Priest and theologian imbued with spirit of Vatican II

Fr Paul Surlis, who has died aged 77, was an outstanding example of that generous, outreaching generation of Catholic priests fired by the bright vision of the Second Vatican Council, but who were to witness it being actively obscured in subsequent decades.

Professor of Catholic Social Teaching and Theologies of Liberation at St John's University in New York when he retired, he attended that council in 1965 as a young peritus (theological adviser) to fellow Sligo man and at the time bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas, Thomas J Drury.

Two years ago he recalled: "I was present in St Peter's in Rome in 1965 when the document on the Church in the Modern World was being discussed. On the day when the Bishops should have debated birth control a message was delivered to the Council saying that Pope Paul V1 had reserved the issue to himself and asking that the Bishops move on without dealing with birth control." This, Fr Surlis felt, " was a major mistake from which we Catholics are still suffering". He also noted that the resulting1968 papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae, banning artificial means of contraception, was "not infallible, as the pope himself pointed out" and was "rejected through non-acceptance" . At odds with Rome From early in his priestly life Paul Surlis was at odds with Rome on various issues, including birth control, mandatory celibacy, women priests, same sex marriage, adoption by gay couples, homosexuality and, in particular, papal power.

The arid decades since Vatican II did not silence Fr Paul, however, and his free expression of views did not endear him to some of more orthodox mind, as evidenced in responses to his not infrequent letters to this newspaper.

To a 2001 letter on stem cell research, one loyal son of Rome replied with imperious dismissal that, while "moral theologians of all denominations are a dime a dozen, so to speak, there is but one Pope". To which Fr Paul responded "Mr ---- disdains argument but he does launch personal insults (argumenta ad hominem) as recklessly as Saddam Hussein dispatched Scud missiles during the Gulf War."

Paul Surlis was born in 1936 at Shroofe near Monasteraden in Co Sligo. He was educated at St Nathy's College, Ballaghaderreen and St Patrick's College, Maynooth. He was ordained in 1961. Study in Germany From 1963 to 1967 he worked in San Angelo and Corpus Christi dioceses in Texas before returning to Ireland where, between 1967 and 1972, he taught theology at Maynooth. He also studied with the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner in Germany.

Back in the US, Fr Surlis headed up an adult education programme in Ascension parish, Saratoga, California. In 1975 he began teaching at St John's University in New York. After retirement he lived at Crofton, Maryland, near his brother Aidan and family.

He is survived by siblings Aidan, Tommy Joe, Carmel, and Sr Phyllis, 40 nieces and nephews and 88 grandnieces and grandnephews.