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The Last Days of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. Anne-Marie Kirmse, O.P. Sister Anne-Marie Kirmse, O.P., Ph.D., was Avery Dulles’s research associate and executive assistant, August –December . During his remarks at the McGinley Lecture of spring 2007, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, announced that he was commissioning the publication of all the McGinley Lectures that Cardinal Dulles had delivered in the course of his almost twenty years as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at the university. The holder of the McGinley Chair is expected to give a public lecture twice a year, and Cardinal Dulles had done so since he came to assume that position in fall 1988. There was only one exception. In spring 1994 he had unexpected minor surgery, and the doctor would not allow him to give the lecture. Thus, there were thirty-eight in all. The decision by Fr. McShane seemed premature. Although Cardinal Dulles was beginning to have more health problems and had offered to retire several times (the offer was never accepted by Fr. McShane or by his predecessor, Rev. Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J.), the time did not seem ripe for such a publication. Why not wait until his tenure in the McGinley Chair was actually over? So Cardinal Dulles (and the rest of us in his office at Fordham!) spent the summer and fall of 2007 reviewing the thirty-eight McGinley Lectures and preparing them for publication by Fordham University Press. These lectures, and therefore the book that comprises them, do not have a uni- fied theme. Cardinal Dulles had based his lectures on pertinent topics when the lectures were given, on suggestions given to him, and on consultations with his colleagues. 111 112 兩 His Legacy in His Witness The cardinal was continuing his busy schedule of writing, lecturing, and teaching, with no apparent reduction in these commitments. Although he had been experiencing the effects of post-polio syndrome for several years, he was able to walk with the help of a leg brace and a cane, and there were no other visible effects of the disease. This all changed in the summer of 2007, when his speech became slurred and difficult to understand. Together with Maureen Noone, the cardinal’s secretary, I accompanied him to appointments with various specialists at the Rusk Institute in Manhattan and with doctors recommended by Rusk. He also began having difficulty swallowing, and eating became difficult. Looking at the size of Cardinal Dulles (6 feet 2 inches and 130 pounds for most of his adult life), one would not get the impression that he enjoyed his meals, but he did! He relished mealtimes, savoring not only the food on the table but his dinner companions. He valiantly bore the changes in his lifestyle, writing on a small pad he carried with him at all times so that he could be part of the conversation, and eating pureed food. He had three lectures scheduled for the fall of 2007. He was able to type these himself on his computer, but a member of his Jesuit community accompanied him to the lecture site and delivered the lecture for him. Remarkably, Cardinal Dulles after each lecture was able to answer questions from the floor. Doctors’ appointments and physical-therapy treatments began to take more of his time and energy. Undaunted, he planned to teach his graduate course in Fordham’s theology department in spring 2008. Another responsibility of the holder of the McGinley Chair is to teach one graduate course a year. In 2008, Cardinal Dulles was slated to teach a graduate seminar on the theology of Benedict XVI. He was increasingly unable to speak but wanted very much to give this course. With the help of Michael Canaris, my coeditor in this bibliography project, and me, Cardinal Dulles was able to conduct the seminar. Since he could still use his computer, he decided that he would type his lecture notes, that I would be his voice in reading his notes, and that Mike and I would lead the discussions. The cardinal was able to participate in these discussions by writing his comments and questions for the group, and either Mike or I would read them. Classes were originally held in the seminar room on the same floor as his office in Faber Hall. But a fall in February 2008 necessitated his moving to Murray-Weigel Hall, the...

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