America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
Father Douglas F. Venne, M.M., Maryknoll missioner to the Philippines and Bangladesh, died Dec. 28 in Monipuripara, Bangladesh. He was 81.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1959, he was assigned to the Philippines where he built small Christian communities in seven parishes and worked doing manual labor among the tribal peoples building pathways through the mountains.
In 1975 he volunteered to go to Bangladesh to join one of Maryknoll’s newest missions. Believing it was important that Christians live among the local Muslim and Hindu population to help them better understand who Christians are, he and four other Maryknollers formed a fraternity. He spent five years working as a laborer in the fields with local farmers while teaching adult literacy.
He later moved to the village of Pouli, where he lived for 24 years while administering basic medicines, leading literacy efforts and devoting himself to prayer.
Born in Racine, Wis., he entered Maryknoll in 1952. He held a bachelor’s degree from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. He studied for the priesthood at Maryknoll Seminary.
He is survived by his brother, Father R. Thomas Venne, and his sisters, Judy Ballard, Claire Gavigan and Jeanne Zahalka.
A Funeral Mass was offered Dec. 29 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Burial followed in the priests’ cemetery there. A Memorial Mass was concelebrated Jan. 7 at Queen of Apostles Chapel at the Maryknoll Mission Center in Ossining.
