Welcome to back to the podcast! We took an extra week off between episodes, but this was in order to bring you this excellent episode with Fr. Francis Sullivan, SJ. During a recent visit to Boston, Steve Okey had the opportunity to meet with Fr. Sullivan at the grounds of the former Weston College (and later Weston School of Theology) in Weston, MA. In a wide-ranging conversation, they talk about the role of obedience in Fr. Sullivan’s process of coming to theology, his time as Dean of the theology faculty at the Pontifical Gregorian University during Vatican II, and his engagement with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. We also learn why Fr. Sullivan’s students nicknamed him “Arizona” and why Boston would be a bad place for an ecumenical council.
Francis Sullivan, SJ, is Professor Emeritus of the Pontifical Gregorian Universityin Rome, where he taught from 1956-1992 and served as dean from 1962-1970. Following his retirement from the Greg, he taught at Boston College until 2009. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1938 at age 16, was ordained a priest in 1951, and completed his dissertation (The Christology of Theodore of Mopsuestia) in 1955. He is the author of numerous books, with a special focus on ecclesiology: Charisms and Charismatic Renewal: A Biblical and Theological Study (Wipf & Stock, 2004), Magisterium: Teaching Authority in the Catholic Church (Wipf & Stock, 2002), The Church We Believe in: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (Paulist Press, 1988), Salvation Outside the Church: Tracing the History of the Catholic Response (Wipf & Stock, 2002), Creative Fidelity: Weighing and Interpreting Documents of the Magisterium (Wipf & Stock, 2003), and From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early Church (Paulist Press, 2001).
#22 - Francis Sullivan, SJ