For those of you who missed it when it first appeared on the Internet a couple of years ago, here is a Universal newsreel account of his 1956 ordination in New York. (Remember it was rather big news at the time, since he was the convert son of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles)
There is something very poignant about watching this video along with the news of Cardinal Dulles’ death. The smiling parents, proud of their son…
He was a great churchman and brilliant thinker. His conversion troubled his parents, so I heard, but he just took this great family’s penchant for service in a new direction. I remember him fondly when he was on the campus of Catholic University. He kept me orthodox in those crazy dark days of the ’80’s. His writings taught me how to believe without withdrawing from the secular world. May he converse with angels now. We will miss you, Your Eminence.
Now he belongs to the ages…
Very cool! Thanks for sharing. His father was Secretary of State under what administration? And was Fr. Dulles an only child?
John Foster Dulles was secretary of state under Presient Eisenhower – 1953-1959 (he died in office).
Interestingly, his younger brother Allen Dulles (thus Cardinal Dulles’ uncle) was at the same time director of the CIA – in fact, he remains the longest serving CIA Director.
The Dulleses are quite the family.
Cardinal Dulles came to my graduate school commencement – a gentle soul. He shall be greatly missed – and impossible to replace.
P.S. Cardinal Dulles had a brother and a sister – the brother was a professor of history at UT-Austin who died earlier this year (at age 95).
Cardinal Avery Dulles book was a good reading at St. Augustine’s Seminary Jos, Nigeria. May his gentle soul rest in peace.
Richard – Yes, I received my issue of AHA Perspectives the day before Cardinal Dulles died, and John W.F. Dulles’s obituary was in there. I was surprised that it merely said laconically that he “left one brother” – I hope there was no bad blood between the brothers; maybe the obituarist just thought extra detail was off-topic. John’s wife had died just four days before he did. I hadn’t thought of Cardinal Dulles in ages, and the next day he was dead. Weird.
I had the pleasure of seeing Cardinal Dulles speak about 18 months ago – one of only two cardinals that I have ever seen in person (and I’m kind of embarrassed to count Cardinal Law anymore). His mind was as sharp as ever.
The most remarkable thing about that video is – 36 Jesuits ordained in one day! It seems like another planet, and yet it was barely over fifty years ago. I wonder what happened to the rest of that group. A group of 1950s ordinations probably includes many who left the priesthood, went whacky liberal in the sixties and seventies, or were involved in scandal – and doubtless many good and holy men as well. It sounds like an interesting book topic.
My MA class at the Dominican Institute of philisophy and theology was taught of his thoughts and taught the right pronunciation of “AVERY DULLES” by his fond reader Rev. Fr. (Prof.) Anthony Akinwale, OP. May his soul that so blessed many students of theology through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace. Amen.
Amazingly three years after he was ordained, a metaphysic text he coauthored was in use a Jesuit college I attended in 1959.