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Introduction for
Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, o.p.
by Very Rev. Romanus Cessario, o.p.
O
n behalf of theMagnificat Foundation, its president,
Mrs. Bernarda Neal, and the board members here
present, it affords me great pleasure to welcome you to the
2016 Edward Cardinal Egan Lecture.
This year the citywelcomes back one of its own: Archbishop
J. Augustine Di Noia, Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith. Archbishop Di Noia grew up in
the Bronx, attended Cardinal Hayes High School, and in 1961
began his formation as a Dominican at Providence College.
After completion of his pre-ordination studies in philosophy
and theology, Father Di Noia went to Yale University, where
he obtained his doctorate under the highly regarded Lutheran
theologianGeorge Lindbeck. Dominicans keep the best teach-
ers for their own; Father Di Noia began his teaching at the
Dominican House of Studies in the early 1980s. His class
notes on the Trinity and creation, providence, and sin still
provide the norm for instruction among young Dominican
students. The Church chooses the best for her service; Father
Di Noia was the chief theologian of the bishops’ conference
and the founding director of the Pope John Paul II Cultural
Center in Washington, D.C. In 2002, he was named to the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and later, in 2009,