Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., is Received at Jesuit Cemetery

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., America’s preeminent Catholic theologian, was brought to his final resting place on June 1 at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, N.Y.

Cardinal Dulles, who died on Dec. 12 at the age of 90, had been the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham since 1988. He was the first American to become a cardinal without first becoming a bishop.

Friends, family members, fellow Jesuits and other admirers gathered for a Mass in Cardinal Dulles’ honor at 2 p.m. at the Coliseum Church on the grounds of the shrine. The interment followed directly afterward, with the casket receiving an escort by a pair of Naval officers, in recognition of Cardinal Dulles’ military service during World War II.

The shrine is the site of three of North America’s eight canonized martyrs: St. Rene Goupil (1642), a Jesuit brother; St. Isaac Jogues (1646), a Jesuit priest; and St. John Lalande (1646), a lay missioner. It is the cemetery for Jesuits in the New York Province.