Henri de Lubac
Henri de Lubac (February 20, 1896-September 4, 1991), a French Jesuit, can be considered to be one of the most influential theologians of post-modern time. His writings and doctrinal research played a key role in the shaping of the Second Vatican Council.
He joined the Society of Jesus in Lyon on October 9, 1913, and was ordained a priest in 1927. He was a professor in Lyon from 1929 to 1961 except during World War II, when he was forced underground because of his activities with the French Resistance.
In 1969 Pope Paul VI, an admirer of de Lubac's works, proposed to make him a Cardinal, but de Lubac refused,believing Pope John XXIII's 1962 requirement that all cardinals be bishops was "an abuse of an apostolic office". Paul VI instead elevated de Lubac's junior colleague Jean Danielou in that consistory, having committed to grant the cardinalate to a Jesuit theologian, but in 1983 Pope John Paul II offered de Lubac the cardinalate again,this time with exemption from being consecrated a bishop,and de Lubac accepted. At his death he was the oldest living Cardinal.