Cardinal Avery Dulles at 90
Sept 03, 2008
His body ravaged by the post-polio syndrome that's left him unable to communicate, but with his mind still said to be sharp as ever, the Fordham Jesuit community hosted an intimate 90th birthday celebration last week for its own Cardinal Avery Dulles.
Whispers in the Loggia, Tuesday, September 02, 2008
His body ravaged by the post-polio syndrome that's left him unable to communicate, but with his mind still said to be sharp as ever, the Fordham Jesuit community hosted an intimate 90th birthday celebration last week for its own Cardinal Avery Dulles.
Confined to his wheelchair, the famed convert -- whose 28th book rolled out earlier this year, with another (on evangelization) said to be on the way -- even got an assist from his classmate at the consistory of 2001 as New York's Cardinal Edward Egan moved onlookers by rolling Dulles to his place for a special Mass, staying at the Jesuit's side in house cassock as opposed to vesting for the altar. At a subsequent reception, the Gotham prelate -- ever more a "Big Daddy"-figure to the New York Jesuits -- led a toast to his Bronx-based confrere before cutting the birthday cake in his stead.
Visited by Pope Benedict a month before his farewell address had to be delivered for him while he looked on, the condition of the only American priest directly elevated to the college of cardinals has declined significantly over recent weeks. So cerebral that he once put his laundry in a dishwasher, a friend said that "even now, you can still see the mind just working away" in his room at Fordham's Jesuit infirmary, where his longtime circle of confreres, friends, students and admirers -- led by his top aide of 20 years, Dominican Sr Anne-Marie Kirmse -- still keep him close company and appraised of everything.
A Navy man in World War II who invariably outpaced much younger company into his late 80s, Dulles traveled extensively -- often by himself -- until last year, when his collaborators finally prevailed on him to decline any further invitations. Now in his twilight, the following passage from his memoir is made all the more poignant:
"Although I cannot rival the generous dedication of St. Paul and Ignatius of Loyola, I am, like them, content to be employed in the service of Christ and the Gospel, whether in sickness or health, in good repute or ill.
"I am immesurably grateful for the years in which the Lord has permitted me to serve him in a society that bears as its motto: Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
"I trust that his grace will not fail me, and that I will not fail his grace, in the years to come."
Kardinal Avery Dulles wird 90
Sept 02, 2008
Kardinal Avery Dulles wird am Sonntag 90. Erst im April hatte sich Dulles als langjähriger Professor der New Yorker Jesuiten-Universität Fordham verabschiedet. Er ist der erste Amerikaner, der in Würdigung seines theologischen Werkes zum Kardinal ernannt wurde (2001). Dulles verfasste 22 Bücher und erhielt mehr als 30 Ehrendoktorate.
Washington, 21.8.08 (KAP) Er habe sich immer als Vermittler zwischen entgegengesetzten Denkrichtungen verstanden, sagte der Jesuitenpater im April in seiner Fordham-Abschiedsrede. Nach Originalität und einer neuen Schule habe er nie gesucht.
Dulles wurde am 24. August 1918 in Auburn im Bundesstaat New York als Sohn des späteren Außenministers John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) geboren. Während seines Studiums von Philosophie, Kunst, Theologie, Jura und Literatur an der Harvard-Universität konvertierte er 1940 zur katholischen Kirche. Nach vierjährigem Dienst bei der Marine wurde er 1946 Mitglied des Jesuitenordens; 1956 weihte ihn der damalige New Yorker Erzbischof, Kardinal Francis Spellman, zum Priester.
Nach einer Promotion an der Gregoriana in Rom lehrte Dulles an der Universität Woodstock in Maryland, der Catholic University of America und seit 1988 an der Fordham University. Als Folge von Kinderlähmung, mit der er bei der Marine angesteckt wurde, ist er mittlerweile an den Rollstuhl gefesselt.
(fordham.edu, June 30, 2008) Family, colleagues and close friends of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., gathered Tuesday, April 1, to hear the esteemed theologian’s final McGinley Lecture.
Former Fordham president Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., delivered the remarks, titled “Farewell Address as Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society (1988-2008),” from the Leonard Theatre at Fordham Preparatory School.
In his lecture, Cardinal Dulles, the first American-born theologian to be made a cardinal without first becoming a bishop, said that a polio infection he suffered in 1945 while in the Navy had now rendered him unable to continue teaching. He called his time as McGinley Professor a personal climax, and said that the most important aspect of his career was the discovery of “the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field, the Lord Jesus himself.”
He also took time to summarize the overriding themes of his lectures, which he said he took great pains to make relevant and understandable to educated Christians.
“When in these lectures I affirm that Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross, or that he makes himself substantially present in the Eucharist, or that the gate to salvation is a narrow one, or that priestly ordination is reserved to men, or that capital punishment is sometimes warranted, in each case I am willingly adhering to the testimony of Scripture and perennial Catholic tradition,” he said.
Cardinal Dulles and the Rev. Robert Imbelli, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at Boston College, sat on stage during the presentation. Father Imbelli, delivered a response to the speech, the 39th in Cardinal Dulles’ 20 years as McGinley Professor. He praised the cardinal’s willingness to listen carefully to others before making up his mind, and listed four ways in which he fulfilled the Ignatian vision, including resistance to any sundering of Jesus from his body, the church.
“To say, as some do today, ‘Jesus yes, church no,’ would be to speak nonsense for Ignatius Loyola and makes no sense for Avery Dulles. Not for Ignatius nor for Dulles is the church some platonic entity floating above history or possessing a merely invisible nature,” Father Imbelli said. “Rather the church of Christ concretely immersed in history subsists in visible form in the Catholic Church, in hierarchical communion with the successor of Peter and the college of bishops in union with him.”
He also noted that if love for Fordham is a characteristic of the Dulles’ legacy, an even more defining feature is his love for the Society of Jesus.
“In my forward to the McGinley Lectures volume, I suggest that one may profitably read these collected essays as so many salvings of the Ignatian charism,” Father Imbelli said. “Brought to bear are crucial theological and social issues of our day.”
Calling him a great priest, a joy of the Society of Jesus and a treasure of the University, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, bestowed on Cardinal Dulles the President’s Medal, the University’s highest honor.
“I am embarrassed to tell you, you who have given us golden wisdom, that [the medal] is only sterling silver,” Father McShane said. “I console myself, however, with the realization that at the center of the medal which bears the great seal of the University, stands the holy name, the pearl of great price, Jesus himself.”
The lecture was published in the April 21 issue of America Magazine.
The nobility of Cardinal Dulles
Jun 07, 2008
If the United States had a nobility, Avery Dulles would have been born into it. His great-grandfather, John W. Foster, and his great-uncle, Robert Lansing, both served as Secretary of State. So did his father, John Foster Dulles, who also negotiated the post-World War II peace treaty with Japan.
(Tidings, June 6, 2008) Avery Dulles's uncle, Allen Dulles, was a legendary World War II spymaster and the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Aunt Eleanor, whom many thought more formidable than her brothers, Foster and Allen, negotiated the Austrian State Treaty that pried the Red Army out of Vienna in 1955.
How did all this staunch Presbyterian stock produce a Catholic convert, a Jesuit priest, and the first American theologian to be raised to the cardinalate?
The answer is encoded in the motto on Cardinal Avery Dulles's coat-of-arms, Scio cui credidi [I know in Whom I have believed]: St. Paul's simple-yet-profound explanation to Timothy of why he was not concerned about his sufferings or his future. That faith came to Avery Dulles in stages. He left prep school an agnostic, but a chance encounter with a blossoming tree on a soggy day during his undergraduate years at Harvard inspired the conviction that the world was governed by "an all-good and omnipotent God," as he later put it. How might that conviction be embodied institutionally, though?
Slowly, Avery Dulles came to appreciate the subtlety, depth and coherent structure of Catholic doctrine. Here was the truth, nobly expressed: the only possible response was to adhere to it, heart, mind and soul. That is what Avery Dulles has done for 68 years, since he entered the Catholic Church in 1940.
That adherence to the truth of Catholic faith has been the organizing principle of his extensive theological work --- more than 20 books, and over 700 articles. Avery Dulles has been a theologian of the tradition, explicating ancient truths, stretching them a bit, exploring their implications, but never seeking cheap originality or sound-bite fame.
That modesty of purpose has gone hand-in-hand with an evangelical modesty of person. One does not often see cardinals of the Holy Roman Church repairing their shoes with duct tape, or walking across campus in cheap blue windbreakers; the cardinal's sartorial style would cause pain at Men's Wearhouse (not to mention Brooks Brothers).
There is no affectation here, though; Avery Dulles took a vow of poverty when he entered the Society of Jesus and he has kept it, as he has kept his vows of chastity, obedience to superiors, and that special obedience to the Pope which is the distinguishing hallmark of classic Ignatian life.
His nomination as a cardinal came as a complete surprise to him, if not to others. The night it was announced, my wife and I were entertaining friends who were also close to Father Dulles. As dinner began, the phone rang: it was the newly-nominated cardinal, who brushed aside my congratulations and asked whether it was possible for him to be dispensed from the canonical requirement of becoming a bishop. I assured him that the dispensation would be readily given, as it had been for other elderly theologians whom John Paul II honored with the red hat; there was a sigh of relief at the other end of the phone. The whole exchange was yet another expression of Avery's modesty.
Still, cardinals employ the miter and crozier when they preside liturgically. So on the night of February 23, 2001, Cardinal Avery Dulles processed into the Church of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary to take possession of his Roman "title," vested as none of us had ever seen him before. At which point Jody Bottum, now editor of First Things, leaned over and whispered, "Now we know what Abraham Lincoln would have looked like in full pontificals."
Suffering today from the ravages of post-polio syndrome, the cardinal's humble, even grateful submission to the will of God is a model for us all. Avery Dulles, a noble soul, knows in Whom he has believed. That has made all the difference.
George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Who Can Be Saved?
Jun 06, 2008
by Avery Cardinal Dulles.
Copyright (c) 2008 First Things (February 2008).
Nothing is more striking in the New Testament than the confidence with which it proclaims the saving power of belief in Christ. Almost every page confronts us with a decision of eternal consequence: Will we follow Christ or the rulers of this world? The gospel is, according to Paul, “the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith” (Rom. 1:16). The apostles and their associates are convinced that in Jesus they have encountered the Lord of Life and that he has brought them into the way that leads to everlasting blessedness. By personal faith in him and by baptism in his name, Christians have passed from darkness to light, from error to truth, and from sin to holiness.
Paul is the outstanding herald of salvation through faith. To the Romans he writes, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Faith, for him, is inseparable from baptism, the sacrament of faith. By baptism, the Christian is immersed in the death of Christ so as to be raised with him to newness of life (Rom. 6:3-4).
The Book of Acts shows the apostles preaching faith in Christ as the way to salvation. Those who believe the testimony of Peter on the first Pentecost ask him what they must do to be saved. He replies that they must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and thereby save themselves from the present crooked generation (Acts 2:37-40). When Peter and John are asked by the Jewish religious authorities by what authority they are preaching and performing miracles, they reply that they are acting in the name of Jesus Christ and that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Paul and his associates bring the gospel first of all to the Jews because it is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises. When the Jews in large numbers reject the message, Paul and Barnabas announce that they are turning to the Gentiles in order to bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 13:46-47).
A few chapters later in Acts, we see Paul and Silas in prison at Philippi. When their jailer asks them, “What must I do to be saved?” they reply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” The jailer and his family at once accept baptism and rejoice in their newfound faith (Acts 16:30-34).
The same doctrine of salvation permeates the other books of the New Testament. Mark’s gospel ends with this missionary charge: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole of creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
John in his gospel speaks no less clearly. Jesus at one point declares that those who hear his word and believe in him do not remain in darkness, whereas those who reject him will be judged on the last day (John 12:44-50). At the Last Supper, Jesus tells the Twelve, “This is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). John concludes the body of his gospel with the statement that he has written his account “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
From these and many other texts, I draw the conclusion that, according to the primary Christian documents, salvation comes through personal faith in Jesus Christ, followed and signified by sacramental baptism.
The New Testament is almost silent about the eternal fate of those to whom the gospel has not been preached. It seems apparent that those who became believers did not think they had been on the road to salvation before they heard the gospel. In his sermon at Athens, Paul says that in times past God overlooked the ignorance of the pagans, but he does not say that these pagans were saved. In the first chapter of Romans, Paul says that the Gentiles have come to a knowledge of God by reasoning from the created world, but that they are guilty because by their wickedness they have suppressed the truth and fallen into idolatry. In the second chapter of Romans, Paul indicates that Gentiles who are obedient to the biddings of conscience can be excused for their unbelief, but he indicates that they fall into many sins. He concludes that “all have sinned and fall short” of true righteousness (Rom. 3:23). For justification, Paul asserts, both Jews and Gentiles must rely on faith in Jesus Christ, who expiated the sins of the world on the cross.
Animated by vibrant faith in Christ the Savior, the Christian Church was able to conquer the Roman Empire. The converts were convinced that in embracing Christianity they were escaping from the darkness of sin and superstition and entering into the realm of salvation. For them, Christianity was the true religion, the faith that saves. It would not have occurred to them that any other faith could save them.
Christian theologians, however, soon had to face the question whether anyone could be saved without Christian faith. They did not give a wholly negative answer. They agreed that the patriarchs and prophets of Israel, because they looked forward in faith and hope to the Savior, could be saved by adhering in advance to him who was to come.
The apologists of the second and third centuries made similar concessions with regard to certain Greek philosophers. The prologue to John’s gospel taught that the eternal Word enlightens all men who come into the world. Justin Martyr speculated that philosophers such as Socrates and Heraclitus had lived according to the Word of God, the Logos who was to become incarnate in Christ, and they could therefore be reckoned as being in some way Christians. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen held that the Wisdom of God gave graces to people of every generation, both Greeks and barbarians.
The saving grace of which these theologians were speaking, however, was given only to pagans who lived before the time of Christ. It was given by the Word of God who was to become incarnate in Jesus Christ. There was no doctrine that pagans could be saved since the promulgation of the gospel without embracing the Christian faith.
Origen and Cyprian, in the third century, formulated the maxim that has come down to us in the words Extra ecclesiam nulla salus—”Outside the Church, no salvation.” They spoke these words with heretics and schismatics primarily in view, but they do not appear to have been any more optimistic about the prospects of salvation for pagans. Assuming that the gospel had been promulgated everywhere, writers of the high patristic age considered that, in the Christian era, Christians alone could be saved. In the East, this view is represented by Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom. The view attributed to Origen that hell would in the end be evacuated and that all the damned would eventually be saved was condemned in the sixth century.
In the West, following Ambrose and others, Augustine taught that, because faith comes by hearing, those who had never heard the gospel would be denied salvation. They would be eternally punished for original sin as well as for any personal sins they had committed. Augustine’s disciple Fulgentius of Ruspe exhorted his readers to “firmly hold and by no means doubt that not only all pagans, but also all Jews, and all heretics and schismatics who are outside the Catholic Church, will go to the eternal fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels.”
The views of Augustine and Fulgentius remained dominant in the Christian West throughout the Middle Ages. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) reaffirmed the formula “Outside the Church, no salvation,” as did Pope Boniface VIII in 1302. At the end of the Middle Ages, the Council of Florence (1442) repeated the formulation of Fulgentius to the effect that no pagan, Jew, schismatic, or heretic could be saved.
On one point the medieval theologians diverged from rigid Augustinianism. On the basis of certain passages in the New Testament, they held that God seriously wills that all may be saved. They could cite the statement of Peter before the household of Cornelius: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35). The First Letter to Timothy, moreover, declares that God “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). These assurances made for a certain tension in Catholic teaching on salvation. If faith in Christ was necessary for salvation, how could salvation be within reach of those who had no opportunity to learn about Christ?
Thomas Aquinas, in dealing with this problem, took his departure from the axiom that there was no salvation outside the Church. To be inside the Church, he held, it was not enough to have faith in the existence of God and in divine providence, which would have sufficed before the coming of Christ. God now required explicit faith in the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation. In two of his early works ( De Veritate and Commentary on Romans), he discusses the hypothetical case of a man brought up in the wilderness, where the gospel was totally unknown. If this man lived an upright life with the help of the graces given him, Thomas reasoned, God would make it possible for him to become a Christian believer, either through an inner illumination or by sending a missionary to him. Thomas referred to the biblical example of the centurion Cornelius, who received the visitation of an angel before being evangelized and baptized by Peter (Acts 10). In his Summa Theologiae, however, Thomas omits any reference to miraculous instruction; he goes back to the Augustinian theory that those who had never heard the gospel would be eternally punished for original sin as well as their personal sins.
A major theological development occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The voyages of discovery had by this time disclosed that there were large populations in North and South America, Africa, and Asia who had lived since the time of Christ and had never had access to the preaching of the gospel. The missionaries found no sign that even the most upright among these peoples had learned the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation by interior inspirations or angelic visitations.
Luther, Calvin, and the Jansenists professed the strict Augustinian doctrine that God did not will to save everyone, but the majority of Catholic theologians rejected the idea that God had consigned all these unevangelized persons to hell without giving them any possibility of salvation. A series of theologians proposed more hopeful theories that they took to be compatible with Scripture and Catholic tradition.
The Dominican Melchior Cano argued that these populations were in a situation no different from that of the pre-Christian pagans praised by Justin and others. They could be justified in this life (but not saved in the life to come) by implicit faith in the Christian mysteries. Another Dominican, Domingo de Soto, went further, holding that, for the unevangelized, implicit faith in Christ would be sufficient for salvation itself. Their contemporary, Albert Pighius, held that for these unevangelized persons the only faith required would be that mentioned in Hebrews 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” They could therefore be saved by general revelation and grace even though no missionary came to evangelize them.
The Jesuit Francisco Suarez, following these pioneers, argued for the sufficiency of implicit faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation, together with an implicit desire for baptism on the part of the unevangelized. Juan de Lugo agreed, but he added that such persons could not be saved if they had committed serious sins, unless they obtained forgiveness by an act of perfect contrition.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Jesuits of the Gregorian University followed in the tradition of Suarez and de Lugo, with certain modifications. Pope Pius IX incorporated some of their ideas in two important statements in 1854 and 1863. In the first, he said that, while no one can be saved outside the Church, God would not punish people for their ignorance of the true faith if their ignorance was invincible. In the second statement, Pius went further. He declared that persons invincibly ignorant of the Christian religion who observed the natural law and were ready to obey God would be able to attain eternal life, thanks to the workings of divine grace within them. In the same letter, the pope reaffirmed that no one could be saved outside the Catholic Church. He did not explain in what sense such persons were, or would come to be, in the Church. He could have meant that they would receive the further grace needed to join the Church, but nothing in his language suggests this. More probably he thought that such persons would be joined to the Church by implicit desire, as some theologians were teaching by his time.
In 1943, Pius XII did take this further step. In his encyclical on the Mystical Body, Mystici Corporis, he distinguished between two ways of belonging to the Church: in actual fact (in re) or by desire (in voto). Those who belonged in voto, however, were not really members. They were ordered to the Church by the dynamism of grace itself, which related them to the Church in such a way that they were in some sense in it. The two kinds of relationship, however, were not equally conducive to salvation. Those adhering to the Church by desire could not have a sure hope of salvation because they lacked many spiritual gifts and helps available only to those visibly incorporated in the true Church.
Mystici Corporis represents a forward step in its doctrine of adherence to the Church through implicit desire. From an ecumenical point of view, that encyclical is deficient, since it does not distinguish between the status of non-Christians and non-Catholic Christians. The next important document came from the Holy Office in its letter to Cardinal Cushing of Boston in 1949. The letter pointed out—in opposition to Father Leonard Feeney, S.J., and his associates at St. Benedict Center—that, although the Catholic Church was a necessary means for salvation, one could belong to it not only by actual membership but by also desire, even an unconscious desire. If that desire was accompanied by faith and perfect charity, it could lead to eternal salvation.
Neither the encyclical Mystici Corporis nor the letter of the Holy Office specified the nature of the faith required for in voto status. Did the authors mean that the virtue of faith or the inclination to believe would suffice, or did they require actual faith in God and divine providence, or actual faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation?
The Second Vatican Council, in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church and its Decree on Ecumenism, made some significant departures from the teaching of Pius XII. It avoided the term member and said nothing of an unconscious desire for incorporation in the Church. It taught that the Catholic Church was the all-embracing organ of salvation and was equipped with the fullness of means of salvation. Other Christian churches and communities possessed certain elements of sanctification and truth that were, however, derived from the one Church of Christ that subsists in the Catholic Church today. For this reason, God could use them as instruments of salvation. God had, however, made the Catholic Church necessary for salvation, and all who were aware of this had a serious obligation to enter the Church in order to be saved. God uses the Catholic Church not only for the redemption of her own members but also as an instrument for the redemption of all. Her witness and prayers, together with the eucharistic sacrifice, have an efficacy that goes out to the whole world.
In several important texts, Vatican II took up the question of the salvation of non-Christians. Although they were related to the Church in various ways, they were not incorporated in her. God’s universal salvific will, it taught, means that he gives non-Christians, including even atheists, sufficient help to be saved. Whoever sincerely seeks God and, with his grace, follows the dictates of conscience is on the path to salvation. The Holy Spirit, in a manner known only to God, makes it possible for each and every person to be associated with the Paschal mystery. “God, in ways known to himself, can lead those inculpably ignorant of the gospel to that faith without which it is impossible to please him.” The council did not indicate whether it is necessary for salvation to come to explicit Christian faith before death, but the texts give the impression that implicit faith may suffice.
Vatican II left open the question whether non-Christian religions contain revelation and are means that can lead their adherents to salvation. It did say, however, that other religions contain elements of truth and goodness, that they reflect rays of the truth that enlightens all men, and that they can serve as preparations for the gospel. Christian missionary activity serves to heal, ennoble, and perfect the seeds of truth and goodness that God has sown among non-Christian peoples, to the glory of God and the spiritual benefit of those evangelized.
While repeatedly insisting that Christ is the one mediator of salvation, Vatican II shows forth a generally hopeful view of the prospects of non-Christians for salvation. Its hopefulness, however, is not unqualified: “Rather often, men, deceived by the evil one, have become caught up in futile reasoning and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator. Or, some there are who, living and dying in a world without God, are subject to utter hopelessness.” The missionary activity of the Church is urgent for bringing such persons to salvation.
After the council, Paul VI (in his pastoral exhortation “Evangelization in the Modern World”) and John Paul II (in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio) interpreted the teaching of Vatican II in relation to certain problems and theological trends arising since the council. Both popes were on guard against political and liberation theology, which would seem to equate salvation with formation of a just society on earth and against certain styles of religious pluralism, which would attribute independent salvific value to non-Christian religions. In 2000, toward the end of John Paul’s pontificate, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the declaration Dominus Iesus, which emphatically taught that all grace and salvation must come through Jesus Christ, the one mediator.
Wisely, in my opinion, the popes and councils have avoided talk about implicit faith, a term that is vague and ambiguous. They do speak of persons who are sincerely seeking for the truth and of others who have found it in Christ. They make it clear that sufficient grace is offered to all and that God will not turn away those who do everything within their power to find God and live according to his law. We may count on him to lead such persons to the faith needed for salvation.
One of the most interesting developments in post-conciliar theology has been Karl Rahner’s idea of “anonymous Christians.” He taught that God offers his grace to everyone and reveals himself in the interior offer of grace. Grace, moreover, is always mediated through Christ and tends to bring its recipients into union with him. Those who accept and live by the grace offered to them, even though they have never heard of Christ and the gospel, may be called anonymous Christians.
Although Rahner denied that his theory undermined the importance of missionary activity, it was widely understood as depriving missions of their salvific importance. Some readers of his works understood him as teaching that the unevangelized could possess the whole of Christianity except the name. Saving faith, thus understood, would be a subjective attitude without any specifiable content. In that case, the message of the gospel would have little to do with salvation.
The history of the doctrine of salvation through faith has gone through a number of stages since the High Middle Ages. Using the New Testament as their basic text, the Church Fathers regarded faith in Christ and baptism as essential for salvation. On the basis of his study of the New Testament and Augustine, Thomas Aquinas held that explicit belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation was necessary for everyone who lived since the time of Christ, but he granted that in earlier times it was sufficient to believe explicitly in the existence and providence of God.
In the sixteenth century, theologians speculated that the unevangelized were in the same condition as pre-Christians and were not held to believe explicitly in Christ until the gospel was credibly preached to them. Pius IX and the Second Vatican Council taught that all who followed their conscience, with the help of the grace given to them, would be led to that faith that was necessary for them to be saved. During and after the council, Karl Rahner maintained that saving faith could be had without any definite belief in Christ or even in God.
We seem to have come full circle from the teaching of Paul and the New Testament that belief in the message of Christ is the source of salvation. Reflecting on this development, one can see certain gains and certain losses. The New Testament and the theology of the first millennium give little hope for the salvation of those who, since the time of Christ, have had no chance of hearing the gospel. If God has a serious salvific will for all, this lacuna needed to be filled, as it has been by theological speculation and church teaching since the sixteenth century. Modern theology, preoccupied with the salvation of non-Christians, has tended to neglect the importance of explicit belief in Christ, so strongly emphasized in the first centuries. It should not be impossible, however, to reconcile the two perspectives.
Scripture itself assures us that God has never left himself without a witness to any nation (Acts 14:17). His testimonies are marks of his saving dispensations toward all. The inner testimony of every human conscience bears witness to God as lawgiver, judge, and vindicator. In ancient times, the Jewish Scriptures drew on literature that came from Babylon, Egypt, and Greece. The Book of Wisdom and Paul’s Letter to the Romans speak of God manifesting his power and divinity through his works in nature. The religions generally promote prayer and sacrifice as ways of winning God’s favor. The traditions of all peoples contain elements of truth imbedded in their cultures, myths, and religious practices. These sound elements derive from God, who speaks to all his children through inward testimony and outward signs.
The universal evidences of the divine, under the leading of grace, can give rise to a rudimentary faith that leans forward in hope and expectation to further manifestations of God’s merciful love and of his guidance for our lives. By welcoming the signs already given and placing their hope in God’s redeeming love, persons who have not heard the tidings of the gospel may nevertheless be on the road to salvation. If they are faithful to the grace given them, they may have good hope of receiving the truth and blessedness for which they yearn.
The search, however, is no substitute for finding. To be blessed in this life, one must find the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field, which is worth buying at the cost of everything one possesses. To Christians has been revealed the mystery hidden from past ages, which the patriarchs and prophets longed to know. By entering through baptism into the mystery of the cross and the Resurrection, Christians undergo a radical transformation that sets them unequivocally on the road to salvation. Only after conversion to explicit faith can one join the community that is nourished by the Word of God and the sacraments. These gifts of God, prayerfully received, enable the faithful to grow into ever greater union with Christ.
In Christ’s Church, therefore, we have many aids to salvation and sanctification that are not available elsewhere. Cardinal Newman expressed the situation admirably in one of his early sermons:
The prerogative of Christians consists in the possession, not of exclusive knowledge and spiritual aid, but of gifts high and peculiar; and though the manifestation of the Divine character in the Incarnation is a singular and inestimable benefit, yet its absence is supplied in a degree, not only in the inspired record of Moses, but even, with more or less strength, in those various traditions concerning Divine Providences and Dispositions which are scattered through the heathen mythologies.
We cannot take it for granted that everyone is seeking the truth and is prepared to submit to it when found. Some, perhaps many, resist the grace of God and reject the signs given to them. They are not on the road to salvation at all. In such cases, the fault is not God’s but theirs. The references to future punishment in the gospels cannot be written off as empty threats. As Paul says, God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7).
We may conclude with certitude that God makes it possible for the unevangelized to attain the goal of their searching. How that happens is known to God alone, as Vatican II twice declares. We know only that their search is not in vain. “Seek, and you will find,” says the Lord (Matt. 7:7). If non-Christians are praying to an unknown God, it may be for us to help them find the one they worship in ignorance. God wants everyone to come to the truth. Perhaps some will reach the goal of their searching only at the moment of death. Who knows what transpires secretly in their consciousness at that solemn moment? We have no evidence that death is a moment of revelation, but it could be, especially for those in pursuit of the truth of God.
Meanwhile, it is the responsibility of believers to help these seekers by word and by example. Whoever receives the gift of revealed truth has the obligation to share it with others. Christian faith is normally transmitted by testimony. Believers are called to be God’s witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Who, then, can be saved? Catholics can be saved if they believe the Word of God as taught by the Church and if they obey the commandments. Other Christians can be saved if they submit their lives to Christ and join the community where they think he wills to be found. Jews can be saved if they look forward in hope to the Messiah and try to ascertain whether God’s promise has been fulfilled. Adherents of other religions can be saved if, with the help of grace, they sincerely seek God and strive to do his will. Even atheists can be saved if they worship God under some other name and place their lives at the service of truth and justice. God’s saving grace, channeled through Christ the one Mediator, leaves no one unassisted. But that same grace brings obligations to all who receive it. They must not receive the grace of God in vain. Much will be demanded of those to whom much is given.
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., holds the Laurence J. McGinley Chair in Religion and Society at Fordham University. This essay is adapted from the Laurence J. McGinley Lecture delivered on November 7, 2007.
The Pope and "Herr Professor"
May 28, 2008
He might've received the red hat at 82, but for Avery Dulles, the cardinalate has never been just an "honorary" dignity.
Whispers in the Loggia, Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Pope and "Herr Professor"
He might've received the red hat at 82, but for Avery Dulles, the cardinalate has never been just an "honorary" dignity.
The only American priest ever to be directly inducted into the Roman clergy without episcopal ordination, the iconic Jesuit theologian -- who once wrote that his journey from WASP scion to to Catholic hierarch included a period of "a thoroughgoing atheism" -- stepped up his responsibilities following his 2001 elevation, becoming active in the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and taking on an even larger schedule of talks and events while keeping his commitments as a prolific scribe of books and articles and the Laurence McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University.
Over the last year, however, despite being as "sharp" and incisive as ever in his thought, and his desire to keep running at all cylinders -- even hoping to honor his road dates (to which he always traveled alone) -- the cardinal's been rapidly hindered by the aftereffects of a 1940s bout with polio, which in recent months has left him unable to speak or walk and recently saw him take up permanent residence at Fordham's infirmary, where pointing at lines in a notepad of frequently used phrases has become his prime means of responding to visitors.
But even so, not even illness could keep Dulles from wanting to see Pope Benedict during his visit last month -- for which he had initially signaled his intent to be present at every event alongside the other American cardinals. Though that wasn't to be given his health, it was Benedict who went the extra mile to see him, throwing his usual devotion to schedule aside to meet privately with Dulles before the youth rally at St Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie.
For most of the encounter, it's been noted that B16 -- never one to choose his words lightly -- didn't address the cardinal with the customary "Your Eminence," but the German academy's eminent honorific of "Herr Professor." Dulles' prepared remarks were read to the Pope, and the cardinal gave Benedict a copy of the cardinal's recently-published compilation of his two decades of McGinley lectures.
Two weeks prior to his papal audience, Dulles looked on as the farewell lecture he had written as holder of the McGinley chair (fulltext/fullvideo) was delivered for him.
"In this life, unfortunately, all good things must come to an end," it read. "Divine providence, which has graciously guided my career throughout these many years, is giving clear signs that it is time to move on and make way for a younger and healthier successor."
Quoting the former Cardinal Ratzinger along the way, he echoed that over the course of his teaching life "I have never tried to create a system of my own, an individual theology. What is specific, if you want to call it that, is that I simply want to think in communion with the faith of the church, and that means above all to think in communion with the great thinkers of the faith. The aim is not an isolated theology that I draw out of myself but one that opens as widely as possible into the common intellectual pathways of the faith."
For an eye onto the cardinal in his own voice, Salt + Light's streaming a 2004 interview with Dulles from Fordham's campus in the Bronx.
Sixty-eight years a Catholic, 62 a Jesuit and in his fifty-third year of priesthood, Dulles marks his 90th birthday on 24 August.
Quiet Encounter: When Benedict XVI Met Cardinal Dulles
May 02, 2008
Amid the great public spectacles of his visit to America, Pope Benedict XVI made time for a private, poignant encounter with Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, on April 19 at New York’s St. Joseph’s Seminary.
(National Catholic Register, May 4-10, 2008) NEW YORK — Cardinal Dulles, suffering the effects of post-polio syndrome, now lives in the Jesuit infirmary at Fordham University. As his muscles atrophy, he is no longer able to walk and is unable to speak. He was therefore unable to participate in the papal events alongside the other cardinals.
Instead, the Holy Father decided to meet him privately as a gesture of esteem and affection.
The encounter echoed the iconic embrace of Archbishop Fulton Sheen by Pope John Paul II in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in October 1979. Archbishop Sheen was growing increasingly frail — he would die two months later — but made a determined effort to be at St. Patrick’s when John Paul visited.
The Holy Father gave him a warm embrace and, paraphrasing the vision of St. Thomas Aquinas, told Archbishop Sheen: “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the Church.”
The encounter of the young Pope and the elderly bishop was as dramatic as one could imagine, two master evangelical performers in the mother Church of what John Paul was pleased to call the capital of the world.
John Paul, the former stage actor, saluted America’s greatest preacher.
Benedict, the university professor, saluted America’s greatest scholarly theologian. And, suitably, the latter encounter was private, at Fordham, a place of teaching, with the two scholars speaking about their earlier theological collaborations and their books.
“Eminenza, Eminenza, I recall the work you did for the International Theological Commission in the 1990s,” said the Holy Father as he greeted Cardinal Dulles with obvious enthusiasm. Cardinal Dulles kissed the papal ring and smiled back at Benedict. Unable to speak, Cardinal Dulles had prepared a text that was read to the Holy Father by a fellow Jesuit priest.
Cardinal Dulles then presented Benedict with a copy of his most recently published book, a splendid collection of the McGinley Lectures he has been delivering at Fordham for 20 years under the title Church and Society.
Benedict immediately took it in hand, read the inscription and began to look through the pages — as happy as any scholar is to get a new book by a respected friend.
A touching moment occurred when Benedict took his leave, greeting all present, including Dominican Sister Anne-Marie Kirmse, Cardinal Dulles’ secretary for the past 20 years.
“Sister, thank you for all the work you do for Cardinal Dulles and for the Church,” Benedict said. Sister Anne-Marie revealed later that 20 years ago, just before she went to work for then-Father Dulles, her only prayer was that she would find some way to put her theological training to work for the Church.
That was now confirmed by the Church’s supreme pastor.
I visited Cardinal Dulles two days after his meeting with Pope Benedict. At our last meeting in August, although he was growing more frail, we had a lively conversation for more than an hour. Now he writes a few words on a writing pad, and I had to do most of the talking.
It suits the cardinal in a way, as he was always ready to listen rather than to speak, to learn rather to teach, but it is a sadness not to hear him speak, for he always had interesting and witty things to say.
On the pad he indicated that he was teaching a seminar on the thought of Benedict XVI. I thought I had misunderstood him until Sister Anne-Marie arrived to drop off the homilies from the papal visit, a book on ecumenism by Cardinal Ratzinger and a copy of Deus Caritas Est.
The cardinal had requested them for his research for the seminar he was already booked to teach this semester before his health began to fail. His mind sharp, he is still at his task, dutifully preparing notes for the seminar, which Sister Anne-Marie, with a doctorate in theology herself, is helping him to complete.
I arrived to find him reading the Fordham faculty senate minutes. When I told him that he certainly did not have to concern himself with such dull material, he wrote simply that he was going through the daily mail. If they sent it to him, he was dutiful enough to read it.
The long admiration I have for Cardinal Dulles only grows deeper as his extraordinary work ethic and devotion to duty continues, despite his infirmity. He granted me his blessing — using his left hand to guide his right hand through the motions — and then I left.
By the time I got to the door, he was back at work, reading the materials Sister Anne-Marie had brought to him.
Earlier this month, Cardinal Dulles gave his last McGinley Lecture, which he wrote but had to be read for him. Entitled “A Life in Theology,” the lecture reflected this latest phase of his long life — he will be 90 this August.
“Suffering and diminishment are not the greatest of evils, but are normal ingredients in life, especially in old age. They are to be accepted as elements of a full human existence,” he said. “As I become increasingly paralyzed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ. If the Lord now calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be made perfect in infirmity. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
Unlike Archbishop Sheen, Cardinal Dulles is not dying, and may well have productive work ahead of him.
But even now, he too is entitled to have his work blessed by the Holy Father, for he too has written well of the Lord Jesus.
Father Raymond J. de Souza
served as the Register’s
Rome correspondent 1999-2003.
Pope makes time to pay homage to U.S. theologian Cardinal Dulles
Apr 22, 2008
During his whirlwind April 15-20 U.S. visit, Pope Benedict XVI took a few moments out of his demanding schedule for a private meeting with one of America's pre-eminent theologians, the ailing, 89-year-old Cardinal Avery Dulles.
WASHINGTON (CNS, Apr-21-2008) -- The wheelchair-bound Jesuit scholar traveled from his residence at Jesuit-run Fordham University's Rose Hill campus in the Bronx to St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., April 19, for a prearranged, 15-minute private meeting with the pope, just after the pontiff met with disabled youths.
"It was a lovely meeting," said Dominican Sister Anne-Marie Kirmse, the cardinal's executive assistant for the past 20 years. She was present to help facilitate the get-together, held in a suite of offices at the seminary.
"The pope literally bounded into the room with a big smile on his face," she told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview April 21. "He went directly to where Cardinal Dulles was sitting, saying, 'Eminenza, Eminenza, Eminenza, I recall the work you did for the International Theological Commission in the 1990s.'"
The pope and cardinal's meeting was also attended by Jesuit Father Thomas R. Marciniak of the Fordham Jesuit community, who served as Cardinal Dulles's priest-chaplain, and Francine Messiah and Oslyn Fergus, health care workers who help the cardinal.
"This meeting is significant because these are two of the leading Catholic theologians who interpreted Vatican II for a generation," said Father James Massa, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. "It was a meeting of two great Catholic intellectuals."
The grandson of a Presbyterian minister and son of John Foster Dulles -- secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower -- Cardinal Dulles entered the Catholic Church in 1941 while studying at Harvard Law School. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he joined the Jesuits in 1946 and was ordained in 1956. He has written 22 books, hundreds of articles and has more than 30 honorary doctorates.
During the meeting, the cardinal gave the pope a copy of his latest book, "Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007," published in early April, Sister Anne-Marie said.
"The pope expressed great interest in the book," she said. "He eagerly looked through it and was touched by Cardinal Dulles' inscription to him."
Often considered Cardinal Dulles' most influential work, "Models of the Church" in 1974 provided tens of thousands of bishops, priests, seminarians and lay leaders with a deeper understanding of the different but complementary theologies of the church underlying the work of the Second Vatican Council.
Most of his writings have guided the interpretation of Vatican II on a host of issues, including the nature of the faith, authority in the church and the relationship between Scripture and tradition, Father Massa said.
"These are the very same topics that the future Pope Benedict XVI would devote many of his scholarly energies to," he said. "It was Cardinal Ratzinger who appointed (then Father) Avery Dulles to the International Theological Commission, an advisory body to the pope on all matters theological."
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took the name Benedict XVI upon his election as pope in 2005.
When Pope John Paul II elevated the 82-year-old Jesuit priest to cardinal in 2001, he became the first American named a cardinal to honor his work as a theologian.
Too old to vote in the College of Cardinals at the time of his elevation, the newly named Cardinal Dulles told CNS in 2001 he considered his selection largely honorary. When members of the College of Cardinals turn 80 they can no longer vote in a conclave.
The cardinal is now confined to a wheelchair and incapable of prolonged speech as a result of post-polio syndrome, which he originally contracted when he was in the Navy 62 years ago. In early April he gave his farewell address as the Laurence J. McGinley professor of religion and society at Fordham University.
"The cardinal is finishing teaching a class (at Fordham) this semester, and I'm helping him with that," Sister Anne-Marie said.
Though he didn't attend the meeting between the two Catholic scholars, Father Massa said the get-together between the pope and Cardinal Dulles was touching to him all the same.
"I wrote my doctoral dissertation (in 1997) at Fordham with Father Dulles as my dissertation mentor," he said. "He chose my topic; it was a sign of his respect for Cardinal Ratzinger and respect for our institution and its structure. The topic was 'The Ecclesiology of Cardinal Ratzinger.' So, this was an emotional and poignant encounter for me."
Before the meeting's conclusion, the pope blessed Cardinal Dulles, "assuring him of his prayers for the cardinal, and encouraged him in his sufferings," Sister Anne-Marie said.
Cardinal Dulles gives farewell speech as Fordham's McGinley professor
Apr 03, 2008
Warmth and congeniality characterized Cardinal Avery Dulles's farewell address April 1 as the Laurence J. McGinley professor of religion and society at Jesuit-run Fordham University.
(Catholic News Service, 04-03-2008) NEW YORK -- Cardinal Dulles, a Jesuit theologian, ended his 20-year series of annual McGinley lectures, from 1988 to 2008, with a short summation of his theology and his ministry and a synopsis of his previous lectures.
The 89-year-old cardinal has addressed theological issues and spoken on secular issues such as politics, human rights and the death penalty.
Confined to a wheelchair and incapable of prolonged speech as a result of post-polio syndrome which he originally contacted when he was in the Navy 62-years ago, Jesuit Father Joseph P O'Hare, Fordham's former president, gave the presentation for the cardinal.
Father Robert P. Imbelli, a New York archdiocesan priest, who is associate theology professor at Jesuit-run Boston College, presented an analysis of the cardinal's speech. The priest referred to himself as a "Jesuit 'in pectore,'" or "in his heart," which refers to the pope's privilege of naming cardinals whose names he keeps a secret.
Cardinal Dulles' presentation took place at Fordham Preparatory School's Leonard Theatre on the university's campus.
In his lectures, which have always been well attended, the cardinal has defended Catholic orthodoxy and explored oft-debated topics.
He said his principal aim in his lectures was "to present and classify the existing opinions" and "to criticize views that are inadequate."
He always tried "to incorporate the valid insights of all parties to the discussion, rather than perpetuate a one-sided view that is partial and incomplete," he said.
"I think of myself as a moderate trying to make peace between (opposing) schools of thought. While doing so, however, I insist on logical consistency. Unlike certain relativists of our time, I abhor mixtures of contradiction," Cardinal Dulles said.
He began his theological lectures "by asking what others, especially authoritative voices, had to say about pertinent questions," he said. If everyone agreed, "it is sufficient to note the consensus," he added.
If a spectrum of opinions existed, "I sought out the best arguments in favor of each major position," he continued. He said his intention was "to give an informed judgment as to which positions are sound and which should be rejected."
In each case, "I am willingly adhering to the testimony of Scripture and perennial Catholic tradition," he said.
The cardinal admitted he never strove for originality.
"Very few new ideas, I suspect, are true. If I conceived a theological idea that had never occurred to anyone in the past, I would have every reason to think myself mistaken," he said.
In the presentation Cardinal Dulles reconfirmed his faith, his orthodoxy, his spirituality and his commitment to the Society of Jesus. He also offered a final word against the materialism, relativism, subjectivism, hedonism, scientism and superficial anti-intellectualism he said is found in modern society.
"Western thought," he said, "followed in the path of cognitive realism for many centuries before the revival of agnosticism in the Renaissance." The cardinal repeated Pope John Paul II's admonition that philosophy should seek to "resume its original quest for eternal truth and wisdom."
"Science, we all know, does not rest on a treasury of revealed knowledge handed down in authoritative tradition," the cardinal said. "Science has wonderfully increased our powers to make and to destroy, but it does not tell us what we ought to do and why.
"It does not tell us where the universe came from, or why we exist, or what our final destination is. And yet some scientists speak as though their discipline were the only kind of valid knowledge," he said.
Even as an undergraduate student 70 years ago, he felt the "oppressive nature of a culture that had no place for objective moral norms and meaning." It was this desperation for enlightenment, the cardinal admitted, that set him "on the path that led through ancient Greek philosophy to Catholic faith."
"Christian revelation brought a tremendous increase of light. God alone, I learned from the New Testament, was good and true in an unqualified sense," he said. "And the same God in all his beauty and majesty became one of our human family in Jesus Christ, the truth, the way, and the life."
"The most important thing about my career, and many of yours, I feel sure, is the discovery of the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field -- the Lord Jesus himself," he said.
In summation, the cardinal, also in the voice of Father O'Hare, poignantly referred to his present weakened state not as a negative or a detriment, but instead, a sign of the triumph of love.
"Suffering and diminishment are not the greatest of evils, but are normal ingredients in life, especially in old age. They are to be accepted as elements of a full human existence," he said.
"As I become increasingly paralyzed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ," he said.
"If the Lord now calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be made perfect in infirmity," he added. "Blessed be the name of the Lord!"
The grandson of a Presbyterian minister, Cardinal Dulles entered the Catholic Church in 1941 while studying at Harvard Law School. After serving his country during World War II in the Navy, he joined the Jesuits in 1946 and was ordained in 1956. He has written 22 books and has more than 30 honorary doctorates.
Cardinal Avery Dulles speaks on the meaning of dialogue between Catholics
Sept 28, 2007
Catholics who disagree over matters of faith should respectfully dialogue with each other on the common ground of Jesus Christ; however, they should not reject church teachings, said Jesuit Cardinal Avery Dulles during the annual Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Lecture given Sept. 18 at Elmhurst College.
(Catholic Explorer, Sep 28, 2007) Elmhurst - The lecture, entitled “Common Ground, Solid Ground,” sought to clarify the intent of Cardinal Bernardin’s controversial Common Ground Initiative, which Cardinal Dulles said has been misunderstood.
Jesuit Father Thomas Marciniak read most of the lecture for the 89-year-old cardinal whose health has recently declined. But Cardinal Dulles, a professor of theology at Fordham University in New York, began the lecture himself, standing before a large audience in the college’s Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel.
The Common Ground Initiative, launched by Cardinal Bernardin shortly before his death in 1996, seeks to foster dialogue between factions within the Catholic Church, decreasing a polarization which he saw as a threat.
After the National Pastoral Life Center introduced a document entitled “Called to be Catholic: Church in a Time of Peril,” the objections came quickly. Within days, four American cardinals independently denounced the document endorsed by Cardinal Bernardin. They argued it “obscured the true common ground” already found in sacred Scripture and church tradition, Cardinal Dulles said.
However Cardinal Dulles, widely considered one of America’s top theologians, said it was never Cardinal Bernardin’s intention to invite attacks on doctrine.
He said Cardinal Bernardin advocated for respectful listening, not doctrinal compromise. Additionally, Cardinal Bernardin believed polarizing disagreements frequently center on pastoral, not doctrinal issues.
“Many interchurch conflicts have to do with programs of religious education, the conduct of the liturgy, the design of church buildings and the practice of private devotions,” Cardinal Dulles explained.
In a short conversation with the Catholic Explorer after the lecture, Cardinal Dulles said polarization in the church has recently decreased. Nevertheless he stressed the continuing need for dialogue between disagreeing Catholics who need to acknowledge the value of their differing points of view.
Earlier in the day, meeting with a group of honor students, faculty members and news media on the Elmhurst campus, he said, “There was a lot of fighting, infighting between liberals and conservatives in the church.” He called this “destructive,” responding to a question posed by the Catholic Explorer.
During the lecture he referred to the pastoral instruction “Of the Means of Social Communication,” issued in 1972 by the Pontifical Commission for the Means of Social Communication.
“This instruction, while dodging the thorny question of dissent, advocated a responsible exchange of freely held and expressed opinion among the people of God, so that all may arrive at a loving consensus of truth under the guidance of the magisterium,” Cardinal Dulles said.
However, during the lecture, the cardinal criticized American Catholics who reject church teaching.
While they see the church as their home “… they do not really believe that the church can issue binding decisions about questions of truth and morality, and for this reason they contend that individual Catholics have a right to dissent, at least in their thoughts and private utterances,” he said.
Cardinal Dulles believes a liberal, social model of dialogue, which seeks social harmony by denying absolute truth, contributes to this erroneous attitude. Under this model, dialogue only becomes possible when parties show willingness to disavow their beliefs.
Interpreting the intent of “Called to be Catholic,” Cardinal Dulles explained it is the work of believers to recognize some Catholics are troubled. “Even if they dissent, as some do, it is not enough to condemn them as dissenters or heretics: we must reach out to them and seek to understand their difficulty. In order to be of help, we must find a common ground from which to work. That common ground, if it is to be solid, will consist of those elements of the faith to which these marginal believers still adhere.
“Using this body of shared beliefs, as a foundation, the parties may face their differences with a real prospect of reconciliation,” he said
However, he stressed “Called to be Catholic” does not imply Catholics should endorse beliefs that contradict church teaching. “Faith demands a certain stringency,” he added.
The lecture also touched on ecumenical dialogue. Instead of diluting their beliefs through compromise, members of different Christian communities should acknowledge their disagreements, patiently resolving them in love.
Responding to a question after the lecture, Cardinal Dulles said both Protestants and Catholics can learn much from each other through dialogue.
The Rev. Scott Matheney, a United Church of Christ minister and the Elmhurst College chaplain, oversaw the event. “I’m very thankful [Cardinal Dulles] was able to come,” he said.
“What was presented was a very concise, conservative understanding of dialogue, and it raised a lot of very serious theological questions, but it’s an important thing to do,” he commented.
Rev. Matheney said the Cardinal Bernardin lecture series helps to nurture the school’s large Catholic community, both spiritually and intellectually. Elmhurst College is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
Ecumenical dialogue may require new methods, says US cardinal
Jul 27, 2007
Dialogue in the quest for Christian unity has proved to be immensely valuable in the United States and globally but may have hit a plateau, a Roman Catholic cardinal has said during the commemoration of a US ecumenical milestone.
By Chris Herlinger
(Ecumenical News International, Friday, 27 July 2007)
Dialogue in the quest for Christian unity has proved to be immensely valuable in the United States and globally but may have hit a plateau, a Roman Catholic cardinal has said during the commemoration of a US ecumenical milestone.
Theologian Cardinal Avery Dulles made his remarks at a conference convened by the US National Council of Churches in Oberlin, Ohio, to mark the 50th anniversary of formal dialogue between Roman Catholics and other Christians in the country.
Dulles said the dialogue, known as "Faith and Order", between Catholics and members of other US Christian churches used the method of theological "convergence". This "seeks to harmonise the doctrines of each ecclesial tradition on the basis of shared sources and methods" but, said Dulles, it "has nearly exhausted its potential".
Surmounting remaining theological and ecclesiastical barriers may require "a different method, one that invites a deeper conversion on the part of the churches themselves," said the 88-year-old Jesuit who teaches at New York's Fordham University. Dulles is the son of the late US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who was a prominent Presbyterian and US lay church leader.
Cardinal Dulles said a better idea than theological convergence would be the encouragement of what he termed, "an ecumenism of mutual enrichment by means of mutual testimony". He believes that this approach leaves those in dialogue "free to draw on their own normative sources and does not constrain them to conceal or belittle what is specific to themselves".
"Far from being ashamed of their own distinctive doctrines and practices, each partner should feel privileged to be able to contribute something positive that the others still lack," said Dulles, who converted to Catholicism as a young man. In 2001, Pope John Paul II named him as the first US-born cardinal who was not a bishop.
Dulles praised nearly five decades of discussions in the United States between those of differing Christian traditions. Those talks, he said, "have been of immense value for dispelling past prejudices, for identifying real but hitherto unrecognised agreements, and for enabling parties to see that they can say more together than they previously deemed possible".
Cardinal Dulles Offers Insights Into Ecclesiology of Pope
Jun 20, 2007
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., called Pope Benedict XVI a leader who maintains a great sense of the continuity of tradition within the Catholic church and its original teachings, and who seeks to “preserve and apply” those teachings through his papal role, at a lecture on the “Ecclesiology of Pope Benedict XVI,” held June 2, on the Rose Hill campus.
(fordham.edu, ) Cardinal Dulles said that Pope Benedict XVI views the church as universal, deriving its spiritual authority, or essence, from Christ’s ascension and the original 12 disciples.
“[Pope Benedict XIV believes] the church is not a product of human creativity,” Cardinal Dulles said, “She does not become whatever the leaders and members wish to make of her. The church is prior to all human initiative. Ours is not to innovate, but to preserve and apply the church teachings.”
Cardinal Dulles, who met then Cardinal Ratzinger in 1971 and who has since exchanged writings with him, said that in the last 20 years, the Pope’s view on Vatican II reforms, such as decentralization of the church, has “matured.” Today, the Pope has a “full-orbed” vision of the church derived from the models of People of God, Mystical Body, Sacrament and Communion.
On the question of church and state, Cardinal Dulles said that the Pope comes “surprisingly close” to endorsing the American principle of separation of the two bodies.
“He does not want the [Catholic] church involved in politics,” he said. “The church depends on the state to keep justice. Consequently, the state cannot inculcate moral training, but depends on religious conviction, which makes people moral and respectful of one another. The church and state complement each other.”
Cardinal Dulles’ talk was part of a lecture series, Food For The Mind, sponsored by the Office of Alumni Affairs at Fordham’s Jubilee reunion, held June 1 through 3 on the Rose Hill campus.
Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 15,600 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx, Manhattan and Tarrytown, and the Louis J. Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y.
Young Catholics and Faith
Mar 23, 2007
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Fordham’s Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, told an audience of Upper East Side parishioners that young Catholics today have an “openness” to their faith, but that they struggle to make a commitment to it because the modern world pulls them in so many directions.
(fordham.edu, 03/07/2007) Cardinal Dulles, who lectured on “Becoming A Community of Disciples,” to more than 100 parishioners at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Monday, called Catholicism an “option—but one of so many options” that young people have today, and said that outside stimuli, such as the media, are not very supportive of their faith. He said that, through retreats, volunteerism and other programs, local parishes could intensify the solidarity of the religion for today’s young parishioners.
“We [as Catholics] have to work very hard to develop in them a sense of discipleship,” he said. “We have to testify to the Catholic faith in our schools and parishes, so that they don't continue to drift away.”
The cardinal was invited to speak at the parish by Gerald R. Blaszczak, S.J., pastor of St. Ignatius Loyola and former vice president for mission and ministry at Fordham. Father Blaszczak welcomed Cardinal Dulles by recalling an essay the cardinal wrote on his patron theologian, St. Robert Bellarmine. Father Blaszczak said the cardinal’s essay gave a “glimpse into the self” of its author, and suggested that the cardinal and the saint were both men who possessed the “greatest virtue” of loyalty to the Holy See, the church, the religious order and to God.
In his lecture, Cardinal Dulles referred to the church model of “discipleship” as having a particular relevance to parish life, and as bringing the church together by inspiring strong personal commitment among clergy and laity.
Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to approximately 15,800 students in its five undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx, Manhattan and Tarrytown, and the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y.
Ignatian Charism Still Relevant
Jan 29, 2007
The Society of Jesus faces many of the same challenges today that it did upon its founding in 1540.
(fordham.edu, January 19 2007) To maintain relevance in the new millennium, said Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the Jesuits must stay true to the ideals of Saint Ignatius himself: living lives of evangelical poverty, and synthesizing the active and contemplative lives.
“The challenges of our day are different but analogous to the 16th century,” said Cardinal Dulles. “The Ignatian charism is not outdated.”
Cardinal Dulles delivered the 36th McGinley Lecture to a capacity crowd at Fordham Preparatory School’s Leonard Theatre on Nov. 29. Cardinal Dulles was introduced by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and spoke to an audience including Peter Gerety, D.D., former archbishop of Newark and Thomas Daily, D.D., former bishop of Brooklyn.
The Cardinal’s theme, The Ignatian Charism at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century, spoke to the continued relevance of the Jesuit order in an increasingly fast-paced and secular world. He identified a charism as a “gift of grace for the benefit of others” and said that the Jesuits should continue to abide by the founding principles of Saint Ignatius, the foremost being a “life of evangelical poverty…which is at the heart of all Jesuit apostolates.”
Cardinal Dulles said that the Church and Society of Jesus face many of the same challenges that Ignatius and his followers did in the 16th century: rapid change, “globalization,” a divide between Christianity and Islam, and defections from Catholicism to other forms of Christianity.
There need not be a great conflict between faith and science, said Cardinal Dulles. He listed many of the great Jesuit men of science who have “built bridges between faith and reason, between theology and science… scholars who equipped themselves to enter into new fields and show the coherence between the new learning and the Catholic heritage of faith.”
There is a population waiting to be called, said Cardinal Dulles. The order has to continue to preach in an “accommodated style” (as did Ignatius and his first followers, who went to the corners of the earth and preached in different languages), because many places around the world still have potential converts.
“The fields are ripe for the harvest, but the laborers are few,” he said. “One wonders what the Jesuits of [Peter Faber’s] days would have done if they were alive today to see the defection of so many Latino Catholics [here] and in Central and South America.”
The lecture coincided with the final week of the Ignatian calendar, and was the last of the Cardinal’s talks concerning the central figures in the founding of the Jesuit order. 2006 also marked a half-century since Cardinal Dulles’ ordination, and his twentieth year at Fordham, where has been the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham since 1988. It has also been five years since Cardinal Dulles was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II, the first American–born theologian not a bishop to be honored with the rank.
Cardinal Dulles Lectures on Ignatian Message for 21st Century
Dec 21, 2006
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., delivered the 36th McGinley Lecture to a capacity crowd at Fordham Preparatory School’s Leonard Theatre on November 29. Cardinal Dulles was introduced by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and spoke to an audience including Peter Gerety, former archbishop of Newark and Thomas Daily, former bishop of Brooklyn.
(fordham.edu, 11/06) The Cardinal’s theme, "The Ignatian Charism at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century," spoke to the continued relevance of the Jesuit order in an increasingly fast-paced and secular world. He identified a charism as a “gift of grace for the benefit of others” and said that the Jesuits should continue to abide by the founding principles of Saint Ignatius, the foremost being a “life of evangelical poverty…which is at the heart of all Jesuit apostolates.”
Cardinal Dulles said that the Church and Society of Jesus face many of the same challenges that Ignatius and his followers did in the 16th Century: rapid change, “globalization,” a divide between Christendom and Islam, and defections from Catholicism to other forms of Christianity. “The charism is not outdated,” he said. “The Society can be abreast of the times if it adheres to its original ideals.”
The lecture coincided with the final week of the Ignatian calendar, and was the last of the Cardinal’s talks concerning the central figures in the founding of the Jesuit order. 2006 also marked a half-century since Cardinal Dulles’ ordination, and his twentieth year at Fordham. It has also been five years since Cardinal Dulles was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II, the first American–born theologian not a bishop to be honored with the rank. He has been the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham since 1988.
Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 15,600 students in its five undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx, Manhattan and Tarrytown, and the Louis J. Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y.
Avery Dulles, S.J. - American Theologian and Cardinal
Jun 24, 2006
The weather in Rome was beautiful in February, a welcome break from an especially dreary New York winter. The setting and the splendor of the occasion could not have been surpassed: the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, where Pope John Paul II welcomed 44 new cardinals into the highest ranks of the Catholic Church.
(Summer 2001, FORDHAM magazine) But as honored as he was to be among this group of new “princes of the church,” Avery Dulles, S.J., confessed that he felt a bit out of place. His books, his students, his office at Fordham’s Keating Hall—all were far, far away.
“I enjoyed it, but to me that’s not really what counts,” said Cardinal Dulles, the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society. “I prefer to spend my time reading, thinking, writing, teaching. I’m not particularly made for ceremonies.”
Dulles was one of three Americans that the pope named to the College of Cardinals earlier this year—the other two were Archbishop Edward Egan of New York and Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., who studied at Fordham in the early 1950s.
But unlike those diocesan officials, Dulles has never held an important pastoral post. Instead, he has spent his life contemplating the most important theological issues of his time, such as how the church defines itself as an institution, especially after the Second Vatican Council, and how it interacts with other Christian denominations. This difference makes Dulles unique among American cardinals. He is the first theologian from this country to wear a cardinal’s red hat.
When the pope announced Dulles’ selection in January, the rail-thin scholar who is frequently called the leading Catholic theologian in America offered a typically cool, rational explanation for the honor. In his view, the pope’s intentions were “to emphasize the centrality of theology in the life of the church; to encourage the Society of Jesus to pursue its theological missions; and to acknowledge the growing contribution of the North American scholarship.”
Dulles’ scholarly contributions have poured forth over six decades in 21 books and more than 650 articles, essays and reviews. He has taught not only at Fordham but also at Woodstock College in Maryland and at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He has received 21 honorary degrees, as well as the Croix de Guerre for his liaison work with the French navy as a U.S. Navy intelligence officer in World War II.
“Avery is the grand old man of Catholic theology today in the United States,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., editor of the Jesuit magazine America. “And they don’t give this honor to 40-year-olds. You have to be over 80 years of age to get this.”
Father Reese was referring to the fact that 80 is the upper age limit for cardinals to have a vote in the conclaves that elect a new pope. Those red hats tend to be reserved for leaders of important archdioceses, such as Cardinals Egan and McCarrick, or senior members of the Roman Curia, the administrative body that runs the worldwide church. Theologians such as the 82-year-old Dulles are named cardinals after their 80th birthdays in recognition of their lifelong accomplishments.
“It’s very easy to share in the joy of his designation because of his own personal modesty and simplicity,” said the Rev. Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., Fordham’s president, who noted that Cardinal Dulles’ theological work bears some unmistakably American characteristics. “He is a typically American theologian in the sense that he’s addressed ecumenism, which is important in a country with religious pluralism. And in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, he’s been a good voice for religious freedom, which was a particularly American contribution to the council.”
Cardinal Dulles, the son of John Foster Dulles, President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, began life as a Presbyterian, but by the time he entered Harvard University in the 1930s, he considered himself an agnostic, as he wrote in A Testimonial to Grace, his 1946 account of his conversion, which was reissued in a 50th anniversary edition in 1996.
Exposure to Catholic writers at Harvard led him to convert to Catholicism, and following his service in the Navy, he joined the Jesuits. In 1951, his teaching career began when he came to Fordham as a philosophy professor.
“As a Jesuit, I’ve always done what I was told,” Cardinal Dulles said, his eyebrows raised for emphasis. “I was quite pleased with that [assignment], but I had no reason to expect it.”
In addition to his classroom duties, he also served as the moderator of the freshman and sophomore sodality, the prefect of which was one Theodore McCarrick, the future archbishop of Washington, D.C. The two men struck up a friendship, founded in no small part on a shared sense of humor, that has lasted to the present.
“We all expected him to be an intellectual who would not have a lot of warmth, who would be a cold, dry scholar,” said Cardinal McCarrick. “And he wasn’t. He was a scholar, no doubt about that, but he had a wonderful sense of humor, and he had that wonderful laugh, which he still has—that deep, hoarse laugh.”
The young McCarrick impressed Dulles, whom the students addressed as “Mr. Dulles” in those days because he had not yet been ordained, as a promising youth with a bright future.
“He was a very bright, dedicated young man,” Cardinal Dulles recalled. “And he was a natural leader, with a great sense of humor that has not deserted him.”
In 1956, when Dulles was about to be ordained, he sought out McCarrick, who by then had left Fordham for the seminary, and asked him to serve Dulles’ first Mass, which was held in Fordham’s chapel a day after he was ordained by Cardinal Francis Spellman, a 1911 Fordham graduate.
“I got a note from him that he was going to celebrate his first Mass and didn’t know how to organize it but asked if I would serve,” Cardinal McCarrick recalled. “I was still three years from ordination. It was exciting.”
When the former philosophy teacher and the former prefect received the rings and hats of their new rank in February, McCarrick sent Dulles a note asking if he needed anyone to serve his first Mass as cardinal, Dulles recalled with one of his deep laughs.
Cardinal Dulles sees his career as a theologian and McCarrick’s life as a diocesan official as complementary, each filling a necessary role in the church.
“I’m not a person who gets things done,” he said. “I think about things. He’s been called to practical work, running dioceses. He’s done a great job of that.”
Cardinal Dulles’ work as a theologian has pivoted on the landmark reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which challenged centuries-old traditions in an effort to bring the Catholic Church into the20th century.
“Before Vatican II, I was simply absorbing the tradition,” Cardinal Dulles said. “I wasn’t trying to be original then. I was trying to learn what had been held down the centuries, what the church fathers had said, what the councils said. I think that’s the first thing a theologian has to do. And after Vatican II, the church said we’re living in a new age; try to determine what is lasting and what are the accretions.”
The intellectual ferment of the post-Vatican II years resulted in the cardinal’s most famous book, Models of the Church, published in 1974, in which he reviewed the many ways in which the Catholic Church has presented itself through the centuries: as a hierarchical institution, as a way of making Christ present in the world by proclaiming the gospel to others, as a servant or instrument of social justice and as a community of disciples that forms an alternative society to the secular world.
The cardinal says now that his intention was to bring the various proponents of each model into a fruitful dialogue with each other. Instead, he notes with a wry smile, the book has sometimes been used as a way for people to justify whatever view they hold as a valid take on the church.
And that is clearly not the cardinal’s view these days. Critics have said that of late he has become a defender of the status quo, and particularly of the pope’s traditional positions on such controversial issues as the ordination of women, abortion and homosexuality. But rather than having “lurched to the right,” as he put it, he has simply worked his way through the enduring questions of faith and concluded that the church’s time-tested teachings have been right all along.
“There were a few years after Vatican II when the church seemed to be asking people to look at different ideas, but I came to fairly traditional conclusions,” he said, citing as examples his study of church teaching about the Trinity or the dual nature of Christ as God and man. “Vatican II said we had to re-examine what is time-conditioned, but having done that, I think we came back to say the councils were right on.”
Cardinal Dulles returned to Fordham in 1988, 35 years after leav
Cardinal Avery Dulles at 90
Kardinal Avery Dulles wird 90