Mourning Richard R. Gaillardetz: Exemplary Catholic Theologian

With the passing of Richard R. Gaillardetz on Nov. 7, following a long struggle with cancer, the U.S. Catholic Church has lost a passionate witness of faith. Members of the theological community, especially in the theology department at Boston College, where he served two terms as chair and as the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology, have lost an exemplary colleague and teacher.

Behind an impressive corpus of carefully researched and highly accessible writing, was a man who loved the church deeply even as he critiqued its institutional failures and called us to recover the virtue of ecclesial humility.

Read the complete tribute to Richard R. Gaillardetz, from National Catholic Reporter.

Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz was the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College from 2011-2023 and was the chair of the BC Theology Department from 2016-2022. Dr. Gaillardetz previously taught at the University of Toledo from 2001 to 2011 as the Thomas and Margaret Murray and James J. Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo and at the University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Theology in Houston from 1991 to 2001. He received a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Texas, an M.A. in Biblical Theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, and both an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in Systematic Theology. He has published numerous articles and has authored or edited thirteen books.

He has authored several works for Liguori Publications: