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pleased to present profiles of those who serve the Harvard Catholic
Student Center at St. Paul Parish. |
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Rev. Robert J. Congdon, Pastor
Fr. Congdon was appointed Pastor at St. Paul Parish and Senior Chaplain at the Harvard Catholic Chaplaincy as of August 1, 2007. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1987. After having completed his philosophy degree at St. John's Seminary College in Brighton, he was sent to Rome to study theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Athenaeum Saint Anselm. He received his doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Gregorian University in 1997. Fr. Congdon has served in several parishes in the Archdiocese as parochial vicar, team minister, and pastor. As a faculty member of St. John's Seminary, he taught Sacramental Theology and Foreign Languages from 1997 to 2004. He is currently a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy.
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Rev. George S.
Salzmann, O.S.F.S., Graduate Chaplain
Although he began
graduate school at Yale in molecular biophysics, Fr. Salzmann completed
the Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School in biochemistry, during which time he
was in residence at St. Paul's, serving on Sundays at St. Catherine's,
Norwood. In between those periods, he was sent to study theology at the
Gregorian University, Rome, receiving the S.T.B. and S.T.L degrees in
theology, and had the good fortune to be ordained there in John Henry
Cardinal Newman's church of St. George's at the Velabrum. After a brief
period of research in early mammalian development at Hoffman-la Roche in
northern New Jersey, he was appointed Visting Fellow in Molecular Biology
at Princeton University, where he worked on the tumor suppressor gene,
p53, and also taught bioethics in the religion department there. During
his time at Princeton he served at St. Paul's, the university Catholic
parish. He is a member of the teaching order, the Oblates of St. Francis
de Sales. He serves as chaplain to the Harvard graduate and professional
schools.
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Rev. William F.
Murphy, Undergraduate Chaplain
Ordained in 1988 for the
Archdiocese of Boston, Fr. Murphy arrived at St. Paul's in 2004, after
assignments as a spiritual director to seminarians, with clergy personnel,
and in parishes. As part of his ministry in the seminary he studied at
Creighton University and received a Master's degree in Christian
Spirituality in 2003. Growing in Christian discipleship is what motivates
Fr. Murphy, whether in service to the Harvard undergraduates, St. Paul's
parish, or life with colleagues, family, or friends. To quote Calvin of
the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, "There's treasure everywhere!" Fr.
Murphy is grateful to be living and working in a community as vibrant as
St. Paul's.
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Ms. Faye Darnall,
Undergraduate Chaplain
Faye Darnall, undergraduate chaplain,
grew up in Portland, Oregon, then came east to New York City to work in
trade book publishing. She left her first career to earn her Masters of
Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. Since then, she has been the woman
chaplain at St. Paul's University Catholic Center, which serves the
University of Wisconsin - Madison. Her focus there was on
student-to-student ministry and student-led ministry. Two programs she
initiated with students have won "exemplary program" awards from the
Catholic Campus Ministry Association: Alpha-Omega, a weekly praise and
worship music night with speaker; and Visiting Spiritual Directors, which
brought area religious to campus. A speaker, teacher, and preacher
herself, Faye also formed students as advocates for the public
proclamation of our gospel values. She believes the most important part of
ministry is helping people to deepen their faith and relationship with
Christ through prayer and scripture reading. She encourages others to find
guides to life in the riches of the Catholic tradition, especially the
saints and the great monastic teachers.
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Ms. Marie-Claude
Thompson, Earthen Vessels Chaplain
Marie-Claude Thompson
received her Master of Divinity from the Jesuit Weston School of Theology
in 1985. She became part-time staff at the Catholic Student Center in
September of 1985 as a chaplain for the Earthen Vessels Tutoring Program
she created. The Program matches Harvard undergraduate and graduate
students with inner-city youth in one-on-one tutoring-mentoring
relationships. As a chaplain her work with the 45 students involved with
the program includes formation both practical and spiritual, through
weekly meetings, retreats (on issues of peace and justice in the light of
faith, the social teaching of the Church, and the discovery of life in the
inner-city); individual supervision; and spiritual guidance for the
students involved in the program.
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