Australian Catholic priest and theologian (1931–2024)
Gerald Glynn O'Collins (2 July 1931 – 22 August 2024) was an Australian Jesuit priest and academic. He was a research professor and writer-in-residence at the Jesuit Theological College (JTC) in Parkville, Victoria, and a research professor in theology at St Mary's University College in Twickenham. For more than three decades, he was professor of systematic and fundamental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome).
In 2006, O'Collins was made a Companion of the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC), in recognition of his outstanding commitment to theological scholarship and ecumenical initiatives.
Life and career.
O'Collins was born in Melbourne, Australia on 2 July 1931, and educated at Xavier College. His maternal grandfather Paddy Glynn was a federal government minister, while his sister Maev O'Collins became a professor at the University of Papua New Guinea. O'Collins studied at the University of Melbourne, where he took both a first-class honours baccalaureate degree and a master's degree. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1963 and went on to earn a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) at Heythrop College, Oxfordshire, in 1967. The next year he was made a Doctor of Theology by Cambridge University, where he held a research fellowship at Pembroke College. He taught at the Weston School of Theology (Boston Theological Institute) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the JTC in Melbourne for five years before accepting a professorship at the Gregorian University in Rome in 1973. He taught there until 2006. Additionally, he served as dean of the theological faculty for six years. After retiring from the Gregorian he was named research professor at St. Mary's University College.
O'Collins received several honorary doctorates: from the University of San Francisco (1991), University of Surrey (2003), Sacred Heart University (Bridgeport, Conn.) (2004); John Carroll University (Cleveland, Ohio) (2007); and a DD from Melbourne College of Divinity (2007); Honorary adjunct professor of Australian Catholic University (2007–2010).
O'Collins organised and co-chaired international ecumenical symposia on the Resurrection (1996), the Trinity (1998), the Incarnation (2000), the Redemption (2003), and the legacy of Pope John Paul II (2008), also co-editing their proceedings. He returned to Australia in 2009.
O'Collins was an honorary visitor and a visiting scholar at Pembroke College, and served as an honorary adjunct professor at the Australian Catholic University. He delivered the Fisher Lecture and the Margaret Beaufort Lecture at Cambridge and the Cardinal Hume Lectures at Heythrop College. Amongst other honours, he was the recipient of the Malipiero Prize, the Stefano Borgia European Prize, and the Johannes Quasten Medal given by Catholic University of America.
O'Collins died in Melbourne on 22 August 2024, at the age of 93.
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