1. Yves Congar is perhaps best known for his influence at the Second Vatican Council and for reviving theological interest in the Holy Spirit for the life of individuals and of the church.
24 Facts About Yves Congar
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Yves Congar was created a cardinal of the Catholic Church in 1994.
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Yves Congar's hometown was occupied by German military forces for much of World War I, and his father was among the men deported to Lithuania.
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Towards the end of his theological studies from 1926 to 1931 at Le Saulchoir, the Dominican theologate which was then located in Kain-la-Tombe, Belgium, and focused on historical theology, Yves Congar was ordained a priest on 25 July 1930 by Luigi Maglione, nuncio in Paris.
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In 1931 Yves Congar defended his doctoral dissertation written at Le Saulchoir, on the unity of the Church.
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Yves Congar was a faculty member at Le Saulchoir from 1931 to 1939, moving with the Institution in 1937 from Kain-la-Tombe to Etiolles near Paris.
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Yves Congar was influenced by the Dominicans Ambroise Gardeil and Marie-Dominique Chenu, by the writings of Johann Adam Mohler, and by his ecumenical contacts with Protestant and Eastern Orthodox theologians.
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In 1937 Yves Congar founded the Unam Sanctam series, addressing historical themes in Catholic ecclesiology.
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Yves Congar wrote for a wide variety of scholarly and popular journals, and published numerous books.
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Yves Congar was captured and held from 1940 to 1945 as a prisoner of war by the Germans in Colditz and Lubeck's Oflag, after repeated attempts to escape.
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Yves Congar was an early advocate of the ecumenical movement, encouraging openness to ideas stemming from the Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestant Christianity.
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Yves Congar promoted the concept of a "collegial" papacy and criticised the Roman Curia, ultramontanism, and the clerical pomp that he observed at the Vatican.
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Yves Congar promoted the role of lay people in the church.
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Yves Congar worked closely with the founder of the Young Christian Workers, Joseph Cardijn, for decades.
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From 1947 to 1956 Yves Congar's controversial writing was restricted by the Vatican.
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Yves Congar was prevented from teaching or publishing after 1954, during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, following publication of an article in support of the worker-priest movement started by Jacques Loew in France.
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Yves Congar was assigned to minor posts in Jerusalem, Rome, Cambridge and Strasbourg.
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Yves Congar's reputation recovered in 1960 when Pope John XXIII invited him to serve on the preparatory theological commission of the Second Vatican Council.
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Yves Congar was a member of several committees that drafted conciliar texts, an experience that he documented in great detail in his daily journal.
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Yves Congar was a member of the International Theological Commission from 1969 to 1985.
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Yves Congar continued to lecture and write, publishing on topics including Mary, the Eucharist, lay ministry, and the Holy Spirit, as well as his diaries.
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Yves Congar's works include The Meaning of Tradition and After Nine Hundred Years which addresses the East-West Schism.
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In 1963, Yves Congar was diagnosed with a "diffuse disease of the nervous system" which caused weakness and numbness in his extremities.
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Yves Congar became a resident at the Hopital des Invalides in Paris from 1986.