Our friend, Ralph McInerny, has slipped away, dying at 7:45 this morning. I have no voice or words to speak our loss. Not yet. Not today.
An autobiographical essay of Ralph’s appeared here, and several fine poems, including:
Effable
Where are words when not yet spoken:
on the tongue,
in the mind,
perhaps in air,
nowhere?
Their meanings, more elusive
still, unbreathed await
articulation,
though I have heard
in the beginning was the word.
One of his many students. Dr. Christopher Kaczor at Loyola Marymount, sent along this note:
Ralph McInerny retired from the University of Notre Dame as the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies, after serving in the philosophy department since 1955. He wrote wrote more than 40 books in philosophy and other disciplines (including poetry), authored thousands of scholarly and general audience articles, edited three national magazines, authored more than 80 mystery novels (including the Father Dowling Mysteries), and I’m confident directed more dissertations than anyone in the history of Notre Dame.
One might think such a person would neglect his students, au contraire (a McInerny habit was to end sentences in lectures in Latin or French.) He was my dissertation advisor and at the time he had around 7 other students as well. He was available for us virtually every afternoon in his 7th floor office of Hesburgh Library. If we gave him a dissertation chapter, he’d have it back to us like a serve in tennis. He gave us laptops. He arranged for extra funding (many of us had two or three kids, and none of us made more than $10,000 a year). He took us out to lunch (The Great Wall of China and the University Club were favorites). He’d give us copies of his scholarly books and novels. He helped get us jobs.
After graduation, he’d gather us back together for Summer Thomistic Institutes at Notre Dame featuring an international cast of senior scholars. He called forth the best from us by seeing it in us before we did. Most of all perhaps he provided a living model of a philosopher, a mentor, and a man who embodied virtues and commitments that inspired us all.
He was so extraordinarily kind to me that I told my wife he must be the uncle of my Minneapolis born birth mother whom I had not yet met. He invited me to work with him on various projects, to edit his work, and to see up close the life of a professor. When I think about how I hope to live the rest of my life, he is the model : Scholar, teacher, writer, family man, person of faith. No doubt he is enjoying his reward, meeting his Maker and, as an incidental benefit, his own model of the intellectual life, Thomas Aquinas.
In the coming days, we’ll have more on what Ralph did for us, for the world, for the faith. The heart is too hurt to comprehend it now.
January 29th, 2010 | 2:43 pm
I only met him once, at a conference at Calvin College, but I loved him. I loved him even before I met him; I loved his work. To borrow Peter Kreeft’s tribute to W. Norris Clarke, he was not just another Thomist; he was another Thomas.
Rest in peace. Rest in peace.
January 29th, 2010 | 3:25 pm
Requiescat in pace.
January 29th, 2010 | 4:01 pm
Loved the Father Dowing Mysteries.
May his memory be eternal.
January 29th, 2010 | 7:23 pm
The whole world knew him from EWTN and he gave the whole world the gift of knowing Thomas Aquinas in a way we could all understand. He is missed already.
January 29th, 2010 | 8:40 pm
Prof. McInerny’s book on Thomas Aquinas, cleverly subtitled “A Handbook For Peeping Thomists” was instrumental in my conversion to the Catholic Church. I hope to thank him in person some day.
January 29th, 2010 | 9:13 pm
[...] now and can be found at his Notre Dame CV lists his books, articles, recordings, and lectures. First Things has an initial remembrance, with the promise of further [...]
January 29th, 2010 | 9:21 pm
He is the author who most influenced my love of Aquinas. I am deeply in his debt. God rest your lovely soul, great priest.
January 29th, 2010 | 9:45 pm
Ralph McInerny embodied the spirit of St. Thomas’ injunction: “contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere.” For those of us who were the beneficiaries of his wisdom and kindness, this is an immense loss. He is surely in heaven this night, which is a great joy, but we miss him nonetheless.
January 29th, 2010 | 11:10 pm
When I was in grad school, I read his periodical Catholic Dossier when I was supposed to be reading something else. It was my food, and kept my faith alive in adversity for those years. I have McInerny to thank.
January 30th, 2010 | 12:04 am
Ralph McInerny was an intellectual hero of our time, not because he gave us philosophical ideas original to himself, but because he so powerfully preserved and advanced the perennial philosophy, in the midst of philosophical darkness.
January 30th, 2010 | 12:17 am
Saint amongst us. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed via the Mercy of God rest in peace.
January 30th, 2010 | 9:50 am
One more undone thing that I regret…Ralph McInerny’s Father Dowling mysteries were one of the places that I unlearned the nonsense I’d been taught in Protestant Sunday School about the Catholic Church. I won’t say that Ralph McInerny made me Catholic, but I will say that he was one of the helpers along the way. I never wrote to thank him, that I regret. May he rest in peace.
January 30th, 2010 | 10:01 am
Ralph McInerny is not resting, because I believe Heaven is a very busy place. First of all, he was united with his beloved wife, and then his parents, and his early teachers. After some socializing, he will have a long series of chats with St. Thomas. My head spins with the glory that man is seeing now. Eternal joy, grant unto him. Ralph McInerny, pray for us.
January 30th, 2010 | 10:29 am
Images rush forward to warm the memory:
Dr. McInerny scribbling along on his newest novel while keeping a scholar’s ear and eye on those of us lecturing at his Basics of Catholicism–his mind cheerily coursed astride several lanes of intellectual traffic at once.
Ralph was quick with an acerbic quip– delivered only to those prepared to parry. He was unfailingly gentle to me and other non-scholars.
Ralph …extolling the beauty of his Connie’s flowers with the same fervor he had for a new translation of The Inferno.
A debonair, honored guest at many banquets, Ralph made time for each visitor who hoped to shake his hand.
Most of all, as Dr. Kaczor noted above, Ralph McInerny “called forth the best from us by seeing it in us before we did.”
Dr. McInerny has equipped and set in motion a small army of Catholic culture warriors.
No doubt St. Thomas Aquinas stood beside St. Peter to welcome this “good and faithful servant.”
January 30th, 2010 | 10:47 am
Prof. McInerny is the one who proposed and opened my eyes to St. Thomas. His International Catholic University inspired me to pursue a Masters in philosophy above and beyond my doctorate in nuclear engineering. Prof. McInerny and the instructors of his program “gently rocketed” philosophy for me to the crucially-important science writ large it is, while tempering and ordering my training and experience in the natural sciences to their proper end through the philosophy of nature. The people to whom Prof. McInerny introduced me—directly or indirectly—are themselves shining witnesses to the magnet of grace, wit, charm, erudition, dedication to teaching and truth, and above all faith that inspired them as well. To a great extent, Prof. McInerny inFORMED my decision to leave the international project management world to pursue teaching, and I am beyond-words grateful to him (as that inspiration) to be granted the opportunity to teach physics at Franciscan University of Steubenville. In his honor and memory I will dedicate two courses under development to him. With tears of gratitude to Prof. McInerny I pray: Vichnaya Yomu Pamiat’ (Eternal Memory to Him), and may he bask in the Fire of Love—the Source of eternal peace and joy.
January 31st, 2010 | 2:40 am
Prof. Ralph McInerny,
The world is indebted to you for your amazing mind. I loved your Fr. Dowling mysteries, International Catholic University, and I can’t forget Catholic Dossier, which first introduced me to the truth about Galileo. I never met you, but you had a profound influence on many people you never met. Rest in Peace.
January 31st, 2010 | 6:34 am
May he pray for Notre Dame to return to its fully Catholic glory, or perhaps to achieve it for the first time.
January 31st, 2010 | 7:23 am
I had the privilege of taking Dr. McInerny’s course, “Thought of Aquinas” at Notre Dame as a senior in 1989. Although I was not a philosphy or theology major, his course was riveting and opened a door to the beauty of scholasticism and thomistic thought that has remained open to me since. I am endebted to Dr. McInerny. He was truly a great teacher and man of the church. He will certainly be missed, and the University of Notre Dame will be the lesser in his absence.
January 31st, 2010 | 12:48 pm
I had a distinct privilege of sitting next to Ralph on the bus as part of official US cultural delegation to China. The hours spent are deeply etched in my heart, and I wrote my Refractions essay on this trip called “Traveling in China with Father Dowling”
http://makotofujimura.blogspot.com/2007/10/refractions-25-traveling-in-china-with.html
We will miss him dearly, but, as one of the comments here notes, he is surely not resting. His creative journey now will be built on the mysteries and fellowship he had intentionally cultivated here on this side of eternity. I look forward to, someday, riding on another bus with him, with Aquinas, Maritain, Dante…and countless people touched by Ralph’s life and teaching.
January 31st, 2010 | 2:55 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sarah Weinman, Carol Phillips, Thomas Peters, Dirk Johnson, Gerry and others. Gerry said: RIP, Ralph McInerny (1929-2010): http://is.gd/7nvjj [...]
January 31st, 2010 | 6:44 pm
What a truly remarkable man and scholar. I was fortunate to have Prof. McInerny for several undergraduate Philosophy courses when I attended Notre Dame in the mid 80′s. His demeanor exuded confidence, class, and scholarship, but he was so welcoming and approachable that you felt immediately at ease. Even more, you felt empowered.
He truly cared about his students as well. When I was suddenly hospitalized during my sophomore year, he visited the hospital. He was the only professor I had who did.
I had a few opportunities to visit him at his office over the years and he was always the same. A true gentleman.
It was a blessing to have known him.
February 1st, 2010 | 6:51 am
[...] is a Jorge Luis Borges Web resource, and this page is a gallery of Borge… 2 Likes Ralph McInerny (1929-2010) » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog 2 Likes Rare Bamboo-Strip Books Discovered in Chinese Tomb Archaeologists in [...]
February 1st, 2010 | 3:45 pm
[...] A gracious appreciation of Ralph McInerny has been posted on First Things. Ralph Matthew McInerny: 1929 – 2010 [...]
February 6th, 2010 | 1:04 pm
Professor Ralph McInerny taught me one course in history of philosophy during my two years in Moreau Seminary(1955-1957). He continued to inspire me during the years at followed while studying theology at Catholic University in Chile.
I have been priviledged to read many of us books, essays, etc. over the years, as he has used his talents as a philosopher as well as author of other works for the greater glory of God and love of his neighbor. May he enjoy the reward of the “hundred fold”.
March 3rd, 2010 | 2:17 pm
Having just read The Third Revelation, I’m alas just too late to e-tell him how hard I laughed at “Neal Admirari” and “Sonopazzi” [isn't it great how Asterix works out in Italian] and that I myself knew Wippel and Sokolowski back in postdoc days at CUA. A universal man. RIP.
Leslie MacCoull
(Ph.D. in Semitics [Coptic] CUA ’73)
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