Friends and colleagues remembered Richard Gaillardetz, who died on Tuesday, as a perceptive theologian, mining in his talks, articles and books the ecclesiology of Vatican II and Pope Francis’ vision for the church. They also noted the powerful witness of his reflections on his final months of life.
Obituary
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
From 1999: Brian Moore’s Christ-Haunted Fiction
From Brian Moore’s earliest and best known novel, ‘The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne,’ to his last, ‘The Magician’s Wife,’ the mystery of belief has haunted his best fiction.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Catholic champion for unjustly detained, dies at 75
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, an influential figure in Democratic politics who was also U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, died on Sept. 1.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Parrotheads know: Jimmy Buffett was much more than booze and debauchery
Jimmy Buffett was noted for his many silly pop songs in obituaries after his death on Sept. 1. But his music wasn’t always just a matter of rum and flip-flops.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Remembering Father James F. Keenan, a model of Jesuit life
Jim remembered everyone—even my mother whom he had never met or spoken with. A special occasion would not go by without a phone call or a handwritten note from Jim.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Some Catholics will never forgive Sinéad O’Connor for tearing the pope’s photo. Others will never forget its power.
Sinéad O’Connor, who was found dead in London on July 26, thwarted any attempt throughout her life to extinguish her creativity or her output.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Remembering Martin Amis: literary bad boy—and an unexpected moralist
Martin Amis leaves behind a remarkable corpus of fiction, essays and memoir—even if he could be eminently dislikable.
Posted inFaith, Vantage Point
From 1991: Avery Dulles on Henri de Lubac
After the death of Henri de Lubac, S.J., on Sept. 4, 1991, Avery Dulles, S.J. penned a long tribute to the theologian, a major influence on Vatican II and later theological developments.
Posted inFaith
Dolores Leckey, founding director of U.S. bishops’ laity secretariat, dies at 89
Dolores R. Leckey, who was founding director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for the Laity in 1977 and at the time one of the highest ranking women in the U.S. Catholic Church, died peacefully of natural causes Jan. 17 in her home in Arlington.
Posted inFaith, Vantage Point
Dorothy Day’s obituary from 1980: ‘All Was Grace’
After Dorothy Day’s death in 1980, her biographer William Miller wrote her obituary for America, noting that “the amazing thing about her life was the improbability of it all.”