In the first week of April the French bishops voted in favour of opening a beatification cause for the late Cardinal Henri de Lubac, a celebrated theologian whose writings influenced not only the Second Vatican Council, but every pope since.
De Lubac was one of several Jesuits who were key protagonists in the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, including Cardinal Jean Danielou, whose writings were a prominent point of reference to then-Father Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.
In a March 31 communique following the conclusion of their March 28-31 plenary assembly, the French bishops announced the election of new leaders for a slew of councils and commissions and said they had voted in favour of opening a cause for de Lubac’s beatification.
De Lubac was born in Cambrai in February 1896, and is widely hailed as one of the greatest theologians and intellectuals of the 20th century. A staunch opponent to Nazism and anti-Semitism, de Lubac co-founded the collection Sources chrétiennes, or “Christian sources,” a collection of bilingual patristic texts, with a priest named Jean Danielou in 1941.
Danielou, who was also a Jesuit and was named a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1969, was a prominent voice in the Second Vatican Council and a hero to then-Father Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.