Bishop's Film and TV man called to Rome

The director of the Australian Catholic Bishops offices for film and television, Fr Richard Leonard SJ, has been appointed a visiting professor at the Jesuits’ prestigious Pontifical Gregorian University at Rome. 

Fr Leonard is one of only three priests in the Church with a PhD in cinema studies and has been appointed by the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education to this position within the Gregorian’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication.

“The University was founded as the Roman College by St Ignatius Loyola in 1553”, Fr Leonard said, “and became the Gregorian University in 1582 in honour of Pope Gregory XIII, its great patron and benefactor."

The Social Communications Centre was established in response to the call of Vatican II and Pope Paul VI to study the interface between the media and the Church and to train women and men to use the media more effectively in proclaiming the good news. 

As is the custom in many countries these days, the Gregorian has flexible teaching arrangements which enable faculty to teach intensive semester courses over shorter periods of time. Fr Leonard will be teaching each day for a month.

“What is striking about the Gregorian University is the multicultural student body it has”, Fr Leonard said. “I will have priests, nuns, brothers, and lay men and women from all over the world in my classes. The majority of them will be from the third world, so my going there continues the Australian Church's generous support of the mission of the Universal Church.” 

Fr Leonard is not the first Australian Jesuit to be honoured with an appointment to the Gregorian University. Fr Gerry O’Collins SJ had just retired from the theology faculty after a lifetime of service in Rome. Islamic scholar, Fr Dan Madigan SJ, is the director of the Institute for the Study of Religions and Cultures. And Fr Bill Dalton SJ was the Rector and a professor, and Fr Brendan Byrne SJ a visiting professor, at the Pontifical Biblical Institute within the Gregorian.   

Fr Leonard will return to Australia in December.