Mark Chapman (Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford University)
I first met Gerard in the 1990s when he was a graduate student in Oxford and we both went on a Faculty Exchange to the University of Bonn. I remember him presenting on Schopenhauer in a very lively way – it was another facet of his learning that I had almost forgotten about. One evening we were taken to see an opera – I cannot remember which one, but I don’t really think any of the Oxford group really enjoyed it very much. After expressing our gratitude to the hosts we stood outside the opera house not quite knowing what to do. I broke the silence and said: ‘Well, I don’t know about any of you, but I need a drink.’ And six hours later Gerard and I had got to know one another, and I had learnt the hard way that it was never a good idea to try to keep up with him in drinking. After he had left Oxford I followed his progress as he began to move into ecclesiology and as he got frustrated by bureaucracy in Leeds and Liverpool. At the beginning of this century we renewed our acquaintance when I was invited to the first meeting of Ecclesiological Investigations in Hawarden in North Wales. It was the beginning of an immensely fruitful and happy collaboration and friendship that resulted in many conferences and many volumes, most recently in our joint Pathways series with Palgrave Macmillan. That first conference at Gladstone’s Library was a party from start to finish. We took over a local pub and sang songs late into the night and I made new friendships which continue to this day. What this proved was that Gerard was a great doer – he could raise money, get other people to help, and he also put in a huge amount of graft. I always assisted him and provided a sounding board but I could never have the capacity for such extraordinary levels of work or to live life at such a pace. There were some extraordinary successes over the years – a massive conference in Assisi, where we flew over and managed to persuade the local bishop to make things happen for us in all the churches in the upper town when the local clergy were proving unresponsive. Or at Georgetown to commemorate Vatican II or Hong Kong or Belgrade and lots of other places over the years.
As we met in different places so our friendship became closer and we grew to understand one another – and that’s not too common for a nationalist Irishman and a Church of England priest who is very English. I loved Gerard for his passion and commitment and his love of the church, which he also found frustrating and unbearable at times. I loved him because he enjoyed life and people. His legacy will live on through his writings but even more through the friendships he created and which will continue. I have never known anyone quite like him – a supercharged human dynamo who enthused us and encouraged us. Of course he could get cross and he had strong views on lots of things (like Receptive Ecumenism!) but that never mattered because it was just a by-product of his passion and commitment.
It is a huge tragedy that he was taken from us just a few days before his 49th birthday. We would have loved to have had him with us for much longer to cheer us up and to share a lot more evenings over a glass or ten of wine. But that wasn’t to be, and we are all utterly shocked and stunned. But we can trust that the party continues in heaven where he will be a very welcome guest at the messianic banquet.
God bless you Gerard and thanks for everything!
Vladimir Latinovic (University of Tübingen)
I don’t think that the Last Judgement will be some unilateral event in which God will ask us to give answers for our transgressions (what a silly concept!) but we will also be in a position to ask him about the things he did to us. This is at least what a living and loving relationship should entail. My question will be about Gerard Mannion. Why did this selfless, larger than life person, who did so much good for this world, who was trying to change the Church for the better, who with his openness and friendship helped connect so many people have to leave it so early? What is the sense of that?
I once asked Gerard, when he was trying to persuade me to apply for a position, which I knew I couldn’t get, because it was at a rather elite university, why I should I waste my time? I am not the best in my field, there are so many other qualified persons who will apply for that position – why would they take me? With his ever-present wisdom, he said the following: ‘You know, it is not that hard to find qualified a person for a position, but it is almost impossible to find someone who is at the same time qualified and a good person i.e. someone who would one day be a good colleague.’ This is exactly what Gerard Mannion was – an excellent theologian, a wise and informed advisor and friend and above all a good person. I don’t think I need to speak about his theological qualities here so let me say something about his human side.
I met Gerard in Tübingen while I was still a doctoral student and he a young unemployed emerging scholar. He asked me what I do and I told him that I live in a theological heaven: For the last five years I was spending 12 hours per day in the library reading church fathers and other theological literature and I was paid to do it! He decided that it was time for me to go out of the library and get back down to earth and do something that matters. And this is how our wonderful friendship begun! It developed into something that I would never have expected. Not only has the EI has grown beyond anyone’s expectations (we were at that time still in Ratzinger’s dark ages) but also our friendship has grown to that point that I stopped seeing him as a colleague, eventually I also stopped seeing him as just a friend, and started seeing him as my big brother (Peter Phan told me that he saw him as his little brother so apparently we are related!).
Regrettably, for most of my colleagues I don’t know much about their private life. I don’t know if they are single or married or if they are in a relationship. For Ges I knew stories about almost every girlfriend he has dated while he was doctoral student in Oxford, about all the pranks and late night bar tours he practised with his friends (many of whom I later met) and how this almost costed him his degree (luckily for all of us he finished what he started). Not only that, I knew every little thing he thought about Trump, Ratzinger, Francis (whom he adored), the British (Mark Chapman and a couple of other persons excluded), the Dutch (Peter de Mey excluded), Gladstone, Yeats, receptive ecumenism (another silly concept because if ecumenism is not receptive what is it then?), and hundreds of other topics. The fact that I knew these things about him and that I don’t know them about my other colleagues leads to the logical conclusion that the reason for that did not lie in me but in him and in the way he was open to people.
Gerard Mannion was embodied communication, the social glue that connected what would normally never stick together (we now have to be careful that these things do not fall apart when he is no longer here). He was a true networker, person whom everybody knew and who knew everyone. Both his theological and social methods were actually quite simple: Just be a good person and do the right thing, and repeat this! This was Gerard Mannion’s secret, that, and his persuasiveness. He did whatever it took (within the strong ethical boundaries he imposed on himself) to achieve the goal: drinking the owner of renowned publishing house under the table (Bill Eerdmans stood no chance), announcing the visit to the king (Küng) himself as if this is the most natural thing to do for a young emerging scholar, reaching out to the cardinals and other high officials in Rome when they all looked at EI with fear and disdain, completely destroying the university president when she tried to limit academic freedom (San Diego), and unfortunately paying a personal price for achieving such high academic excellence by not having the family and kids he wanted so much (Mandy compensated for this in his last years to a high degree). And much much more.
When I think of all the things Gerard achieved in his 48 years he spent on earth, I realize one thing: Gerard didn’t die young. He lived fast and accomplished more in this time than twenty average persons would achieve in their long lives. What pains me is that I know most things that he planned to achieve and write in the future. Just a month ago, he finished the first volume of his grand project “The Art of Magisterium” (I hope that this will be published) and had enough material for at least four additional volumes. Beside the numerous articles and books he published, he recently told me he had some 20 books in the making, some just started, some as ideas, some half-finished. Perhaps that is why God took Gerard so early? He did enough; it is up to us to continue!
Peter De Mey (KU Leuven)
My first contacts with Gerard date back to the end of 2005, when the first steering committee for the Ecclesiological Investigations Group of the American Academy of Religion had to be set up. In November 2006, when this new unit was launched during the convention in Washington, DC, the annual tradition started to graciously accept as many invitations for the evening receptions as we could possibly visit within the very strict opening and closing hours for such receptions. The program of our evening procession was carefully prepared by Gerard and if we lost each other Gerard was the first to save us with a text message mentioning where he could be found.
During these late evening encounters which were extended in an Irish Pub or elsewhere I came to know many new friends. During one of these receptions Gerard introduced me to a colleague whom we later invited to start working in Leuven. His great talent to bring people in contact with each other thus was more effective than day-long meetings of search committees at the EIS center. Once Gerard came to know you, he immediately graciously invited you to take part in important collective volumes he was editing. I am still thankful that he allowed me to contribute to the 2007 Routledge Companion to the Christian Church. In connection with AAR and EI conferences I will also never forget the important advice which Gerard used to send out to the speakers a few weeks before their presentations: ‘less is more’. I owe it to his wisdom that one can only pronounce 650 words in 5’ time. Gerard also had the great idea to allow more colleagues to speak to the entire audience by granting them 15 minutes presentation time.
Since Gerard was at that time considering leaving Hope University he immediately proved to be the perfect candidate for a Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship offered by the Research Council of my university and as a result in 2008 and 2009 Leuven became the temporal hub for EI, before it moved to San Diego. The title of this project reflects his deep concern during the Ratzinger regime: ‘A Teaching Church that Learns: Authentic Magisterium in Our Time’. During these years he gave invaluable advice to some of my master and doctoral students working in the field of ecclesiology. While in Leuven Gerard also got involved in the European Society for Ecumenical Research which I served as secretary and its then president Jochen Hilberath invited him to spend another semester in Tübingen university.
Thanks to his inspiration the EI network was able to organize really big events in the field of ecclesiology. During the Assisi 2012 meeting but also later on EI became a platform where ecclesiologists and experts in the field of interreligious dialogue could meet and become good friends. The Assisi meeting and the splendid conference Gerard organized in his own Georgetown University on the occasion of 50 years Vatican II were also occasions where Gerard was able to convince ecclesiastical leaders like Cardinal Kasper and bishop Farrell of the important contribution of the Ecclesiological Investigations Network.
I am thankful to still have spoken to Gerard during the Stuttgart colloquium which his good friend and associate Vladimir organized so well. One small conversation on the outside terrace hours before the conference began continuously enters my mind these days. He admitted to me that he was very tired, even if the conference fell in the midst of the summer break for my American friends and colleagues. I also recall that we could comfort one another that both of us still were not ready with a long awaited submission for the same volume.
Gerard, even if you are irreplaceable as the great inspirator of the Ecclesiological Investigations Network, we will all try to work hard to protect the health of EI, your intellectual and spiritual ‘child’. Rest in peace, my good friend!
Dennis Doyle (University of Dayton)
My eldest grandchild, Maggie Jane, is six. We call each other “best friends.” Over the years she has confessed to me that she has also other best friends, which has been more than just ok with me. I am happy for her. For Maggie Jane and me, being “best friends” is not something exclusive. Yet it is very special and meaningful for us. Maggie Jane is obviously touched by the thought of it whenever one of us says it aloud. And I am also deeply touched.
If you were friends with Gerard Mannion, you were his best friend. Gerard had so many best friends that it would be next to impossible to count. This was something real and special. Very few of us would be capable of having more than one or perhaps a couple of best friends. There would be something superficial about claiming too many special relationships. With Gerard, though, there was nothing superficial about it. Gerard had an exceptional and amazing gift when it came to personal friendships that carried over into building communities and even an international research organization.
As an ecclesiologist, Gerard liked the idea of placing relationships over structures and offices. He was no friend of bureaucracies. Putting relationships first was for him not just an idea but a way of life. He embodied that way of life. I am one of his many, many best friends who will miss him terribly.
Fatemeh Kamali-Chirani (Iranian-German Political Scientist)
I am truly sad. I just cannot believe that. I am so happy that I had the chance to participate in the Assis 2012 and Belgrade 2013 conferences, which were organized by him. In both conferences there was an arrangement to support part of my travel costs by the organizer. This help of him (and your team) did mean a lot to me, especially because I was just a PhD student without much money. I kept contact with some participants of the conference till today and I am so proud of having the friendship with different open-minded theologians and scholars. I am sure that he rest in peace. Thanks him for moving small and big things in this world. As I said, there are no words to express my sorrow for the loss.
Joseph G Muthuraj (Professor Emeritus, Bangalore, India)
I am saddened to learn of the death of Gerard Mannion. Ges broke a new ground in many ways in the field of ecclesiology and his writings and speeches, I found inspiring. I had the privilege of joining him in the early years of the foundation EI. and we met in Chichester, UK in the company of other stalwarts Paul Collins and Andrew Chandler for seminars in the years 2007 and 2008.
Ges invited me to the participate in the EI conference held in Assisi in 2012. We shall all miss the devotion and integrity he has brought to the ecclesial history and scholarship. I know the loss of his leadership will be felt for many years to come. But we must move on taking his legacy forward!.
I wish to express my condolences on the occasion of the deep and profound loss.
Stan Chu Ilo (Associate professor of Catholic Studies at DePaul University)
Though he was one month younger than me, he took a special interest in me and invited me to join the Ecclesiological Investigations Network for a conference in Assisi in 2012. Since then, he has been a constant guide, motivating me, challenging me, encouraging me and celebrating me. I am sure many other theologians and students will say this of Gerard. He treated everyone as special. Last year, at the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church’s Conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, he took some of us out for dinner, he deliberately sat by my side to share with me his dream of organizing the conference and meeting of the Ecclesiological Investigations Network in Africa for the first time. He challenged me to help him make it happen. I was sold to that idea and was working on it…and now this happens… Gerard was truly an outstanding scholar with a magnanimous spirit, who dreamed and worked for a church that reflects fully the many faces of God and the many faces of the people of God. He had unmatchable energy for building networks, partnerships, friendships, and bridges. He is one of the most important Catholic theologians of our age and accomplished in his short life what many of us could only think of in our dreams. A man with such an effervescent spirit, he was full of wisdom beyond his years and his brilliant mind fed us all with wisdom in writings, speeches, presentations, and phone calls that were always spiced with joy, jokes, anecdotes, and good wine when the occasion demanded. A very simple, humble and beautiful human being just left us but remains with us in a new way. May your good deeds go with you, dear Gerard. I love and admire you…a lot. You have become ou Ancestor.
Maureen Sullivan, OP (Dominican Sister of Hope from New York)
Thank you for the opportunity to write about my dear friend Gerard Mannion…
My heart is so very sad…but comforted by the fact that Gerard is now at home in the loving arms of his creator.
I met Gerard for the first time in October 2012 at a conference on Vatican II which was held at St Anselmo in Rome. I had been invited to respond to the paper Gerard was giving at that conference. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the task because Gerard was a briliiant theologian and the thought of having to respond to his paper was an immense challenge.
We all planned on meeting for dinner later that evening but, as it turned out, that day was my birthday and before meeting the others for dinner, Gerard invited me to go out for a birthday drink! We had a delightful get together and we remained in touch over the years.
Gerard will be remembered for so many things…his scholarship was a gift to our church and he opened the minds and hearts of so many with his teaching. But, for me…it will always be his gentleness and kindness that I remember. Meeting Gerard was a blessing for which I am grateful.
Again…thank you so much for providing this opportunity for others to remember Gerad Mannion.
With a heavy heart…
Aaron Hollander (Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute)
I met Gerard in 2008, at what was my very first academic conference, in Leuven, where I encountered and quickly became friends with (how could you not?) a certain fun-loving postdoctoral scholar. I could never have anticipated how influential Gerard would become in my life and work; how I would turn to him again and again for guidance, inspiration, and collaboration; how the networks he created and cultivated would become more significant in my sense of myself as a professional than any home institution could be. Gerard’s was a vision of the academy that I found I could believe in when it so often seemed fragile or poisonous elsewhere — an academy that could make a difference because it was constituted by people who cared for one another, who built one another up rather than clambering to get ahead of one another, who dedicated their considerable talents to collaboration for the common good rather than individual prestige. He was one of very few true mentors and role models in my life, as I suspect he was for many of us. Gerard’s hospitality and generosity are legendary, his humility remarkable given his achievement, his stamina for festivity frankly astonishing, and his gift of his presence coming into all the greater clarity with his sudden absence. We may not see his like again. But we can do all in our power to live up to what he modeled for us and tirelessly helped us to become; I’ll do my best. God bless you, Gerard, and may the wines of the hereafter never run dry.
Taraneh R. Wilkinson, Ph.D. (Georgetown University)
I sit writing this from Bologna, the last city I saw Gerard in. It is also the city I wouldn’t currently be in if it hadn’t been for him. Nearly two years ago, he introduced me to Francesca Cadeddu and the postdoctoral opportunities at Fscire with its historic Dossetti library amid one the many busy events at Georgetown. Typical Gerard, helping even the middle of a proverbial hurricane. He arrived at the Georgetown Theology Department after I had finished my doctoral coursework, but even though I wasn’t able to take any classes with him, I knew I wanted to work with him. Lucky for me, he made time to work with me. In large part thanks to his mentorship and support I was able to finish my PhD successfully. But he wasn’t just a mentor or a colleague, as you know, he had that human touch. When I first asked if he would join my doctoral committee, his response was to make sure we worked out the arrangement over lunch. When I graduated several years later, he insisted on celebrating with a good wine and regaled me with stories from his earlier days as a theology student. Sure, I had to saunter over a bit tipsy to pick my wonderful tea-totaling evangelical grandfather up from the airport immediately afterwards, but in many ways that was just part of the experience. I suppose that’s what I mean by human. He was a breath of living humanity for me in the midst of a course of study (i.e. graduate school) that is infamous for dulling people’s senses and inciting existential despair. That and he sure knew how to make work feel fun. Nor did he simply do his job and move on. Once I graduated, I had the honor of being his colleague. He introduced me to other scholars, research networks, and all that jazz. And I got to party with him and colleagues here in Bologna at the European Academy of Religion. Now, by party I also mean work, but fun work, okay? He taught me that the human element is indispensable, that it is the kernel of insight and fruitful collaboration. He humanized graduate school and theology for me. Not in a trite sense, but in the real sense. He was the sort of super hero I imagined when I first got into theology—someone who fought for what is just, worthwhile and good not only on paper, not only in words, not only at work, but around the clock and in all his relations with others. I hate saying I’ll miss him, because I don’t really want to admit he’s gone. But I am grateful. I will always be grateful to have known him.
Ivana and Tim Noble (Charles University in Prague)
It was so unexpected, and as you say, as his big and young heart was beating with kindness, energy and intensity. We remember him in our prayers, sure that the goodness he radiated around himself is now torned towards him, as the kind receiving face of God. Still it is a shock, and although we did not see Gerard very often, we will miss him.
We got to know him through various ecumenical initiatives, apart from the Ecclesiological Investigations also through Societas Oecumenica and met him more often when he was in Leuven. There will be a gap but also a mark of his shape in all these circles. We are very grateful for having known him.
May he rest in peace.