Dulles' Journey of Discovery Includes Visits to Scranton

Pope John Paul II named 37 new cardinals on Jan. 22, including Father Dulles, an 82-year-old Jesuit scholar at New York's Fordham University.

Up to now, Father Dulles has been known to most people as the son of John Foster Dulles, who served as secretary of state during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower.

But when he and other churchmen are consecrated cardinals by the pope Feb. 21 at St. Peter's Basilica, he will stand out as a teacher and scholar in an international group made up primarily of archbishops.

Father Dulles, whose famous father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, is a convert to Catholicism.

On the day the Vatican announced his appointment, Father Dulles told a press conference in New York that, while he had a Presbyterian upbringing, he "never was much of a Protestant." Indeed, he added, by the time he entered Harvard University in 1936 he was a self-proclaimed agnostic.

He said his 1946 conversion was a gradual and rational process that began in his undergraduate studies of medieval art, philosophy and theology, extending from Plato to the New Testament.

The Rev. Joseph McShane SJ, president of the University of Scranton, knows Father Dulles well, having lived in the same residence with him for six years at Fordham University.

"He cooked his own eggs every morning for breakfast and read the New York Times," said Father McShane, who settled for a glass of milk and good conversation, usually on a subject from that morning's newspaper.

In the six years they were together, Father McShane said when he returns to New York on visits, he stays at Fordham and makes it a point to eat breakfast with Father Dulles. "Yes," he said, "he still cooks his own eggs, reads the New York Times and is a great conversationalist."

I asked if he thought Father Dulles secretly dreamed of moving up in the church hierarchy and Father McShane reminded me that every Jesuit takes a vow not to aspire for anything beyond the duties assigned to him by their order.

Father Dulles came from a family of leaders. In addition to his father being secretary of state, his uncle was Allan Dulles, who directed American espionage in Europe in World War II and later directed the Central Intelligence Agency. His great-grandfather, Allen Macy Dulles, was secretary of state under President Benjamin Harrison, and his great-uncle, Robert Lansing, held the same office under President Woodrow Wilson. In addition, his grandfather, John Watson Foster, was a liberal Presbyterian theologian.

Given the fact that Father Dulles grew up among famous and powerful people, Father McShane said he has always been a very humble man. "He wears his legacy lightly," he added.

The Rev. Bernard McIlhenny, SJ, minister of the Jesuit community at the U of S, entered the Jesuits in 1946, the same year that Father Dulles entered. They spent four years together, studying theology at Woodstock College in Maryland and were ordained priests together in 1956.

Father McIlhenny said the only sign of wealth and prestige during the student years of Father Dulles was when he was picked up in a chauffeured limousine -- something beyond his control -- when he was going to visit his family in Washington.

The Rev. John Shea, SJ, the assistant to the vice president for institutional advancement at the U of S and former vice president of student affairs at Fordham University, got to know Father Dulles there when he, Father McShane and Father Dulles resided in the same building.

Years later, while serving as president of John Carroll University in Cleveland, he bestowed an honorary doctorate on Father Dulles -- one of 21 such awards he has received over the years.

Father Shea sees a similarity in the elevation of Father Dulles to cardinal to the long journey of John Henry Newman, an Anglican clergyman in England in the mid 1800s, who became a Catholic priest and a cardinal on the strength of his teaching and writings on theological subjects.

Father Dulles came to Marywood University in 1986 to conduct a two-day seminar sponsored by the school's Graduate Program of Theological Enrichment.

He returned here last February when he delivered a lecture, "From Vatican I to Pope John Paul II" sponsored under the U of S Catholic Studies Program and the president's office.

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