Religion & Law

My colleague (and MOJ-friend) John O'Callaghan has been appointed to the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas.  (He is, I gather, one of only 4 American members.) 

Established in 1879 by Pope Leo XIII to promote the study of the thought of St. Thomas and to bring it into engagement with contemporary culture, the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas has 50 members. O?Callaghan, an associate professor of philosophy at Notre Dame whose scholarship concerns medieval philosophy and Thomistic metaphysics, is one of four academy members from the United States.

?We Thomists don?t study Aquinas merely because we find his thought historically interesting, although it is,? O?Callaghan said. ?We study it because we think lasting truth is to be found there. Notre Dame is nearly unique for the resources it devotes to continuing the study of, and promoting the relevance of St. Thomas and medieval philosophy to contemporary philosophy in the English speaking world. So I think this honor acknowledges the importance of philosophy in the Catholic tradition at Notre Dame as much as it honors me.?

Congratulations, John!