At a March 16 Charter Day celebration in honor of the 51st anniversary of the university’s founding, Father Anthony Ciorra explained that faculty and administrators at a Catholic university “should see ourselves as transforming the culture” by promoting a dialogue between faith and reason.

Delivering the Dorothy A.P. Leunissen Presidential Lecture, Father Ciorra told a crowd of about 70 people that “the role of a Catholic university is not evangelization” but showing students that “there is a connection between the library and the chapel.”

Drawing numerous parallels between Pope Francis and Francis of Assisi (showing reverence for the environment, embracing the leper), he emphasized the holistic nature of learning and wondered “What do they see that we don’t see?” He defined Franciscan learning as “giving people another way of seeing.”

Educators should think of a university in the same way that Pope John XXIII thought of the Church, said Fr. Ciorra -- not as a museum to be guarded but as a garden to be grown. The growth is the result of the continual interaction of faith and reason. “The Holy Spirit annoys us because he constantly pushes us forward,” said Fr. Ciorra.

The Leunissen Lecture is delivered every year on the anniversary of Neumann’s founding. The Dorothy A.P. Leunissen Presidential Lecture Series was established in 2004 to bring speakers to the University’s campus to address current topics of interest in Catholic Franciscan higher education.

Charter Day also included liturgy in Our Lady of Angels Chapel and a reception in the Thomas A. Bruder, Jr. Life Center, both before Fr. Ciorra’s address.

Fr. Ciorra, a theology professor and assistant vice president for mission and Catholic identity at Sacred Heart University, was ordained a priest in 1973. His experience has included parish life, teaching, administration, retreat work, preaching, and formation ministries. He has graduate degrees in psychology, history and pastoral theology, and a certificate in Spiritual Direction. He holds a Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham University.

His publications include Everyday Mysticism, a book about spirituality in the marketplace, and Beauty: A Way to God. He also co-authored Moral Formation in the Parish, a work about living Christian and moral values in the world. He is actively involved in creating programs for inter-religious dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Neumann’s annual Leunissen Lecture is named after Dorothy A. Piatnek-Leunissen, Ph.D., M.D. A longtime area physician, she launched private practice in 1976 with her husband, R.L. Abraham Leunissen, M.D., at Riddle Memorial Hospital in Media. She was a lifelong friend of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and supporter of Neumann University.