Cardinal Congar was born on April 8, 1904,in the town of Sedan, in the archdiocese of Rheims. He attended the Seminary of Rheims in France and the Catholic Institute of Paris. He entered the Dominican Order at their priory in Amiens, on December 7, 1925; and took the name Marie-Joseph when he professed simple vows on September 8, 1926. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 25, 1930. He was a faculty member at Le Saulchoir Dominican Seminary from 1931-1939; He also served as a medical orderly in the French Army during the Second World War; he was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940 but escaped in 1945. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. He was forbidden by Pope Pius XII to teach, lecture or publish and was banished to obscure posts in Jerusalem, Rome, Cambridge and Strasbourg due to his support of the worker-priest movement between the years 1954-1956. He was named a consultant to the preparatory theological commission of the Second Vatican Council by Pope John XXIII and served as a Council consultant from 1962-1965. Due to a neurological ailment he was forced to give up most physical activities in 1968. He was a resident at the Centre des Invalides, Paris, since 1986. Cardinal Congar was also a member of the International Theological Commission, 1969-1985.He was excused from receiving episcopal consecration because of age and bad health.He was created cardinal deacon in the consistory of November 26, 1994 by Pope John Paul II and received the titular deaconry of S. Sebastiano al Palatino,the same day. He was 90 years of age when created a cardinal and, therefore, never had the right to participate in a conclave.He died on June 22, 1995,in Paris, France. His body was entombed in the Dominican Crypt in the Cemetery of Montparnasse, Paris.