Tributes for Avery Cardinal Dulles SJ
Tributes from around the world have been paid to the late Avery Dulles SJ, one of the world’s most renowned Jesuits and a Cardinal since 2001. He died at 9am on Friday Dec 12th, aged 90. Cardinal Dulles was the most distinguished theologian the Church in the United State has produced, and he was the first American theologian to be named a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. His best-known work is undoubtedly Models of the Church (1974) where, according to Rocco Palmo of Whispers in the Loggia, “in the aftermath of Vatican II, he explored the inexhaustible richness of the mystery of the Church by clarifying different models or approaches: Church as sacrament, as community, as herald, as servant.” Avery was elevated to Cardinal by Pope John Paul II, and the present Pope Benedict XVI, a great admirer of Dulles, was thought to have played a role in that appointment. On his three-day visit to New York last April, the Pope requested to meet Avery and, when he did, greeted him with deep affection.