Bea was born in Riedböhringen, today a part of Blumberg, Baden-Württemberg;[1] his father was a carpenter. He studied at the universities of Freiburg, Innsbruck, Berlin, and at Valkenburg, the Jesuit house of studies in the Netherlands. On 18 April 1902, he joined the Society of Jesus, as he "was much inclined to the scholarly life".[2] Bea was ordained a priest on 25 August 1912, and finished his studies in 1914.
Priestly ministry
Bea served as superior of the Jesuit residence in Aachen until 1917, at which time he began teaching Scripture at Valkenburg. From 1921 to 1924, Bea was the provincial superior of Germany. Superior GeneralWlodimir Ledóchowski then sent him to Rome, where he worked as the superior of the Biennial House of Formation (1924–1928), professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (1924–1949), and rector of the Institute of Superior Ecclesiastical Studies (1924–1930). In 1930, Bea was named rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, a post in which he remained for nineteen years.
Cardinal Bea died from a bronchial infection in Rome, at the age of 87.[6] He was buried in the apse of the parish church of Saint Genesius in his native Riedböhringen,[4] where there is a museum honouring him.
Impact and legacy
Bea was highly influential at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s as a decisive force in the drafting of Nostra aetate, which repudiated anti-Semitism. In 1963, he held secret talks with Abraham Joshua Heschel, promoting Catholic–Jewish dialogue.[7] John Borelli, a Vatican II historian, has observed that, "It took the will of John XXIII and the perseverance of Cardinal Bea to impose the declaration on the Council".[8] During a session of the Central Preparatory Commission, he also rejected the proposition that the Council Fathers take an oath composed of the Nicene Creed and the anti-modernist oath.[9] After Alfredo Ottaviani, the heavily conservative head of the Holy Office, presented his draft of the schema on the sources of Divine Revelation, Bea claimed that it "would close the door to intellectual Europe and the outstretched hands of friendship in the old and new world".[10] He is the author of The Church and the Jewish People (New York: Harper & Row, 1966).
Marking the 50th anniversary of the Cardinal’s death, Pope Francis called Cardinal Bea, "an outstanding figure”, who should not only be remembered for what he did, but also the way he did it. “He remains”, the Pope said, “a model and a source of inspiration for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and in an eminent way for the “intra-familial” dialogue with Judaism."[13]
1967 Human Relations Award for the Society for Family of Man (New York)
Published works
Augustin Bea published 430 articles in the years 1918–1968. They dealt with archaeological issues, exegesis of Old Testament texts, Mariology, papal encyclicals, the unity of Christians, anti-Semitism, Vatican II, relations to Protestantism and the eastern Orthodox Churches, and ecumenicism.
Among his books:
Maria in der Offenbarung Katholische Marienkunde Bd. IHugo Rahner and Augustin Bea, Schöningh, Paderborn, 1947
Imagen de Maria en la Antigua Alianza, Buenos Aires, Revista Biblica, 1954
De Pentateucho Institutiones Biblicaa Scholis Accomodatae, Romae, 1933
De Inspiratione Sacrae Scripturae, Romae, 1935
Archeologica biblica, Romae, 1939
La nuova traduzione Latina del Salterio, Romae 1946
Liber Ecclesiasticae qui ab Hebraeis appelatur Qohelet, Romae, 1950
Canticum Canticorum Salamonis, Romae, 1953
Cor Jesu Commentationes in Litteras encyclicas Pii Papae XII Haurietis Aquas, Herder Freiburg, 1959
Die Kirche und das jüdische Volk (German translation of La Chiesa e il popolo ebraico), Herder Freiburg, 1966