Spiritual Leaders Who Died in 2008

Cardinal Avery Dulles, 1918-2008

Cardinal Avery Dulles, the only American theologian appointed to the College of Cardinals, was an influential voice in American Catholicism.  A Jesuit, he was a professor at Fordham University; he wrote 27 books and hundreds of articles. Born into a Presbyterian family--the son of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles--he converted to Catholicism in 1941 and was made a cardinal in 2001. Although known for his theological achievements, he was also remembered as someone who shunned the limelight and related to the suffering of ordinary parishioners. Late in life, after a recurrence of polio which he contracted when he served in the Navy, he was confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. At his funeral Mass, Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York said that Dulles, who died at age 90, had “a triumphant life story.”

--Ansley Roan