“My Father was a Jesuit Priest” – Catholicity today at Fordham University

Jesuit educational institutions have long publicized their Jesuit – not necessarily their Catholic – values. Fordham University surely offers a unique perspective on these values. As Tania Tetlow, the new president of Fordham, (“the first layperson and woman to lead the university”) explains in an article in Outreach: An LGBTQ Catholic Resource:

I come to these questions (regarding LGBTQ issues – SC) from an unusual background. My mother is a biblical scholar. My father was a Jesuit priest for 17 years before he left the Society of Jesus to marry and become the proud father of three daughters. He was also a clinical psychologist who wove spiritual and psychological insights together.  1)

She discusses the circumstances in greater detail in her inaugural address:

In the late 1960s, my father came to Fordham to study psychology. Here he met my mom, a fellow graduate student, who had just finished her master’s in philosophy and was starting a degree in theology. They became friends at daily Mass, celebrated in the chapel of Murray-Weigel Hall, with a vibrant community of students and young faculty. As they became closer, my father realized he had an agonizing decision to make. He loved being a priest more than I can describe, but he also felt called by God to have a family. To be a good husband and a father who raised his children in devout faith and purpose. I like to think he made the right choice. But regardless, I hope I’ve made it up to the Jesuits.2)

It seems that there was an intellectual underpinning to her parents’ actions: 

Throughout our childhood in the 1970s and ’80s, our father taught us that gender and sexuality are societally constructed and intertwined. We understood that questions of what nature (and God) intended were complicated ones. He strongly believed that God wired us to find happiness in unselfish love, and he refused to believe that God would hard-wire us to commit sin that looks like unselfish love.  

Our parents taught us that the fundamentalist versions of the world’s great religions tend to center on unbending constructions of masculinity and femininity, but that those views are highly contested.

They taught us that, in God, there is no man or woman, that when we worship a white-haired, bearded man sitting on a throne, we risk worshiping our own idols.

We understood that committed love between any two people is a joyful gift. 3)

Fortunately, change in Church doctrine may be imminent:

Pope Francis recently invited Catholics all over the world to speak to the church, as he called us together to participate in the Synod. In response, millions poured out their hearts. I didn’t know what to expect. Who would take the trouble to speak? Who would have the power to document the results? But the summary, written by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, turned out to be a beautiful document, well worth reading. 4)

In any case, Fordham will explicitly disregard what Tetlow qualifies as current Catholic teaching:

I do not know whether the church will change its stance on issues of sexuality, as it has on other subjects. (She is referencing a review of a book by John W. O’Malley, S.J., professor of theology at Georgetown – SC) For now, we walk a fine line between respect for the church’s current teachings and the requirement to support our students. But if any and all outreach to our LGBTQ students courts controversy, then attempting to avoid controversy in this regard is pointless. We should just focus on doing the right thing.  5)

Now since the 1960’s questions have been regularly raised regarding the continuing Catholicity of Jesuit universities – such as my own Georgetown.  If one peruses, for example,  recent issues of the Georgetown alumni magazine one needs to look hard to find a reference to Christianity (as opposed to “Jesuit values”) at all. And the new president of Fordham’s views are indeed difficult to reconcile with current Catholic doctrine. But Pope Francis and the Jesuits have recently provided the most explicit endorsement possible of the status quo both at Georgetown and Fordham Universities.

In the case of Fordham, Tetlow participated this summer in a “pilgrimage” of Fordham university greats to Rome, meeting the Jesuit and Vatican leadership including Cardinal Parolin. 6) In particular, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, Vatican prefect for Catholic Education, gave an endorsement of Fordham’s policies as Catholic:

In an address to the Fordham delegation, Cardinal Versaldi discussed the importance of teaching about an inclusive faith through Catholic education. He emphasized that schools should maintain their core Catholic values but continue to respect and welcome people from all walks of life. In addition, he applauded Fordham for its quality of education in a modern world. 

“I’m sure you will continue this communion with the church, keeping your autonomy and your independence, but also the capacity to work together and to offer a contribution to a new world.” 7)

Georgetown also maintains close cooperation with the Vatican and the Jesuit order. For example,  Pope Francis wrote favorably of a 2021 conference on “intercultural and interreligious dialogue” organized in Rome by the university. 8) In May of this year, Georgetown and the Jesuit publication Civilta Cattolica sponsored a conference “convening scholars and practitioners to explore Pope Francis’ idea of the culture of encounter and its practical relevance across three different areas: global governance, interfaith collaboration, and digital connectivity.” Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., superior general of the Jesuits, was a keynote speaker. 9) Indeed, the university maintains a representative office in Rome. The Georgetown representative, Debora Tonelli, published this year a sycophantic anthology on Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti.  Antonio Spadaro, S.J,  is one of the contributing authors. 10)

Whatever may be Fordham’s and Georgetown’s relationship with the teachings of the Catholic Church, their ties with the Jesuit order and the Vatican have never been closer. And their shared commitment and ideology are global and political. As the president of Georgetown University stated in 2019 at yet another Georgetown/Jesuit Roman conference on “The Jesuits and Global Impact”:

“We come together to recognize the Centennial of our School of Foreign Service, (a unit of Georgetown University – SC) our longstanding commitment to global service, and the way that this commitment has been shaped by the mission and impact of the Society of Jesus around the world,…..Since the founding of the Society of Jesus almost five hundred years ago, to the founding of our university in 1789, to the establishment of our School of Foreign Service in 1919, we have been sustained by a tradition committed to global engagement.”

The conference took place in the Villa Malta, home to the Jesuit journal, La Civiltà Catolica. Fr. Antonio Spadaro, its editor in chief, serves on the Georgetown University Board of Directors. 11)

1. “Tania Tetlow: Catholic universities have a duty to reach out to LGBTQ students”, Outreach:an LGBTQ Catholic Resource, 11/28/2022.
2. Fordham President Tania Tetlow’s Inaugural Address, Fordham News, 10/27/2022
3. “Tania Tetlow: Catholic Universities have a duty to reach out to LGBTQ students” supra.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ha, Taylor, In the Footsteps of Ignatius: President Tetlow and Fordham Delegation Visit Jesuit Headquarters in Rome, Fordham News, 7/7/2022
7. Ibid.
8. Brill, Henry D., Pope Francis Welcomes Georgetown Conference in Rome on the Culture of Encounter, georgetown.edu, 11/12/2021
9. The Culture of Encounter: An Imperative for a Divided World, georgetown.edu, 5/27/2022
10. Georgetown’s Representative in Rome Releases Book on Pope Francis’ Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, global.georgetown.edu, 10/13/2022
11. SFS Hosts Centennial Celebration in Rome on ‘The Jesuits and Global Impact’, global.georgetown.edu, 6/21/2019