Catholic History

WSJONLINE.COM Sept. 19 — “Washington sits on a substratum of Catholic conservatism,” explained Howard Fineman in a recent edition of Newsweek. “It goes back to Georgetown University and pre-D.C. Maryland history.”

While disputing Fineman's larger point — that President Bush's selection of John Roberts, a Catholic, for chief justice was designed to please most Catholics — Manuel Miranda acknowledges the accuracy of the Georgetown reference:

“In 1789, in one of the earliest great examples of exploiting insider information, John Carroll, America's first Catholic bishop, founded America's first Catholic college, at the Potomac River port of Georgetown. This was just within the borders of what would soon be the new federal city of Washington.”

The bishop knew this because “his brother, Daniel, was one of the three commissioners assigned by Congress to recommend the location of the new nation's capital.”

New Bishop

THE SCOTSMAN, Sept. 14 — Father Philip Tartaglia, a theologian and seminary formator, has been named bishop of Paisley, Scotland.

Father Tartaglia, 54, has been rector of the Pontifical Scots College in Rome for the last year, following many years of work with seminarians in Scotland.

The Scotsman reported that “Father Philip is a self-proclaimed ‘orthodox Catholic,’ describing the Church's teachings on contraception, abortion and gay priests as ‘settled’ and unlikely to change.”

More History

THE COWL, Sept. 15 — A slightly less strategic vignette from the past is recounted in an article in the undergraduate newspaper that presents “random trivia” about the history of Providence University.

“Aquinas Hall was the first dorm built on campus in 1938, thanks in part to funding from an actress who would soon be a star in The Wizard of Oz.

“Judy Garland, in her pre-Dorothy days, sold autographs in front of Loew's State Theater to raise money for the Aquinas Building Fund.” Visiting campus afterwards, “she was presented with a bouquet of roses.”

Nice Fit

THE UNIVERSITY NEWS, Sept. 14 — Newly ordained Dominican Father Phillip Neri Powell is happy to be campus minister at the University of Dallas.

Daily Mass attendance by students “practically fills the chapel,” and undergraduates “have a really good grasp of the basics of their faith,” Father Powell told the undergraduate newspaper.

The university's “emphasis on Catholic culture, the fidelity to the magisterium, and academic level of the students made this a very easy choice for me.”

Jewish Studies

BOSTON GLOBE, Sept. 22 — Jesuit-run Boston College is launching a program that will allow students to minor in Jewish studies, a rarity in Catholic higher education.

Although the first student who intends to sign up is Jewish, BC professors told the Globe they expect that the majority of the students and many of the teachers in the new Jewish Studies Program will be Christian. About 70% of BC's 8,900 undergraduates identify themselves as Catholic; about 1% say they are Jewish, reports the Globe.

Dwayne Carpenter, a professor of Romance languages and co-director of the program, told Globe religion reporter Michael Paulson, ‘‘The program responds to the post-Vatican II efforts on the part of the Catholic Church to integrate Jewish studies into Catholic university curricula.”