“It’ll be the first time that my husband and I are bringing our daughter to the Fordham campus,” she said of Jubilee Weekend, to be held May 31 to June 2. The couple were married in the University Church in 2015 and welcomed a baby girl this spring. They’re among hundreds of alumni planning to return to campus for the festivities.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting up with some friends who also have kids—who will be bringing them to Fordham for the first time—because it’s just such a special place for us and we’re really looking forward to introducing them to it,” said Schwall-Pecci, a 2009 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate.

Building a Skillset

Meeting her husband, Robert Pecci, GABELLI ’08, on campus isn’t the only reason Fordham holds a special place in the Long Island native’s heart. Rose Hill is also where she found faculty mentors. She majored in biology and minored in chemistry and sociology, which helped her build both the hard and soft skills needed to launch a successful career in health care communications, she said.

Working closely with professor Ipsita Banerjee, Ph.D., during her sophomore year, Schwall-Pecci researched nanotubes and protein hormones with the potential to advance drug delivery and the treatment of diabetes. She later earned a Clare Boothe Luce fellowship, which enabled her to conduct research in Germany the summer before her senior year. And after graduating from Fordham, she earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry.

A Sense of Belonging

She also found that Fordham’s Jesuit identity instilled in her—and other students—“a sense of belonging and wanting to give back, and feeling like you’re a part of a community that is responsible for helping better the world around you.”

That commitment to giving back is why she’s chosen a career path that enables her to promote better public health. As a senior vice president at BGB Group, she works to make complex scientific concepts and information accessible for patients. She’s also a longstanding volunteer with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She first began volunteering with the organization after her father died from cancer when she was a student at Fordham.

When her father was diagnosed, she “was overwhelmed and naive to the fact that anything bad could actually happen to him,” she recently wrote for BGB Group. Her mother felt “numb, in denial, confused, frustrated, overwhelmed, helpless, and hopeless,” Schwall-Pecci shared. It’s an experience that fuels her commitment to helping patients and their families process their diagnoses, ask the right questions, and make informed decisions about their health care.

Staying Connected with Her Fellow Rams

Following graduation, Schwall-Pecci was a member of the Young Alumni Committee, an advisory and programming board for graduates of the past 10 years. She’s past that 10-year cap now, but she’s stayed connected to Fordham however she can—participating in panels, mentoring students, and speaking at events. And her first impression of the Rose Hill campus still rings true.

“I just felt like the people who were going there, who had chosen to go to Fordham, had a similar kind of mindset and values as I had and were the kind of people that I wanted to surround myself with,” she said.

Fordham Five

What are you most passionate about?
Health education and access to quality medical care and information. Medicine is inherently defined by specialized language that may not be the easiest to digest, especially when you are newly diagnosed. I want everyone to feel empowered to make decisions with their care providers and ask informed questions.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Take what you do seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously! It’s all about enjoying the journey—be committed to what you are passionate about, but don’t worry about making mistakes or changing your mind along the way.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
This is so hard—how do I choose? In NYC, it is honestly probably the Fordham campus in the Bronx, as cheesy as that sounds. That is where I met my husband and we got married, so it will always be one of my happy places. And in the world, it is likely Abisko, in the very north of Sweden, where I saw the northern lights!

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
Probably The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It is a fascinating look at the evolution of our approach to understanding and treating cancer. It appeals to me both professionally and also personally, as I lost my dad to leukemia when I was a student at Fordham.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
There are too many to name, but Ipsita Banerjee, Ph.D., in the chemistry department was my research mentor while at Fordham. She is so passionate about the research she conducts and the students she mentors, which inspired me to commit myself to my own work and always put forward 110% in my studies.

Interested in hearing more of Schwall-Pecci’s story? Listen to her episode of the Fordham Footsteps podcast.

Daniel Gustafson, S.J.; Michael Lamanna, S.J.; Zachariah Presutti, S.J.; and William Woody, S.J., pronounced their final vows after a decade-long formation process that involved intense studies in philosophy and theology, ministry to the community, and a 30-day retreat.

The ceremony was presided over by the Most Reverend James Massa, auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Brooklyn, as well as Joseph M. O’Keefe, S.J., GSAS ’80, a former faculty member at Fordham who was elevated to the position of provincial of the USA East Province in 2019.

In his homily, Bishop Massa noted that the ordination was taking place just a month after the Society of Jesus celebrated the 500th anniversary of its founding by Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

He addressed the four priests after they’d taken their promise of obedience, shortly before inviting them to lay prostrate on the floor of the church for the Litany of the Saints ceremony.

“Today in the ordination Mass, Ignatius and his companions from those early years accompany you to the altar. As you lay prostrate on the floor in a few moments, I invite you to listen carefully for their names, and for those of Mary, the Mother of God, and Saint Joseph, and the others invoked in the Litany of the Saints,” he said.

“This invisible company of holy men and women hover about you in the act of your submission and join all of us in calling down the Holy Spirit to impart to you the grace of Christ’s priesthood.”

In closing remarks, Father O’Keefe thanked the Jesuit community at Fordham, including Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and Christopher Devron, S.J., president of Fordham Prep, both of whom were in attendance.

“The care, the prayer, and the attentiveness to our four brothers who have been ordained has just been extraordinary,” he said.

Daniel N. Gustafson, S.J., was born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He attended Georgetown University, and after interning in the U.S. House of Representatives and a political consulting firm, concluded God was calling him in a different direction.

He entered the novitiate after graduating with a degree in government and theology in 2011. During his novitiate, he served as a grade school tutor and hospital chaplain in Syracuse, New York; an orphanage volunteer in Bolivia; a nurse’s aide in the Bronx; and a religion teacher and campus minister in Philadelphia. He completed philosophy studies at Loyola University Chicago and spent two years of regency at Fordham Prep, where he taught religion, assisted with retreats, coached tennis, and accompanied students on immersion trips to Rome and Rwanda.

He completed his Master of Divinity degree and the coursework for a License in Sacred Theology (STL) at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. He will complete his thesis on church history for the STL this fall while ministering at St. Ignatius Parish in Manhattan.

Michael Lamanna, S.J., was born in Albany, New York, and attended Syracuse University for two years before entering the Society of Jesus as a novice, in 2011. As a novice, Lamanna taught at Nativity Miguel Middle School in Buffalo. After his vows in 2013, Michael was missioned to Loyola University Chicago for philosophy studies. He went to Yap, Micronesia, in 2016 for his regency, where he taught math, history, and religion at Yap Catholic High School.

Working with migrants and refugees has been a formative part of Lamanna’s life. He worked in refugee resettlement in Syracuse before he entered the Jesuits, and he has lived and worked near the Southwestern border as a Jesuit, including a summer working with the Kino Border Initiative. He most recently served as a deacon at St. Ignatius Parish in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and completed a Master of Divinity and Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. He will do a pastoral year at Sacred Heart Parish in Richmond, Virginia.

Zachariah F. Presutti, S.J., was born and raised in Belmont, New York. After four years of serving as the pastoral associate at St. Paul’s Church in Kenmore, New York, he joined St. Andrew’s Hall Novitiate in Syracuse, New York, where he did apostolic work in the local jail and supported victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse in an emergency shelter.

He obtained a master’s degree in clinical social work at Saint Louis University while interning at the local state correctional facility, where he offered individual and group therapeutic interventions to men detained in solitary confinement. After graduating, he founded the Thrive for Life Prison Project, a partnership between Jesuit parish communities and alumni of Jesuit schools that trains spiritual mentors to offer reflective and meditative resources at correctional facilities in the New York metropolitan area. He also supervised the opening of the Ignacio House of Studies in the Bronx, a transitional supportive living community for formerly incarcerated students.

He earned a Master of Divinity at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, and before the pandemic, he was offering weekly individual and group pastoral counseling at San Quentin State Prison. His work now will include offering sacramental ministry at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan and at correctional facilities in the New York metropolitan area.

William C. Woody, S.J., was born and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. After attending St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Scranton with a Bachelor of Arts in theology, philosophy, and French and a concentration in Catholic Studies. As a novice, he ministered as a hospice orderly at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, as a teacher in Syracuse, and at St. Anne’s Parish in Kingston, Jamaica. He returned to New York to earn a master’s from Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and serve as a chaplain at St. Barnabas Hospital. He taught philosophy at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, New Jersey, before teaching philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

He said that a highlight of his scholastic ministry was teaching in the Montserrat Program at the College of the Holy Cross and directing adaptations of the Spiritual Exercises. He has published on contemporary philosophy of religion and serves as an editor for the International Network of Philosophy of Religion. He completed a Master of Divinity degree and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Boston College and will serve for a year at Holy Trinity Parish in Washington, D.C.

After earning a B.A. in English from St. John’s University, McGuire said he “stumbled” upon Fordham’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) during the 1980s. As the world grappled with issues of peace, war, and the proliferation of nuclear arms, he knew he wanted to “serve the people of God,” ultimately enrolling because GRE and its religious education program curriculum “just answered all my wants and desires.” McGuire added that John Shea, S.J., FCRH ’69, then a professor of psychology and his thesis mentor, “really opened up a whole new world” for him.

While many students hold full-time jobs while attending graduate school, just as he did when he was a doctoral candidate, McGuire said he considers himself “privileged” that he was able to attend Fordham full time. And when he graduated, he began what would become a decades-long career as an educator, often returning to the same institutions that stoked his own love of learning. He returned to his alma mater, Monsignor Scanlan High School, where he taught religion for five years before hopping over to another alma mater, St. John’s, where he simultaneously taught theology and served as a dean in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Years later, he once again resumed work at Monsignor Scanlan, becoming the first alumnus of the school to serve as principal. “I was a student, faculty [member], and then 20-something years later, I became the principal,” he said.

Always eager to learn more, McGuire earned an Ed.D. from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1994, and has studied higher education development at Harvard University. And though the lion’s share of his time is currently spent volunteering and caring for his elderly parents, he said he’s eager to return to a full-time position in education after the pandemic.

Embracing Jesuit Ideals to Pay it Forward

McGuire said he strives to honor the Jesuit ideal of magis—the call to be more and do more for the world—by volunteering and performing community service. “Fordham opened up so many worlds and relationships,” he said. “And it was that Jesuit [mindset]of magis that really helped me to understand what Fordham and Jesuit education are all about. … It really speaks to me; it grounds me in my community service and my educational leadership in my role as a dean, teacher, and principal.”

He just celebrated his fifth anniversary with God’s Love We Deliver, volunteers with New York Cares and Coalition for the Homeless, and has also spent five years volunteering at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he works in the Payne Whitney Clinic with adults who have acute psychiatric illnesses—though he’s had to take a break from that due to COVID-19 protocols.

“I am the education and recreational consultant, and I work with a retired, now part-time, occupational therapist,” he said. “In a way, it’s a privilege because I take a lot of my counseling skills that I learned from John Shea and the different faculty at Fordham and bring that into my volunteering—my ministry with the patients.”

Though he’s a trained counselor, McGuire said his volunteer work at the hospital often has included anything from playing bingo and holding ice cream socials to reading scriptures or leading calming and relaxation exercises.

Learning from Within

The Forever Learning series is being held digitally—everything from the kickoff and livestream of Mass from the University Church on Easter to a culinary demonstration and panel discussions. And instead of the one-day agenda planned for last year, the programming will now happen all month long, with sessions recorded in case people aren’t able to attend live— although McGuire hopes that holding some events in the evening will mean that “people working can still log off, have some dinner, and then jump on the Zoom and learn, network.”

Plus, because last year’s Forever Learning initiative was canceled due to COVID-19, McGuire said he and his colleagues on the alumni association’s Forever Learning task force had a bit of a head start this year. The planning committee was able to incorporate last year’s speakers into the new agenda, scheduling them throughout the month. Looking ahead, McGuire said that he and other members of the committee are thinking of a hybrid experience in 2022, with some events held online and some held in person on campus.

Whether it’s community college, undergraduate or graduate school, or a handful of webinars during Forever Learning Month, McGuire stressed the importance of finding the subject and format that works for you—when it works for you.

“Some students work best with their hands,” he said. “Whatever their gift is, that’s what God has given them. I used to say, ‘If you’re not happy reading Shakespeare, look at a different area of study. Whatever makes you happy, that’s what you have to study.’ And then contribute to society.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
Through service, I am most passionate about improving the quality of life of others, whether by listening (empathy), reading to children and adults, providing a meal, or serving as a mentor with Fordham’s Mentoring Program or StreetWise Partners. Currently, my service is in volunteering with some New Yorkers with mental health challenges. Magis.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice I received was from my Fordham mentor:  The best dissertation is a DONE dissertation.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
My favorite place in New York City is relaxing in Central Park with a good cup of NYC coffee.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
The published book that has had the most significant influence in my life—spiritually and professionally as a teacher of religion and theology—is Jesus Before Christianity, written by Albert Nolan, OP. Nolan’s writing has empowered me to continue serving others.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Two former GRE faculty members who have helped shape my personal and professional life, rooted in the ethic of care and spirituality, are John Shea (the interface of religion and psychology) and Maria Harris, Ed.D., (children before God) to think critically about important issues and make sound moral-ethical decisions.

What are you optimistic about?
I am most optimistic about teaching and mentoring individuals of the next generations, who will have a strong foundation of ethical principles and a deep commitment to serving others.

“As we all come together as a family, no matter our faith backgrounds, this spring season can be a time of a much-needed renewal for all of us,” he said.

Last year’s Easter celebrations at University Church were attended by a handful of Jesuits and scholastics. As the year progressed, attendance at Sunday Mass steadily increased with safety precautions, including Vital Check, strictly adhered to. By Holy Thursday of this year, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, was able to begin the series of Easter services starting with the Triduum, which marks the Last Supper and eventual removal of the Eucharist from the altar. The bells and music are silenced until the Sacrament returns, signifying the risen Christ at the Easter Vigil Mass celebrated on Holy Saturday, April 3.

This year, the Easter Vigil Mass represented not just a return of the Eucharist, but of long-postponed sacraments, such as Confirmation. At this year’s vigil, five members of the Fordham community were confirmed as Catholics by Lito Salazar, S.J., executive director of campus ministry. Director of University Church Ministries Mark Zittle, O.Carm., oversaw the rites and initiation. Nearly 70 members of the Fordham community—including students and families—were present to witness their full entry into the Church.

Gownley said that while the healing process and the work toward racial justice has only just begun, so too has the Easter season.

“We still have 50 days till Pentecost,” he said. “So, there’s still time to process, to pray, and to do the much-needed interior work that needs to be done to heal.”

What He Does

Gownley oversees the care of the Fordham University Church. He lives in Queen’s Court, where students can call on him for spiritual guidance any time of the day or night—and they have.

Where He’s From

He grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as part of a big Irish Catholic family where the church was as much a part of his culture as it was part of his faith. He has memories of his aunts saying the rosary in his grandmother’s living room, which he said always struck him as “a little extra,” but “beautiful at the same time.” He went on to study media and technology with an art history minor at the University of Scranton.

Leaving Home for Home

After graduating in 2006, Gownley worked in post-production for the movie industry before moving on to a job in the disabilities office at Georgetown University. He worked nights at Georgetown Prep’s boarding program as a housemaster, unwittingly jumpstarting a 15-year career as a live-in mentor to teens and young adults. In 2011, at the urging of “Father Phil” (Philip Florio, S.J.,) then director of Campus Ministry at Fordham, he applied for his current role. At the time, the role was that of a sacristan, a person who focuses on the liturgy, the sacred vessels, books, and general care of the church. Father Phil wanted the role to evolve, so he sought out a young person who would live in student housing as well. “They wanted the students to see someone who is involved in their faith life.” He noted that his colleague, Katie Anderson Kuo, associate director of campus minister for liturgy, also lives on campus. “Now she’s married to her husband Kevin and their children live in Jogues Hall,” he said. “We provide a support that’s not disciplinary. It’s the sort of environment that’s something a little above and beyond what you might get in a secular school.”

A Lay Person’s Calling

Gownley said he went through a “discernment process” during college, but not one that involved a calling to a religious order. “I’ve now come to believe that people are needed in certain roles,” he said. “For me personally, I feel I can be more accessible as a university administrator than as a Catholic priest. I have so much respect for the Jesuits and they always talk about their ‘companions in Christ’—those of us in all these different vocations. We’re called to the same work. To create a prayerful environment, it goes way beyond them or me. For example, there are our carpenters—and let’s not forget this is the year of St. Joseph [who was a carpenter]. These men have hand carved all the chairs on the altar; their craftmanship is their calling. Then there’s our ground staff, our custodians—even the word, custodian, means they’re caring for; this isn’t someone just cleaning up.”

Living and Learning on Campus

Gownley recently completed his Master’s of Social Work at the Graduate School of Social Service, which will

further inform his role as a counselor. “At Queen’s Court students can knock on my door at any time, even at 1 a.m. Now I have the language and credentials that hold a little more weight than my experience, which was pretty extensive too.” His GSS fieldwork included working with Margaret Monahan, executive director at Murray-Weigel

Hall (a nursing facility for Jesuits that is adjacent to Fordham’s campus). “I was on the macro leadership track. I observed how Margaret runs her ship and I got to sit in on the big briefings that combine the clinical with leadership.”

Catholic with a Small C: Fostering an Ecumenical Environment

“We want all our students to have access to healing through spirituality,” Gownley said. “I just want our students to feel that they can come and sit down and take a moment to reflect. A lot of our students are coming at spirituality from the angle of humanism. Sometimes, I think there’s a fear of naming themselves in a category, but they’re hungry, they want to be a good citizen and human. If we’re talking about self-care, that includes [for some]coming to the church to hear music or the liturgy. We also take to heart how we educate our students that are rooted in the Catholic Church. Mass on Sunday is part of self-care. Yes, you’re there to honor God for the week ahead, but also to bring things that you might bring to therapy. Just come here and let God do his work, her work, their work.

Old Edgar Allan is not just any old bell. Far from it. From the moment it was installed in the tower of the University Church, Old Edgar Allan has played an important role in the life and ministry of the University. In its usual, steady cadence, it has called generations of Fordham students to prayer; with its somber tolling, it has marked the deaths of those who are dear to us whose losses we feel acutely—whether they be members of the University family or women and men of distinction who have lived lives of service to the country or the world; and in its full-throated swinging peals, it has joyfully celebrated great moments or events, both personal and public.

In light of the great importance of several events that we will observe this week I have asked that Old Edgar Allan be rung:

At Noon on Monday, 18 January, to celebrate and thank God for the life and legacy of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., a towering and iconic figure in our nation’s history whose prophetic ministry called all of us to give ourselves to the cause of racial and social justice.

At 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 19 January, to mourn the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens who have lost their lives to COVID-19. (President-Elect Biden has invited all churches to participate in this national act of prayerful remembrance.)

At 9 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Wednesday, 20 January, hearkening back to the Inauguration of George Washington when the New York City churches rang their bells at that time. The University will stream this bell ringing on Facebook live in celebration of a new presidential beginning, and to invite all to pray for the healing of our country.

At 11:50 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Wednesday, 20 January, to call us all to prayer for President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris as they prepare to take their oaths of office.

At 12:30 p.m. on that same day, the moment at which it is estimated that President Joseph Biden will utter the last words of his oath of office, and thus officially become the 46th President of the United States. It will be at that moment that we will celebrate the peaceful transfer of power that has always been a key feature in our national life, as well as an affirmation of the democratic principles upon which the republic was founded and on which its life is based. May that moment also mark the triumph of hope over cynicism and the beginning of that healing that our nation yearns for and deserves.

May God bless the United States of America.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

Michael Schultz, FCRH ’04, and Lauren Rearick Schultz, FCRH ’05, welcomed a daughter, Abigail Frances Schultz, on July 21, 2019. She joined her brother, Noah Lincoln.

Thomas Porrovecchio, LAW ’06, and his wife, Maria Pasqua Palladino, welcomed their son, Carlo Giuseppe, in November.

Mark Haslinger, GABELLI ’06, and Erin Mills were married at a New Year’s Eve ceremony in Hopewell, New Jersey.

Sarah Dreher, FCRH ’07, and Tim Dinneen, FCRH ’08, GSAS ’16, were married on Aug. 16, 2019, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan, where they first met at the University’s annual Festival of Lessons and Carols concert five years earlier. Both bride and groom served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after graduation. Sarah now manages a mental health clinic for Goodwill Industries, and Tim is vice president of philanthropy at the Bank of New York Mellon.

Vijay DaCosta, GRE ’10, and his wife, Erin, welcomed their daughter, Esmie Jean DaCosta, into the world on June 23, 2019. Vijay is a middle and upper school religious studies teacher at the School of the Holy Child in Rye, New York.

Christopher Gannon, FCRH ’11, married Helen Felker in Washington, D.C., on April 6, 2019. The couple lives in Philadelphia, where Chris is a public defender and Helen is a speech language pathologist.

Eleni Koutroumanis, FCRH ’11, and Brian McArdle, GABELLI ’11, were married on July 6, 2019, in Orange, Connecticut.

Randy Eliezer Garcia, FCLC ’13, and Sharai Marie Rivera, GSE ’13, were married at the Now Onyx resort and spa in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Annie O’Hagan, GABELLI ’14, ’15, married Matthew Coughlin, GABELLI ’14, at the Fordham University Church on Nov. 23, 2019.

Meredith Summers, FCLC ’15, and Joseph Harris, FCLC ’14, were married on June 22, 2019, in Charleston, West Virginia.

Did you get married or welcome someone new to your family? Share your news and photos with us at fordham.edu/classnotes.

When I went to the University Church this morning to pray, I stopped to pray before the stained-glass windows in the East Transept.

The window on the left is a rendering of the vision that St. Ignatius had at LaStorta, in which God the Father asked Jesus (who is bearing the cross) to take Ignatius as his companion. (This is where the Society’s name came from: Companions of Jesus. The vision at LaStorta also became the source of our understanding that we Jesuits are called to follow the Lord in bearing the cross.)

The window at the right shows St. Aloysius Gonzaga receiving his First Communion from St. Charles Borromeo. Aloysius, the son of an Italian Renaissance noble (whose family gave the Medicis a run for their money in corruption) entered the recently founded Society. He died ministering to plague victims in Rome. Known as one of the “boy saints,” he has been for many years the patron saint of all who minister to victims of plagues.

The juxtaposition of the windows hammered home to me how right it is for us to stand with and minister to the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

Peace of Christ.

As you probably know by now, Saturday afternoon Cardinal Dolan announced that, in response to the coronavirus crisis (and out of a deep concern for the welfare of the faithful in his care), there would be no public Masses celebrated in the churches of the Archdiocese of New York until further notice.

To the best of my knowledge, not a day has passed (and certainly not a Sunday has passed) in our 179-year history that the Eucharist has not been celebrated in the public chapels on the University’s campuses. Therefore, although I truly believe that the Cardinal’s decision was pastorally wise, I would be less than honest if I did not admit that I received the news with more than a tinge of sadness.

I also received it with a great sense of responsibility. But responsibility for what? As the pastor for the University family (that wonderful and wonderfully diverse community that is spread all over the world), I felt and feel the responsibility to pray for our beloved Fordham, and to do so from the bottom of my heart in this time of unprecedented peril in our nation’s history and the history of the whole human family.

Therefore, I will celebrate the Eucharist for all of you (and your families and those whom you love) this morning—Sunday—in Spellman Hall. Then, I will make a solitary pilgrimage to the University Church, which has been the site where the Fordham family has found solace and strength at all of the most challenging and the most joyful moments in its history (and in the lives of so many Rams), the place where the men and women of Fordham have encountered the Lord since the day that the Church opened its doors in 1844; where our ancestors in the faith have repaired to pray for guidance in exams; where our older sisters and brothers have prayed before marching off to war; where Fordham graduates have been united in marriage or ordained to the priesthood. With all of you in my heart (and with a lively sense that I am in a place hallowed by the prayers of those who have gone before us), I will kneel before the high altar and pray for you. Over and over again. As I do so, this will be my prayer:

God of all mercies, grant:

To the Fordham family, safety and good health:
To those afflicted with COVID-19, swift healing;
To the frightened, courage;
To the dying, comfort;
To the dead, eternal life;
To health-care providers, strength and stamina;
To our leaders, wisdom and compassion;
To our nation, unity of purpose;
To the Church, the grace to serve the suffering selflessly;
To all believers, strong faith in Your presence;
To the whole human family, unity of heart; and
To us, your servants, the reward of knowing that we are doing Your will when we spend ourselves in loving service of others.

To our families of all faiths, and none, know that you all are in my thoughts every waking hour—not just when I am at the altar, or writing to you like this, or considering the needs of a particular student, parent, faculty member, alumnus, or staff member. It is our human connections that bring us the greatest joys in life, and provoke our deepest fears. Therefore I ask you to treat yourself and those around you with compassion and forbearance as we navigate this crisis. Take comfort in your ties to those around you, and know that you are an indispensable, irreplaceable member of the Fordham family.

May the God of all consolation walk with us through these difficult times. And may He find us worthy of the call to be His healing and reconciling presence in a wounded world.

Prayers and blessings,

Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

“I was deeply moved and honored to receive this award,” said Sister Kubicki, who has been teaching at Fordham for nearly two decades. “It is the highest award the association gives, and it is given to somebody who has made significant contributions to the liturgical life of Catholics in the United States.” 

Her lifelong love of music began when she was a little girl in Buffalo, New York. She sang in her grammar school and high school choirs. She learned how to play the piano from her mother, and then, years later, earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Daemen College in Amherst, New York. When she joined the Felician Sisters of North America, she learned how to play the organ from one of the sisters in her order. 

As religion became more central to her life, so did liturgical music. 

“My love for music eventually led me to the love of liturgical music,” said Sister Kubicki. “As I’ve said and explored in my own research, music is an integral part of worship. And so the worship of the church is best expressed when it includes music.” 

In 2001, she joined Fordham’s faculty in the theology department. She specializes in the liturgy, sacraments, and liturgical music. Over the years, she has created and taught several courses, including Great Christian Hymns. 

“On the undergraduate level, my favorite course—or perhaps my signature course—is Great Christian Hymns. It combines text, music, and history, and does all of this to discover the theology embedded in the singing of hymn texts,” she said. 

The third class of the semester-long course takes place in the University Church. At first, Sister Kubicki plays five familiar hymns for the students—songs like “Amazing Grace,” “Joy to the World,” and “Were You There.” Then she and her students head to the little chapel downstairs, a carpeted space with a low ceiling and none of the reverb from the main church space. 

“I play the same tunes. They again watch from the hymnal. They don’t sing—they just listen and absorb the whole thing. And then we talk about the difference in the space: the effect of the space on the receiving of the meaning of the hymns, the theology of the hymns,” Sister Kubicki explained. “That really gets us started in the course with a very good basis for talking about the experience of hymns in worship.” 

Outside of Fordham, Sister Kubicki has left a legacy on the liturgical studies community. She has served as president of multiple organizations, including the North American Academy of Liturgy, and published several books and papers. She earned her master’s degree in English at Canisius College and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Catholic University of America. 

“What I hope to promote is an understanding of how integral music is to liturgy … it is so significant in aiding in the celebration of worship [and]in the singing of our prayer,” said Sister Kubicki. “Once you understand its significance and its importance, then the next step is to try to do it—have it done as best as it can be done—so as to promote the prayer of the people.” 

He was Nicholas “Nick” Jabari Booker.

On Sept. 27, Booker died at St. Barnabas Hospital with his mother at his side after suffering what doctors believe was a severe asthmatic attack. He was 18.  

Booker was the captain of the football team and a star student at John Burroughs School, a selective prep school in St. Louis. At Fordham, he had made a new home for himself in Martyrs’ Court. In the days following his death, Booker’s Fordham friends spoke with Michael C. McCarthy, S.J., vice president for mission integration and planning. “What was Nick like?” he asked them.

“They all, without skipping a beat, talked about his laugh. When I asked them to imitate his laugh, no one dared. But it was infectious, they said, and warmed the room,” said Father McCarthy at a memorial Mass for Booker at the University Church on Oct. 2.

If Booker was alive, they told Father McCarthy, they would let him know that Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V studio album finally came out. And if Booker could hear them, they would tell him that they miss him.

A memorial service to celebrate Booker’s life is tentatively planned for late December at John Burroughs School. But since it is unlikely that many of his Fordham friends will be able to fly to Missouri, the University celebrated his life with a Mass at Rose Hill.

They all came: his friends, the emergency room doctors from St. Barnabas who tended to Booker, the University’s Student Affairs and Campus Ministry staff who stayed with his family in the hospital until his death, members of the Jesuit community, and over five hundred more. They filled the pews, sitting side by side and often wiping away tears. Near the church altar, propped above a white tablecloth, sat a large, framed portrait of Booker.

Booker’s roommate, Joseph Russo, stood at the pulpit and spoke about his first friend at Fordham.

“He comes from a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, and I am from Central New Jersey. Coming from different parts of the country and having different backgrounds, I thought we would simply coexist in the room together,” he said. “Even stepping into our room, there appeared a stark contrast between us. On my side were posters of the Rat Pack and Mobsters and a large tapestry of New York. On his side were posters of rappers that I have only vaguely heard of. But on the first night, I realized those were just superficial.”

They bonded over their mutual love of brown sugar-cinnamon Pop Tarts, which they stocked up on at the P.O.D. Market, Rose Hill’s grab ’n go store. When they weren’t eating Pop Tarts, they were munching on chips that Booker had brought from home. They were so popular among his friends that, two weeks into college, Booker received a huge package in the mail: a big box packed with more chips, said Russo.

Booker loved all kinds of music, too: rap, dance, Spanish, rock.

“Before going out one night, we were both in another room with our friends, and Nick decides to play his Spanish playlist. He put it on and just started dancing,” Russo said. “It was so pure, a moment of pure bliss.”

And Booker’s style was not to be trifled with. He was a man who took pride in his hair, his Chuck Taylors that looked like he had drawn on them—but, Russo adds, Booker “insisted that’s how they came”—and pairing the perfect shoes with his outfits.

Russo lamented only knowing Booker for a short time. “While I only scratched the surface of his character,” Russo said, his voice breaking, “it was more than enough for me and everyone around us to realize how truly amazing Nick was.”

And because of Booker, two strangers are now able to see.

“Even in his death, because Nick was an organ donor, he chose to give others life, and that was one of the few consolations his mother has had in the last few days,” said Father McCarthy. “That because of Nick’s clear eyes, those who were blind can now see. Let his way of being in the world teach us to see as well.”

Booker is survived by his parents, Britt and Satonya Booker; his siblings, Christopher and Carmen Booker; his grandparents, Andy and Peggy Newman; his great-grandmother Mary Gregory; and many other relatives.

“Nick’s grandfather told us in the hospital that he had many chances and many choices and many options. He chose New York, and he chose Fordham,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “He was a New Yorker by adoption. So I think it is right for us to give him a proper New York farewell.”

The crowd broke into applause.