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The following article gives us a glimpse of the qualities of one of the Catholic Church’s outstanding leaders. Challenge your students to cull from his example and discuss actions and words that contribute to a welcoming and peace-filled community. This study can be an introduction into a new “springtime” in your school, parish, community:
… [Cardinal Avery Dulles] wonders if many today can easily find the answers in a consumerist culture that exalts the pleasure principle and puts a low price on dedication and sacrifice....
As a priest and theologian, Father Dulles wonders even more if the message of truth and moral goodness can always be heard loudly and clearly in a Church that is often beset by division and polarization. He sees a danger in the recent growth of ideological wings of the Church that fly off to extreme points of the theological spectrum.
Characteristic of the new alignments is a "certain amount of defamation. People try to destroy the credibility of their adversaries. So you have some nasty language, and a tendency to misquote or quote out of context. And they don’t talk to each other — they only talk to people in their own party," said Father Dulles....
"That makes the Church much less attractive. Nobody wants to come into a community whose members are at war with each other. After all, Christ is supposed to be a sign of reconciliation and unity," he emphasized.
During a theological ministry that has produced 20 books and more than 600 scholarly articles, Father Dulles has become known for steering a middle course through the turbulent waters of Catholic disputation.
His conception of religious truth is layered and complex. He holds that the truth about faith and life can be culled from the various contending parties — or in ecclesiological language, the distinct "Models of the Church," which is the title of his most celebrated work.
Further, he views the Church’s magisterium as not simply another wing, but as a singularly authentic interpreter of Gospel truth.
"One of the characteristics I find admirable in Avery’s work is his fairness to others, and his attempt to truly understand others’ positions and to report them accurately," said George Weigel, a Catholic commentator and scholar at the neoconservative Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington....
[Another theologian said of him:] "Avery is a gentleman. He’s a scholar. He’s a fine Christian — and also he can laugh at himself."
Excerpts taken from: “A moderate in a disputatious age: In a time of confusion, even crisis in the Church, Jesuit Father Avery Dulles remains a loyal voice of calm and candor,” by William Bole, 1997.
Discuss these words found in this story about Cardinal Dulles and how what they represent can contribute or take away from an harmonious society:
Why do we seek to “defame” our opponents? Is this fair? Why or why not?
What is good about seeking to show what two opposing camps have in common?
Judging from this article, why do you suppose so many people like Cardinal Dulles?
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Teaching Catholic Kids
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