Ralph McInerny explained

Birth Name:	Ralph Matthew McInerny
Birth Date:	February 24, 1929
Birth Place:	Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Death Place:	Mishawaka, Indiana, U.S.
Resting Place:	Cedar Grove Cemetery, Notre Dame, Indiana.
Occupation:	Religious scholar, author
Pseudonym:	Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey, Edward Mackin, Monica Quill
Children:	7
Notable Works:	Father Dowling mysteries

Ralph Matthew McInerny (February 24, 1929 - January 29, 2010)^[1] was an American author and philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame. McInerny's most popular mystery novels featured Father Dowling,^[2] and was later adapted into the Father Dowling Mysteries television show, which ran from 1987 to 1991.

He sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms of Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey, Edward Mackin and Monica Quill.

Academic career

McInerny wrote his PhD dissertation entitled The Existential Dialectic of Soren Kierkegaard under Professor Charles De Koninck at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.

He was Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Jacques Maritain Center, and Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He taught there from 1955 until his retirement in 2009.

McInerny was also a Fulbright Scholar, receiving educational funds from the Fulbright Commission Belgium. He served as president of the Metaphysical Society of America in 1993.^[3] ^[4]

McInerny's brother Dennis, also a philosophy professor, believes that his brother's greatest legacy is not to be found in his novels, but in his adherence to scholastic and Thomistic beliefs.^[5]

Personal life

McInerny was a Catholic.^[6] He attended Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary for high school.^[7] He married the former Constance Kunert January 3, 1953, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She preceded him in death on May 18, 2002. The McInernys had four daughters and three sons, one of whom, Michael, predeceased Ralph.^[8]

McInerny died of esophageal cancer on January 29, 2010.^[9] Those daughters who survived him were: Cathleen Brownell of North Barrington, IL, Mary Hosford of Baltimore, MD, Anne Policinski of Wayzata, MN, and Beth McInerny of St. Paul. MN. The surviving sons were David of Overland Park, KS and Daniel of Waco, TX.

Bibliography

Fiction

Father Dowling

Her Death of Cold (1977)
Bishop as Pawn (1978)
The Seventh Station (1977)
Lying Three (1979)
The Second Vespers (1980)
Thicker Than Water (1981)
A Loss of Patients (1982)
The Grass Widow (1983)
Getting a Way with Murder (1984)
Rest in Pieces (1985)
The Basket Case (1987)
Slight of Body (1989; aka Abracadaver)
Four on the Floor (1989)
Abracadaver (1989)
Judas Priest (1991)
Desert Sinner (1992)
Seed of Doubt (1993)
A Cardinal Offense (1994)
The Case of the Constant Caller (young adult) (1995)
The Case of the Dead Winner (young adult) (1995)
The Tears of Things (1996)
Grave Undertakings (2000)
Triple Pursuit (2001)
Prodigal Father (2002)
Last Things (2003)
Requiem for a Realtor (2004)
Blood Ties (2005)
The Prudence of Flesh (2006)
The Widow's Mate (2007)
Ash Wednesday (2008)
The Wisdom of Father Dowling (2009)
Stained Glass (2009)
The Compassion of Father Dowling (short stories) (2011)

Sister Mary Teresa (all as Monica Quill)

Not a Blessed Thing (1981)
Let Us Prey (1982)
And Then There Was Nun (1984)
Nun of the Above (1985)
Sine Qua Nun (1986)
The Veil of Ignorance (1988)
Sister Hood (1991)
Nun Plussed (1993)
Half Past Nun (1997)
Death Takes the Veil (2001)

Andrew Broom

Cause and Effect (1987)
Body and Soil (1989)
Savings and Loam (1990)
Mom and Dead (1994)
Law and Ardor (1995)
Heirs and Parents (2000)

Notre Dame

On This Rockne (1997)
Lack of the Irish (1998)
Irish Tenure (1999)
The Book of Kills (2000)
Emerald Aisle (2001)
Celt and Pepper (2002)
Irish Coffee (2003)
Green Thumb (2004)
Irish Gilt (2005)
The Letter Killeth (2006)
Irish Alibi (2007)
The Green Revolution (2008)
Sham Rock (2010)

Rosary Chronicles

The Third Revelation (2009)
Relic of Time (2009)

Other novels

Jolly Rogerson (1967)
A Narrow Time (1969)
The Priest (1973)
The Gate of Heaven (1975)
Rogerson at Bay (1976)
Romanesque (1977)
Spinnaker (1978)
Quick as a Dodo (1978)
Connolly's Life (1983)
The Noonday Devil (1985)
Leave of Absence (1986)
Frigor Mortis (1989)
The Nominative Case (as by Edward Mackin) (1990)
Easeful Death (1991)
The Search Committee (1991)
Infra Dig (1992)
The Red Hat (1998)
As Good As Dead (2002)
The Ablative Case (2003)
Slattery (2004)

Collections

(with G. K. Chesterton and John Mortimer) (1992)
Good Knights (2009)

Poetry

(2005)

Anthologies edited

Murder Most Divine (with Martin Harry Greenberg) (2000)
Murder Most Catholic (with Martin Harry Greenberg) (2002)
(with Lawrence Block and Mary Higgins Clark) (2000)

Non-fiction

Philosophy and theology

A History of Western Philosophy with A. Robert Caponigri (1963 - 1971)
New Themes in Christian Philosophy (1969)
Thomism in an Age of Renewal (1969)
St. Thomas Aquinas (1977)
(1986)
(1988)
(1990)
(1992)
The Question of Christian Ethics, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (1993)
(1993)
(edited by Edward B. McLean; includes an essay, "Medieval: The Grand Synthesis", by McInerny) (1997)
Ethica Thomistica: The Moral Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (1997)
(1998)
Aquinas and Analogy, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (1999)
Book: Introduction to the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas. The Isagogue of John of St. Thomas. John of St. Thomas. John of St. Thomas. Translation and introduction by Ralph McInerny. 2004. South Bend, Ind.. St. Augustine's Press. 46928729.
Praeambula Fidei, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (2006)
The Writings of Charles De Koninck. Volume One (edition and translation), with an introduction by Leslie Armour and a biography by Thomas De Koninck, Notre Dame, Notre Dame University Press, 2008
The Writings of Charles De Koninck. Volume Two (edition and translation), Notre Dame, Notre Dame University Press, 2009
Dante and the Blessed Virgin (2010)

Biography

(2003)
(2006)
Some Catholic Writers (2006)
The Defamation of Pope Pius XII (2001)

Instruction

Let's Write a Novel (1993)
Let's Write Short Stories (1993)
(1995)
(delivered at the University of Glasgow) (2001)

External links

McInerny Center for Thomistic Studies
Ralph McInerny - Daily Telegraph obituary
The University of Notre Dame, Jacques Maritain Center - Obituary by John O'Callaghan
Ralph McInerny's articles, at Crisis Magazine
Biography and summary of Gifford Lectures, "Characters in Search of Their Author" (University of Glasgow, 1999–2000), by Dr Brannon Hancock

Notes and References

News: Ralph McInerny, Scholar and Mystery Novelist, Dies at 80 . . February 16, 2010 . Bruce . Weber . February 16, 2010.
News: Ralph McInerny dies at 80; Notre Dame scholar wrote Father Dowling novels. McLellan. Dennis. February 7, 2010. Los Angeles Times. August 22, 2017. en-US. 0458-3035.
Web site: Biography of Ralph McInerny . Notre Dame . https://web.archive.org/web/20050818211636/http://www.nd.edu/~ndethics/about/mcinerny.shtml . August 18, 2005.
Web site: McInerny . Ralph . Is Obama Worth a Mass? . https://web.archive.org/web/20100101001501/http://www.thecatholicthing.org/content/view/1346/2 . January 1, 2010 . The Catholic Thing . March 23, 2009.
News: Remembering Ralph McInerny . January 30, 2014 . . April 26, 2022.
News: Obituary . The New York Times . February 16, 2010.
Sonnen . John Paul . The 100th Anniversary of the "Our Lady of the Annunciation" Chapel at Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary . Liturgical Arts Journal . November 8, 2022 . July 20, 2022.
Web site: Memorial page for Ralph McInerny . Palmer Funeral Home . April 26, 2022.
Web site: Joseph Bottum (author) . Joseph . Bottum . Ralph McInerny (1929 - 2010) . https://web.archive.org/web/20100204185405/http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/01/29/ralph-mcinerny-1929-2010/ . February 4, 2010 . First Things . January 29, 2010.