A quarter of a century of friendship with Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, who died 10 years ago this month, left me with many happy memories. Two of them involve his investiture as a cardinal in February 2001 and bring his accomplishment as a theologian into focus.
On the evening of February 23, Cardinal Dulles celebrated Mass while taking possession of his Roman “title”, Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. It was a typically deft John Paul II touch to give the new American cardinal the church where one of Dulles’s heroes, Robert Bellarmine, had preached during the Counter-Reformation as his titular pastorate.
