A Celebration of 90 Years

From City and the World, Jesuit Joe brings us a his personal perspective and pictures his post Dulles 90th.

Fordham's own Avery Cardinal Dulles celebrated his ninetieth birthday today in the company of family, friends and brother Jesuits. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had the good fortune of taking part in the final seminar that Cardinal Dulles offered as Fordham's McGinley Professor of Religion and Society; wanting to pay my respects to a great theologian and a fine teacher, I made a point of attending the

Mass of Thanksgiving offered today in celebration of the Cardinal's nine decades of life. At an outdoor reception following the Mass, New York Archbishop Edward Cardinal Egan offered tribute to Dulles and led the assembled company in a birthday toast.

As you can see in the second photo from the top, the ordinary also took the lead in cutting the birthday cake. I like the fourth photo because it appears to show Cardinal Egan pointing at the camera; in fact, the Archbishop of New York was pointing to lend emphasis to something he was saying as part of a humorous anecdote regarding his personal history with Cardinal Dulles - an anecdote that Dulles and the audience seem to have appreciated, given their smiles and laughter.