Cardinal Dulles to give final McGinley Lecture.

At eight o'clock tonight, Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. will deliver his thirty-ninth and final lecture as Fordham University's Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society. At 89, Cardinal Dulles is finishing a long and distinguished teaching career that began at the same university where it will end: Dulles enjoyed his first foray into teaching as a Jesuit regent at Fordham in the early 1950s. After completing a doctorate in sacred theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Dulles taught at the old Jesuit theologate at Woodstock, Maryland, joining a veritable "dream team" faculty that included such luminaries as John Courtney Murray, Gustave Weigel, Walter Burghardt, and Joseph Fitzmyer. When Woodstock closed, Dulles moved on to a faculty position at the Catholic University of America. Mandatory retirement ended Dulles' tenure at CUA in 1988, at which time he accepted the McGinley Chair at Fordham. A prolific and influential scholar as well as a teacher, Father Dulles was named a Cardinal in 2001 in recognition of his exceptional service to the Catholic Church.

Though Cardinal Dulles' last lecture as McGinley Chair will be tonight, the teaching career of this great Catholic theologian isn't over just yet. Still mentally sharp and incisive despite physical frailty, Cardinal Dulles is teaching a seminar this semester on the theological writings of Pope Benedict XVI. As one of the students in the seminar, I'm grateful for the opportunity to study under a theologian of Cardinal Dulles' caliber. In some sense, having had a class with Avery Dulles represents a worthy encounter with history. The same might be said of attending Cardinal Dulles' final McGinley Lecture, an experience that I recommend to any readers who may find themselves in the area this evening. AMDG.