Dear President Tetlow; Father Rector; professors, staff, and students; dear friends,

The page of the  Gospel that has just been proclaimed is part of the itinerary of Jesus toward Jerusalem, which unfolds as a succession of teachings and recommendations.

The question posed by John: “We saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us,” describes well the rigid pattern within which they, like us, would like to imprison the freedom of the Spirit, who always blows where and how he wills.

It is interesting to note that in the previous passage the disciples divided themselves from each other in the name of their individual “I.” Here they separate from others in the name of their collective “we.” One’s own name, whether individual or collective, is the principle of division; only the “Name,” only the “Name,” which is the name of Jesus, is a source of unity among all.

We all know that he who loves enjoys the good of others, while the egoist does not enjoy the good, but only his own possession, and hurts the good of others. Egoism produces suffering proportional to suffering. Through it, death entered the world.

Selfishness, envy and pride can have both the personal and collective forms. The latter, much more harmful, can grow so vast and apparent that it turns invisible to the individual, who can continue to live by dedication, service, and humility towards his “we”—like a bandit remains loyal to the gang.

Our true unity is to go after Him, who leads us out of all fences and opens us to others, starting with the most distant and excluded. Being with Him, the Son, unites us to the Father and to our brothers and sisters, and forms a “we” that is not confined by a hedge of ownership, but driven by an internal drive of sympathy towards all.

In the name of Jesus, the church embraces everyone and excludes no one. This means that no one in the church can remain anonymous—that is, without, or even worse, not in Jesus’ name, and consequently without knowledge of him. In other names, personal or collective, ghettos, partisan spirits, sects and exclusions are born.

But he who excludes one, excludes Him who has made himself the last of all. In doing so, he fails to be Catholic, universal, and even Christian: He does not yet have the Spirit of the Son who, knowing the Father’s love, died for all brothers and sisters.

The stronger our union with Him, the stronger the unity among us. This unity in full freedom—our our own and that of others.

The disciples form a community, a “we,” which is the church. Yet, the church does not have its centre in itself. It does not take a census to feel strong, nor does it seek its own glory. It serves only the Lord, and is open to all, with willingness and humility.

As long as it seeks unity in Him, it is one and remains free, liberating and Catholic. However, it must always beware of collective pride, typical of the weak that becomes gregarious. This is how divisions arise among believers who consider themselves better and more faithful to the truth, thinking they have God with them.

We Christians are not the masters of salvation, given to us by Christ. Although we have different responsibilities or better vocations within the church, we Christians only have the task of making the person of Christ encounter, among ourselves and others, through our witness, our word, and our actions.

As Christians we are called to follow the example, the teaching and the generosity of Jesus, who assures at that the simplest deed done for Him or His Kingdom will not go unrewarded even if it is as simple and natural as giving a glass of water to someone who is thirsty.

Unfortunately, too often we behave like the Apostles in this passage—we are less generous than our Lord. We are less generous than our Lord. Even worse, our one concern becomes the hoarding of the grace of God, refusing to give freely what we received freely. Sometimes, we even envy the good done by others, as if their good deeds diminish our own or make us appear less virtuous. Our duty as Christians is to extend to others the grace we have received and to encourage the good that is being done, regardless of whether we receive credit for it.

There is a latin proverb that says: bonum diffusivum est sui, that is, goodness spreads itself. God, in His nature, shines with goodness, and spreads goodness. He is always surrounding us with signs of His love, always seeking to fill our hearts with wisdom, grace, mercy, and virtue.

But if Jesus is so generous, why do we so often fail to experience His generosity? If God’s goodness is like the sun, shining brightly and constantly all around us, why do we so often find ourselves in darkness, sadness, and difficulty?

Often, we fail to see God’s light shining in our lives, because we don’t bother to open the shutters. It can be a bright, beautiful day outside, but if we lock ourselves up in our room behind closed shutters and drawn curtains, we will not benefit from the light.

God is respectful of our freedom. He wants our friendship, not blind obedience. He gives us countless opportunities and instruments to receive His generous grace, but He does not force us to use them. He gives us the Sacred Scriptures, the gift of prayer, the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession, each one of which is a flowing fountain of grace and spiritual strength—but it is up to us to come frequently and drink deeply from this spring.

Dear friends, God is generous, and His infinite generosity calls for openness and unity, including within the Fordham community. On your website, one can read that one of your core principles is to care for others. The Gospel reminds us not to hinder those who do good in His name and to stay vigilant over our own hearts. The Holy Spirit desires welcoming communities, and Fordham, as a Catholic university following the Jesuit traditions in this city of New York, is uniquely positioned to appreciate and foster the creativity with which God acts.

As we experience God’s generosity in this Holy Mass, let us therefore thank Him from the bottom of our hearts and seek the grace and courage to open the shutters of our souls, embracing openness and support.

Nothing would please Him more. Amen.

“It’s a great improvement from the time when the pope was just a king in his throne surrounded by a royal court,” he said. “But with such expectations can any pope govern into his 80s and even 90s and be effective?”

“The effort to change the rigidly top-down nature of governance in Catholicism is the main reform project of the Francis papacy and its success or failure will likely be his chief legacy,” said Fordham’s Gibson. He said the jury was still out on whether it would succeed, since the transition period is “messy and absolutely exhausting.” 

“Will the sense of exhaustion overcome the inspiration that invigorates so many?” he asked.

Drawing from his experience as a former journalist who extensively covered Pope Francis, Gibson provided valuable commentary on the pope’s motivations and intentions behind the memoir.

According to Gibson, Pope Francis aims to humanize himself, emphasizing his relatability and shared experiences with everyday people. “He’s as surprised to find himself pope as anybody else, and he wants people to know that he’s had the ordinary experiences of everyone else,” said Gibson.

Thompson posed the question of whether this memoir is Pope Francis’ attempt to shape his legacy, to which Gibson responded affirmatively, “Yes, this really is Pope Francis trying to write his own legacy, set the record straight, and say, ‘This is what I meant. This is what I tried to do as pope. This is how I saw the church and the world at this time. That’s the record. That’s it.’”

Watch Pope Francis attempts to demystify Catholic Church in new memoir.

The gathering was convened by the pope so that representatives from all areas of the church, from cardinals to lay people, could focus on synodality–the process of working together on how the church will move forward. This meeting is the first of its kind to include women as voting delegates.

“I feel so blessed to be a part of this,” said Mollie Clark, a Fordham junior.

“Women’s voices are being honored and heard for the first time in the synodal process. This is such an affirming thing,” said Clark, who acknowledged “a lot of internal struggle at times” with the church’s stance on women’s participation. “I know that God is listening to my voice.”

A Global Conference

David Gibson, director of Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture and a former Vatican reporter who will accompany the group, said, “It’s simply a global conversation that is the fruit of two years of listening.” 

Pope Francis asked for churches and dioceses all over the world to survey clergy and lay members alike as a prelude to the meeting, which he opened on Oct. 4. As part of this process of synodality, or “journeying together,” the same discussions were happening in nations across the globe about how to be a more inclusive church, a less clerical church, said Gibson, as well as how to increase the role of women and young people.

Fordham is the only Jesuit university to send a student group to Rome for this synod convened by Pope Francis–the first Jesuit pope.

Church on the Go

In the spring, Vanessa Rotondo, Fordham adjunct professor and deputy chief of staff to the  University’s president, Tania Tetlow, organized a screening of the Hulu documentary The Pope: Answers and was amazed at the high student turnout.

That event inspired her to propose a course called Church on the GO: Theology in a Global Synod to further “develop student understanding of the postmodern church in tandem with and in light of the Synod on Synodality.” Earlier this year, she traveled to Rome to pursue permission for its students to take part in synod-related events.

Student Itinerary

Rotondo and Gibson developed a series of activities for the students while they are in Rome. They will hear from synodal leaders such as Sister Nathalie Becquart, a voting member who helped facilitate the pope’s canvassing of church members worldwide; join press conferences; and take part in community engagement projects with both Villa Nazareth, a house of humanistic and spiritual formation for college students, and Sant’Egidio, a social service agency focused on global peace and interfaith dialogue. The group will also spend time at the School of Peace, where they will participate in an interfaith prayer service and prepare and distribute meals to people experiencing hunger and homelessness. 

Rotondo also devised two leadership sessions with the grassroots organization Discerning Deacons that are rooted in active listening and the synodal process. The goal is to give the students a sense of how the synod is working and train them in Ignatian reflection so they can devise an action plan to enhance Fordham’s mission and Catholic identity when they return.

‘Our Church is Alive’

AnnaMarie Pacione, a Fordham sophomore in the group, said the synod gives her hope.

“Our church is alive, and it’s growing, and it’s breathing and listening to everyone, as it should,” she said. “It’s more reflective of God’s love, Jesus’s love, as I know it, with this commitment and responsibility to listen to voices that have been suppressed in the past.”

A Blog for Dispatches

The students will post to the Sapientia blog of Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture throughout their weeklong trip and will document their experience on the Instagram account @synodalfordham.

In addition to Clark and Pacione, the Fordham students include Eli Taylor, a theology master’s student; Fordham College at Rose Hill seniors Augustine Preziosi and Sean Power; Fordham College at Rose Hill junior James Haddad; Fordham College at Rose Hill sophomores Abigail Adams, Seamus Dougherty, Jay Doherty, and Kaitlyn Squyres; and Fordham College at Lincoln Center junior William Gualtiere.

John Cecero, S.J., Fordham’s vice president for mission integration and ministry, and Michael Lee, Ph.D., director of the Francis & Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, are accompanying the group.

Increasing extreme weather conditions like record-high temperatures and devastating droughts are undoubtedly the result of “unchecked human intervention on nature,” Pope Francis declared in a letter published today expanding on his 2015 Laudato Si’ encyclical.

Since that publication, he said, “I have realized that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.”

Pope Francis called out the United States, specifically, in this new apostolic exhortation, titled Laudate Deum, issued on the first day of the Synod on Synodality.

“If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact,” he said. 

“The ethical decadence of real power is disguised thanks to marketing and false information, useful tools in the hands of those with greater resources to employ them to shape public opinion,” he wrote.

Pope Francis’s Specificity Is ‘Not Accidental’

Christiana Zenner, an associate professor of theology, science, and ethics at Fordham, said, “This is a document that doubles down morally on the centrality of climate crises and the immediate responsibility of ‘all people of good will’ to address them.” 

“Pope Francis first dismantles climate denialism by careful arguments, data, precision of terms, and strategic citation of the climate-recidivistic U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,” Zenner said. “And the penultimate paragraph of the exhortation likewise identifies the ways that U.S.-based climate exceptionalism is problematic. This is as specific about national responsibilities as a pope ever gets, and it is definitely not accidental here.”

The publication coincides with the upcoming U.N. climate change conference that will convene in Dubai in November, much like the release of the 2015 encyclical ahead of the Paris climate conference. The pontiff laments that the Paris Agreement has been poorly implemented, lacking effective tools to force compliance. 

“International negotiations cannot make significant progress due to positions taken by countries which place their national interests above the global common good,” he wrote.

Never Mind the Bedroom, ‘the Entire House Will Burn Down’

David Gibson, director of Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture, said the new publication shifts the controversy among American Catholics from sex to climate change—which has the potential to be even more contentious. 

“The focus and controversy in the church that Pope Francis leads has lately been directed toward issues of sex and sexuality and his efforts to make Catholicism more inclusive. The irony is that this papal exhortation will likely be even more controversial for Americans than any issue of sexuality because it demands fundamental changes in our consumerist lifestyles.”

Gibson added, “Many American Catholics want the church to focus on what people do in the bedroom. Pope Francis is saying the entire house will burn down if we don’t change our behavior in every other aspect of our lives.”

In the hand-written note to James Martin, S.J., editor of the Outreach website, the pope mentions Fordham by name and sends his prayers and best wishes for presenters and attendees.

“I send my best regards to the members of the meeting at Fordham University,” reads the translation of the letter, which Pope Francis wrote in Spanish and dated May 6, 2023.  “Thank you for delivering it to them. In my prayers and good wishes are you and all who are working at the Outreach Conference.”

It’s the third letter that Pope Francis has written in support of an Outreach conference.

“I’m grateful for the Holy Father’s warm letter, which is a wonderful blessing for everyone joining us this weekend at the conference,” said Father Martin. “And it’s a special grace for LGBTQ Catholics to know that the pope is praying for them.”

Fordham President Tania Tetlow will be a keynote speaker at this year’s event, which will also feature a representative from the Vatican.

Read more on the Outreach website. 

The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination, which took place May 25-27, featured a private audience with Pope Francis, who in his remarks encouraged attendees to “not domesticate Jesus” in their works.

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, associate director of Fordham’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, agreed with Francis and said that his comments were the highlight of the conference for her.

“There is a sense in which, over the centuries, we have received many images of Christ. But the true Christ escapes any attempt at trying to domesticate him, to capture him and say, ‘This is Jesus, and only this is Jesus,’” she said.

A ‘Superabundant’ Experience

She said the conference’s watchword was “superabundant,” a word Pope Francis used to describe the place where people experience God, “like a continually overflowing basin.”

O’Donnell was moved by Francis’ challenge to “go beyond set bounds, to be creative without downplaying your own spiritual restlessness and that of humanity, to embrace poetically the anxious yearnings present in the human heart.”

Her own writing is often set in the context of her Catholic faith, and at the conference, she participated in three panels, Contemporary Catholic Poetry, The Presence of Dante in the Contemporary Catholic Imagination, and The Global Reach of Flannery O’Connor.

Exploring the ways Christ is present across cultures was a key aspect of the conference, as it was the first international iteration of a series of gatherings dedicated to the Catholic literary imagination that began in 2015, and which Fordham hosted in 2017.

Scorsese’s New York

A close second high point for O’Donnell was Scorsese’s lengthy conversation with Antonio Spadaro, S.J., editor-in-chief of the journal Civilta Cattolica which, along with the Curran Center and the office of Mission & Ministry at Georgetown University, and Loyola University Chicago’s Hank Center for Catholic Intellectual Heritage, sponsored the conference.

Scorsese shared memories of growing up in New York City’s Little Italy and aspiring to follow in the footsteps of a priest at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. He reflected on films such as Mean Streets, in which actor Harvey Keitel’s character asserts that “you don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets,” He also made news by announcing that he is planning to follow up his 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ with a new movie about Jesus.

Tempted by the Ordinary

O’Donnell was particularly moved by his thoughts on The Last Temptation of Christ. The last part of the movie features Jesus imagining what would have happened if, instead of giving himself up for death, he’d married Mary Magdalene and started a family.

“What Scorsese said about this, which I thought was so beautiful, was, Satan offers Jesus food, money, and all the power in the world, and he’s not tempted by that,” O’Donnell said.

“What he’s finally tempted by is the beauty of ordinary human life. He doesn’t give in to that temptation, but nonetheless, this is a very affirming vision of what it is to be a human being.

“I was very struck that [Scorsese] … acknowledges that human life is very beautiful, especially as he’s made movies that incorporate violence, suffering, and all the very dark elements of human experience.”

Taking the name Francis, he became the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern hemisphere, and the first from outside Europe since the eighth century.

At Fordham, faculty and staff reacted to the news with words like “shocked” and “an ingenious choice.” Two years later, when the pope visited New York City as part of his first visit to the United States, members of the Fordham community flocked to Central Park to catch a glimpse of him and shared their hopes for his tenure.

“As the first Jesuit to serve as pope, Francis has done the work of St. Ignatius, reminding the faithful of the central values of the Gospels and calling us to action,” said Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham.

“As a Jesuit community, Fordham celebrates the Pope’s tenth anniversary in the chair of St. Peter, and we wish him all the blessings of faith in his holy work.”

On the cusp of his 10th anniversary, Fordham News spoke with experts on the impact Francis has made on the papacy as an institution, race and gender, and the environment.

Thomas Worcester, S.J., professor of history and co-editor of The Papacy since 1500: From Italian Prince to Universal Pastor. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

I think Pope Francis grew into the job. He likes the pastoral side of it very much. Compassion and mercy are what the church should be about, and I think he exudes that himself and the style he has as pope.

He’s not as happy dealing with the Roman Curia. The pope is supposed to be a unifier in the church, and I think he wants to be that. In some ways, his inclination is toward reform, and yet at the same time, there’s a caution in him, which I think all folks have to some extent.

He makes clear that change is not just possible, but desirable. Just the very fact that he understands synodality as something that has an emphasis on listening—that the pope himself needs to listen to not just other bishops, but more broadly than that—is a major change from a style that was more top-down for much of the history of the papacy.

There are some aspects of his leadership that are also very Jesuit. Some have said that those who favor access to abortion for women should not receive communion. Francis is totally against that. He makes clear that the Eucharist is not a “prize for the perfect,” but a “medicine for the weak.” He’s got a good grounding in that. In the past, Jesuits have traditionally been favorable to people receiving communion frequently, with relatively few obstacles. That’s an area where I think Francis is very Jesuit, with an emphasis on access to mercy.

Bryan Massingale, S.T.D., professor of theology and the James and Nancy Buckman Chair in Applied Christian Ethics

He will go down as one of the most consequential popes in modern church history because his signal accomplishment has been to foster a community of open dialogue and discussion.

I never thought I would ever hear a pope say words like, ‘Who am I to judge?’ the way he did in 2013, in response to a question about gay priests.

The phrasing reverses the average person’s understanding of the church’s relationship with gay and lesbian people. Before then, the Catholic church was seen as very judgmental of LGBTQ persons and very hostile and unapproving of LGBTQ relationships. That single question ushered in a whole new era and effectively challenged that stance of knee-jerk condemnation that the Catholic church has been more associated with.

More than any other pope, I think that Francis also has taken on racism as a major challenge to the Christian conscience. After George Floyd was murdered in 2020, that week in his general audience in Rome, he took a very unusual step of praying for him by name. Then he followed that with a statement that was really important. He said, ‘We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form, and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.’

What’s brilliant about that is how he grounds the opposition to racism within the church’s commitment to a pro-life stance and the sacredness of every human life. He very much put his cards on the table that safeguarding the dignity of Black lives is part of the respect owed to every human life. The fact that that statement was not picked up a lot by the American bishops or pro-life Catholics in the United States shows that Francis has a more prophetic understanding of the implications of being pro-life than many American Catholics are comfortable with, especially when it comes to racism.

David Gibson, director of Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture

It’s been a remarkable time, and for so many people it’s been inspiring. It’s as though the windows are open and light and fresh air are coming in. For another segment of the church, that’s a very unsettling, even threatening prospect. So his papacy has sparked far more backlash than I expected. But the backlash and the opposition to Francis make you realize how much this was needed in the church. There have been so many decades of quashing dissent or even discussion, and now people are free to speak their minds.

It’s interesting that so much of the fierce opposition has come from a certain segment of American Catholics. I think it’s important to keep it in perspective. The U.S. Church counts for about 5% of the global Catholic population of 1.3 billion. The opposition to Francis is relatively small, but it is very vocal, and very passionate, to the point of even being destructive.

He’s made it so clear that everybody should be free to speak their mind, and that no topic is out of bounds. For a center that is founded on public discussion, that’s oxygen for us. Francis has also stressed the importance of culture as a connecting tissue for different people. I totally agree. Culture provides a rare piece of common ground for discussions. People can come together over the arts and literature and other cultural manifestations.

He’s elevated the role of lay people, especially women. At the Vatican, putting them in offices over clerics—that’s unheard of. But there are still concrete steps that need to be taken in order to have any difference on the ground. Laypeople need to be able to preach. Women need to be able to preach. Women need to be ordained as deacons. Unless there’s some upsurge in priestly vocations, which doesn’t seem likely, there need to be other things that are going to affect changes on the ground in parishes.

Christiana Zenner, Ph.D., associate professor of theology, science, and ethics

One of the things that has continued to surprise and delight me and other watchers of ecological ethics is how Francis’ encyclical about the environment, Laudato Si’ continues to resonate with people of many faiths, as well as those with none. The planetary reach of that document seems to be real. People ranging from secular Jewish feminists to atheist students to “cradle to grave” Catholics have all found things to love in this document.

What’s distinctive to him in the contemporary era is the way that this encyclical is part and parcel of how he walks the walk and talks the talk. Popes can write lots of documents that have different kinds of impact, but it seems to me that Pope Francis has also really tried to embody what’s in this document. He has worked interreligiously on climate change and environmental refugees and migration more generally by talking about global capitalism and its excesses and has by himself modeled a more modest approach, from his domestic quarters to the footwear he chooses. So I think that it is a document with which his own personal charism is uniquely integrated and I think for that reason it will be a lasting legacy of his papacy.

Pope Francis also talks a lot about the wisdom of indigenous cultures and ecological values, and the primacy that ought to be accorded to indigenous communities before major projects are done on their land. This is a pretty radical statement for a historically universalizing, colonizing church.

So I would love to see him and the Catholic church continue to explore what it means to live up to those best ideals.

This year, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development—an office that promotes human development, particularly for migrants and refugees—launched a new project under Pope Francis. The goal of the project, Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries, was to interview those who are often excluded from conversations in the church and to use their feedback to improve the church and its practices. 

The dicastery recruited nearly 100 theologians, including Hinze, to speak with people across each continent. (Hinze is the sole representative from Fordham.) More than 500 people, including migrants, refugees, prisoners, and victims of abuse—people who live at “the existential peripheries,” in the words of Pope Francis—shared testimonials.

Testimonials on Some of the Most Pressing Issues

Last semester, Hinze conducted in-person interviews in New York with about 50 people, predominantly Catholics. He met members of three groups—Black Catholics in the Parish of St. Charles Borromeo in Harlem, LGBTQ Catholics in St. Francis Xavier Church in Manhattan, and Latina Catholic migrants at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Bronx—as well as other individuals. 

“I tried to find people who could contribute to a discussion about some of the most pressing issues, especially in the United States. Since I teach theology and in the area of the church, I know that there’s a lot of tension in the U.S. on race issues,” said Hinze. 

In videotaped interviews, he asked them to reflect on their experiences in life and with the church. What were their biggest sources of joy, pain, and sorrow? Where did they see God at work—or not? How had their faith helped or hindered them? How could the church have better helped them? 

Some questions were targeted toward specific groups. They were asked to consider their struggles as immigrants in the Bronx or in the church. Others were asked about how racism and discrimination against their sexual orientation had caused them to think differently about God and Catholicism. 

A Surprising Message of Gratitude 

Trena Yonkers-Talz, GRE ’23, who was recruited by Hinze to interview the Latina women in Spanish, said that her group spoke transparently about their painful memories in the U.S. and in their native countries, where they felt rejected by the church for different reasons, including having a family member in the LGBTQ community. In recounting their stories, many of the women wept, she said. But with the help of God, they were able to heal from their past wounds and imagine a brighter future. 

What surprised her the most, said Yonkers-Talz, was the message they would give Pope Francis if he were sitting beside them. 

“I expected them to want to tell him everything that needed to be fixed, but instead, they wanted to tell him how grateful they are—how much they’re trying to live out their faith and that their faith matters to them,” Yonkers-Talz recalled. “Their posture of gratitude really struck me because our whole conversation wasn’t one of gratitude. Yet at the end, there was still this profound sense of faith and gratitude for the church and its leadership.” 

‘That’s a Message That the Universal Church Needs to Hear’ 

Hinze, who interviewed Black and LGBTQ Catholics, said that the testimonials from both groups were moving and “brutally” honest. 

“The Black Catholics were incredibly honest about their experience of racism in the church by priests and bishops, including priests who won’t talk about violence against Black people in New York, Harlem, and elsewhere,” Hinze said. “They spoke from their heart about it—so much that I was quite moved. I choked up, just listening to them. But at the same time—and this was equally moving—they spoke about how deeply connected they are to their Catholic community and how filled and encouraged they are to be in this group. The LGBTQ group did the same thing. … I think that’s a message that the universal church needs to hear.” 

After analyzing the interview transcriptions, Hinze contributed his summary to a 120-page collective report from the North American theologians that will be made available to bishops worldwide. On Oct. 12, scholars and Vatican officials met at a conference in Rome, one of their first opportunities to discuss the project reports. They will further discuss the theologians’ findings with Pope Francis two years from now in Rome, at the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality—a three-year process of listening and dialogue initiated by the Pope.

A project of this scale has never been conducted before by the Vatican, said Hinze. He said he hopes that bishops around the world will sincerely listen to the lay people’s stories and their thoughts on how the church can address where it’s fallen short—to “see what life is really like for those who live on the margins and to learn from them.” 

“It all goes back to this: The bishops need to invite and listen to people to talk about their struggles and joys in the church,” he said. These conversations should be going on, not just through the Vatican, but in dioceses and in parishes as well. You need to sit with people in your parish and ask, ‘Who’s on the margins? Who has left the church?’ And talk to them.”

The index was developed by IPED students to help the public understand the plight of the poor on a global scale. 

On his return from Rome, Schwalbenberg stopped by the Catholic University of America to present the results of the poverty index and meet with IPED alumni in the Washington, D.C., area.

“In addressing us, Pope Francis encouraged us all ‘to sow many small seeds that can bear fruit in an economy that is equitable and beneficial, humane and people centered,’” Schwalbenberg wrote in an e-mail.

Through Fordham’s Pope Francis poverty index and the training of professions to work in agencies like Catholic Relief Services, he wrote, “this is what we are trying to do.”

“Vaccines don’t save lives; vaccination saves lives,” said Ronald A. DePinho, M.D., FCRH ’77, a distinguished researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, during a virtual panel discussion on Monday, December 21. “It’s very important that when you have the opportunity to get vaccinated, please get vaccinated.”

He and fellow panelist Michael Dowling, GSS ’74, a Fordham trustee and president and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest health system in New York state, emphasized the safety and efficacy of vaccination, as well as the public health messages that need to be widely spread.

“The COVID crisis is not over,” said Dowling, who described a surge of COVID-19 patients in Northwell’s hospitals over the past three weeks. Both he and DePinho said that wearing masks, socially distancing, and washing hands will remain critical well into the new year to prevent the spread of the disease.

The two Fordham graduates were the panelists for “Our COVID-19 Odyssey: Vulnerabilities Revealed, Historic Scientific Progress Achieved, and a Nation Awakened,” hosted by the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA) as the inaugural event in its Insights and Impact speaker series. Fordham Provost Dennis C. Jacobs, Ph.D., moderated.

The event came exactly one week after Northwell made history by administering the first doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on December 11. A second vaccine, developed by Moderna, got the same approval four days ago, on December 18.

Masking Up

With healthcare workers and other vulnerable groups getting first priority for the vaccines, the general public would probably be receiving the vaccine in the late spring, making continued precautions necessary, Dowling said.

Masks are a good idea even for those who are vaccinated, since it’s still not fully known whether they can transmit coronavirus after getting the shot, DePinho said. “I think it’s going to be very hard” for this to happen, he said, “but until we really know, the safe and proper thing to do, the compassionate thing to do to protect others, is to wear a mask.”

Dowling said he thinks masks are here to stay, not only because of uncertainty about how long the coronavirus vaccination lasts but also because of their potential for suppressing the seasonal flu.

An Astounding Advance

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were each found to be 95% effective in clinical trials, a rate that DePinho called “astounding,” noting that the FDA standard was just 50%.

“This is an extremely safe vaccine and a very effective one,” said DePinho, professor, past president, and Harry Graves Burkhart III Distinguished University Chair in the Department of Cancer Biology at MD Anderson.

“You’re more likely to get harmed driving on the way to the hospital to get the vaccine than you will actually getting the vaccine,” he said.

They both emphasized that aftereffects like a sore arm, fatigue, or low-grade fever are actually a good thing. “It means the vaccine is working,” Dowling said.

He and DePinho addressed safety concerns such as allergic reactions that might be brought on by ingredients within the vaccines. The medical profession is “very skilled at handling those allergic reactions,” DePinho said. “On the other hand, as Michael will attest to, you do not want to get this virus.”

“This is a virus that kills,” and brings long-term problems like diminished lung capacity, strokes, and cardiac problems, he said. “This is a bad virus with enormous capabilities.” Compared with the manageable side effects of vaccines, he said, “the decision should be quite clear.”

At Northwell, people have to stay for 15 to 20 minutes after being vaccinated, and staff members are there to address any negative reactions, Dowling said. Most recipients feel few side effects, he said.

Making the Case

Overcoming skepticism—which exists even among healthcare workers—and convincing enough people to get vaccinated to achieve the estimated “herd immunity” threshold of of 70% will be “one of our biggest challenges,” Dowling said.

The stakes are high, DePinho said. “We’ve got to vaccinate about 5.6 billion people for herd immunity across the globe. Until we do that, this virus is going to keep coming back in waves, and as we just learned in the U.K., this virus mutates, it adjusts, it becomes more virulent, more infective.”

“So we have to really get ahead of this quickly and decisively, and it’s going to require worldwide immunization. No one’s safe until we do that.”

Dowling described the challenges of administering the vaccine, noting that the one from Pfizer has to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius and requires two doses 21 days apart.

DePinho said global vaccination efforts could be helped along by rapid scientific advances of recent years, like new messenger RNA-based therapeutics or nanotechnology that could be used to create dry powder vaccines that can be stored at room temperature. “Globally, those kinds of technologies are going to have a huge impact,” he said. “We’ve seen science really transform our ability to go from essentially a cold start to vaccinating people and protecting the public.”

Jacobs invited a comment about vaccines from Sally Benner, the vice chair of the FUAA advisory board who kicked off the event by introducing the panelists. Benner is the associate vice president of development for medical sciences at the University of Oxford, which developed a coronavirus vaccine that was licensed by AstraZeneca and is awaiting a trial in the U.S.

The speed of the vaccine’s development came from scientists having “a very long runway,” she said—they began working on a “Disease X” similar to the coronavirus five years ago at the urging of the World Health Organization, she said.

Community Leadership

In addition to vaccines, ending the pandemic requires a “strong, sophisticated communication mechanism and campaign to get people to understand [getting vaccinated] is the right thing to do … if you want to protect your community and yourself,” Dowling said.

He’s involved in statewide discussions about how to overcome people’s reluctance, particularly in African American and other minority communities that are disproportionately affected by the virus.

Clergy, pastors, and other leaders in those communities can play a valuable role by getting vaccinated, talking to others about it, and advising on how best to communicate the need to get vaccinated, he said.

Sandra Lindsay—the intensive care nurse who was the first Northwell employee vaccinated—is Jamaican, and has been “very vocal” in her community about the safety of the vaccine, Dowling said.

Celebrities could also play a role, he said, noting how Elvis Presley publicly took a vaccine for polio in 1956 to encourage young people to take it.

DePinho said the Catholic Church is “an incredible” platform for encouraging vaccination, since Pope Francis understands the importance of disease prevention and vaccination. Fordham and WFUV, the University’s public media station, could also spread the message, he said.

Education and Preparation

“Knowledge is disease’s greatest vulnerability,” DePinho said. “Vaccines have been one of the great triumphs of the last century,” he said, going through a list of maladies that people simply don’t think about anymore.

“We have to try to stay ahead of these viruses. We’re under constant assault,” he said. “This won’t be the last pandemic.”

“In much the same way we have ‘war games,’ we need to have ‘germ games’” to foster preparedness, he said.

Last spring, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, FCRH ’79, named Dowling co-leader of a statewide council on expanding hospital capacity in the face of the pandemic.

Asked about lessons learned, Dowling said hospitals learned “to cooperate an awful lot more together” and constantly share information, with stronger hospitals backing up the weaker ones. Northwell has also formed reciprocal agreements with other large health systems around the country to share staff as needed when crises arise. He said he hopes for broad strategies to be developed in the U.S. and globally to prepare for future pandemics.

A Sputnik Moment

DePinho said the pandemic is “like our Sputnik moment,” referring to the 1957 satellite launch by the Soviet Union that spurred new technological, educational, and other advances in the United States. The pandemic has brought tragedies but also opportunities to improve health care delivery, infrastructure, “and the disparities that exist in our society.”

“We need to invest in health care and prevention, not just disease care, particularly for underserved communities,” he said. “In much the same way that we had our Sputnik moment, hopefully in the decades ahead we will look back on ‘the COVID moment’ where we transformed the way that we work together to serve the public good.”

In closing remarks, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, said the event delivered a clear message: “We should be advocates for, ambassadors for, evangelists for the vaccination programs,” he said. “Tell people in all the worlds that you inhabit that this is the way toward a brighter future.”

He noted  the date, December 21, the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. “Light will grow from this moment on,” he said, “and part of the light [that]will grow is the light that we derive from listening to you, sitting at your feet, and hearing all the experience-based wisdom that you had to offer.”

The Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA) launched the Insights and Impact speaker series to showcase Fordham alumni making a positive difference in society. On January 21, the FUAA will host its annual Recognition Reception. Visit the event page to learn more and register.