May They Rest in Peace
It’s been over a month since I last posted here and a great deal has happened. I spent November 15-22 at the SFO General Chapter in Hungary as an observer and documentary filmmaker . . . and attended the closing celebrations for the centenary of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It was the experience of a lifetime. More about all that later.
I was delayed for an extra night in Paris, because of the airline being unable to find my reservation. As soon as I got home on November 23, I had a call from my mom telling me my Uncle Joe had died.
It wasn’t really unexpected, because he had been ill for some time. But it was a hard blow all the same. He had served in the Air Force like my dad and had been a resident for the past few years at the Iowa Veteran’s home. He continued to attend our family holiday gatherings and was faithful in attending Mass at our parish church until he became too ill to go out. He was one of the most warm-hearted men I knew and a devoted father to his children and stepchildren. I was also named after him; my full name is Lori Josephine. He was the one member of our family who could never remember how old he was. But we can. He died at the age of 79.
I went home immediately for the funeral, and to be with my family for an extended Thanksgiving vacation. Joe’s funeral Mass was at St. Mary’s Church. He got full military honors and the blowing of Taps when he was buried at the Veterans’ Home on November 26.
I was actually delayed another whole day in getting back to New York because of bad weather, finally arriving on December 2, and had to immediately set about making up all my lost work time. That was 10 days ago.
Today as I was finally sitting down to work on my blog, I got some more sad news: sad news for the whole Fordham University staff, students and alumni: Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., longtime professor at the university and a brilliant and renowned theologian, died today in the Fordham infirmary at the age of 90.
I wasn’t privileged to have taken any classes with Cardinal Dulles while I was enrolled at Fordham for my graduate studies (1994-2001), but I did have a chance to listen to him speak on C.S. Lewis, 2 or 3 years ago, at a very crowded hall at the Lincoln Center campus. He was already very frail, but what a mind and soul! He got a tremendous ovation; the love and respect that flowed to him were palpable.
Cardinal Dulles had a most unusual path to the priesthood. The son of John Foster Dulles, who eventually became U.S. Secretary of State, he attended Harvard Law School before joining the Navy during World War II. He began life in a Presbyterian, became an agnostic in his late teens, then converted to Catholicism in his twenties. In 1946, he joined the Jesuits. After his priestly ordination in 1956, he taught at Woodstock College and the Catholic University of America; he became Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham in 1988. John Paul II, in recognition of his great contributions to theology, named him a cardinal, but he asked to be dispensed from becoming a bishop because of his advanced age.
I was very moved to learn that Pope Benedict XVI met privately with the ailing Cardinal at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie during his trip to New York this past April; the Holy Father addressed him not as “Your Eminence,” but — something that undoubtedly meant more to him — as “Herr Professor.”
Whispers in the Loggia has a great deal more about him here.
And there is a wonderful biographical interview on video here.
One more little anecdote that shows how much the Cardinal was the life and soul of Fordham: as a graduate student it often seemed to me that I had my own branch of Fordham library going at home with the large number of books I had checked out, not just for my dissertation, but on many other subjects I was interested in. In fact, I really went overboard, checking out books I didn’t have time to read. Once when I was at the circulation desk renewing my books, the student in charge said, “Wow — you’re the only person who has more books out than Cardinal Dulles!” Evidently they were keeping track there, and were proud of his record. I will freely confess than I managed to read less than half the books I checked out, so I am sure I didn’t real more books than he did. At any rate, I’m certain that checking out more books was the only thing I could ever have beaten that brilliant man at!
May he and my uncle Joe and all the faithful departed rest in peace.
