Rev. Gary Chamberland, C.S.C., current director of residence life for recruitment, hiring and retention at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the new director of the Notre Dame-Newman Centre for Faith and Reason, the historic Dublin church founded in 1856 by St. John Henry Newman. He will assume his new duties in July.
The center’s current director, Rev. William Dailey, C.S.C., will return to the United States to work on a book about faith and reason — partially inspired by his work in Dublin — while beginning a new pastoral assignment.
Ordained a Holy Cross priest in 1998, Father Chamberland holds a license in canon law from the Catholic University of America. His extensive higher education leadership experience includes oversight of Notre Dame’s residence hall rectors and service as the pastoral resident for Morrissey Hall. Father Chamberland also served as the director of Notre Dame’s Master of Divinity program, where he helped implement parallel three- and four-year academic programs for lay and priestly formation. He also initiated a faculty review of the master of divinity curriculum by subject area.
From 2009 to 2014, Father Chamberland served at the University of Portland, which, like Notre Dame, is a Congregation of Holy Cross university, as director of campus ministry. He concurrently served as the executive director of the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture from 2012 to 2013. While at Portland, Father Chamberland served as a member of the President’s Leadership Cabinet.
“Father Chamberland brings a wealth of pastoral, academic and administrative experience to his new role,” said Rev. Gerard Olinger, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s vice president for mission engagement and Church affairs. “We remain grateful to Archbishop (Diarmuid) Martin for his invitation to minister in Dublin, and I am confident that under Father Chamberland’s leadership, the Notre Dame-Newman Centre for Faith and Reason will deepen its mission to invite young professionals in the heart of Dublin toward deeper engagement with the Catholic faith and service to the world.”
Father Chamberland added, “I am excited to minister in the Archdiocese of Dublin and look forward to serving at St. John Newman’s home church in Ireland. I hope that I can help people, especially young adults, deepen a sense of the sacred in their lives and encounter a Church with important and meaningful things to say about the pressing issues of our day.”
In 2016, at the invitation of the Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, Notre Dame agreed to steward the Newman University Church and to found there the Notre Dame-Newman Centre for Faith and Reason. The center honors the legacy of St. John Henry Newman by inviting reflection on the harmony of faith and reason.
Originally published by at news.nd.edu on January 16, 2020.