GSLIS community,

The college has invited an anti-bodily sovereignty extremist, Robert Brennan, to celebrate a Catholic mass on campus. Professor Steven Kruger (English) has written the following letter to Vice President Jarvis voicing some very serious concerns about this. If you would like to add your name to Professor Kruger’s message to the administration, please email Steven.Kruger@qc.cuny.edu

Best,

Dr. James Lowry (he/him)

Associate Professor

Chair and Director, Information Studies, Queens College

Ellen Libretto and Adam Conrad Endowed Chair in Information Studies

City University of New York

https://us02web.zoom.us/my/jlowrycuny

@JamesLowryATL

FROM Professor Steven Kruger:

Dear Vice President Jarvis,

I am writing regarding the message (below) sent out on your behalf about the Newman Center and Bishop Brennan yesterday. I actually found it quite upsetting, and it raised a number of questions for me, some of which I’ll sketch below.

First, why is Queens College sponsoring what the message calls “the Mass of the Holy Spirit” for “The entire Queens College community?” I understand that this is a Newman Center event, but the way the event is announced makes it clear that the College is supporting it, and inviting all of us at the College to attend. Isn’t the College still a public, secular institution? I understand students’ desire for religious clubs on campus, and the appointment of chaplains makes sense to support those clubs and student needs. But when the College itself seems to sponsor such events, I think there’s a real problem.

I also was taken aback to discover that the College has both a newly appointed Catholic chaplain and a “full-time campus minister.” Is that true for all the other religions represented among the student body at Queens?

And what does it mean to have “four missionaries” coming to the College? Again, is there some parallel structure for other religions that QC students practice, or is this just for Catholicism? And the larger issue, for me, is the idea of missionaries on a secular, public campus at all. Should we expect requests to visit our classes to draw out potential new converts to Catholicism? What will the role of these missionaries be?

Last: I understand the College’s political desire to cultivate good relationships with the diocese of Brooklyn and with Bishop Brennan. But to announce his appearance on campus by noting his national prominence in the pro-life movement of the Church, as though this is just one more piece of a CV, seems to me—especially at this moment—a political provocation.

I hope that the College will support the rights of its constituents to protest at an event like the scheduled one on September 18 as strongly as it seems, from this message, to support the presence of missionizing Catholic work at (again) what I thought was a secular, public institution.

Yours sincerely,

Steven Kruger

Professor

English

From: Jennifer Jarvis/Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management /Queens College <sima@queenscollegecuny.ccsend.com> on behalf of Jennifer Jarvis/Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management /Queens College <qcmailer@qc.cuny.edu>
Date: Wednesday, September 6, 2023 at 1:03 PM
Subject: Bishop Brennan to Visit Queens College on Sept. 18

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From Jennifer Jarvis, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management:

The entire Queens College community is invited to join the Catholic Newman Center for Mass on Monday, September 18 at 12:30 pm in the Student Union, Room 207. The celebrant will be Bishop Brennan, the Bishop of Brooklyn, who will celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spirit.  

Bishop Brennan has recently renewed the Diocese of Brooklyn’s commitment to Queens College by assigning Rev. Jose Diaz as the new chaplain of the Catholic Newman Center alongside the full-time campus minister, Omar Cortez. They are joined by four missionaries from Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS): Katie Mossberger (team director), Lucero Manzanares, Greg Tandarich, and Andrew Considine. 

The Catholic Newman Center is open Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 5:30 pm. Mass is celebrated daily at 12:30 pm. We are looking to expand our offerings to students at Queens College, so please look out for future announcements.  

About Bishop Brennan:

On November 30, 2021, Bishop Robert Brennan was installed as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, serving the people of Brooklyn and Queens. Born in the Bronx and raised in Lindenhurst, Long Island, Bishop Brennan attended St. John’s University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science. He then studied for the priesthood at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York. 

Bishop Brennan was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre on May 27, 1989. He was later ordained as an Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre on July 25, 2012. On January 31, 2019, Pope Francis announced his selection of Bishop Brennan as the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio. He was installed as the Bishop of Columbus on March 29, 2019 where he served until his appointment to the Diocese of Brooklyn.

On a national level, Bishop Brennan serves on the Pro-Life Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

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