Posted on 12/12/2008 7:51:03 AM PST by Pyro7480
Word has come down that Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, one of the great figures of the Catholic Church, certainly in the United States, died this morning in the Jesuit infirmary at Fordham. He was 90, and his generally good health had begun to fail of late....
(Excerpt) Read more at commonwealmagazine.org ...
Cardinal Dulles had an illustrious political pedigree, and could’ve, had he chosen to, followed in his ancestors footsteps, perhaps serving as Secretary of State as his father did under Eisenhower. He surprised (and shocked) his WASP family when he converted to Catholicism and decided to take up religious service instead as a permanent calling.
May Cardinal Dulles pray for us and our nation from above.
Rest in Peace.
That must have been an awkward Thanksgiving.
Thanks for pinging this Fordham Alum. Cardinal Dulles was great, but I’d like to make a shout out to Father Joe Koterski, who is still very much with us at Rose Hill.
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
He was a great man. One of the few good Jesuits left in the order. He was writing groundbreaking theological essays right up until the last. Many of them can be found published in First Things, where they are available on-line.
Basically he was made a cardinal because of his theological brilliance and his loyalty to the Church and to orthodoxy. A great defender of the Faith.
Avery Dulles was a hero to many of us in Catholic schools in the 50s and 60s. His family origins, his service to his country, and his conversion to Catholicism made him a hero to the great Sisters Of Charity who taught me, and their enthusiasm made Cardinal Dulles a man in whom I would always hold an interest and have admiration for.
May perpetual Light shine upon him. May he rest in Peace.
My wife an I were both students at Fordham, and although we never had Avery Dulles as a prof, we did have the opportunity to hear his sermons at Mass. As one might expect, he was a homilist of the very highest order, and a model of humility as well.
Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, in the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Ping
funeral info:
http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=2E8CB128-1438-5036-4F9B81E852EB9F2A
Cardinal Dulles, Roman Catholic Theologian
Snip:
After [Dulles’] consecration as a cardinal in Rome on February 21, 2001, the Gregorian University hosted a meal in his honor. Over the rattle of after-dinner coffee cups, various high-ranking ecclesial figures rose to praise Dulles’s life and work. The most revealing moment, however, may have come when, unexpectedly, one of his Dulles cousins stepped to the podium.
An aristocrat of that strange, old American variety — tall and puritanically thin, well but primly dressed, a daughter of stern Protestant New England — she explained that she had overheard as a child the outraged family discussions of the young Avery’s conversion. Uncle Allen, Aunt Eleanor, John Foster, all the senior family members gathered around to complain that the best and brightest of the family’s next generation seemed determined to throw his promising life away. “And, of course, they were right,” she said. “He did throw that life away. He threw it away for God.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article5332887.ece
FYI, I brought over the links from the fan club, in case any of you didn’t attend the McGinleys or the Merton Lecture, some history or his writings.
http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/Dulles/dulles_online.html#video
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