“Pilgrimage is not the same in each tradition, but in many ways all three faith traditions map their world in what I characterize as a geography of faith, largely as a result of their pilgrimage traditions,” he said.

Father Ryan, the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, delivered “To Be a Pilgrim: A Geography of Faith for Jews, Christians, and Muslims,” the annual fall McGinley lecture, at both the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses. His talk traced the historical origins of the most familiar pilgrimages associated with the three religions, and the theological underpinnings for the destinations.

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Patrick J. Ryan S.J., delivered the fall McGinley lecture at the Lincoln Center campus on Wednesday, Nov. 13 Photo by Dana Maxson

Jews, for instance, have been acculturated in many different backgrounds over the centuries, but have continued to turn to God in the direction of the hill of Zion in Jerusalem where the Temple once stood, Father Ryan noted.
Judah Halevi, a poet/scholar who lived in Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries, epitomized this devotion in his assertion of superiority of the Jewish homeland.

“In this geographical and theological centeredness, Halevi continues the tradition of many other ancient and medieval writers—Hellenistic, Christian and Muslim—who constructed geographies of various climes proving that one or another homeland provided the world with its true center,” Father Ryan said.

“One thinks, in this connection, of the famous 1976 cover-drawing by Saul Steinberg for The New Yorker portraying a true New Yorker’s map of the world as seen from Ninth Avenue.”

Christian pilgrimages focus on the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, which commemorates both the death and the resurrection of Jesus. The Bible recounts many instances in which Jesus made pilgrimages himself.
Father Ryan also noted that the Crusades, notwithstanding the brutality that tarnished them, were at the time considered a pilgrimage.

The lure of Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives also greatly affected Society of Jesus founder Ignatius of Loyola, said Father Ryan. During a visit in 1523, he slipped away to visit markings on a stone in the floor that were said to be the footprints Jesus left behind. Ignatius was arrested and forced into a “perp” walk for his disobedience, but said it was worth it.

“Ignatius remained, to the close of his days, “the pilgrim,” the term he used for himself,” Father Ryan said.
In Islam, pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of the faith; all Muslims are required to make the Hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once.

They also face Mecca in worship five times a day; within Mecca they face the Masjid al-Haram, the Sacred Mosque; and within the Sacred Mosque they surround the empty and windowless cubic building at its heart, the Ka‘ba, which is said in some sense to be ‘the House of God.’

“For many Muslims the hajj also serves as an education in Islam—either a deepening of what is already known, or an introduction to those elements of the Islamic tradition that have never been emphasized or understood in the previous life of the pilgrim,” he said.

Unlike imaginary lines of latitude and longitude, pilgrim routes map the real world, he said. And when we meet each other at the intersections of those routes, we should “walk in peace.”

“On my journey as a Christian—and on your journey as a Jew or as a Muslim—let us look across at each other, from my path and from your path, and see a fellow pilgrim,” he said.

Father Ryan’s talk also featured responses from Alan Mintz, Ph.D., the Chana Kekst Professor of Hebrew Literature at Jewish Theological Seminary; and Jerusha Tanner Lamptey, Ph.D., assistant professor of Islam and ministry at Union Theological Seminary.

How popular are Cardinal Dolan and Stephen Colbert?

Even though “The Cardinal and Colbert” bracelet handout didn’t begin until 8 a.m. this morning, campus security reported that at Rose Hill, some students began lining up the night before with pillows, and spent the night in wait.

By 8 a.m. the line stretched from the McGinley Center to the Fordham Prep path toward The Fordham Prep Gate (Line photo by Fordham student Emily Featherston.)

In the lobby at Lowenstein, Dorothy Wenzel, director of Lincoln Center student leadership and community development, said that the staff gave out 250 bracelets in just over a half hour, starting around 8 a.m., servicing a line that stretched down the hallway towards the McMahon residence.

By noon, all of the bracelets on all three campuses had been handed out.

Those students, faculty and staff who did not receive a bracelet can watch the event in simulcast at Keating Hall, in either Keating First or Keating Third, on the Rose Hill campus. Doors open on Friday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. and, like the bracelets, the seats are first come, first serve.

New construction was just one ambition that Laurence J. McGinley, S.J., outlined right after he took office on Feb. 2. When he left 14 years later, Martyrs’ Court and a campus center had been built at Rose Hill. Dealy Hall had been renovated and a new Jesuit residence—Faber Hall—was almost complete. But McGinley’s most striking legacy was downtown, next to Columbus Circle.

Because Fordham’s downtown schools were outgrowing their building at 302 Broadway, McGinley had seized the opportunity to join the West Side redevelopment initiated by Robert Moses, the powerful city and state planner. Fordham bought a four-block portion of the site, becoming the first institution to fully embrace the project. The University opened its law school at the site in 1961, beginning the development of what is today Fordham-Lincoln Center.

That was the full array of medical resources used by Fordham’s Student Emergency Response Group (SERG) when it began operating in 1977.

The feet belonged to Bruce Nedelka, CBA ’79, a first aid buff from Long Island who pioneered the idea of a student-run emergency medical squad on the Rose Hill campus.

On Friday, April 18, the group—now known as the Fordham University Emergency Medical Service (FUEMS)—marked its 30th anniversary with a celebration and reunion. Nedelka, who gave the keynote address, praised the current membership for advancing the spirit of caring for others that has been present since the early days of SERG.

“With so many people in college thinking only of themselves and their futures, you are truly the embodiment of the spirit of service that exists at Fordham,” he said.

More than 155 alumni and friends watched Joseph Currie, S.J., christen the squad’s new “Ram-bulance,” a General Motors Traumahawk K5, before enjoying a night of dining and reminiscing in the McGinley Ballroom.

“When I came to Fordham, there was a 45-minute ambulance response time, on average, in the Bronx,” Nedelka recalled. “Without an on-campus emergency response unit, a visiting theologian suffered a fatal heart attack before he was scheduled to lecture.”

When a medical emergency at Homecoming in 1977 resulted in a 55-minute ambulance response time, Nedelka took it on himself to carry medical gear from class to class in a modified fanny pack in case someone needed help.

The organization grew, and the University recognized SERG as a club in 1981. Seven years later, the group officially registered with the State of New York and joined the National College EMS Foundation.

Today, each FUEMS crew is led by a certified emergency medical technician, and every member goes through a month of training at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in the Bronx or Westchester Community College. It recently completed its most successful membership drive in club history.