Mark S. Massa, SJ is an

American Catholic The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the pope, who as of 2025 is Chicago, Illinois-born Leo XIV. With 23 percent of the United States' population , the Catholic Church is the cou ...

priest who serves at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

. He is a member of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

Career

Massa founded the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham in 2001 and served as its director until 2010. He was also the first holder of the Karl Rahner Chair in Theology at Fordham University. From 2010 to 2016 he was Dean of the

Boston College School of Theology and Ministry The Gloria L. and Charles I. Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM) is a Jesuit school of graduate theology at Boston College. It is an ecclesiastical faculty of theology that trains men and women, both lay and religious, for scholarship ...

. Massa currently serves as the director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at

. Massa has written a number of books including ''Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice?'' and ''Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team'', which won the AJCU/

Alpha Sigma Nu Alpha Sigma Nu () is the honor society of Jesuit colleges and universities. Founded in 1915 at Marquette University as Alpha Sigma Tau, it adopted the current name in 1930. The society is open to both men and women of every academic discipline ...

Award for Outstanding Work in Theology for 1999-2001. Massa has worked on a history of Catholic theology in the United States since the Second Vatican Council. He has also served as the director of the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

Education

*Th.D., Church History,

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

*M.Div.,

Weston Jesuit School of Theology The Gloria L. and Charles I. Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM) is a Jesuit school of graduate theology at Boston College. It is an ecclesiastical faculty of theology that trains men and women, both lay and religious, for scholarship ...

*M.A., History Department,

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

*A.B., History and Theology,

University of Detroit The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catho ...

Publications

*''The Structure of Theological Revolutions: How the Fight Over Birth Control Transformed American Catholicism'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. *''The American Catholic Revolution: How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. *''Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice?'' New York: Crossroad Press, 2003. *''Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team'' New York: Crossroad, 1999. *''Charles Augustus Briggs and the Crisis of Historical Criticism'' Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. *''World Religions: A Sourcebook for Students of Christian Theology'' with Richard Viladesau Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1994.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Massa, Mark S. 20th-century American Jesuits 21st-century American Jesuits Harvard Divinity School alumni Fordham University faculty University of Chicago alumni University of Detroit Mercy alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)