Yves Cardinal Congar, un maître en théologie
Gabriel Flynn2004, Louvain Studies
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Abstract
Scholarship happily includes education in friendship. I am grateful to the friends I have been privileged to make in the course of my research on Yves Cardinal Congar (1904-95). I wish to take advantage of this distinguished international forum to mention two of those friends: they are both French, both Dominicans and both contemporaries of Congar's. I refer to Fathers Pierre-Marie Gy and Jean-Pierre Jossua. I am indebted to them for opening the world of Congar's thought and life to me in a personal and vivacious manner. They have afforded me insights of their vast knowledge of theology, liturgy, history and literature, the result of a lifetime of study and reflection. Father Gy, one of the most influential liturgical scholars of the twentieth century and sometime director of the Institut Supérieur de Liturgie in Paris and professor at Le Saulchoir-the faculties of the Dominican province of France, 1 refers to Cardinal Congar as "my master and old friend." 2 Sadly, Father Gy died on 20 December 2004. He was part of that outstanding generation of brilliant Catholic scholars who were intimately associated with Vatican II. Possessed of a rare gift, high intellect defined by acuity and a gentillesse that one naturally associates with Christian courtesy, he was, like Congar, a peritus (expert) at the Vatican Council. In this paper in honour of his "old friend," on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, I acknowledge my gratitude to Father Gy. I wish also to thank Father Jossua, littérateur and acclaimed theologian, whom Congar amiably refers to as "my
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