October 3, 2003

Jesuit from Fordham discusses prejudices against Catholicism

"Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice?" is the subject of a lecture by the Rev. Mark Massa, S.J., Th.D., chair of the American Studies Program at Fordham University. The lecture will be held Thursday, October 16, at 7 p.m. in Miller 114.

Eugene McCarraher wrote in Commonweal of Massa's book with the same title: "Whether or not they are 'prejudiced,' non-Catholics rightly perceive, Massa contends, that Catholics do indeed 'see a different world than the one many Americans accept as normative and self-evidently real."' Evangelical or secular, anti-Catholicism, Massa suggests, can be a sign that Catholics are doing something right. It's good news, he contends, that Catholicism doesn't completely fit into society.

Massa has been a member of the Fordham faculty since 1987. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit, a master's degree from the University of Chicago, master's of divinity from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and doctorate of theology from Harvard University.