Message from the Director
Dear friends,
I am excited to continue the important work of the Center for Catholic Studies, though I admit to being a bit daunted by the shoes I am filling! For over two decades, Monsignor Liddy has laid a foundation of generous dialogue, meaningful interdisciplinarity, and intellectual friendships among people from all parts and departments of our University and the broader community. He has brought the best of the Catholic intellectual tradition into conversation with women and men of goodwill. I look forward to continuing to work with our team to develop that legacy of "collaborative creativity" that he leaves us.
Thankfully, Monsignor is not going far, and we look forward to his continued intellectual and spiritual guidance.
Let us continue to hold one another—and our beloved Seton Hall—in prayer.
May the Lord bless you and your families with peace,
Gregory P. Floyd, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Catholic Studies
About Our Founder
Reverend Monsignor Richard M. Liddy, Ph.D.
Originally from West Orange, New Jersey, he attended Our Lady of the Valley School in Orange, New Jersey, and then Seton Hall prep and Seton Hall University. In 1958 he entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington, New Jersey and in 1960 he was sent to Rome to study. He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on December 18, 1963. When he came home from Rome in 1964, Archbishop Boland sent him back to Rome to obtain a degree in philosophy. Reluctantly he went back and spent three years studying philosophy, mostly the work of his teacher, Father Bernard Lonergan of the Society of Jesus, a professor of philosophy and theology from Montreal Canada. He received his doctorate in philosophy from the Gregorian University, having worked on the philosophy of art.
Father Liddy taught at Immaculate Conception Seminary from 1967 to 1980 and between 1980 in 1984, he went back to Rome to become the spiritual director at the North American College. During that time, he worked on the cause of the canonization of John Henry Newman. He was present at the beatification of Newman in Birmingham England in 2010 and attended the canonization of Newman by Pope Francis on October 13th, 2019.
Through the years he has been Rector of Immaculate Conception Seminary, now moved to Seton Hall University and has taught in the Religious Studies Department. In 1997, he founded the Center for Catholic Studies at Seton Hall, retiring in 2020. He is the University Professor of Catholic Thought and Culture, Emeritus. He also sat on the bench and served as Chaplain to the basketball team for several years.
His books include Transforming Light: Intellectual Conversion in the Early Lonergan and Startling Strangeness: Reading Lonergan’s Insight, and a book of poetry, In God’s Gentle Arms. He is presently working on a book on St. John Henry Newman tentatively called: Newman: Method and Conversion.