{"id":184,"date":"2008-12-19T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2008-12-19T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html"},"modified":"2008-12-19T11:00:52","modified_gmt":"2008-12-19T11:00:52","slug":"farewells-part-two-a-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html","title":{"rendered":"Farewells, Part Two: A Cardinal&#8217;s Funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Avery Dulles, SJ, was laid to rest after a warm and moving funeral Mass at St. Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral, the third and final funeral mass for the beloved cardinal, theologian and convert. This picture from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/12\/19\/nyregion\/19cardinal.html?ref=nyregion\">The New York Times coverage<\/a><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dulles Funeral.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/125\/import\/imgs\/Dulles%20Funeral.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"200\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/span> is about the most eloquent testimonial to the day. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americamagazine.org\/blog\/blog.cfm?blog_id=2\">America magazine&#8217;s blog<\/a>, which has the best coverage of the life and career of their brother Jesuit, has others, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americamagazine.org\/blog\/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&amp;id=4C2CF2BC-1438-5036-4FDFB398A6873722\">this one from Jim Martin<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Cardinal Egan&#8217;s warm homily took as its central image an ancient crucifix he had seen some 50 years ago in Umbria; from one side the face of Christ appeared contorted in pain; from the other illumined by joy.  This image, suggested Egan, could be said to characterize Avery&#8217;s life, one of triumph and, towards the end, of pain.  Of the triumph: &#8220;In the life of our lamented cardinal, there was triumph of the most authentic sense,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You have the example of a triumphant life story, never matched, to my knowledge, by any other American Catholic.&#8221;<br \/>\nAs a young man in the Navy, Avery contracted polio, and was told that, because of the paralysis is his arm, he would never write again.  &#8220;He proved them monumentally wrong,&#8221; said Egan, referring to the over 800 articles and 23 books written by the Jesuit cardinal.<br \/>\nCardinal Egan remembered visiting Avery on his 90th birthday at Fordham&#8211;when Avery was bedridden, crippled by the recurrence of his polio&#8211;for a Mass in his honor.  The cardinal wheeled Avery&#8217;s bed up the aisle of the Fordham chapel, but only with difficulty, as a result of Egan&#8217;s childhood polio.  &#8220;I&#8217;m afraid it&#8217;s a case of the lame pushing the lame,&#8221; said Egan to Dulles.<br \/>\nWith that Avery broke into broad smile, and Egan was put in mind of that crucifix.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And in the most moving moment, perhaps, the crowd erupted in applause as the casket was borne out of the cathedral and onto Fifth Avenue, where even the mass of holiday shoppers had to pause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Avery Dulles, SJ, was laid to rest after a warm and moving funeral Mass at St. Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral, the third and final funeral mass for the beloved cardinal, theologian and convert. This picture from The New York Times coverage is about the most eloquent testimonial to the day. America magazine&#8217;s blog, which has the best&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,6,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bishops","category-catholic","category-church","category-history","category-pope"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Farewells, Part Two: A Cardinal&#039;s Funeral - Pontifications<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Farewells, Part Two: A Cardinal&#039;s Funeral - Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Avery Dulles, SJ, was laid to rest after a warm and moving funeral Mass at St. Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral, the third and final funeral mass for the beloved cardinal, theologian and convert. This picture from The New York Times coverage is about the most eloquent testimonial to the day. America magazine&#8217;s blog, which has the best&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-19T11:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Dulles%20Funeral.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Gibson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Farewells, Part Two: A Cardinal's Funeral - Pontifications","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Farewells, Part Two: A Cardinal's Funeral - Pontifications","og_description":"Avery Dulles, SJ, was laid to rest after a warm and moving funeral Mass at St. Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral, the third and final funeral mass for the beloved cardinal, theologian and convert. This picture from The New York Times coverage is about the most eloquent testimonial to the day. America magazine&#8217;s blog, which has the best&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html","og_site_name":"Pontifications","article_published_time":"2008-12-19T11:00:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Dulles%20Funeral.jpg"}],"author":"David Gibson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html","name":"Farewells, Part Two: A Cardinal's Funeral - Pontifications","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Dulles%20Funeral.jpg","datePublished":"2008-12-19T11:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-19T11:00:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Dulles%20Funeral.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Dulles%20Funeral.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/farewells-part-two-a-cardinals.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Farewells, Part Two: A Cardinal&#8217;s Funeral"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/","name":"Pontifications","description":"Catholic Faith and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71","name":"David Gibson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","caption":"David Gibson"},"description":"DAVID GIBSON is an award-winning religion journalist, author, filmmaker, and a convert to Catholicism. He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s. Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name \"Karol Wojtyla,\" and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism. Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a \"powerful\" and \"first-rate\" treatment of the crisis from \"an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber.\" His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as \"an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book\" from \"a master storyeller.\" Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/author\/dgibson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}