Members of the University community gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral—the final resting place of that founder, Archbishop John Hughes, the first Catholic archbishop of New York—for a Mass that formally launched Fordham’s 175^th anniversary year, or Dodransbicentennial.

With the founding of Fordham, first known as St. John’s College, “the great story of Catholic higher education in the Northeast began,” said Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham, who celebrated the Mass. “The cathedral is one of the other gifts that John Hughes gave to the church, the city, and the country, and it is fitting therefore that we gather here, near his tomb, to celebrate what he did for us.”

The anniversary year will feature special events, exhibits, and programs that highlight Fordham’s history and impact. Also celebrated will be the 100^th anniversary of three Fordham graduate schools—the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Service—and the 170^th anniversary of Fordham becoming a Jesuit institution of higher learning.

“In this year, as we celebrate our storied past, we will also focus on the promise of our next 175 years,” said Maura Mast, PhD, dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, in remarks following the service. “Our story is the story of generations of students, educators, and alumni who believed in the power of a Fordham education to transform lives, and who gave heart and voice to our guiding principle, wisdom and learning in the service of others.”

Fordham’s Origin

The Fordham story began with Archbishop Hughes’ dream of helping immigrants and Irish Catholics who faced poverty and prejudice in both Ireland and America, as Msgr. Thomas J. Shelley, GSAS ’66, explained in his homily at the Mass.

“He considered education the indispensable means for the members of his immigrant flock to break loose from the cycle of poverty that ensnared them, and to take part in what today we would call the American dream,” said Msgr. Shelley, professor emeritus of theology and author of Fordham, A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841-2003 (Fordham University Press, 2016).

He described Archbishop Hughes’ “begging” in New York and Europe to pay for the college’s original 106 acres and for the building renovations that were needed. The struggles continued after the college opened its doors on June 24, 1841, at Rose Hill Manor, in what was then Westchester County. The diocesan clergy members running the college were repeatedly called away, and the college had four presidents in five years before the Society of Jesus took over in 1846.

Archbishop Hughes also had to face down the prejudices of his time. In 1844, he showed his “tough and feisty” side when he told the nativist mayor of New York City that he would turn the city into “a second Moscow”—destroyed by Russians during Napoleon’s 1812 invasion—if a nativist mob attacked the city’s Catholic community (as it had recently attacked Philadelphia’s). The nativists backed down.

After the homily, Father McShane noted that Archbishop Hughes distributed muskets to area Catholic churches and schools for protection. Two sat in the Fordham president’s office for many years until one president gave them to a friend, he said.

Honoring Archbishop Hughes’ Message

Msgr. Shelley also cited Archbishop Hughes’ words: “‘I have always preached that every denomination, Jews, Christians, Catholics, Protestants—of every shade and sex—were all entitled to entire freedom of conscience’” without hindrance. The words, Msgr. Shelley said, were effectively endorsed by the Second Vatican Council in the following century.

“I do not think that the influence of John Hughes on Fordham University is limited to the past,” he said.

After the service, Father McShane spoke of “all that we have to live up to.”

“We have to live up to the fact that [Archbishop Hughes] left us an institution that from the very start was precarious—founded on faith, sustained by love, aimed at transmitting wisdom and learning so that people would serve others and do the world a world of good; that is to say, set the world on fire and transform other hearts.”

Fordham University Board of Trustees Chairman Bob Daleo, GABELLI ’72, noted the progression of Fordham from “six students and two buildings” to the University it is today, with three campuses, an academic center in London, about 15,000 students, and academic partnerships worldwide.

“Today we do honor the achievements of the past, but we truly celebrate the opportunities of Fordham’s future,” he said. “In doing so, we rededicate ourselves to sustaining Fordham not simply as an institution but as a way of life.”

Visit our 175^th timeline. 

Father Berrigan, Fordham’s poet-in-residence since 2000, died at the Jesuit residence Murray-Weigel Hall on April 30 at age 94. He was an accomplished poet and co-founder, along with his brother Philip, of the Plowshares Movement, an anti-nuclear and Christian pacifist group.

“Dan Berrigan was a giant among us. Whatever one makes of his methods, his lifelong pursuit of peace and justice was both heartfelt and critically important,” said Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham.

“He belongs not just to the Jesuits, but to a significant period in American history. His activism came from a poet’s heart—and indeed he was always a highly accomplished poet, a poet who drew his inspiration from the Prophets and the Gospel. His fluency never failed him, and we were blessed to have him for so long as Fordham’s poet-in-residence.”

The Plowshares group was active throughout the 1960s and 70s, and gained notoriety in 1968 when the Berrigans and seven others used homemade napalm to burn draft files in the parking lot of a U.S. Selective Service Office in Catonsville, Maryland, in protest of the Vietnam War. Father Berrigan was convicted of destroying government property and received a three-year sentence in federal prison.

In 1980, the Berrigans and six others broke into a General Electric nuclear facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, damaged nuclear warhead nose cones, and poured blood on documents in the facility. Their arrest and the legal battles that followed were chronicled in the 1982 film In The King of Prussia.

From 1970 to 1995, Father Berrigan spent an estimated seven years in prison for his peace activism, which included protests against the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In June 2012, he lent his support to the Occupy Wall Street movement with a visit to Zuccotti Park.

Father Berrigan was born in Virginia, Minnesota, in 1921, and entered into the Society of Jesus directly out of high school in 1939. He was ordained in 1952.

In addition to his activism, Father Berrigan was lauded for his writing. His first poem appeared in America Magazine in 1942 while he was a student at the Jesuit seminary St. Andrew-on-Hudson. His first book of poetry, Time Without Number, (The MacMillon Company, 1953), won the Lamont Poetry Prize in 1957. In all, he wrote more than 50 books and various articles and commentaries.

At the request of Father McShane, in 2006 Father Berrigan penned Ordina questo amore, O tu che m’ami: Recitative for Four Voices; Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Peter Faber and Chorus, timed for the Jesuit Jubilee Year. The 2007 performance piece, which was was set to music by  composer Elizabeth Swados, celebrated the genesis of the Society of Jesus, which was founded in 1541 by St. Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier and Peter Faber.

Robin Andersen, PhD, professor of communications and former head of Fordham’s peace and justice studies program, said Father Berrigan ran seminars for Fordham faculty on how to teach peace, and also taught courses for students such as Poems by Poets in Torment.

She said that he provided great comfort to students whose faith in peace was shaken by the events of 9/11.

“There were calls to bomb Afghanistan, and I remember one of his students asked him, ‘How can you still have a peace attitude after this?’ Father Berrigan told him ‘Well you know, being a peace activist between wars is kind of like being a vegetarian between meals,’” Andersen recalled.

His writing and activism occasionally intersected, as in The Dark Night of Resistance (Doubleday & Company, 1971), which he wrote in 1970 while he was in hiding from the FBI on federal charges.

In interviews, Father Berrigan credited Dorothy Day with piquing his initial interest in antiwar activism. He said, while he was teaching at Brooklyn Preparatory School, Day had sent a student pacifist to him who sought instruction in the Catholic faith and peace. The musings of John Cuthbert Ford, S.J. on the morality of saturation bombing—such as the firebombing of Dresden in World War II—further convinced him to oppose war.

In a 2012 interview for Faith, Resistance, and the Future: Daniel Berrigan’s Challenge to Catholic Social Thought (Fordham University Press 2012), Father Berrigan was asked to reflect on how things had changed in the 44 years since his arrest for the Catonsville event.

“The mass[es]of our people are victimized by politics and by the media,” Father Berrigan wrote. “We are called to be sensible and realistic about the state of our world without being completely absorbed into it, so that we have nothing to say about it, nothing to do about it.”

“I think, if we stop with just the analysis of how bad things are, we miss the point of the Gospel, which is saying to us in various ways [and]in all sorts of ways what is to be done.

“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the U.S. around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better.”

The wake and funeral arrangements for Father Berrigan are as follows:
Thursday, May 5:
2-5 pm and 7-9 pm, Wake
Church of St Francis Xavier
46 W. 16th St., New York, NY
Friday, May 6:
7:30 am, Peace Witness and March to Xavier. Assemble at Mary House, 55 East Third St, New York NY
Mass at 10 am
Church of St Francis Xavier, 46 W. 16th St., New York, NY

Donations in his memory may be made to the Fr. Daniel Berrigan, SJ Fund for Social Ministries, Jesuits USA Northeast Province at sjnen.org/donate. The Province has also has created a memorial Peacemaking Fund, which will directly support peacemaking efforts at a wide range of Jesuit works along the entire eastern United States.

Services will be held for O’Brien on Wednesday, April 6 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Riverdale-on-Hudson Funeral Home, 6110 Riverdale Ave., Bronx, New York.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Thursday, April 7 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Margaret of Cortona Church, 6000 Riverdale Ave., Bronx, New York.

“Astrid was so much a part of the college here,” teaching a vast range of courses and always advocating for what students needed, said Robert A. Grimes, SJ, dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), where O’Brien taught until her retirement in 2012. “She was always extremely interested in her students and would go to bat for them,” looking out for their interests both academically and personally, he said.

Colleague Dominic Balestra, PhD, professor of philosophy, described her as “unhesitating in her commitment and dedication to students and resolute in her commitments to what she believed in.”

O’Brien was a devout Catholic and an active and vibrant member of the American Catholic Philosophical Association in the New York area, he said. She not only served as a conscientious treasurer for the association but also started a women’s group within it. “She was a voice there, and a strong one,” said Balestra, who served as the association’s program chairman and then president.

Born Astrid Marie Richie, O’Brien earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of Mount St. Vincent, but switched to her true passion in graduate school. She earned a master’s in philosophy from Marquette University and her doctorate from Fordham, specializing in the ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas.

She began her Fordham career in 1959 as an adjunct professor in the undergraduate school of education at Fordham’s former facility at 302 Broadway, where she met the professor, Robert C. O’Brien, PhD, who would become her husband. The couple taught together for more than 50 years, and O’Brien retired in 2012, after 53 years. 

A Q and A with O’Brien was featured at that time in the FCLC student newspaper, The Observer.

O’Brien and her husband had three children: Robert J. O’Brien of Port St. Lucie, Florida; Frances C. O’Brien of Saddle Brook, New Jersey and Carol O’Brien Haagensen of Westborough, Massachusetts, and three grandchildren, according to a April 3 obituary. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations in her memory to go to supporting Heifer International, one of her favorite charities at http://fundraise.heifer.org/amob.

Guns in America

The shooting in San Bernardino will not change the larger dynamic at work in the contentious debate over the role of guns in American society. The gun rights position and the gun violence reduction policy agenda are each a product of a complex amalgam of  interests and ideologies.  Each must work in the increasingly dysfunctional world of American politics,  a reality in which the wealthier, more entrenched interest tends to win: in this case guns. We are unlikely to see major changes at the national level and will continue to see the nation drift in opposite directions at the state level—“Red America” will likely continue to expand the right to carry in public and “Blue America” will pass some more regulations consistent with the way the courts have construed the meaning of the right to bear arms in recent years.

– Saul Cornell, PhD, Paul and Diane Gunther Chair in History and author, A Well-Regulated Militia: the Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America.

Fantasy Sports Shutdown

After a period of spectacular growth in an unregulated market, both FanDuel and DraftKings will have a rocky 2016. The New York State Office of the Attorney General will likely prevail in its quest to shut down these sites in New York (which had the largest number of players of any state), but only after months of litigation and appeals. However, it is likely these daily fantasy sports sites will continue to operate in other states, although in a more regulated fashion. The ultimate solution would be to legalize sports betting in some fashion, which would eliminate the need to debate whether daily fantasy sports constitutes gambling or not. I don’t see that happening next year, but [perhaps]in the next five years.

– Mark Conrad, Area Chair and Associate Professor of Law and Ethics, Gabelli School of Business and director of its sports business concentration

Prison Reform

This coming year, New York State and the federal government will be challenged with following suit on their commitment to prison reform and improving community reintegration for incarcerated people of all ages. Ending solitary confinement, a form of inhumane punishment, will continue to gain state and national support. The shift from punishment to rehabilitation will open the door for trauma-informed care, [and]concerted efforts of local and national advocacy groups will increase public awareness of the consequences of mass incarceration, resulting in an increase of public support for humanistic prison reform and more community reintegration. In our own backyard, Fordham’s Be the Evidence project is collaborating with the New York State Department of Corrections to establish a statewide initiative for a discharge planning unit for the most vulnerable of prison populations—the aging and seriously ill. Perhaps most importantly, Sesame Street will continue to enlighten people about the experiences of young children who have an incarcerated parent. It may be the puppets (as opposed to the politicians) that will release us from the invisible prisons that separate each of us from one another’s common humanity.

– Tina Maschi, PhD, associate professor at the Graduate School of Social Service and president of Be the Evidence International

Escalating Humanitarian Crises

In 2005, Madame Sadako Ogata, then the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said of the Balkan crisis, “There are no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems,” stating that only political action can bring about real change. That statement is still true 10 years later. In 2016, due to political inaction, the current Middle East migration crises will worsen, and increased human displacement and suffering will continue. Perhaps, even worse, the humanitarian community will continue to lack critical and needed financial support and qualified personnel. Other countries in the region, especially Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon, will therefore see an increase in unrest, adding to the overall migration numbers.

– Brendan Cahill, executive director of Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs

Reproductive Ethics

Uterus transplant clinical trials are currently—and will continue to be—a major news story in 2016. At this stage, a study in Sweden involving nine women who received uteruses from living donors resulted in five pregnancies and four live births in 2015. Two other clinical trials are set to begin next year: one in the United Kingdom, and one at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States.  A significant ethical issue with the Swedish trial was the fact that the living donors had to undergo major surgery with potential complications for something that had no direct physical benefit for them. But the new trials will differ from the one that took place in Sweden, because each uterus will come from a deceased donor, eliminating potential harm to a living donor. However, many questions remain unanswered, including whether uteruses transplanted from deceased donors will result in pregnancies, and whether women will view posthumous [womb]donation differently than donating other organs currently used in transplants, such as kidneys and hearts, because of its unique role as the organ responsible for gestation.

– Elizabeth Yuko, PhD, bioethicist at Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education

Rate Increase Ripple Effects

When the Fed set its monetary policy in December 2015, they were making policy [strictly]on the basis of the U.S. economy, but at the same time it affects the entire world. The new interest rate hike clearly appreciates the dollar, and the real question for the emerging market countries is, if something looks risky to an investor in another country, why keep your money there when you can get guaranteed dollar-denominated deposits? Even at .25 percent, when multiplied by hundreds of billions of dollars, that is real money. So investment is flowing back to the United States. Given that people will be less willing to invest in emerging markets—China, Brazil, Argentina, and the Middle East—their currencies will depreciate. If there are slowdowns in some of these nations, their domestic debt crises could compound quickly.

– Paul McNelis, SJ, Robert Bendheim Professor of Economic & Financial Policy, Finance and Business Economics, Gabelli School of Business

Climate Change and the Marginalized

The coming year looks hopeful for the environment. The agreement reached at COP21 finally replaces the question of climate change with a dialogue about combatting it. While international agreements do not solve local problems, they can create a more supportive climate for local communities trying to address them. In Paris, I saw attention shifting to the role of indigenous peoples and a renewed appreciation for the traditional knowledge of local communities. These inevitably slow-but-vital shifts in global perspective bring to light the marginalized person whom development efforts should ultimately target. These people offer us ideas on how to achieve economic growth without harming the environment. Scaling their daily work to reach the goals set by world leaders is key to sustainable development.

– Elizabeth Shaw, graduate student in Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development program, and attendee at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21)

2016 Presidential Election

Elections are ultimately determined, in part, by which voters show up. The 2016 election’s likely turnout of 60 percent, while lower than many would like, will exceed the turnout in 2014 by about 20 percentage points. Higher turnout generally favors Democrats, because many voters who abstain in midterms and other low-salience elections are young or new voters and minorities. Still, many things are up in the air: For example, if Donald Trump fails to get the GOP nomination, do his supporters sit out the election or does he mount a third-party candidacy that appeals to them? Turnout—along with outcomes generally—is also driven by fundamentals like perceptions of economic performance and the incumbent party. Seeking your party’s third term in the White House seems to carry a general-election penalty of 4 or 5 percentage points, so the Democratic nominee will have to work hard to mitigate that effect.

— Costas Panagopoulos, PhD, professor of political science and director of Fordham’s Elections and Campaign Management program

ISIS

ISIS has defined itself as “ISIS against the world.” That offers the US and other nations a unifying focal point. I think the strategy we have now will continue to grow, which is to engage with more Muslim heads of state and  leaders from various countries to mount a united front. It’ll be interesting to see how Iran fits into that conversation and what happens with the U.S./Saudi alliance, but I don’t think it will change U.S./Russian relations very much. Domestically, ISIS has provided a unifying focal point as well. It’s been very reassuring to see strong pushback against Trump’s anti-Muslim comments. Individuals from across the political spectrum have declared that his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country violates the most fundamental constitutional guarantees.

– Karen Greenberg, PhD, is the director of the Center on National Security

At Fordham, students from all three campuses gathered to listen to, discuss, and commemorate the historic visit from the first Jesuit pope.

A live viewing at the Lincoln Center campus of the pope’s address to Congress

Papal flags flew and “Pope2Congress” bingo cards were distributed on Sept 24, as members of the Fordham community gathered around televisions on all three campuses to watch Pope Francis address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

In addition to the lobby in the McGinley Center and Room 228 at the Westchester campus, the address—the first ever for a pope—was broadcast in the plaza-level lobby at the Lincoln Center campus.

The address, in which the pope challenged U.S. leaders on issues such immigration, global climate change, and income inequality, drew both a mix of curious onlookers who lingered at the top of the escalators upon seeing the crowd, and those who listened intently to the hour-long address.

Jamie Saltamachia, FCRH ‘14, GSS ’15, assistant director of the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice, was excited that the pope was speaking directly to leaders whose constituents, in many cases, are poor.

“He’s really made an impact on a lot of people and really opened a lot of eyes,” she said.

“People who may have lost their faith years ago are starting to come back to the church, because he is so open minded and has a strong sense of social justice.”

Katie Svejkoski, a first-year English graduate student from St. Louis, said she was pleasantly surprised that Francis called for the abolishment of the death penalty, and was thrilled that he praised Dorothy Day.

John J. Shea, S.J. director for Campus Ministry at Lincoln Center, said he found the pope to be very strong in what he wanted to say without being political. And while he was particularly impressed that Francis grouped Thomas Merton with Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day as Americans worthy of emulation, he said it was amazing just to see a pope in such a setting.

“We live in interesting times. A pope would never have been invited when I was a boy in high school, when John F. Kennedy was trying to get elected, because they thought the pope would try to run America,” he said.

“Today we see that 30 percent of Congress is Roman Catholic, including the speaker of the house, as are the vice president and more than half of the Supreme Court. It’s all amazing.”

Procession through Central Park

The pope’s second day in New York began with an address to the United Nations, followed by a solemn visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in downtown Manhattan. Later that afternoon, the pontiff spoke to elementary school students at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Harlem before greeting the multitude in Central Park.

At Central Park, where 80,000 New Yorkers won tickets in a lottery to the papal procession, some members of the Fordham community waited in line for nearly three hours to get into the park, as several lines snaked between 60^th and 69^th streets.

Once in the park, Maddy Cunningham, DSW, professor of social work at the Graduate School of Social Service, made a decision to watch the procession rather than try to photograph the pope with her phone as he passed by in his Popemobile.

“I just wanted to see him with my own eyes, to experience the moment,” said Cunningham, who still remembers seeing Pope Paul VI in a procession on Queens Boulevard as a child in 1965. “I am glad I didn’t even try to film [because]he was turned to our side, and he was waving. I now have that image in my mind’s eye.”

Noreen Rafferty, an assistant director in the office of marketing and communications, videotaped the moment when “all the hands went up.”

“It was unbelievable,” she said. “There were so many nationalities—Italian, Irish, Filipino, Puerto Rican. He’s got to come again.”

The Papal Mass at Madison Square Garden

From Central Park, Pope Francis journeyed south to Madison Square Garden, where he celebrated Mass Friday evening with more than 20,000 people.

Despite a three-hour wait and a line that stretched 20 city blocks, the atmosphere outside the arena was one of excitement and conviviality. Strangers befriended one another as they inched closer to the entrance. A group of nuns sang hymns to pass the time. One man broke from the line and ducked into a Duane Reade, returning with a case of water for the wearying pilgrims.

“I was thirsty, and I figured everyone else was, too,” he said as he distributed water bottles down the line.

At 6 p.m. sharp, musicians from St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir and the New York Archdiocesan Festival Chorale began the processional hymn, and Pope Francis processed into the arena accompanied by bishops, priests, deacons, and seminarians from throughout New York State.

The 90-minute Mass was as international as the crowd itself, with the liturgy alternating between Spanish and English and prayers being offered in Gaelic, Mandarin, French, and Italian. In his homily, Pope Francis spoke in Spanish about the role of faith in cities. Big cities encompass the diversity of life, with their many cultures, languages, cuisines, traditions, and histories. Negotiating this diversity is not always easy, though, the pontiff said. Tragically, our most vibrant cities tend to hide “second-class citizens.”

“Beneath the roar of traffic, beneath the ‘rapid pace of change,’ so many faces pass by unnoticed because they have no ‘right’ to be there, no right to be part of the city,” Pope Francis said from an ambo built especially for the Mass by young men from Lincoln Hall Boys’ Haven.

“They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly. These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity. They become part of an urban landscape which is more and more taken for granted, in our eyes, and especially in our hearts.”

The remedy to our “isolation and lack of concern for the lives of others” is faith, the pope said. We must heed the words of the prophet Isaiah by “learning to see” God within the city, and then go out to meet others “where they really are, not where we think they should be.”

“The people who walk, breath, and live in the midst of smog, have seen a great light, have experienced a breath of fresh air,” Pope Francis said. This light imbues us with a “liberating” hope—“A hope which is unafraid of involvement… which makes us see, even in the midst of smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our city.”

As the Mass drew to a close, Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan offered words of welcome and gratitude to the Holy Father on behalf of New Yorkers.

“Every day and at every Mass, we pray for Francis our pope—and now you here you are!” Cardinal Dolan said, prompting an eruption of cheering and applause throughout the arena—the single display of ebullience amid an otherwise reverent liturgy.

“It is so dazzlingly evident this evening that the Church is our family. Thank you, Holy Father, for visiting us, your family.”

The pope offered a final blessing and before departing, delivered his familiar farewell.

“And please, I ask you—don’t forget to pray for me,” he said.

Fordham Day of Service

On Sept. 26, students and other members of the Fordham community participated in a day of service with Habitat for Humanity-Westchester in honor of the pope’s visit, said Carol Gibney, assistant director of campus ministry. More students showed up than had signed up, she said.

The students worked on refurbishing the Pope Francis house in Yonkers as well as on some other projects in the surrounding area—cleaning an abandoned lot, planting flowers, and laying a brick walkway.

“The area we worked in is one of those communities that are often plagued with violence, crime, and poverty,” said Gibney. “It is one of those communities often forgotten or discarded as ‘worthless’” that Pope Francis spoke about on his U.S. trip.

Once the South Yonkers house is completed in December, it will become the home of U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Velazquez, 24, and his family of six.

“It was a great day for our students as the idea of being men and women for others, particularly by helping to build a house for an Iraqi veteran, a house that is named after the first Jesuit Pope!”

(Patrick Verel and Janet Sassi contributed to this report. Various photographs were submitted by members of the Fordham community.)

[doptg id=”34″] ]]> 28546 https://now.fordham.edu/campus-life/what-does-the-popes-visit-mean-fordham-community-weighs-in/ Thu, 17 Sep 2015 14:45:00 +0000 http://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=27946 (Next week, the world’s first Jesuit pope makes a historic visit to America, including a stop in New York City. Below, Fordham employees and students share their thoughts.)

Brendan McGuinness, facilities mechanic at the Lincoln Center campus

Brendan McGuinness grew up in the Bronx, and along with his four siblings, attended Our Lady of Mercy grammar school, just across Webster Avenue from the Rose Hill campus. He served as an altar boy at the church there, and although he doesn’t attend church as often as he used to, he says he still believes in God and goes to church on holidays. McGuinness said he hopes Pope Francis’ visit will be a blessing for New York City.

“He took over at a rough time in the church. He’s a humble man and says he wants to still live the humble life he’s lived. He’s not looking for everybody to cater to him because he’s the high priest. He still wants to put on his own shoes. That resonates with me, because it tells me that even in his position, he’s a normal person. Normal people don’t turn around and feel that they’re higher up than somebody, because we’re all on the same page and the same level. We’re all children of God.”

Angela Belsole, grants administrator, Graduate School of Social Service

Angela Belsole calls herself a “cradle Catholic.” Raised in a strongly religious family, she attended Catholic school all through her formative years in Long Island, and graduated from Thomas More College of Fordham University in 1973. She will be seeing the Pope in Central Park next week.

“It is wonderful that the Pope is coming to the U.S. and I think it will have a positive effect not only on Catholics, but on everyone. Pope Francis has an infectious spirit of joy that is hard not to catch. His simple, joyful demeanor, his emphasis on God’s mercy, and his commitment to social justice are all attributes that are so needed in today’s world. Young people, especially, are excited by the obvious delight he takes in living a deep faith in the freedom of God’s love. I hope his visit will inspire these future leaders of our Church and the world to live and share the gospel of Jesus in the same way.”

“Much like Pope John XXIII, when he came in and started Vatican II, and the church renewed itself, I feel like with Pope Francis that is going to happen too. With his emphasis on mercy and love and care for the earth and for one another, I think we will see that renewal again.”

Chastity Lopez, facilities coordinator at Lincoln Center

Chastity Lopez was baptized Catholic but grew up Lutheran, as her father worked as a custodian for the Trinity Lutheran Church in Sunset Park. Even though she grew up outside of the Catholic faith, Lopez is a big believer in the power of faith, and is eager to hear more about Pope Francis’ thoughts on the environment.

“After 9/11, we were all united in one cause, just trying to help everyone. And as that passed on, it changed. It’s like everyone went back to not caring about anything. I’m looking forward to seeing if him coming here can bring some kind of change among the people of New York, to bring back that common goal.

“I feel like New Yorkers, we’re so self involved in our own running to work, then running home, then running for dinner, running to pick up kids. Some of us don’t even have time for church anymore, and we need to clear our minds and focus on one thing, just to know there is some kind of hope, and something to look forward to.”

Anne Marie Kirmse, OP, PhD, research associate for the McGinley Chair

A few years ago, when the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith began an investigation of the U.S.-based Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the sisters were given the option to meet with investigators individually. Sister Kirmse chose to meet with them privately when they came to her religious congregation.

After her meeting was completed, her congregation as well as many other groups of American women religious protested the Vatican’s decision to keep the investigation results and details private.

“In America we’re not like that,” she said. “You can’t have this big study and then have it only go to certain groups in Rome. You have to tell us. Good or bad, whatever the results are, we need to know.”

Eventually the sisters got the published report. This spring, the report was put to rest and several months later the pope from Argentina offered effusive praise for the work of the nuns.

“Pope Francis said, ‘I love the American sisters,’” Sister Kirmse said. “And I thought to myself, ‘Well the investigation is now over.’”

“This pope was ratifying the work that we do. And since he is so involved with social justice work himself, and because he comes from a developing nation, he understands that we sisters are in the forefront of the ecological movement, in prisons, in social work, in education. And that’s God’s work.”

Juan Keller Sarmiento, sophomore at Fordham College at Lincoln Center

Sarmiento was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, like Pope Francis. Although he never attended Catholic school in Argentina, he was heavily influenced by Catholicism, thanks to his deeply religious family. His parents were very fond of Jesuit education. That fondness, plus a love of New York City, brought Sarmiento 5,000 miles from home to Fordham. With the Pope’s arrival to New York City, Sarmiento’s worlds seem to be coming together.

“I have immense pride because the Pope is Argentine. I’m sure Fordham feels the same pride. Going to a Jesuit school and being Argentine, I feel that we have a lot in common and I have a connection to him. I think he’s a good head of the Church because he’s humble and his actions show what he preaches. He is helping us adapt to changing times, and I can’t wait for the Pope to come to New York City.”

Olga Jaime, executive secretary, Development and University Relations

For Jaime, who has a master’s in religious education and is a catechist, the pope is Jesus’ representative here on Earth, and as such, he is a traveling teacher—just as Jesus was.

“The pope is doing exactly the same thing with his visit. He’s walking around and teaching,” she said. “Even the person who is farthest away from him will be affected.”

She cited a biblical passage of a woman in a large crowd who touched the mere fringe of Jesus’s cloak. He perceived her touch and her faith and then cured her illness.

“I know that I won’t be close. But that light that comes with the pope represents Jesus. A look from the pope, it is through the light of Christ,” she said. “So it doesn’t matter where you are because knowing that he’s nearby is enough.”

Clare Deck, senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill and an intern at Spiritual Retreat Ministry

Deck remembers the excitement on campus when Francis was named pope. She said Father Phil Florio made sure that students understood they were part of the Jesuit family and that the pope’s election was a big deal for them.

“He was right, it’s done so much for us and it’s done so much for the way the people look at the church,” she said.

“I’ve never been so interested in the pope as a figure,” she said. “But now he’s someone that I’m actively seeking articles about and looking for news about.”

The primary change that Pope Francis has brought to the church, she says, is “perception.”

“It’s great that we have someone who’s able to change how the whole world looks at the church and at Jesuit traditions, not only for people of faith but for anybody interested in the basic values he holds.”

“This guy is showing that the church isn’t this huge scary thing. He’s humanizing it, and that’s really awesome.”

Robert Reilly, assistant dean for the Feerick Center for Social Justice, Fordham Law School

Pope Francis will be the fourth pope that Reilly has seen on American soil. Reilly was in high school when Pope Paul VI came to New York in October of 1965.

“We all stood out on the street and watched him drive by,” said Reilly, a devout Catholic and a double Fordham graduate (FCRH ’72 and LAW ’75). “Then, when John Paul II came [in 1979]—I was practicing law at the time—I went to the Mass at Shea Stadium. And when Benedict XVI was here [in 2008]I got a ticket to the going-away service held at Kennedy Airport.”

Fortunately, Reilly’s run will continue with Pope Francis, who he says “exudes joy and is a face of compassion.” He and several volunteers from the Feerick Center will attend the Mass at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 25.

“A few months ago, the Archdiocese of New York was merging several of its parishes, and we were brought in as volunteer mediators to facilitate some of the more difficult cases,” Reilly said. “In thanksgiving for our work, Timothy Cardinal Dolan invited us as his guests to the pope’s Mass.”

Father James Smith, SJ, retired professor and Murray-Weigel Hall resident

After 66 years as a Jesuit priest, 85-year-old Father Smith, a retired mathematics professor, recognizes the pope’s Jesuit qualities better than most.

“He’s countercultural actually,” said Father Smith. “The type of life we Jesuits live: this life of celibacy, and poverty of a sort, and obedience, it’s not for the generality of man.”

“The pope’s visit will have a good effect on people, especially the disenfranchised Catholics,” he said. “Take all of this stuff about divorced Catholics. Rather than give stern answers to problems, use your mind and see where people can be given a break.”

But while most Americans will be welcoming, of the pope, the more conservative Americans might not be as happy, he said.

“He doesn’t stay behind rituals and ceremonies and it’s not an act. He’s really concerned about people and their needs, and as a Jesuit he’d be open to changes. His norm is ‘What does God want me to do?’”

“He doing it all because he sees this how the Lord wants him to make his contribution to the world. And what a job! He’s not going to change principles, but he communicates them with real sense of caring. To use the a Jewish expression: He’s a real mensch!”

— Rachel Roman, Janet Sassi, Patrick Verel, Tom Stoelker, and Joanna Mercuri contributed to this story.

We reproduce here the obituary for the late Louis B. Pascoe, SJ, written by his former students and friends Christopher M. Bellito and Daniel Marcel La Corte in the History at Fordham blog. 

Rev. Louis B. Pascoe, SJ, returned to his Father’s house on Monday, April 27, 2015, at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY, where he had spent nearly his entire career. The day was the feast of the Jesuit saint Peter Canisius—a fitting date given the reputation they both shared as gentlemen and scholars interested in reforming the church they loved.

Lou Pascoe was born in eastern Pennsylvania and planned a career as a teacher. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Wernersville PA after graduating from the University of Scranton in 1952. He studied philosophy at Shrub Oak and then medieval history at Fordham, completing an MA thesis on Bernard of Clairvaux under Dr. Gerhart Ladner, who served as President of the American Catholic Historical Association in 1963. Fr. Pascoe spent his Jesuit regency teaching Greek and Latin at Georgetown, followed by theology studies at Louvain, Belgium, where he received his STB in 1963. Further theology studies brought him to Woodstock College, then in Maryland; he was ordained to the priesthood in 1964, followed by his theology licentiate the next year. Fr. Pascoe was then sent to study again under Dr. Ladner, now at UCLA, where he earned his doctorate in medieval history in 1970. Fr. Pascoe taught at Woodstock College, now in NY, from 1971 to 1973, the same year he professed his final vows as a Jesuit and moved to Fordham University for the rest of his long career, all the while engaged in New York City’s circle of medievalists at Columbia and NYU. He retired as Professor Emeritus at Fordham in 2001, though he continued to teach for several years and was researching until a few months before his death.

Fr. Pascoe’s scholarship is marked by the careful methodology drilled into him by Gerhart Ladner (who always addressed his student as “Father,” who in turn said he’d never even dared to think to call Ladner anything but “Doctor.”) Fr. Pascoe focused on late medieval reform, though his interests included the related topics of apocalypticism, conciliarism, theology, universities, Cistercian reform, and humanism. His first article, published while still in graduate school, appeared in the Catholic Historical Review. His dissertation was revised and published as Jean Gerson: Principles of Church Reform (Brill, 1973), followed by a series of articles on Gerson for Traditio, Viator, Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, Dictionary of the Middle Ages, et al. He then moved on to Gerson’s own mentor, Pierre d’Ailly; Fr. Pascoe’s growing reputation brought invitations to speak at Avignon on the 600th anniversary of the start of the Great Western Schism and then throughout Europe. He served on the Executive Committee of the American Catholic Historical Association 1993-1996; a panel was held in his honor at the annual convention in 1997. Books and articles on d’Ailly followed, culminating in Church and Reform: Bishops, Theologians, and Canon Lawyers in the Thought of Pierre d’Ailly (1351-1420) (Brill, 2005).

He was a demanding and precise teacher, too. A lover of languages who did not use them lightly, Fr. Pascoe particularly made sure that his students had mastered Latin before mentoring their doctorates. Many graduate students at Fordham tell the story of holding their breath as he flipped his index cards before calling on one of them to recite their translation of texts handed out the week before. Continuing Dr. Ladner’s practice, sometimes Fr. Pascoe would stop and instruct the student to scan grammatically every word aloud, quietly sighing every now and again to say, for instance, “pluperfect subjunctive?” We are told that this gentle nudging and insight marked his Jesuit life, too. In his homily at Fr. Pascoe’s funeral, his Jesuit friend and Fordham patristics scholar Joseph Lienhard, S.J., related a classic anecdote from the dinner table. Someone was lamenting the latest news about a bit of Catholic trouble. Fr. Pascoe, in a low voice, observed, “Yes, that happened in Paris…in the thirteenth century…though worse,” before adding the reassuring comment, “but the Church survived.”

It took Fr. Pascoe over three decades to publish his second book—and therein lies an essential part of this humble scholar’s life. Once he moved along in his career, he said, it was time to put his students’ work first. Fr. Pascoe related that whenever he had to choose between his manuscript and a doctoral student’s chapter—or even an undergrad’s paper—he literally moved his pile to the side and put the student work in the center of his desk. His students and colleagues, especially in the American Cusanus Society, recognized this very fact in theirfestschrift for him, Reform and Renewal in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Brill, 2000), noting that his influence cannot be measured by acurriculum vitae. Scholars regularly sent him drafts of their own chapters and articles because they knew the kind of close and generous attention he would pay to their work—once again, at the expense of his own. These efforts stemmed from what he identified as the three joys of his life: his teaching, his priesthood, and his Jesuit vocation. Lou Pascoe was always a man for others—and everything he did was for the greater glory of God.

On Thursday, May 21, the Curran Center will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its naming with a gala honoring its benefactors, John P. Curran, PhD, PHA ’66, and Constance A. Curran. The couple will be awarded with Fordham’s prestigious Presidential Medal.

The Currans were inspired to endow the center in 2004 through their close friendship with Mark S. Massa, SJ, Fordham’s former Karl Rahner Chair in Theology. Father Massa first founded a center for Catholic study at Fordham, which opened one week after the tragedies of 9/11.

Father Massa, who is now professor of church history and dean of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, had said at that time, “Now it’s more important than ever that we have a place where reasoned discourse about religion can take place.”

Through the generous support of the Currans and other donors, the center has continued to enable that discourse by offering an undergraduate concentration in American Catholic studies, faculty programs, and numerous lectures and conferences open to the public.

Reflecting on their decision to become benefactors, Constance Curran remarked, “John and I were both excited about the opportunity to help grow and expand the center’s programs.”

“For John, being able to name the center after his parents, Francis and Ann Curran, makes it a very special place.”

Student concentrators at the Curran Center engage in a rigorous program of inter-disciplinary courses and participate in community service. As well, they receive mentoring for post-graduation and scholarships toward tuition.

Father Massa envisioned a program that would help students carry their Catholic tradition into the world. “We were not concerned so much with getting people who were going to be ordained … although we certainly have that, but also we were interested in forming very talented undergraduates who were going to go on to be lawyers or doctors or professors, training them for positions of Catholic leadership,” he said.

Constance Curran said that meeting the graduating seniors has been one of the most meaningful experiences for her and John. “Year after year many of them tell us how being a concentrator at CACS has made them realize the importance of faith and social involvement in one’s life and work – it’s a partnership,” she said.

Christine Firer Hinze, PhD, professor of theology and the current director, sees the center as a “wonderful platform” for cultivating understanding and appreciation of “all things Catholic, whether it’s Catholic thought, Catholic practice, Catholic issues in society, Catholic art, Catholic literature—all the different facets of this tradition, which are so interesting, particularly as they live in the United States.”

The center’s public conferences and lectures reflect the diverse aspects of Catholicism, exploring topics such as Catholic education, the Catholic literary imagination, black Catholic culture, and Latino/a spirituality. For the past 10 years, the center has also hosted the Rita Cassella Jones Lecture on Women and Catholicism.

The center is now in the midst of a three-year series examining Catholic social teaching and the economy, which will culminate in a major conference in 2016, marking the 125th anniversary of the first issuing of a papal social encyclical in 1891. For this series, the center is also inaugurating its first Visiting Chair in American Catholic Studies.

Contemplating the Curran Center’s accomplishments and its continued importance, Hinze stated, “I think we’re in a moment historically where we badly need places that allow people to think and to dialog intelligently and compassionately about matters of faith as they intersect with culture, politics, the arts, society, and so forth.”

“At a Catholic university, and at a Jesuit university which has this long tradition of seeking the intersections of faith and the larger culture or faith and reason . . . , we’re really well situated to fill a need that’s out there for discourse that is informative but also very engaging and inter-disciplinary—something that helps people think and talk about these issues today.”

–Nina Heidig