Thursday, October 27, 2005

Completely Overlooked - Death of Monika Hellwig

I just discovered that Monika Hellwig died earlier this month. The Obit from the Post reads:
Monika Konrad Hildegard Hellwig, a Georgetown University theologian who defended Catholic intellectualism against a Vatican crackdown, died Sept. 30, 2005, at Washington Hospital Center. Ms. Hellwig, 74, had a cerebral hemorrhage.

As president and executive director of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities from 1996 until two months ago, she was a leader in the U.S. discussion of Pope John Paul II's encyclical "Ex Corde Ecclesiae," which required colleges to teach and follow church doctrine more closely.

Ms. Hellwig, a former nun who attended the Second Vatican Council, was respected by laity, theologians and church leaders, even when she publicly expressed differences of opinion with church hierarchy.

She taught for more than 30 years at Georgetown. She left in 1996 to run the association of more than 200 Catholic colleges and universities.
Though known as a vocal dissenter against the Church, let us pray that God will have mercy on her soul and that she may see the glory of heaven.

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