounds for over 400 active members.
At St. Joseph’s Youth Club, the 13 to 17-year-olds could play games and participate in sports;
a lending library brought books and magazines into homes that could not afford them; a savings
bank initiated them into the ways of money management; remedial and supplementary classes were
offered, and always Leo Dehon was a kind, fatherly presence who consoled, cajoled, encouraged,
and inspired the youth as they struggled to navigate their way through the bumpy ups and downs
of their adolescent years. Each week he gave them a talk about one of his journeys or he
presented the life of a saint as a role model for them to imitate. The day ended in the chapel
with evening prayer or Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
After the success of the youth club he turned his attention to young adults, the 18 to
25-year-olds who were just starting out in the work world. He saw to it that they could
find a safe haven away from the bars and street life that threatened their future and where
they could enjoy the fellowship of like-minded people their own age. He taught them about
their rights as workers, encouraged them to save for the future, and instructed them in the
ideals of Christian marriage. And since all of these efforts needed money and manpower, he
met periodically with business and civic leaders to keep them informed of the good work that
was being done, and they responded favorably when he solicited their support.