Burghardt

Jesuit Father Burghardt

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Jesuit Father Burghardt, Noted Theologian, Preacher Jesuit Father Walter Burghardt, long regarded as one of U.S. Catholicism’s top theologians and preachers, died Feb. 16 at the Jesuits’ infirmary on the campus of St Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He was 93.

A Funeral Mass was celebrated Feb. 20 at Holy Trinity Church in Washington.

Msgr. Burghardt wrote and preached on a variety of Church issues, using as a base his 45-year tenure as managing editor, then editor in chief, of the journal Theological Studies. After retiring from the journal, he launched Preaching the Just Word, a project to improve Catholic preaching across the nation.

Born in New York City, he was ordained in 1941. A member of the Jesuits’ Maryland Province, he taught at Woodstock College in Maryland for more than 20 years. He was co-editor of “The Woodstock Papers,” which are occasional essays, and the ancient Christian writers series by Paulist Press.

In 1992 he co-founded a quarterly journal called The Living Pulpit, which included news on biblical research and theological interpretation as well as material from science, literature, philosophy and politics.

He was a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Mariological Society of America and the North American Academy of Ecumenists.

He had been a consultor to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and served on a U.S. Lutheran-Catholic dialogue group.

In 2001, his book “Long Have I Loved You: A Theologian Reflects on His Church” won the top award from the Catholic Press Association for popular presentation of the Catholic faith. In 1979 he received the St. Francis de Sales Award, the highest honor of the CPA, for his contributions to Catholic journalism.

Jesuit Father Burghardt