Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
March 14, 2001
Scholar to speak on the legacy of John Paul II
Prolific writer, philosopher, Ralph McInerny, penned the popular `Father Dowling' mystery series
By Roxanne King
Writer, professor and Catholic scholar Ralph McInerny does more in a year than some people do in a lifetime.
Author of three mystery series, including the popular Father Dowling novels on which the television show featuring Tom Bosley was based, McInerny writes three to four novels a year. The newest in the Father Dowling series, "Triple Pursuit," will be out next month.
McInerny's scholarly works include his most recent book, "The Defamation of Pius XII."
McInerny is founder and publisher of Catholic Dossier and cofounder of CRISIS: A Journal of Lay Catholic Opinion.
And that's what the 72-year-old does in his free time.
His full-time job is director of the Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame in Southbend, Ind., where he has taught since 1955. There, he is involved in publishing a 20-volume edition of "The Works of Jacques Maritain," and he is publishing a six-volume edition of "Aquinas' Commentaries on Aristotle."
The prolific writer and respected Catholic scholar is coming to Denver to give a lecture on "The Achievement of Pope John Paul II" 7:15 p.m. March 21 at Bonfils Hall on the John Paul II Center campus. The talk is free and open to the public.
"I have three careers," McInerny said from his office at Notre Dame. "I'm an academic and I do philosophical work. I got into Catholic publishing with CRISIS and later Catholic Dossier."
How does someone who wrote "The Logic of Analogy: An Interpretation of St. Thomas" in 1961 move into murder mysteries?
"I started to write fiction because I needed extra money," McInerny said, explaining that he and his wife raised six children. "I started writing for women's magazines and learned how to write doing that. I was asked by a publisher if I'd ever thought about writing a novel. I published seven or eight before I wrote a mystery."
He wrote a novel called "Priest" in 1973. At the same time, his agent was reading a mystery series featuring a rabbi and suggested McInerny try his hand at a series based on a priest.
"That was the beginning of Father Dowling," McInerny said of the 20-novel series. "I do three or four mysteries a year. I love to write, it's very pleasant."
The mysteries are faster and easier to write than regular novels, which take about a year apiece, McInerny said.
"With mysteries, you can write three or four [a year] — it's a good way to have a long distance career rather than a short, brilliant one," he joked.
So what does he enjoy writing most?
"Whatever I'm writing is what I enjoy the most," he said. "Anything I'm doing my enthusiasm builds. The discipline is the same. The type of writing is different."
Perhaps his enthusiasm is the key to how it is he accomplishes so much. But the prolific author, scholar and Catholic publisher doesn't see himself as anything special. Rather, McInerny describes himself as "just a simple person — a grandfather" who lives "a predictable life."
His talk in Denver will focus on the Holy Father's legacy as pope. "I'm going to do a retrospect on his 22 years," McInerny said. "My argument is that his lasting contribution lies in his magesterium, encyclicals and the Catechism.
"I also have this view that despite the length of his papacy, his papacy is an interim papacy — he has defined and implemented the Second Vatican Council," McInerny said. "I get the impression that he feels we really haven't fully implemented it."
McInerny believes that the Holy Father will be called "John Paul II the Great."
"I hope to let people know why that suggestion has been made," McInerny said. "This will be, I hope, entertaining, enlightening, diverting. It's not going to be a scholarly talk — I save that for my students." The John Paul II Center is at 1300 S. Steele St. Bonfils Hall is at the far east end of the campus.
