(Cardinal) Avery Dulles, RIP

Pope Benedict XVI made a special side trip during his April visit to the US to greet Dulles, whose health had begun to fail largely due to the effects of childhood polio.

Catholic ping!

I am the way, the truth and the life - Words of Jesus Christ our Lord, Our Savior, the Son of God.

May The Lord bless you and keep you;

May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;

May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

And may Our Lady bless you with her maternal love

In the name of the Father, and of the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Amen

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May you rest in peace, Cardinal, thank you so much for your service to the Church!

Prayers are up.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

May he rest in peace.

largely due to the effects of childhood polio

Not extremely old age?

God bless Cdl. Dulles. I'll miss his articles in "First Things"; I often had to get out the dictionary!

RIP Cardinal Dullies.

A great thinker. I will miss him. May God speed him to Himself.

May the saints rise up to greet him; may the angels escort him to Paradise

Wow! What a man Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ was, and what a family he came from...

From his official bio..
Upon his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Avery Dulles entered the Jesuit Order, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1956. After a year in Germany, he studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, and was awarded the doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1960. He was created a Cardinal of the Catholic Church in Rome on February 21, 2001 by Pope John Paul II, the first American-born theologian who is not a bishop to receive this honor.
Father: John Foster Dulles
(February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism around the world. He advocated support of the French in their war against the Viet Minh in Indochina and it is widely believed that he refused to shake the hand of Zhou Enlai at the Geneva Conference in 1954. He also played a great part in the CIA operations to overthrow the ~~democratic~~ Mossadegh government of Iran in 1953 (Operation Ajax) and the ~~democratic~~ Arbenz government of Guatemala in 1954 (Operation PBSUCCESS).
~~snip~~ Both his grandfather John W. Foster and his uncle Robert Lansing served as Secretary of State. He was also the older brother of Allen Welsh Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence under Eisenhower. On June 26, 1912, he married Janet Avery, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. One of their sons, Avery Dulles, converted to Catholicism, entered the Jesuit order and became the first American priest to be directly appointed Cardinal.

It seems the Cardinal could have served the people in many ways, he choose the Priesthood. Wahatta guy!

(No offense but I can't find anything about him having Polio as a child? Plus he was in the US Navy during WWII.)

Two great minds. Requiescat in pace.

NYer, didn't you post a thread about that meeting at the seminary during the Pope's visit to the U.S.?

May he truly rest in peace! Thank you for posting the thread and that beautiful photo of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Cardinal during his visit to the US.

He was a great man.

Dulles wrote the definitive books on the Second Vatican Council, and he did it in clear and lucid prose. He’ll be missed.

Rest in Peace

Avery Cardinal Dulles †

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.
Anima eius, et animæ omnium fidelium defunctorum, per misericordiam Dei, requiescant in pace. Amen.

He was America's leading Catholic theologian for several decades. I have no idea who would even be on the list of contenders for that title now.

Very sad. But thanks be to God for this man’s very productive life.

Vultus Christi

Avery Cardinal Dulles (1918-2008)

By

Father Mark

on December 12, 2008 5:45 PM |

Cardinal Dulles died this morning, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The following lines written in 1946, and already marked by profound humility and wisdom, are taken from the Cardinal's account of his conversion to the Catholic faith, "A Testimonial to Grace."

Humble Love and Confidence

Brethren outside the Church, do not be scandalized by the frailty and ineptitude of Catholics. Our human faults, the whole burden of fallen nature, remain with us as much as with you. Your conduct is often more praiseworthy than ours. The sufficiency of which we seem to boast so much lies not in ourselves, but in Christ. There is no sin so hideous that He refuses to pay the debt for it, provided that we go to Him with sorrow, humble love, and confidence.

Sin Conspicuous and Hidden

The acquisition of virtuous tendencies is a slow and difficult process, in which many of us will never greatly succeed. By the power of our own will we can to some extent avoid the more conspicuous acts of sin. But the evil, thus repressed, continues to live underground, and, unless grace be present, will exhibit itself in other ways such as the stiff-necked complacency of the Pharisees. The world will never condemn secret pride as bitterly as it condemns the shameful sins. But Christ condemned it more severely because it is more incompatible with love.

The Crowning Virtue of Simplicity

True progress can be made through love alone. By forgetting ourselves and living entirely for the glory of Almighty God we can unite ourselves efficaciously with Jesus Christ, Who offered His Sacred Humanity to the Father without stint or hesitation. When one lives completely in the presence of God and for His sake, commendable actions become easier and more fruitful. The saints are able to conform their actions fully with their faith, exercising the necessary tact and delicacy, because they possess the crowning virtue of simplicity. Their whole body is filled with light because their eye is single. They have acquired the spirit of prayer.

Spiritual Childhood: To Cast All Our Care on Him

To advance in the life of grace is to become more childlike, more conscious of one's own littleness and ineffectiveness and of the bigness and strength of God. Gradually, and after many falls, we learn how to cast all our care on Him Who has a fatherly care for us, to trust Him completely because He is all-wise, all-loving, and all-powerful. As one loses oneself in Him one learns what it is to wrestle against principalities and powers. At the same time, however, one learns the meaning of that peace which was the parting gift of Christ to His children in the world.

A Struggle Not Without Rich Rewards

Through a gradual growth in humble Christian hope and faith and love one rises on the ladder of perfection. The ascent is difficult because the spiritual life is a continual struggle. The field to be subdued is as broad as the eye can see, and as one rises the horizons widen. Yet the struggle is not without rich rewards, even at the bottom rungs of the ladder.

RIP.