The Cardinal

The Cardinal | Rudolf Voderholzer | From Meet Henri de Lubac: His Life and Work

On September 16, 1991, the international weekly newsmagazine Time reported:

Cardinal Henri de Lubac, one of the top theologians among the French Jesuits, died at the age of 95 in Paris. De Lubac was prohibited from teaching from 1946 to 1954 after the publication of his book Surnaturel. [1] Rehabilitated in 1958, he took part in the [Second Vatican] Council at the request of John XXIII. His relations with Rome then became even more intensive during the reign of John Paul II, who, during a visit to Paris in 1980, interrupted a speech that he was giving when he saw the priest and said, "I bow my head to Father de Lubac."

In 1983, the Pope appointed the then eighty-seven-year-old theologian a cardinal in recognition of his services in the field of theology.  This honor, which Henri de Lubac dedicated to the Jesuit Order as a whole, was the last step in the rehabilitation of a man who for a time was suspected, even within the Church, of watering down the true faith with all sorts of "innovations" and who from 1950 to 1958—here the Time report is inaccurate—was dismissed from his teaching position on the basis of such suspicions and was forbidden to publish scholarly books on theology.

Henri de Lubac and Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope, were already acquainted from the days of the Second Vatican Council and held one another in high esteem. They had worked together on that "Schema 13" which eventually became known as the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes [2] (Joy and Hope). Even more than by his direct collaboration on the conciliar texts, de Lubac influenced the Council through the voluminous theological studies that he published in the years leading up to the Council, through which he had contributed to a renewal of theology based on the sources, that is, Sacred Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers. Essential preliminary work for both the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, and the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Del Verbum, which are the most important theological documents of the Council, was done in the writings of Henri de Lubac.

For his part, Henri de Lubac recognized, in his encounters with the learned Archbishop of Krakow, that he was dealing with an extraordinary individual. The two became friends and corresponded. De Lubac wrote a foreword to the French translation of Wojtyla's book Love and Responsibility, while Wojtyla commissioned a Polish translation of de Lubac's essay Églises particulières et Église universelle [Motherhood of the Churches]. In 1970 and 1971, Wojtyla invited de Lubac to Poland. Only de Lubac's illness kept him from carrying out his travel plans. De Lubac recalled that in familiar conversations he had repeatedly made the assertion: "After Paul VI, Wojtyla is my candidate."

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Comments

[Blake Konczal]

It would interesting to know what the "monstre sacré", Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, thought of De Lubac's "rehabilitation?"

[Joe]

De Lubac is praised by JPII and Ratzinger, I know. Nonetheless, his deer in headlights reaction to criticism from Garrigou-Lagarange and Vatican Two liberals really does diminsh his legacy. He was brilliant--and in some ways it appears naive. This little book, which I eagerly ordered, is not especially helpful in its review of his legacy. Was he a universalist? How did he regard the authority of Scripture? What of liturgical reform? Etc etc. All pressing questions today. All ignored here, since the author shares the same apparent unawares that contaminate so much of Vatican II. I cannot wait until we are freed from the Vatican II hagiographies of the pew-warmers. As for his friendship with JPII, the ambiguites they shared have fueled the Christopher West sort of stuff we now suffer. I believe Scott Hahn, is his contribution to the George Kelly tribute, said something like, "Sure, the Resourcement guys were great! And yet... and yet..." Exactly! If we ignore the exact point where the war wages, we have fumbled. I think it is evident that DeLubac fumbled a bit. Ditto HvB. Only when the Conservative Catholic zeitgiest gets past this point will it be able to embrace thevery self-evident truths of the Traditionalist movement. In the meantime, let's all keep our anti-Semite radars on full blast. HEaven knows THAT is the big deal in our culture.