Gommar DePauw

Who was Gommar DePauw?

Fr. Gommar A. DePauw was a traditionalist Catholic priest and founder of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement.

DePauw was born in Stekene, Belgium, the son of a newspaper editor. After graduating as a Diplomate in Classical Humanities, magna cum laude, from the College of St. Nicholas, he entered the diocesan seminary of Ghent for his philosophical and theological studies. During the Second World War he served as a combat medic with the 9th Belgian Infantry Hunters Regiment, and was taken prisoner at Dunkirk in 1940. After escaping from prison camp, he returned to his seminary studies and was ordained priest for the Diocese of Ghent in 1942. He served as a battle-field chaplain with the Belgian Underground Army and the Polish 1st Armoured Division until the end of the war.

For three years DePauw studied at the University of Leuven, where he earned a bachelor's degree in canon law and a licentiate in canon law, moral theology and church history.

In 1949 DePauw joined his family in the United States. He served as an assistant priest in two New York City parishes: St. Stephen's in Manhattan and St. Clare's in The Bronx. At the same time he pursued graduate studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In 1953 he received a doctorate in canon law with a dissertation entitled The Educational Rights of the Church.