Known for his theological brilliance, Benedict drew praise from many Catholics for his commitment to church orthodoxy amidst rising secularism. He also drew criticism during his papacy for accusations of corruption in the Vatican Bank, and what many deemed a too-little-too-late response to the clergy sex abuse crisis that rocked the church. When he retired—the first pope to do so in 600 years—he was given the title of pope emeritus.

Before he was elected pope in 2005, Benedict, a German theologian who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, served as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—a post he was chosen for by Pope John Paul II in 1981. In that role, he reasserted a classical stance on the Catholic faith in the face of pastoral experimentation and growing religious pluralism.

During his 2008 visit to the U.S., Pope Benedict delivered an address to Catholic educators at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., in which he said “Education is integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News. First and foremost every Catholic educational institution is a place to encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth.”

Fordham faculty, staff, and students took part in a number of activities during that visit, including Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Yankee Stadium, Benedict’s meetings with Catholic youth, and his departure ceremony at John F. Kennedy Airport. Fordham President Emeritus Joseph M. McShane, S.J., served as emissary for the Orthodox Christian hierarchs attending an ecumenical gathering marking Pope Benedict’s first visit to St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church. Benedict also met with Avery Cardinal Dulles, a former Fordham faculty member, who presented the pontiff with a copy of a book of lectures he delivered at Fordham: Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007 (Fordham University Press, 2008).

Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral will be held on Jan. 5 in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said, with Pope Francis presiding. His body will be laid in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday so that the faithful can pay their respects.

Below, Fordham faculty share their thoughts on Pope Benedict’s influence and legacy.

David Gibson
Director, Center on Religion and Culture
Author of The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World

Benedict XVI is being remembered, and revered by many, for his role as pope and the progress and controversies that accompanied his eight-year pontificate. But his chief legacy as pope will likely be his decision to resign the papacy, the first pope to do so in 600 years. That decision broke a certain mystique that had built up around the popes, and it freed his successors to step down when they see fit.

But beyond that it should be noted that his real legacy will be the nearly 25 years he spent as the chief doctrinal enforcer to his predecessor John Paul II. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the man who would be elected Benedict XVI shaped the conservative form that marks Catholicism today, and will for many years to come. His intellectual and ecclesial patrimony is arguably more influential than that of John Paul himself.

Bryan N. Massingale, S.T.D.
James and Nancy Buckman Chair in Applied Christian Ethics
Professor of Theological and Social Ethics
Senior Fellow, Center for Ethics Education

Pope Benedict was a gifted scholar and brilliant theologian. Yet his thinking at times could be abstract and distant from the everyday lives of many Catholics. He prioritized a Eurocentric understanding of Catholicism over adaptation to local cultures. He saw Western European culture as the norm for Catholic worship and theological expression. For example, on his 2009 journey to Cameroon and Angola, Benedict criticized condoms as aggravating the AIDS epidemic, despite the fact that the continent was an epicenter for the disease’s massive suffering and death. During his 2011 visit to the African country of Benin, organ music was used at the Masses he celebrated [as opposed to drumming and traditional dance]because he believed it to be more consistent with the dignity that was due a papal liturgy. I believe that history will show that Benedict leaves a complicated legacy as a leader who was a brilliant scholar who struggled to appreciate the global and cultural diversity of the Catholic Church.

Bradford Hinze, Ph.D.
Karl Rahner, S.J., Professor of Theology at Fordham

Early in his career Joseph Ratzinger earned a reputation as an accomplished theologian with expertise in early and medieval European Catholic theology. He became a respected contributor to the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council and a proponent of a dialogical approach to revelation, the sacraments, and the church. But in the decades that followed the council, he became increasingly critical of the use of dialogical deliberation and decision-making in the church in practices of collegiality and synodality, and in democratic societies.

As head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, he promoted the investigation, interrogation, and disciplining of many theologians linked with progressive currents in theology in Europe, North America, and in the Global South focused on liberation, inculturation, and religious pluralism.

Since Benedict has retired, the church has, under the leadership of Pope Francis, been returned to the position of the majority of bishops heralded at the Second Vatican council that sought to reform the church by engaging in open and honest dialogue in the church and by promoting receptive dialogue with the modern world, with members of other Christian churches, of other religions, and by ushering a new global vision of the church and a polycentric understanding of Catholicism.

Members of Fordham’s theology faculty have been weighing in on the Pope’s historical decision through live television, news interviews and blog posts:

Terrence Tilley, Ph.D., Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Chair in Catholic Theology and chair of the department: This was a real stunner, but as I begin to think about it, it is not entirely a surprise. Whether you agree or disagree with this Pope… this man has the good of the church at his heart and rather than put the church through a long, extended illness, he has chosen a quick and simple resignation [which also]makes it possible for future popes to have this as a live option.

This act will change the memory of his pontificate. He is remembered for his conservative intra-church concerns and his very progressive views on war and peace issues, economic issues, and green issues. But this symbolic gesture says no servant is bigger than the church.
As far as who will replace him, popes contrast with their predecessors. He’s an academic. We will probably get somebody who’s stronger in pastoral and administrative work. That’s the only guess that makes sense.

  See more of Tilley’s comments here,  here and here.

Maureen Tilley, Ph.D., professor of theology: What do you do with an ex-pope? What kind of power does he have, especially as we go into the next conclave? Based on the unprecedented nature of his announcement, we don’t have a way that people won’t seek his advice, I’m sure the next pope will seek his advice.
I think the final days of Pope John II really influenced him [as]John Paul II was incapable of exercising his office and probably legally incapable of resigning. Given advances in modern medicine the church could be in a situation of having a pope physically or mentally incapable of executing his resignation—I think Benedict wanted to spare the church that sort of situation.

Joseph Lienhard, S.J.. professor of theology and editor, Traditio: There will be guessing about who the next pope will be. He could be from Europe, he might also be from French Canada or Africa. Cardinal Dolan is one of the 117 electors, but it seems unlikely that he would be chosen: the fact that the United States is a superpower militates against it.
Read more of Father Leinhard’s comments here.

Michael Peppard, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology: As many seasoned observers have already noted, the Catholic Church is about to enter uncharted territory. Relatively few details of what comes next are known. Of all the musings I’ve had, for me the biggest question has been: after Feb. 28, where physically will Pope Benedict . . . reside? And how will his physical presence affect those around him?
Read more of Peppard’s comments here.

See more from Fordham experts on the Pope’s Resignation:

George Demacopoulos, Ph.D., associate professor of theology, on ABC News.
Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology, at Huffington Post
James McCartin, director of the Center on Religion and Culture, on Fox News

Their celebration of Catholic faith starts on Aug. 5 with MAGIS 2011, a three-day pastoral experience organized by the Society of Jesus in Spain, where students have been gathering from around the globe at the Sanctuary of Loyola, St. Ignatius’ childhood home in the mountains near the Basque country.

From there, the groups will spend a week in various locales in Spain or Portugal doing social service, ecology and spiritual pilgrimage. The event is being co-sponsored by many religious organizations, among which are the Sisters of Charity, the Inigo Network, the Xaverian Missionaries and other lay movements.

On Aug. 15, the Fordham group will join some 400,000 youths and members of religious communities from every continent as they gather in Madrid to participate in the weeklong World Youth Day (WYD). The annual event celebrates the message of Christ through gatherings at emblematic sites, and will include a Papal Welcoming Ceremony on Aug. 18 at the centuries-old Plaza de Cibeles in downtown Madrid. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to travel through the Madrid’s streets by popemobile and to receive the keys of the city from the mayor.

This year’s WYD participants will also be able to see Caravaggio’s The Deposition at the Prado, on loan from the Vatican Museum for the event.

The Fordham group, organized by Carol Gibney of Campus Ministry and Roxanne de la Torre, (FCRH ’09, GRE ‘11) will be blogging and tweeting their experience daily. You can follow their journey at http://fordhamwyd-madrid11.blogspot.com/.

—Janet Sassi

Born in West Palm Beach in 1950, Bishop Wenski grew up in Lake Worth, Fla. After studying at St. John Vianney Minor Seminary in Miami and St. Vincent de Paul Major Seminary in Boynton Beach, he earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and master’s degree in divinity at the Boynton Beach Seminary in 1972 and 1975, respectively. He earned his master’s degree in sociology at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1993.

Ordained a priest in 1976, he served three years as associate pastor of Corpus Christi Church, a mainly Hispanic parish in Miami. After ministering for a short time in Haiti, he was assigned to the Haitian Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Miami in 1979. Later, he served as director of the Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center in Miami until 1997, when he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Miami.

Wenski, who is fluent in three languages—English, Spanish and Creole—has devoted most of his ministry to the Haitian and Hispanic communities in Florida. As director of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Miami, he led an effort to provide more than 150,000 pounds of food to Caritas Cuba for Hurricane Lily relief efforts. He also served concurrently as pastor of three Haitian mission parishes in the archdiocese—Notre-Dame d’Haiti in Miami, Divine Mercy in Fort Lauderdale and St. Joseph in Pompano Beach.

Bishop Wenski is a past chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees on migration and international policy.

In 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed him coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Orlando. He became the fourth bishop of the diocese in November 2004.

The encyclical, whose title means “Charity in Truth” was the first social encyclical issued by Pope Benedict XVI. According to Archbishop Migliore, it is meant to provide guidance for clergy and lay Catholics who are wrestling with the drastic changes that have affected the world’s economy over the last 20 years.

In that time, he noted that four distinct social phenomena have arisen:
• The eclipsing of traditional ideologies by one rooted in technology, to the detriment of cognitive abilities of reason;
• The ascent of globalization;
• The return of religion to the limelight and a corresponding rise in secularism;
• The rise of formerly underdeveloped states, which alters the global political equilibrium.

Regarding the global financial crisis, he quoted Pope Benedict’s assertion that the world is in trouble because of the lack of thinking.

“The Pope says, ‘A new trajectory of thinking is needed to arrive at a better understanding of the implications of our being one family. Interaction among the peoples of the world calls us to embark upon this new trajectory, so that integration can signify solidarity rather than marginalization,’” he said. “To overcome our current financial and economic crisis, we need intellectual clarity and clear thinking.”

One of the biggest challenges facing the world is avoiding an economic recovery that does not address unemployment, Archbishop Migliore said, adding that such a recovery would be hollow. He dismissed greater consumption as a way out of the crisis, as it may increase profits, but not jobs, as technology now substitutes for labor.

“There needs to be a change in the composition and pattern of consumption—less consumption of merchandize, more consumption of relational needs,” he said. “Relational goods entail medical care, education, culture, art, sport—all things which build up the person and involve the most intensive labor, because no machine can substitute the service of care and education of culture.”

In addition pointing out that Pope Benedict explicitly links freedom of life and religious choice to economic development, Archbishop Migliore also pointed to the Pope’s exhortation to infuse solidarity and fraternity into economics.

“This is one of the most normative points in this encyclical, and also one of the most difficult points to understand, and especially problematic in this country,” he said.

Rather than mistake the Pope’s encyclical as an attack on capitalism, he urged the audience to remember that the French Revolution, which was an inspiration for the United States’ own revolution, was based on the concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity.

Now, liberty and freedom have been received into almost all constitutions in the world—all the legislations—and they’ve changed the world. The missing link is fraternity. Fraternity has been neglected. We are seeing excesses on the field of liberty and on the field of equality,” he said.

“As society becomes ever more globalized, it makes us neighbors, but does not make us brothers.”

Tens of thousands heard him speak at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. and Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Hundreds were within earshot when he celebrated Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and addressed the United Nations.

Scores were close enough to greet the pontiff personally and to shake his hand. But only one person had that moment captured in a photograph that appeared on the cover of a leading Catholic magazine.

And that was Fordham freshman Caitlin Willis.

“I was completely elated in the truest sense of the word,” Willis said of her encounter with the Pope. “It was less of a handshake, actually. He grasps your hand and holds onto it and looks into your eyes; it was a very piercing moment.”

She met Benedict XVI as part of the Choir of Communion and Liberation, which performed on April 19 during the Youth Rally at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie) in Yonkers, N.Y.

The Bay Ridge, Brooklyn-based choir was part of the music ministry that provided interludes between messages by the Pope and Edward Cardinal Egan, bishop of the New York Archdiocese.

“It was particularly stirring and important for me,” Willis said. “The Pope spoke with great certainty and great authority, but in a loving way. He said, ‘I haven’t come to impose the faith, but to enlighten by it,’ which I found very striking.”

As the crowd cheered, the pontiff felt compelled to approach the choir and mingle with its members.

“There I was, in front of the Vicar of Christ, who has the authority to say that the meaning of life is love, and in such a loving and caring way he took our hands in his and told the young people to have courage,” she said. “It was incredible to be in front of a man who was so completely extraordinary and exceptional.”

Willis said that the experience will live with her forever, but should it start to grow dim, she can pick up a copy of the May 5 issue of America magazine, which captured on its cover the exact moment when Benedict XVI shook her hand. The photo was taken by a Catholic News Service photographer.

“Being on the cover was cool, but more than that, it shows that this was real—that something so beautiful actually took place,” she said.

“It has overshadowed the trip,” Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, told The New York Times, referring to Pope’s comments on abuse. “None of us expected it, but everyone is grateful that he did. What he realized is that this is a pastoral visit and he must be pastor to those who are hurt most — and that is the victims.”

Not as widely reported was the Pope’s meeting with Avery Cardinal Dulles during the Pontiff’s visit to St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie), in Yonkers, New York, on Saturday. Cardinal Dulles presented the Pope with a copy of his book, Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007 (Fordham University Press, 2008). Cardinal Dulles was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II in 2001. Cardinal Dulles was one of three Americans elevated that day, and the only one of the three who was not a diocesan bishop, a signal honor in recognition of his lifelong work as a Jesuit, a theologian and a writer.

Father McShane attended a luncheon with William Joseph Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, sponsored by Time magazine. Father McShane was emissary for the Orthodox Christian hierarchs attending an ecumenical gathering marking Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, an historic German parish in Manhattan, on Saturday. Father McShane also attended the meeting of Catholic university presidents and school superintendents at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Other Fordham faculty, staff and students took part in a number of activities during the Pope’s visit, including Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Yankee Stadium, his meetings with Catholic youth, and the departure ceremony at John F. Kennedy Airport. Amy Uelmen, director of Fordham Law’s Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work, gave a reading at the ecumenical gathering at St. Joseph’s.

“I was deeply touched by the reading that had been selected, from Ephesians 4:1-6, which urges us to ‘live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the spirit of unity through the bond of peace,’” Uelman said. “The Pope’s own presence at this event and at all of the events in our city, was for me a living example of this gentleness, love, and capacity to reach out to build promising bridges across so many of our differences.  The atmosphere in the church and at the reception that followed was filled with a joyful serenity, and hope that the event would mark a significant step ahead in the work for unity.”

Uelman was chosen to give the reading because of her involvement with the Focolare Movement, an organization actively involved in ecumenical dialogue since the early 1960s, and working toward the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer “that all may be one.”

The Pope’s visit naturally occasioned a reckoning of the state of the American Catholic Church in the media. Responding to a poll that said Long Island youth “place a lower priority on religious practice than any other age group,” Patrick Ryan, S.J., vice president for University mission and ministry, told Newsday, “They don’t cease to be Christians or Catholics, but they are put off or alienated from the ordinary practice of their family. It takes them a while to come back, if they come back. They may affiliate with some other denomination … I don’t think there is that much loss of faith in the deeper sense.”

Members of the Jesuit community at Fordham attended Solemn Pontifical Mass for Priests, Deacons and Religious at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Manhattan on Saturday. Also on Saturday, 75 Fordham student volunteers assisted at the Pope’s meetings with disabled children and youth seminarians at Dunwoodie. On Sunday, 35 Fordham student volunteers  assisted outside Yankee Stadium at the Solemn Pontifical Mass.

Other faculty and administrators who have been quoted in the media on the Pope’s visit include: Rev. Anthony Ciorra, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education; George Demacopoulos, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology; Joseph Koterski, S.J., associate professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy; Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., professor of theology; Mark Massa, S.J., professor of theology and co-director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies; Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., president emeritus of Fordham; Msgr. Thomas J. Shelley, Ph.D., professor of theology;Margaret Steinfels and Peter Steinfels, co-directors of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture;Lance Strate, Ph.D., professor and associate chair of communication and media studies; and Maureen Tilley, Ph.D., professor of theology.

Dominick Salvatore has a way of getting people to listen to him. This past summer, even the Pope was willing to lend him an ear.

Salvatore is a Distinguished Professor of Economics, director of Fordham’s Graduate Program in Economics and quite possibly the University’s most prolific author. He recently returned from a sabbatical that took him to the Vatican, where he gave a presentation on “Globalization, Growth, Poverty and World Governance” and received a personal audience the following day with Pope Benedict XVI.

The Pontiff was eager to hear his ideas about globalization, one of the least understood and most contentious subjects affecting the world.

“What they were primarily interested in is really the fault of governance,” Salvatore said. “The economy of the world is globalizing, but there is no political system to make it work better. The poor nations that have globalized have grown rapidly and faster than the rich nations, thus reducing differences. It is the poor countries that did not globalize that did not grow, and became relatively poorer.”

It’s an idea that Salvatore promoted at lectures and seminars during a summer-long swing that took him through Austria, Italy, Germany, Singapore and Vancouver, Canada. His invitation to the Vatican came after he impressed Vatican officials at the United Nations in November 2006 with a lecture titled “Information Technology and Growth in LDCs.” That talk addressed the widening technological chasm that has emerged between advanced and developing countries.

“They are poor, and they’re technologically so backward that we need to do something to help them catch up,” he said.

Joining him at his May 18 audience with the Pope were three scholars with similar expertise, including a former trade minister from Germany who has studied the effects of how tariffs hold back developing countries and a Gregorian University professor who discussed how globalization has the power to destroy cultures.

Salvatore’s overriding message, which he has honed over his 35-year career at Fordham, was that institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund need to be strengthened so they can provide protection to poor nations the way that the Environmental Protection Agency keeps American companies from dumping waste in poor U.S. neighborhoods.

“The Pope said the ideas are very interesting, and a little different from the teachings of the Catholic Church, which relies primarily on helping the poor. And the feeling among some of the Cardinals is, ‘Help them, but to help them help themselves is even better,’” Salvatore said. “Globalization is important because it increases productivity; it increases efficiency; we cannot run away from it; and it is not unethical or ethical. It only looks at efficiency.”

But Salvatore, who also edited the ninth edition of his leading textbook International Economics while on sabbatical, cautioned that real change needs to come from countries such as the United States.

“The World Bank is controlled mostly by the rich countries and the IMF. So if the IMF demands certain things of developing countries, it’s because the countries that they represent are asking them to do this,” he said.

“Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity. After receiving the news, I followed with intense concern the developing situation, with heartfelt prayers to the Lord. How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? The human heart has depths from which schemes of unheard-of ferocity sometimes emerge, capable of destroying in a moment the normal daily life of a people. But faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail. Christ’s word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say.

Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it. “With deeply felt sympathy I address myself to the beloved people of the United States in this moment of distress and consternation, when the courage of so many men and women of good will is being sorely tested.” Before the conclusion of the audience, the Pope and the faithful prayed for the Churches of the East and the West, and, in particular, for the Church in the United States and for heads of state “so order that, not allowing themselves to be dominated by hatred and the spirit of retaliation, they do everything possible to keep weapons of destruction from sowing new hatred and new death and strive to bring light to the darkness of human affairs with works of peace.”

Father Dulles is currently the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University, a position he has held since 1988. Regarded as the preeminent American Catholic theologian, he is the recipient of numerous awards including Phi Beta Kappa, the National Catholic Book Award, the Religious Education Forum Award, and the Cardinal Spellman Award for distinguished achievement in theology. He has received 21 honorary doctorates and, at age 82, is an internationally-known author and lecturer, having written 21 books and more than 650 articles, essays and reviews. Many of these interpret and communicate the messages of Vatican II. “In selecting Father Avery Dulles, S.J., to be the first U.S. Catholic theologian to become a Cardinal, Pope John Paul II has recognized the extraordinary contribution that Father Dulles has made to the life of the Church as the preeminent Catholic theologian in this country for nearly four decades,” says the Rev.

Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., president of Fordham University. “The Holy Father also reminds us of the important service that the Catholic theologian, in communion with the Church, provides to the people of God by expanding our understanding of the content of our faith. Faith seeking understanding defines the mission of the theologian, even as it has consistently defined the life of Avery Dulles, whose intellectual integrity, fairness of judgment and lucidity of style set a high standard for all theologians. His many colleagues and friends at Fordham University and, most especially his Jesuit brothers in the Fordham community and around the world, rejoice with him and for him at this recognition of his life and work.” Avery Dulles was born in Auburn, NY, on August 24, 1918, to John Foster Dulles, and his wife, Janet Pomeroy Avery. He attended primary school in New York City and secondary education at private schools in Switzerland and New England.

Raised a Protestant, he was a self-professed agnostic when he entered Harvard in 1936. “I considered it a proved fact that the sufficient cause of the whole universe was physical matter … this matter congregated into masses… from one such mass, our earth was cast off, and, by a further accident, life had emerged,” says Dulles in A Testimonial to Grace, his account of becoming a Catholic published in 1946 and again in 1996, now recognized as one of the great conversion memoirs. Dulles says that his conversion was a gradual, rational process, and one that began during his undergraduate study of medieval art, philosophy and theology.

Additionally, the study of the philosophy of Plato, reading of the New Testament, and conversations with his Catholic tutor ultimately lead to his conversion. In A Testimonial to Grace Dulles acknowledges that his venture into the Catholic Church appeared foolhardy to his father and most of his friends. Yet, he writes, “If the Kingdom is the pearl of great price, the treasure buried in the field, one should be prepared to give up everything else to acquire it.” After graduating from Harvard in 1940, he attended Harvard Law School for a year and a half before being called to duty as an intelligence officer by the U. S. Naval Reserve. In 1945 the French Government awarded him the Croix de Guerre for his liaison work with the French Navy during World War II.

Later in 1945, he contracted polio in Naples, Italy. When Dulles returned to the United States in 1946, he entered the Society of Jesus. And an unusual novice he was. A convert to Catholicism, ivy-league educated, and from a family with a long history in matters politic. Both his great-grandfather, John W. Foster, and his great-uncle, Robert Lansing, had served as U. S. Secretary of State. When Avery Dulles was ordained to the priesthood at Fordham University by Francis Cardinal Spellman in 1956, his father was serving as U.S. Secretary of State to Dwight D. Eisenhower. The ordination was reported on the front page of The New York Times.

Father Dulles has had a distinguished career ever since. His teaching career started as a philosophy professor at Fordham in 1951, where he was moderator of the freshman and sophomore sodality.

Dulles went on to serve on the faculty of Woodstock College and The Catholic University of America before returning to Fordham in 1988. He has held fifteen visiting professorships and numerous positions in theological organizations including the presidency of The Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society, which was founded by a group of Protestant theologians including his grandfather, Allen Macy Dulles, a distinguished Presbyterian theologian. Avery Dulles is presently a consultor to the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.