BOUQUILLON, THOMAS-JOSEPH. - Belgian moral theologian, b. at Warneton on 16 May 1840, d. at Brussels on 5 Nov. 1902. A graduate of the Gregorian University, he spent his entire life teaching moral theology, at Bruges (1867-77), Lille (1877-1885), and Washington (1889-1902).
He wrote: Institutiones Theologiae moralis fundamentalis (Bruges 1873, 3rd ed. 1903); De virtutibus theologicis (ibid. 1873, 2nd ed. 1890); De virtute religionis (2 vols., ibid. 1880). He also dealt with the problem of compulsory education imposed or to be imposed by the State: Education, to whom does it belong? (Baltimore 1891), which provoked controversies and objections, against which he defended himself in other publications (cf. S. Brandi, in La Civ. Catt., 15th series, 1 [1892, 1], pp. 82-92). But his name is associated with moral theology, which he was able to raise to a modernly scientific level through clarity of exposition, sound doctrine, profound discussion, uncommon learning, and social awareness.