Avery Dulles - Society of Jesus and Elevation To The Cardinalate

Society of Jesus and Elevation To The Cardinalate

Upon his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Avery Dulles entered the Society of Jesus, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1956. After a year in Germany, he studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, and was awarded the doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1960.

Father Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974, and that of The Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988. He was a visiting professor at: The Gregorian University (Rome), Weston School of Theology, Union Theological Seminary (New York), Princeton Theological Seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Boston College, Campion Hall, Oxford, the University of Notre Dame, the Catholic University at Leuven, Yale University, and St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie. He was the author of over 700 articles on theological topics, as well as twenty-two books. In 1994, he was a signer of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together.

Past President of both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society, and Professor Emeritus at The Catholic University of America, Dulles served on the International Theological Commission and as a member of the United States Lutheran/Roman Catholic Dialogue. Dulles was critical of dual-covenant theology, especially as understood in the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' document Reflections on Covenant and Mission. He was a consultant to the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Although Jesuits make a promise against pursuing ecclesiastical dignities and do not normally accept promotion within the Church hierarchy, Dulles was created a cardinal of the Catholic Church in Rome on February 21, 2001 by Pope John Paul II. At the time of his elevation to cardinal, he was not a bishop, as is normally the case, but a priest. He successfully petitioned the Pope for a dispensation from episcopal ordination due to his advanced age. His titular assignment was as Cardinal-Deacon of SS. Nome di Gesù e Maria in Via Lata (the Most Holy Names of Jesus and Mary). Because he reached the age of eighty before becoming cardinal, Dulles had exceeded the mandatory age limit of retirement; he was never eligible to vote in a conclave (of which one occurred during his cardinalate, that of the 2005). Because he was a cardinal but not a bishop, Dulles became an honorary, non-voting member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.