Merton, an influential Catholic monk and writer, was well known for works such as No Man Is an Island and The Seven Storey Mountain, an autobiography that sold more than 1 million copies. Merton wrote more than 50 books in addition to hundreds of articles on issues such as civil rights, nonviolence, nuclear arms, and interfaith understanding. However, Merton is sometimes considered controversial, not only for his writings, but also for an affair he had when he was in his 50s.

In the summer of 1966, as he was recovering from back surgery, Merton met a nurse called “M,” in her early 20s and the two had a relationship that lasted several months.

This affair has made some Catholic leaders and authors turn away from him, while others gloss over it in their pieces about Merton, who died not long after the affair in 1968. But for Hillis, author of Man of Dialogue: Thomas Merton’s Catholic Vision, the affair is a central part of who Merton was and how we understand him.

“The reality is Merton acted irresponsibly, and without a full appreciation of the power differential that existed between him and M—none of this can and should be ignored,” said Hills in a lecture for the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies on Jan. 31. “But I do think it merits a more serious exploration. None of [the writers]examine Merton’s agonized details or thoughts about his love for M, her love for him, and the threat that this relationship posed to his vocation.”

Hillis spoke in detail about Merton’s journals from this time, while acknowledging that M’s side was never told. He explained how Merton’s passages sounded more like “the reflections of a heartstruck teenager than a 51-year-old respected monk and writer.”

“His account shows him at his most selfish and self-absorbed, but it also shows him grappling with his own evident shortcomings, with what I think is honesty and humility,” said Hills, who also spoke about Merton’s affair with students in Professor Angela O’Donnell’s class earlier that day.

Merton often wrote pieces that showed his conflicting feelings, and his love for M was no exception.

“There can be no hesitation about my position here. I have vows and I must be faithful to them,” he wrote in April 1966. “Once again it was clearer than ever that we are terribly in love, and it is the kind of love that can virtually tear you apart.”

While the affair was known before, more details and his inner conflict became clear after Merton’s journals were released 25 years after his death.

“It’s the forthrightness of his journals that continues to attract readers like me,” Hillis said. “Merton allowed himself to become an open book, warts and all.”

Merton even acknowledged this himself, stating that he planned to keep all the references to M in because he “wanted to be completely open both about my mistakes, and about my effort to make sense out of my life.”

Hillis said that this humility showed “the complexity of who he was as a human being striving to do God’s will, and often failing.”

Personal Appreciation for Merton

For both Hillis and Michael Peppard, Ph.D., professor and associate director for prestigious fellowships for the Curran Center, Merton played a central role in their careers.

“Thomas Merton is responsible for me getting my first job out of college,” Peppard said, adding that he was a finalist for two jobs after he graduated, one in Washington, D.C., at a place with a “decent salary and some cultural status,” and another teaching at a Jesuit high school.

“I had a decision to make, and what did I have on the airplane with me on the way to that final interview? I had Merton’s No Man Is an Island collection of essays,” he said. The essays, which featured passages on service, inspired him to accept the Jesuit teaching job—if it was offered.

“My final interview was with the department chair, and he asked me who my favorite theologian was. I wanted to say Merton, but I was a little bit nervous because Merton is not everyone’s cup of tea,” he recalled. But he said it anyway. “The department chair smiled very broadly and it turns out he went on to become a scholar of Merton and is currently the president of the International Thomas Merton society, so it was the right answer.”

Hillis said that Merton also helped him get his job. He had been having a “vocational crisis” when he was in his 20s and read The Seven Storey Mountain, which “is all about someone having a vocational crisis.”

“I started reading everything that Merton wrote, and in what I call ‘fit of youthful exuberance,’ I got a tattoo of a drawing that Merton did of a monk,” he said. “I mentioned this to the search committee at Bellarmine, and I think they thought, ‘we should probably get the guy that has Merton literally tattooed on his arm.’”

Merton wrote that “too often our saints are portrayed in a way that masks their humanity,” and Hillis said that it’s precisely Merton’s humanity that attracted people to him.

“Each time I got to the Abbey of Gethsemani and make a visit to Merton’s grave, I’m struck by the ways in which pilgrims venerate his burial place; marking his resting place are rosaries, prayers, guitar picks, sobriety tokens, art, and wood carvings,” Hillis said. “There are many, and I include myself among them, who understand Merton to be the kind of Christian who speaks profoundly to them, precisely because he was human.”

The event, “Faithful Service: Reflections on Religion in Public Life,” was hosted by the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies in conjunction with Fordham professor Michael Peppard’s Religion and American Politics course, whose students were in attendance, along with other guests. In the hour-long session, Vargas reflected on his eclectic life, the ways his faith shaped his political career, and the role of religion at the U.S. Capitol. 

Vargas was raised on a chicken ranch in California with his nine siblings. As a young adult, he entered the Jesuits and worked with disadvantaged communities, including orphaned children and displaced people in El Salvador. He spent two years with the Jesuits at Fordham—where he earned a master’s degree in humanities in 1987—and said they instilled in his worldview the importance of making the world a better place. 

“I have always been someone with deep faith in Christ. But this gave me a way of looking at the world and trying to address it in a way that makes sense to me,” Vargas said. 

Vargas went on to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1991, along with his famous classmate, President Barack Obama. He left the Jesuits and married Adrienne D’Ascoli, a fellow Fordham graduate. He began his career in politics at the San Diego City Council in 1993, where he worked in planning, funding, and advocating for public safety, municipal infrastructure, and schools. He’s now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 51st district of San Diego, where he has served since 2013.  

Though Vargas is no longer a Jesuit, he remains a devout Catholic. A person’s religion can deeply inform their values, including his own passion for immigration reform in the U.S. His faith has also led to interesting interactions among his colleagues. When he joined a state assembly prayer group, he was the sole liberal Catholic in a group of right-wing Protestants. They disagreed on many issues, but they became friends, he said. 

Peppard, a theology professor at Fordham, pointed out that the U.S. has seen a dramatic rise of people without religious affiliation. Vargas agreed and noted that many of his colleagues avoid mixing religion with politics because they are afraid of damaging their relationship with non-affiliated voters. He also recalled an evening dinner with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, where another guest asked the Dalai Lama about his perspective on religion. 

“He says, ‘Well, I think people should be atheist. … There’s just too many wars, too many fights started over religion; it’d be better if people were atheist’ … [Among the non-affiliated, there is] that notion that religion does start a lot of problems, that religion creates the problem, not solutions. I understand that. There’s something to that.”

Thomas Reuter, a political science and theology double major at Fordham College at Rose Hill, asked Vargas, “How do you remedy any contradictions between your legal and political opinions and the institutional stances of the Catholic Church?” In response, Vargas said he tries to strike a balance by following the Constitution. 

“I take an oath to defend the Constitution, and I really do try to do that. There are some instances, I think, where the Constitution doesn’t live up to what it should be … But those are the rules that we live under,” Vargas said.  

Thomas Massaro, S.J., a professor of theology who knew Vargas when they were Jesuits together at Fordham, also asked Vargas—a longtime politician who has traveled across the country—to reflect on the differences in political culture between the West Coast and East Coast. 

“Not a lot of things surprise me. I’ve been around in politics for a long time … Even though I’m a liberal Democrat, I’ve hung around a lot of Republicans who are pretty darn conservative, certainly in California. But when I got to the Congress, the one thing that I did not understand, didn’t really have a feel for, is how racist the South was and is,” Vargas said. He recalled a Southern party where he heard someone use the n-word. At first, he didn’t say anything. But when he heard the word a second time, he spoke up. 

“They said, ‘Well, you don’t understand. You’re from the West,’” Vargas said. “No, I understand, big time. It’s wrong.” 

But his final anecdote wasn’t meant to be discouraging. Vargas said there are several other Rams in Congress, who are all proud of their heritage from Fordham—a place that prepared them for the real world. 

“I hope the world turns out to be the greatest for you guys,” Vargas said to the students over Zoom. “It really is a wonderful place out there.”

“The first thing to know is that these are two different words with two different meanings,” Rather told an audience at a Q&A event organized by Fordham’s Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies on Feb. 15. “The heart of patriotism is humility. The heart of nationalism, though, is a breast-beating conceit or arrogance.”

The Emmy Award-winning journalist said some of the values that are rooted in America’s national identity include public education, freedom of the press, and inclusion.

“The appeal of America worldwide is the essence of the idea and the ideal,” said Rather. He recently published What Unites Us (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017), a book of essays on American values.

A Voice of Reason

Though he stepped down from his CBS Evening News post 13 years ago, Rather continues to weigh in on the issues he feels are shaping the United States and the world at large. He has more than 2.5 million followers on Facebook, a platform he said is allowing him to remain a “steady, reliable voice of reason that can put events into context and historical perspective.”

Now 86 years old, the veteran journalist said one of the major divisions among American citizens today revolves around race. He described his first major news assignment covering the beginnings of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He said the first time he saw a KKK rally, the “hair on the back of my neck stood up.”

“I thought to myself, “If I—a white person with a press tag—if this has this kind of effect on me, what effect could it possibly have on African-American families and their children?” he said.

Having been on the front lines of some of the country’s biggest news events—from John F. Kennedy’s assassination to Watergate to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—Rather said that “every generation is tested.” He maintained, however, that the values that have defined the country for centuries are what has carried it through “bad times.”

“There’s a great struggle going on, a struggle for the soul of our country,” he said. “Who are we as a country? What are we about? [Those are questions that are] being decided now.”

Protecting a ‘Great Historical Experiment’

Rather expressed special concern about the escalating attacks on the free press, which he argued are an attempt to evade checks and balances on people in positions of power.

“We need to see clearly that a truly free and fiercely independent press is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy,” he said.

He said that America has gone through major transitions that have led to fear among some of its citizenry, starting with the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965.

“The demographic of the United States changed so dramatically in the wake of that immigration reform that this country today is not recognizable to a lot of people, particularly those at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale,” he said. “They’re fearful about the jobs at stake, but even more, I think they fear [a]change in the [American] culture.”

Calling the formation of the United States of America a “great historical experiment,” Rather said America’s ability to remain a united front could prove difficult without a firm commitment to its founding principles.

“This idea and ideal is not an empty hope,” he said. “If we put our minds to it, if we stick to this willingness of heart, then we’re going to be okay.”

Other experts featured in the series include Father James Martin, S.J., and religion journalist, David Gibson.

The first episode of season 2, “The Pilate Stone,” aired last Sunday and had 1.1 million viewers. Other episodes will feature artifacts related to the stories of Lazarus, Herod, Thomas, Peter, etc. It airs Sundays at 9 p.m. through Easter.

Watch a clip featuring Peppard below.

Related:

Illuminating the World’s Oldest Church

Where it all Began: Book Transports Reader to Christianity’s Formative Years

Fordham Theology Professor Lauded with Award for First Book

Theology Professor Seeks Deeper Understanding of Earliest Christians

The campaign is called “American Values Religious Voices: 100 Days” and four Fordham theologians have been tapped to participate. For the first 100 days of the new administration, the project will send one letter per day to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Cabinet secretaries, and members of the House and the Senate.

Karina Hogan, Ph.D., an associate professor of theology and one of the participants, helped recruit scholars during the early stages of the project. Hogan, whose letter was published on Feb. 4, said that the scholars had to break out of their academic comfort zones, as well as their scholarly tones, to make their letters effective.

“We need to represent the broadest views of theology to the general public,” she said.

The campaign is the brainchild of Rabbi Andrea Weiss, Ph.D., an associate professor of the Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Rabbi Weiss said some of the letters are combative, while others are hopeful. She has sought to modulate the tone daily. In addition to Hogan, three other professors from Fordham’s Department of Theology have been invited to write: Associate Professor Michael Peppard, Ph.D., Professor Bryan Massingale, S.T.D., and Professor Aristotle Papanikolaou, Ph.D., professor of theology and the Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture.

Rabbi Weiss said that finding a diversity of viewpoints was a major part of the effort to portray a “collective wisdom of our faith communities and their sacred texts.” She noted that scholars of all stripes often find themselves cloistered among colleagues who share their area of expertise. For that reason, an advisory committee sought to include scholars of many facets of Christianity, from Orthodox to Protestant to Catholic, as well as denominations within Islam and Judaism. They also sought out scholars from all regions of the country, with writers hailing from 21 states.

But with events unfolding at such an extraordinary clip, the project has become all the more important, she said. Letters sometimes need to be updated moments before being published, as was the case with a letter written by Papanikolaou.

That letter, published on Feb. 1, initially pleaded that the president retract a campaign “declaration” that would be “blocking Muslims from entering this country.” By press time the “declaration” had become an executive order.

“The letters often need a subtle tweak of language, because things that people wrote about as theory a week earlier may be the reality today,” Rabbi Weiss said. “I have a stack of 40 letters ready to go, and they all seem so pressing.”

Hogan and Peppard also address the issue of immigration their letters.

Peppard’s Jan. 26 letter spoke of researching his family tree back to when his family fled the Irish Famine. He noticed that there was no reference to the family’s religion. When he asked a librarian why, she told him that in the United States, the government does not keep a record of the religious affiliations. He said she told him “It’s a principle of religious freedom, and the potential for abuse of such records is too dangerous.”

In her letter, Hogan noted that though it is often overlooked, the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Ruth is also a story about the sacrifices immigrants make. She writes that after Naomi and her two Moabite daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, have been widowed, Naomi decides to leave Moab and return to her hometown of Bethlehem. She urges her daughters-in-law to go back to their families, but Ruth refuses to abandon her mother-in-law. Hogan quotes Ruth from the scripture:

“Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.’”

Once in Bethlehem, Ruth takes work in the fields harvesting grain to help support Naomi. There she meets her future husband, Boaz, who treats the foreign-born woman with kindness. They eventually marry and she gives birth to Obed, the grandfather of King David.

Hogan said that Ruth’s sacrifices parallel those of immigrants here who leave the comforts of home to take low-wage jobs in the United States in the hopes of creating a better life for their families.

In her letter Hogan urged the leaders to be as welcoming to immigrants as the people of Bethlehem were to Ruth. In discussing the letter writing campaign she stressed the importance of reading religious texts closely, regardless of religion, in order to better understand contentious issues we face today.

“It’s more important than ever, in this time of racism and intolerance,” she said, “to think about what it means to be a human being—and that’s what theology is all about.”

A Fordham scholar shines new light on Christianity’s formative years in Syria, where Islamic State militants are looting and seeking to destroy the country’s past.

To get a sense of how the earliest Christians approached their faith, just look at the art they left behind. In January 1932, an international team of archaeologists unearthed several frescoes in Dura-Europos, an ancient walled city along the banks of the Euphrates River in southeastern Syria, near the Iraq border. The paintings—including some of the earliest-known depictions of Jesus—had adorned the walls of what scholars soon realized was the oldest known house of Christian worship in the world.

Established around A.D. 240, when Christians were still a persecuted minority in the Roman Empire, the church didn’t thrive for long. By 256, a Sasanian army had destroyed the border city, leaving the site abandoned for centuries.

A Cultural Heritage at Risk

By the 1930s, Dura-Europos had come to be known as the “Pompeii of the Syrian desert.” In addition to the church, archaeologists found evidence of a multilingual, multicultural society. They discovered one of the world’s oldest synagogues, temples to Greek and Roman gods, shrines to Sumerian and Syrian goddesses, and many well-preserved artifacts of daily life.

Today, however, the city’s ruins lie in territory controlled by Islamic State militants, who loot archaeological sites to generate revenue and attract attention. They’ve also put Christians and others in mortal peril as Syria’s civil war drags on.

For much of the past five years, Michael Peppard, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at Fordham, was working on a book about the excavation and interpretation of the Dura-Europos church—a site he was unable to visit due to the ongoing war. “Until about a year ago, the main question [people asked me] was, ‘What new is there to say about such an old discovery?’” he wrote in America magazine last January, when his book, The World’s Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria, was published by Yale University Press. “But now the first question everyone asks is, ‘What has happened to the site—did they … destroy it?’”

The answer, he wrote, is “both no and yes.” Many artifacts were removed decades ago, and several panels of the church frescoes are on display at Yale. But satellite photos have shown extensive looting, “which all but destroys [the site] for future archaeological purposes.”

The Cradle of Christianity

The cultural and human tragedies of the war were never far from Peppard’s mind as he worked on the book, which he dedicated to “the people of Syria, the cradle of Christianity.” In the book, he transports readers to Christianity’s formative years, combining theology and art history to prove that there are, in fact, new things to say about “such an old discovery.” He makes the case for a completely different understanding of several images from the site, most notably the image of a woman at a well.

Since the 1930s, almost everyone has assumed that she is the Samaritan woman from the Gospel of John, and that she symbolizes baptism, as represented by the “living water” of the well. Peppard contends that the painting is actually a portrayal of the Annunciation, “when Mary is told she is going to bear a son as a virgin.” He notes that Byzantine images of that scene, though produced much later, bear “an arresting formal resemblance” to the figure from Dura-Europos.

“If the image is the Virgin Mary, then not only is it probably the earliest datable image of Mary, but it’s also going to change the way we interpret the artistic program of this church,” Peppard said. The image of women processing, wearing white veils and carrying torches, has likewise been misidentified as a funeral procession, he said, when in fact it’s a wedding procession.

The Hope of a Spiritual Rebirth

Taken together, the paintings illustrate that these Christians emphasized empowerment, healing, and marriage more than death and resurrection. This isn’t surprising, he said, because “in this earliest Christian church, we don’t have any imagery of the resurrection. I think they certainly believed in it, and that it was part of their faith in who Jesus was and what it meant to be a Christian, but it’s a matter of emphasis.” For Peppard, the frescoes are ultimately about the “hope of new spiritual birth,” particularly in light of the ongoing war in Syria.

They’re “much more than museum pieces,” he wrote last January in a New York Times article on his research. “They illuminate a people and heritage that need salvation.”

In the case of “The World’s Oldest Church,” a new book by Michael Peppard, PhD, the art can be found in a third-century house-church in Dura-Europos, a walled city along the banks of the Euphrates River that once stood in present day Syria.

For Peppard, associate professor of theology, the book, published this month by Yale University Press, is an ambitious attempt to combine theology and art history to tell a new story about the oldest known house of Christian worship.

In addition to offering an up-to-date compendium of scholarship on the building, Peppard makes the case for a completely different understanding of three images that were found there: one of David and Goliath, one of a procession of women, and one of a woman at a well. All three were excavated in the 1930s and are housed at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Peppard said he is most excited about the image of the woman at a well. Almost everyone assumes that she is the Samaritan woman from the Gospel of John and that she symbolizes baptism, as represented by the “living water” of the well. Peppard said that the painting is actually a portrayal of the annunciation, “when Mary is told she is going to bear a son as a virgin.”

“If the image is the Virgin Mary, then not only is it probably the earliest datable image of Mary, but it’s also going to change the way we interpret the artistic program of this church, and maybe change the way we think about what they thought they were doing there,” Peppard said.

The image of women processing has likewise been misidentified, he said, as a funeral procession when in fact it’s a wedding procession.

Taken together, the paintings illustrate that these Christians emphasized empowerment, healing, marriage, and incarnation more than death and resurrection. This isn’t surprising, he said, because very few images of the Crucifixion exist from this time.

“In this earliest Christian church, we don’t have any imagery of the resurrection. I think they certainly believed in it, and that it was part of their faith in who Jesus was and what it meant to be a Christian, but it’s a matter of emphasis,” he said.

“So what are they emphasizing if they’re not emphasizing the cross and resurrection in this baptistery? They are emphasizing imagery of marriage, which is very common in Syrian Christianity—that becoming a Christian was like getting married to Christ and having a covenant with God.”

The story of Dura-Europos illustrates how Christianity evolved differently in different regions, he said. In the year 300 A.D. Christians were spread as far east as Dura-Europos and as far west and north as present day Morocco, Spain, and France. The Roman emperor Constantine had not yet converted to Christianity (which would make it the mainstream faith in the Roman empire), and communication and travel were still difficult.

Peppard also wondered why the baptistery of this church would feature a fairly grim image of David and Goliath. It might be because, at the time, Dura-Europos was the last outpost before one crossed the river into Persia and the Sasanian Empire, the most fearsome empire next to the Roman Empire.

“The Goliath image is in the style of a Persian warrior, so they’re styling their enemy in the guise of their real enemy in the world. This is part of their militaristic imagination. They feel threatened by this goliath across the river, so they imagine their initiation as Christians as empowering—gaining the power of David so that they can, when they need to be, be ready for the battles in their life,” he said.

“This is an urban outpost in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Syria, in the desert perched above the Euphrates. Let’s not presume they were like Christians from 2,000 miles away who they’d never heard or talked to.”

Fordham University has acquired its first Christian artifacts from antiquity: nine mosaics from a church built in the fifth century, a time when Christian art was still inflected with pagan images and the cross had yet to become the dominant symbol of the faith.

The mosaics formed part of a church floor located in what is now northwest Syria. An anonymous donor gave them to Fordham’s Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art in December, expanding the historical sweep of a collection that was already the largest of its type among universities in the New York region.

“They’re evidence of very, very early Christianity in the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, so they’re exciting for that,” said Jennifer Udell, Ph.D., curator of university art. “It certainly is proof of an established religion gaining hold, and being an important enough religion to engender building projects with beautiful mosaics. We didn’t have anything like them so they’ve really increased the scope of our holdings.”

Located at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, the Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art already contains more than 260 objects, dating from the 10th century B.C. through the third century A.D., that illustrate the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean region.

The nine new pieces, with their pictures and inscriptions, offer a window into a transitional time in the church. Seven of the mosaics show animals or geometric shapes, making them typical of a period in which church floors generally featured things like flora and fauna or sunbursts, said Michael Peppard, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology. Generally absent are images of Christ, the cross, or human figures.

“One thing they clearly are emphasizing is the idea of new creation and paradise,” he said. “There’s that sense of, Christians are a new creation, they’re newly born, they’re inhabiting this Garden of Eden again, and that comes out pretty strongly.”

Udell noted that one of the mosaics shows a peacock, “which early on became a symbol of the resurrection.” In an example of how motifs crossed religious boundaries at the time, she said, the peacock image was also popular in synagogues.

“Religious art still [was]sort of adopting motifs from the Greco-Roman world, which was all pagan in the eyes of the Christians,” she said. “So you’re looking at objects that are harnessing a visual language that was familiar to the population at the time. It makes a lot of sense that the early church fathers and early leaders of Christianity would want to appeal to the broader population by using familiar visual imagery.”

The other two mosaics are inscribed with valuable information, Peppard said: the names of four church officials, the name of the benefactor who paid for the church’s construction, and the date it was built. (That would be the month of Apellaios in the 775th year following the region’s conquest by Alexander the Great, equivalent to December of 463 A.D.)

The name of the bishop cited in the mosaics, Epiphanius, was common at the time but probably denotes Epiphanius, bishop of Apamea in the 450s and 460s. Peppard and Udell are conducting research to answer this and other questions about the mosaics.

The text also mentions another official, the periodeutês—a kind of auxiliary bishop—who provided pastoral care for rural churches in Syria at the time, according to Peppard. It’s an office that was prominent for a few hundred years before fading away, although its name is still used by modern-day Maronite  Catholics, he said.

“[In these mosaics] we have kind of everything you want as a historian,” he said. “We have five proper names and a date, and those things are not to be taken for granted in history.”

The mosaics also provide great examples of epigraphy for students of the classics to examine, Udell said. “It’s going to be pretty exciting for students of the classics and religion to actually study something that’s material, instead of just text.”

Editor’s Note

In light of the present civil conflict in Syria and legitimate concerns for the security of that country’s ancient archaeological sites and artifacts, it should be noted that the recent gift to Fordham of the nine mosaics described in the above article was accepted following a thorough provenance review in accordance with University policy and careful examination of accompanying, official documentation attesting to the mosaics’ legal export to the United States in 1972. 

 Eyewitness testimony and other evidence further point to their excavation no later than 1968. A forthcoming article in the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (Journal for Papyrology and Epigraphy) by Fordham theology professor Michael Peppard, Ph.D., and a future article by Jennifer Udell, Ph.D., curator of University art, will offer thorough examinations of the mosaics’ ancient and modern histories.

In February, Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by announcing his decision to resign from the papacy— becoming the first pope to do so in nearly six centuries.

A month later, Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Benedict’s successor, launching a papacy that in just six months has already been the talk of religious and secular communities around the world.

On Sept. 9, a panel of Fordham theologians gathered on the Lincoln Center campus to discuss how the newly elected Pope Francis has handled the first six months of his papacy. Moderated by Terrence Tilley, Ph.D., the Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology, the panel featured:

• Rachel Zoll, lead religion reporter for the Associated Press;

• Christine Firer Hinze, Ph.D., professor of theology and director of the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies;

• Michael Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of theology and president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States; and

• Michael Peppard, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology and blog contributor for Commonweal magazine.

As the first South American and the first Jesuit to ascend to the papacy, Pope Francis represented a novelty for the church from the start.

The six months since his election have been no less unconventional.

On the flight returning from World Youth Day in July, he told reporters that although Catholic teaching is clear on the issue of homosexuality, “Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?” Recently, he personally phoned an Italian woman who wrote that she was concerned her unborn child would not be baptized because she was unmarried. He told her that if she received any pushback, he would baptize the child himself.

“This pope has an improvisational and simple style—something that is keeping the Vatican on its toes,” Peppard said. “He has a preference for simple vestments, simple shoes, for walking or riding the bus, and paying his own hotel bill after the conclave.

“And it’s still quite amazing that the pope does not live in the papal apartment. It’s as if we had a president who got elected and said there aren’t going to be any more inaugural balls.”
This new style has appealed to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who, Hinze said, feel more welcomed by a pope who not only acknowledges but also understands their everyday struggles.

“This pope is a pastoral genius who speaks of a God who is close, who accompanies people on their daily struggles, who assures people that they are not alone,” she said. “It’s a fleshy, shoulder-rubbing, embodied way of enacting discipleship.”

Where Pope Francis’ on-the-ground papacy might appear radical, Lee said, is in his expectation that other Catholic leaders follow suit. At a meeting in June with leaders of the Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious, the pope told participants to not be afraid of running risks and trying new approaches.

He brought the same message to World Youth Day this July in Rio de Janeiro, telling the 3 million gathered, “Become protagonists of change, work for a better world.”

“He has said, ‘I prefer a church that makes mistakes because it did something to one that sickens because it remains shut in,’” Lee cited. “It’s a remarkable set of comments.”

Though the pope’s election had galvanized the media from the start, sparking questions such as whether the departing and arriving popes would both live in Vatican City, interest within the media has not waned. Outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal to BBC International have continued to call on Fordham theologians to interpret what this Everyman pope will mean for the Catholic Church.

“He’s a great story,” Zoll said. “He’s constantly doing interesting things. You can see that there’s a popular interest in the pope that goes so far beyond what typically interests people about religion.”

Tilley told the audience to pay attention as the pope appoints cardinals and bishops in the coming months and years, because his choices will set the tone for future church leadership.
In addition, papal encyclicals will contain hints about the future of the papacy, because popes often use these documents to qualify church teachings.

“If you want to know what he’s thinking, look at what’s being omitted and what’s being added in these texts,” Tilley said.

The event was hosted by the Department of Theology, in association with the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies and the Center on Religion and Culture.

Aditi Bagchi,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“ESPN Accused in Dish Case of Giving Comcast Better Terms,” Bloomberg, February 11

Tom Beaudoin, Ph.D.,

associate professor of practical theology, GRE,

“Woodford and the Quest for Meaning,” ABC Radio, February 16

Mary Bly, Ph.D.,

professor of English, A&S,

“How do Bestselling Novelists Court Cupid on Valentine’s Day?,” Washington Post, February 14

James Brudney,

professor of law, LAW,

“Nutter Seeks High Court’s OK to Impose His Terms on City Workers,” Philly.com, March 1

Charles C. Camosy, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Drone Warfare Faces Barrage of Moral Questions,” Catholic San Francisco, February 20

Colin M. Cathcart, M.F.A.,

associate professor of architecture, A&S,

“New York City Traffic Ranked the Worst Among the Nation: Study,” AM New York, February 6

Saul Cornell, Ph.D.,

The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, A&S,

“After Newtown: Guns in America,” WNET-TV, February 19

Carole Cox, Ph.D.,

professor of social service, GSS,

“Boomer Stress,” Norwich Bulletin, February 19

George Demacopoulos, Ph.D.,

associate professor of theology, A&S,

“Pope Resignation,” ABC, World News Now, February 28

Christopher Dietrich, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of history, A&S,

“Bad Precedent: Obama’s Drone Doctrine is Nixon’s Cambodia Doctrine (Dietrich),” Informed Comment, February 11

John Entelis, Ph.D.,

professor of political science, A&S,

“John Brennan,” BBC Radio, February 9

Howard Erichson,

professor of law, LAW,

“High-Stakes Trial Begins for 2010 Gulf Oil Spill,” Amarillo Globe-News, February 25

Laura Gonzalez, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of finance, BUS,

“Recortes al Presupuesto Podrían Afectar el Seguro Social y Medicare,” Mundo Fox, February 8

Albert Greco, Ph.D.,

professor of marketing, BUS,

“Why Would Anyone Want to Buy a Bookstore?,” Marketplace, February 25

Karen J. Greenberg, Ph.D.,

director of the Center on National Security, LAW,

“Alleged Sept. 11 Plotters in Court, but Lawyers Do the Talking,” National Public Radio, February 11

Stephen R. Grimm, Ph.D.,

associate professor of philosophy, A&S,

“Grants from Foundations and Corporations of More Than $100,000 in 2013,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 28

Tanya Hernandez, Ph.D.,
professor of law, LAW,

“Brazil’s Affirmative Action Law Offers a Huge Hand Up,” Christian Science Monitor, February 12

J. Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Vatican Conclave,” Huffington Post, March 4

Robert Hume, Ph.D.,

associate professor of political science, A&S,

“USA: Supreme Court Case Update – DOMA/Prop 8 Briefs Streaming In,” Gay Marriage Watch, February 28

Clare Huntington,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“Sunday Dialogue: How to Give Families a Path Out of Poverty,” The New York Times, February 9

Nicholas Johnson,

professor of law, LAW,

“Neil Heslin, Father of Newtown Victim, Testifies at Senate Assault Weapons Ban Hearing,”Huffington Post, February 27

Michael E. Lee, Ph.D.,

associate professor of theology, A&S,

“Tiempo: Watch this Week’s Show,” WABC 7, February 17

Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.,

professor of theology, A&S,

“Remembering Benedict — the Teacher, the Traditionalist,” The Saratogian, March 1

Dawn B. Lerman, Ph.D.,

director of the Center for Positive Marketing, marketing area chair, and professor of marketing, BUS,

“Study: Google, Facebook, Walmart Fill Consumer Needs,” Tech Investor News, February 12

Paul Levinson, Ph.D.,

professor of communication and media studies, A&S,

“Will Oscar Host Seth MacFarlane Be Asked Back? Probably Not,” Yahoo! News via Christian Science Monitor, February 26

Hector Lindo-Fuentes, Ph.D.,

professor of history and director of Latin American and Latino Studies, A&S,

“Escaping Gang Violence, Growing Number of Teens Cross Border,” WNYC, December 28

Timothy Malefyt, Ph.D.,

visiting associate professor of marketing, BUS,

“On TV, an Everyday Muslim as Everyday American,” The New York Times, February 8

Elizabeth Maresca,

clinical associate professor of law, LAW,

“Poll: 87 Percent Say Never OK to Cheat on Taxes,” KWQC, February 26

Carlos McCray, Ed.D.,

associate professor of education leadership, GRE,

“Cops Nab 5-Year-Old for Wearing Wrong Color Shoes to School,” Take Part, January 18

Micki McGee, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of sociology, A&S,

“Do Self-Help Books Work?,” Chicago Sun Times, February 21

Mark Naison, Ph.D.,

professor of African and African American Studies and history, and principal investigator of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP), A&S,

“Professor: Why Teach For America Can’t Recruit in my Classroom,” Washington Post, February 18

Costas Panagopoulos, Ph.D.,

associate professor of political science, A&S,

“Analysis: Obama to Republicans – Can We Just Move On?,” WHTC 1450, February 13

Kimani Paul-Emile,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“Some Patients Won’t See Nurses of Different Race,” Cleveland Plain Dealer via AP, February 22

Michael Peppard, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Big Man on Campus isn’t on Campus,” Commonweal, February 20

Francis Petit, Ed.D.,

associate dean and director of Executive Programs, BUS,

“Marissa Mayer Takes Flak for Gathering Her Troops,” E-Commerce Times, March 1

Rose Perez, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of social work, GSS,

“Education Segment,” Mundo Fox, January 21

Wullianallur “R.P.” Raghupathi, Ph.D.,

professor of information systems, BUS,

“¿Qué Tiene Silicon Valley para Producir ‘Frutos’ Como Steve Jobs?,” CNN, February 24

Joel Reidenberg, Ph.D.,

Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and professor of law and founding academic director of the Center on Law and Information Policy, LAW,

“Google App Store Policy Raises Privacy Concerns,” Reuters, February 14

Erick Rengifo-Minaya, Ph.D.,

associate professor of economics, BUS,

“Noticias MundoFOX 10PM Parte II,” Mundo Fox Noticias, February 8

Patrick J. Ryan, S.J.,

The Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, A&S,

“Pope Resignation,” WNBC, Sunday “Today in NY,” March 13

Susan Scafidi,

professor of law, LAW,

“Diamonds: How $60B Industry Thrives on Symbolism,” CBS This Morning, February 21

Christine Janssen-Selvadurai, Ph.D.,director of the entrepreneurship program at the Gabelli School of Business and co-director of both Fordham’s Center for Entrepreneurship and the Fordham Foundry, BUS,

“NYC Embraces Silicon Valley’s Appetite for Risk,” Crain’s New York Business, February 6

Ellen Silber, Ph.D.,

director of Mentoring Latinas, GSS,

“Mentoring Program Serves Young Latinas Aiming Higher in New York City,” Fox News Latino, February 25

Janet Sternberg, Ph.D.,assistant professor of communication and media studies, A&S,

“What are You Supposed to Do When You Have, Like, 106,926 Unread Emails?,” Huffington Post, February 25

Maureen A. Tilley, Ph.D.,professor of theology, A&S,

“Pope Resignation: Interview with Maureen Tilley of Fordham University,” WPIX, February 17

Terrence W. Tilley, Ph.D.,

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology and chair of the department, A&S,

“As Conclave to Select New Pope Begins, English-Speaking Cardinals Lead Charge to Reform Vatican,” Daily News, March 4

Peter Vaughan, Ph.D.,dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, GSS,

“Ceremony Held for NASW Foundation Award Recipients,” Social Work Blog, February 28

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