Religion and Classics Department Fills Endowed Newman Chair

The Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester has made an appointment to a chair devoted to Roman Catholic studies, one of only a handful at secular institutions nationwide. Curt Cadorette will join the faculty as the first John Henry Newman Associate Professor of Roman Catholic Studies.

The endowed chair is named to honor John Henry Newman, a 19th-century English cardinal and writer. The endowment fund was created when the University's Newman Community donated the proceeds from a sale of property on Mt. Hope Avenue to establish a chair in Roman Catholic studies. A $600,000 anonymous gift from a Rochester couple augmented the sum.

Cadorette is an authority on Latin American religion and culture and on issues of peace and justice. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto and has taught theology at Maryknoll School of Theology and religious studies at Marist College in Poughkeepsie. Outside of the classroom, he has participated in projects that lead to better understanding of Latin American religion and culture. During the 1970s, he lived in Peru researching indigenous culture and religion. For four of those years, he served as pastor of a local church. He also was facilitator and translator for the sanctuary movement in Erie, Pa.

Cadorette will come to Rochester in the fall from Maryknoll, where he is an associate professor of theology. There he is responsible for the Hispanic Ministry Program and the 1992 Global Classroom in Peru and Bolivia. He also has taught courses in foundational theology, liberation theology, Christology, and ecclesiology. Cadorette has written From the Heart of the People: The Theology of Gustavo Gutierrez (1988) and co-edited Liberation Theology: A Reader (1992).

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