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On this page we are pleased to present profiles of those who serve the Harvard Catholic Student Center at St. Paul Parish.

  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.


E-mail Fr. Congdon

 

  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.


E-mail Fr. Salzmann

 

  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.


E-mail Fr. Murphy

 

  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.


E-mail Faye Darnall

 

  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.


E-mail Marie-Claude Thompson