Avery Cardinal Dulles

Saint Agnes Eve”Ah, bitter chill it was, The coach for all his sweaters was acold; The team limped weakly through the frozen grass, And bundled were the fans, a woolly fold. Numb were the passer’s fingers as his hold Embraced the ball and flung a mighty pass. It flew like cannon from a . . . . Continue Reading »

Benedict XVI, before becoming supreme pastor of the Catholic Church, served for two decades as a theology professor and then, for more than two decades, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His career, together with his many theological writings and doctrinal . . . . Continue Reading »

Nothing is more striking in the New Testament than the confidence with which it proclaims the saving power of belief in Christ. Almost every page confronts us with a decision of eternal consequence: Will we follow Christ or the rulers of this world? The gospel is, according to Paul, “the power . . . . Continue Reading »

The Oberlin conference on The Nature of the Unity We Seek, which met fifty years ago, in September 1957, marked an important stage in the ecumenical movement. For the first time, the churches in North America in large numbers committed themselves to the quest for Christian unity. The composition of . . . . Continue Reading »

During the second half of the nineteenth century, it became common to speak of a war between science and religion. But over the course of the twentieth century, that hostility gradually subsided. Following in the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II at the beginning of his . . . . Continue Reading »

Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, has two clearly distinct parts. In the first it deals with the nature of love and of charity, the highest form of love; in the second it treats the charitable activity of the Church. Most of the commentaries have focused on the second part, . . . . Continue Reading »

The word orthodox derives from the Greek word orthodoxía , which standard dictionaries translate as “right opinion.” Aristotle used the verb orthodoxein with the meaning “to have a right opinion.” The Greek-speaking Church Fathers continued to use orthódoxos in . . . . Continue Reading »

Like his predecessor John Paul II, Benedict XVI was present at all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Whereas Karol Wojtyla took part as a bishop, the young Joseph Ratzinger did so as a theological expert. During and after the council he taught successively at the . . . . Continue Reading »

The question of the present status of God’s covenant with Israel has been extensively discussed in Jewish-Christian dialogues since the Shoah. Catholics look for an approach that fits in the framework of Catholic doctrine, much of which has been summarized by the Second Vatican Council. . . . . Continue Reading »

A Church That Can and Cannot Change: The Development of Catholic Moral Teaching by John T. Noonan, Jr. University of Notre Dame Press 280 pp. $30 Doctrinal development follows a different course in social ethics than in the realm of revelation. The formulation of revealed truth develops through the . . . . Continue Reading »