'Church is in dire need of renewal,' says Cardinal Dulles

Published: 2004-11-11

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Cardinal Avery Dulles said in a lecture Nov. 10 that Catholics are entering the 2004-05 Year of the Eucharist with an awareness "the church is in dire need of renewal." Although "holy in her head and in her apostolic heritage," the church remains "sinful in her members and in constant need of being purified," he said. The cardinal said many Catholics are ignorant of church teachings, and a few even reject the teachings. "Some of the clergy are not exempt from grave and scandalous sins, as we have learned all too well in these recent years," he said. As a resource for renewal, he called for an emphasis on the Eucharist, and seeing in it the same marks used by the creed in describing the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic. Cardinal Dulles, a Jesuit theologian named to the College of Cardinals in 2001, made his comments in delivering the annual fall lecture of his McGinley professorship at Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York.

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