IPS Honors Cardinal Avery Dulles

By Irene Lagan
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 11/21/02)

The Institute for Psychological Sciences recently awarded Cardinal Avery Dulles with the John Paul II Award for his remarkable achievements as a theologian. Michael Novak, director of the American Enterprise Institute, hailed the 82 year old cardinal as "everyone’s theologian" and as a man who has "bent every fiber and every sinew to the mind of John Paul II."

"He represents the mind in this country and the world nearest to the mind of John Paul II," Novak said.

Cardinal Avery Dulles is the author of over 700 articles, 21 books, including Models of the Church, The Craft of Theology: from Symbol to System, The Splendor of Faith, and his own conversion story, A Testimonial to Grace. He holds the Laurence McGuinley Chair of Religion and Society at Fordham University and has lectured and taught in numerous universities, including Catholic University in Washington.

Cardinal Dulles who currently serves as an adviser to the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is an internationally known lecturer and the recipient of numerous awards.

"Psychology is so imbued with an atheistic factor. If psychology deals with anything, it is the human person and without a correct understanding of the human person, psychology will be twisted," Cardinal Dulles said. "It is hard to train people who are going to be competent psychologists in the faith tradition. There is a tendency for scientifically oriented people to take faith as one perspective that is optional. John Paul II has emphasized in his pontificate the fact that in Christ not only is God revealed, but man has been revealed to himself," said Cardinal Dulles.

The IPS, founded in 1999, is a rapidly growing graduate school for psychology dedicated to a Catholic vision of the human person. Through its graduate programs, the IPS offers an academic formation that incorporates the intellectual philosophical and theological traditions with modern psychological approaches. According to Dr. Gladys Sweeney, dean of students, this scholastic focus enables psychologists to treat the whole person by recognizing that each person is a spiritual being who is worthy of the love of God. The institute presently offers both master’s and doctor of science degrees, and has plans to offer a doctor of philosophy degree in the future.

"We are grateful to see in this institute the new hope and evangelization that our Holy Father has talked about. In times like we are living in now, what we need is a vigorous reassertion of the truth that constitutes the core of Catholic Faith. Our vision is that all truths contribute to that doctrine of truth. We need to support and build up every teaching of the faith. Our mission is to train truly Catholic therapists who live holy lives, men and women who can point the way to Christ for others," said Father Richard Gill, the new president of the IPS.

Father Gill was ordained a priest of the Legionaries of Christ in 1991 in Rome, and holds advanced degrees in theology and philosophy from St. John’s University in New York and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Father Gill is a well-known retreat master and spiritual director, is a member of the National Advisory Board of Envoy Magazine and is a contributing editor for Faith and Family Magazine. Father Gill was recently installed as the first president of the IPS.

Daniel Robinson, distinguished professor, emeritus at Georgetown University was master of ceremonies for last week’s event. Robinson is a member of the Philosophy faculty at Oxford University and is an adjunct professor at the IPS.

Past recipients of the John Paul II Award include Mary Cunningham Agee, founder of the Nurturing Network, an international organization that provides an alternative to abortion; George Weigel, senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.; and Congressman Henry J. Hyde, noted for his prominent roles as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and of the House International Relations Committee, and author of the Hyde Amendment, which has prevented federal funding of abortions for over 20 years.

For more information about the IPS, visit the web site at www.ipsciences.edu. 

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