Richard McBrien, outspoken liberal theologian and Notre Dame scholar, dies at 78
Richard McBrien, 78, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame and liberal commentator, died January 25. He had been in poor health for several years.
McBrien joined Notre Dame in 1980 and became a standout for the theology department. In media punditry and a weekly column that ran in some diocesan newspapers, McBrien argued for the ordination of women, optional celibacy, and birth control, among other things.
“At his peak in the 1980s and ’90s, it is arguable that McBrien had a higher media profile than anyone in the Catholic church other than Pope John Paul II,” wrote the National Catholic Reporter, where McBrien was a regular contributor. “He was . . . knowledgeable, able to express complex ideas in digestible sound bites, and utterly unafraid of controversy.”
