Documentary profiles a possible future saint

By Kurt Jensen/OSV News

(Photo: Michelle Duppong is seen in the documentary “Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story,” produced by Anderson Art. OSV News photo/courtesy of FOCUS)

BISMARCK, North Dakota. In 2012, when Michelle Duppong, who was about to become director of adult formation for the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, asked Jacqueline Matta Balzer if she could be her roommate, Balzer had no idea she was dealing with a possible future saint. Still, “You could just sense there was a holiness about her,” Balzer recalls.

Likewise, Jessica Navin, spiritual formation coordinator for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), did not have a sainthood-cause documentary in mind when she began work as executive producer on what would become “Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story.” Instead, the production was originally intended to be a training film for FOCUS missionaries.

That changed on Nov. 1, 2022, when Bismarck Bishop David Kagan celebrated the opening Mass of Duppong’s cause for canonization. If that effort succeeds, Duppong would become only the 12th person to be declared a saint based on ministry carried out primarily on U.S. territory.

Produced by Colorado Springs based Anderson Art, “Radiating Joy” will have a one-day theatrical showing across the country on Nov. 12 as a Fathom Events presentation.

A five-year post-mortem waiting time is normally required before a sainthood cause can be considered. Duppong, who died from ovarian cancer on Christmas Day 2015 at age 31, is now honored as a Servant of God. The other steps on the way to canonization are for a person to be declared venerable and, subsequently, blessed by the pope.

Beatification requires proof of at least one miracle obtained posthumously through the candidate’s intercession. Proof of a second such miracle is needed for canonization.

Duppong is remembered for her intense spirituality and what the documentary calls “a kind of luminescence.” This quality, as possessed in its fullness by Jesus, is described in the Letter to the Hebrews as “the refulgence of his (God’s) glory.”

It’s all a bit overwhelming for Balzer, who has yet to see the documentary and isn’t sure she will, since she knows it would unleash a flood of emotions about her friend.

Before working in Bismarck, Duppong had been a FOCUS missionary on four campuses for six years following her 2006 graduation from North Dakota State University.

Meeting Duppong — who hailed from the Flickertail State’s tiny farm community of Haymarsh — for the first time “was kind of disarming,” Balzer told OSV News. “When she joined the young adult group, we didn’t know what had hit us.”

Balzer found her “a normal person” with an exceptional depth of piety. Duppong, for instance, would never miss the early-morning Mass at the nearby Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

Influenced by the Missionaries of Charity, Duppong also was responsible for launching the diocese’s first Thirst Eucharistic Conference in 2013. “She had everything all kind of put down on paper already” when she proposed it, Bishop Kagan says in the film.

“She was discerning every day. Her whole life was kind of centered on praise,” Balzer added. Summing up Duppong’s personal impact, Balzer observes that she “definitely changed my life.”

In the documentary, Father Nathan Cromly of the Community of St. John, another of Duppong’s friends, calls her “a daughter of the prairie who understood the greatness of the human person.” Mark Bartek, Duppong’s supervisor at FOCUS, describes her as “a calming, focused, joyful presence.”

In 2014, when Duppong went to the hospital for what she thought were ovarian cysts, doctors instead found Stage 4 cancer, which resulted in major surgery followed by chemotherapy. Odds of her survival much beyond a year were slim.

Balzer said Duppong never focused on the intense physical pain. “When I asked her how much pain she was in, she said, ‘I can’t talk about that,’ and she kind of moved on to something else.”

Bartek says she “offered her cancer in exchange for the conversion of students. Not being able to have children was the cross she carried.”

Her sister Renae recalls that when Michelle came home two weeks before her death, she insisted, “I want to go to Mass today. I want to see Jesus.”

Navin told OSV News she was not well acquainted with Duppong before her illness, although she organized a prayer vigil for her. But Navin learned quickly as she conducted her interviews.

 “She went through a remarkable deepening of her faith as she went through cancer,” and endured the ordeal “with extreme dignity and concern for other people,” Navin said.

Navin said she was told that “being with Michelle was like walking into a chapel.” And there are now stories of Duppong’s intercession on behalf of those who have prayed a novena in the hope of obtaining (the favor of conceiving a child). “Women suffering from infertility have become parents.” Navin says.

Their number includes Balzer, who had struggled to become pregnant. But after a prayer to her friend, she and husband Justin welcomed twin boys, with a daughter born just a year ago. “It’s all I ever wanted,” Balzer observes.

For showtimes and tickets, go to: Fathomevents.com.

For more information on the Michelle Duppong sainthood cause, go to: michelleduppongcause.org/the-cause.