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Professor Massimo Faggioli

Professor Massimo Faggioli

Prof in Historical & Comtemporary Eccles, School of Religion

3531896 4792

Biography

Dr. Massimo Faggioli is professor in ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). He lived/studied/worked in Ferrara, Bologna, Turin, Rome, Tübingen, Quebec, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Dublin (Ireland). He received his doctorate in 2002. He did research in the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna between 1996 and 2008, when he moved to the USA. Between 2016 and 2025 he was professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia, USA). He is member of the steering committee for the project "Vatican II: Event and Mandate" for a 12-volume intercontinental commentary of Vatican II. In 2023 he has been elected to the board of editors of the international journal of theology Concilium. He was founding co-chair of the unit "Vatican II Studies" for the American Academy of Religion between 2012 and 2017. He is contributing writer for Commonweal magazine and for the Italian magazine Il Regno. His books and essays have been published in more than ten languages. Among his recent publications: The Liminal Papacy of Pope Francis. Moving Toward Global Catholicity (2020); Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States (Bayard 2021); The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, co-edited with Catherine Clifford (2023); Theology and Catholic Higher Education: Beyond Our Identity Crisis (2024); Da Dio a Trump. Crisi cattolica e politica americana (2025). He is co-author of Global Catholicism: Between Disruption and Encounter (2024) with Bryan Froehle, with whom he co-founded and co-edits the series "Studies in Global Catholicism" for Brill Publishers https://brill.com/display/serial/SGC He is under contract with Oxford University Press for a book on the history of the Roman Curia.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Massimo Faggioli, Review of Hope: The Autobiography, by Pope Francis , Theological Studies, 86, (3), 2025, p524-525Review, 2025, DOI
  • Massimo Faggioli, Synodality and papal ministry in the Catholic Church. A review essay, Theologische Revue, 125, 2025Journal Article, 2025, URL
  • Catherine Clifford, Massimo Faggioli, Richard Lennan, and Ormond Rush (eds.), Vatican II in North America, Australia and Oceania, Peeters, 2025, 1 - 667ppBook, 2025, URL
  • Massimo Faggioli, La riforma liturgica conciliare e la sopravvivenza del Vaticano II: a proposito del "dialogo" coi lefebvriani - DOI:10.5752/P.2175-5841.2011v9n24p1030, 2012Journal Article, 2012
  • Massimo Faggioli, Storiografia cattolica tedesca e Shoah: Memoria religiosa e politica della storia, 2011Journal Article, 2011
  • Massimo Faggioli, The Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis as a Theological Crisis: Emerging Issues, Theological Studies, 80, (3), 2019, p572--589Journal Article, 2019, DOI
  • Massimo Faggioli, ECUMENISM IN EVANGELII GAUDIUM AND IN THE CONTEXT OF FRANCIS\textquoteright PONTIFICATE, 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • Massimo Faggioli, In Memoriam: John O"Malley, SJ, on Vatican II and Ecclesiology, Theological Studies, 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI
  • Massimo Faggioli, O Papa Francisco e as mudanças na governança global da Igraja Católica, HORIZONTE - Revista de Estudos de Teologia e Ciências da Religião, 2021, p496Journal Article, 2021, DOI
  • Massimo Faggioli, Global Catholicism and Democracy. From a Post-Christendom Church to the Eclipse of the Democracy in America?, Theologische Quartalschrift, 205, (4), 2025, p330 - 343Journal Article, 2025, URL
  • Massimo Faggioli, From `Clergy Sexual Abuse" to a More Comprehensive Concept of Abuse in the Catholic Church: Major Cultural and Social Shifts in the USA, Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, 16, 2025, p38 - 55Journal Article, 2025, URL
  • As cibermilícias católicas e a formação de uma Igreja paralela no ambiente digital: considerações eclesiológicas in, editor(s)Moises Sbardellotto, José Antonio Trasferetti, Ronaldo Zacharias , Cultura digital e Igreja: desafios ético-pastorais, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Paulus, 2025, pp179 - 198, [Massimo Faggioli]Book Chapter, 2025, URL
  • S. Arenas, E.F. Bedjra, C.E. Clifford, M. Eckholt, M. Faggioli, N. Hadebe, P. Hünermann, S. George Kochuthara, C. Schickendantz, J. Schmiedl, K. Vellguth, M. Yuen, Vatican II: General Introduction and Hermeneutics, Leuven, Peeters, 2025, 1 - 661ppBook, 2025, URL
  • Massimo Faggioli, Review of Unbecoming Catholic: Being Religious in Contemporary Ireland, by Tom Inglis , Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2025Review, URL
  • Massimo Faggioli, Theology can still call academia "home". Beyond the lamentations, and against the calls to leave the university. Keynote lecture for the XV Leuven Encounter in Systematic Theology (LEST) conference "Catholicity, Theology, and the University: Conjectures in a Complex World", Leuven, 22-25 October 2025, Catholicity, Theology, and the University: Conjectures in a Complex World, Leuven (Belgium), 23/10/2025Conference Paper, URL
  • The opposition to Vatican II in North America: phases, actors, and issues from the late 1960s to the early 21st century in, editor(s)Catherine Clifford, Massimo Faggioli, Richard Lennan, Ormond Rush , Vatican II in North America, Australia and Oceania, Leuven, Peeters, 2025, pp83 - 100, [Massimo Faggioli]Book Chapter, URL
  • Il ruolo delle religioni nel voto americano del 2024 in, editor(s)Monica Simeoni , Europa e Stati Uniti d"America: democrazie a confronto, Rome, Carocci, 2025, pp115 - 126, [Massimo Faggioli]Book Chapter, URL
  • Massimo Faggioli, Re-mapping "Nostra Aetate" in the 21st Century. Trajectories of Jewish-Catholic Dialogue, from a Euro-Atlantic to a Global Catholic Churc., CConference "Nostra Aetate in Their Age and Ours" (Notre Dame Jerusalem at Tantur and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 18-20 November 2025, 2025, University of Notre Dame (USA) and Hebrew University (Israel)Invited Talk
  • Massimo Faggioli, Papal Speeches to and about Europe: John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, A Lonely Europe? The Role of Christians in the Process of European Integration, Krakow, 26-27 September 2025, 2025Invited Talk
  • Massimo Faggioli, Il trumpismo e la crisi degli Stati Uniti come progetto politico-religioso, America ed Europa. Il futuro dell"occidente. Convegno della rivista Coscienza e Libertà e di AIDLR " Associazione Internazionale per la Difesa della Libertà Religiosa, Rome, 24 November 2025, 2025, journal Coscienza e LibertàInvited Talk
  • Massimo Faggioli, Whose people? The ecclesial dimension of theology in the age of populism, "Dies Facultatis" of the Tilburg School of Theology, Utrecht (the Netherlands), 28 November 2025, 2025, Tilburg School of TheologyInvited Talk
  • Massimo Faggioli, The US Bishops" Conference from Paul VI to John Paul II (1963-2005), Local Churches, Collegial Bodies, Roman Authorities. Balances and Tensions in Various Post-Conciliar Seasons, Bologna, 15-17 December 2025, 2025, Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII, BolognaInvited Talk

Research Expertise

History and reception of Vatican II Catholic ecclesiology New Catholic movements and communities The papacy and global Catholicism History of the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church History of the Roman Curia

  • Title
    Intercontinental Commentary on Vatican II
    Summary
    steering committee member for the project "Vatican II - Event and Mandate" that is publishing 12 volumes (each of them in English and in German, and in open access) of an intercontinental commentary of the Second Vatican Council (196201965), a project involving over 150 scholars from all continents
    Date From
    2018
  • Title
    A History of the Roman Curia
    Summary
    The Roman Curia identifies the central government of the Catholic Church: the executive and judicial branch of the Holy See and of the pope in the Vatican, with many other administrative offices, and minor institutions (pontifical academies and institutes, choirs, museums, etc). This book intends to be a history of the Roman Curia from the origins to today, included the comprehensive reform of the Curia that has been announced several times during the pontificate of pope Francis (the announcement is expected for June or the second half of 2019). I intend to draw from my previous research experiences in the Secret Vatican Archives on the post-Trent period and the early 20th century, and on the history of the institutions of the Catholic Church in order to make a substantial contribution to the scholarship on this key institution. There is no one book covering the whole history of the institutions. This is a research project that requires familiarity with many languages because of the original sources (Latin) and of the scholarship on the different periods of papal Rome and Church government (Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish " and of course Latin), with institutional history, the history of Italy and Europe, but also with the history of theology and ecclesiology. This book will require limited archival research in the Vatican; most of the work will be in the systematization of a very fragmented status of the knowledge on the issue, and in particular a comprehensive effort of interpretation of the history of this institution, which is the oldest or one of the oldest among the working burocracies in world history.
  • Title
    Pope Leo XIV and the Global Church
    Summary
    signed a contract for the publication in Italian and English at the same time (Morcelliana in Italy and Liturgical Press in the USA) of a book on the first American pope Leo XIV and the global world. This volume opens a new book series published Morcelliana, a series for which I am the initiator and editor-in-chief.
    Date From
    October 2025
    Date To
    Fall 2026

Religious studies, Theology, Historical studies, Philosophy, Ethics and Religion,

Recognition

  • Honorary doctorate in Theology, Sacred Heart University (USA) 2018
  • Associazione Teologica Italiana
  • European Society of Catholic Theology
  • American Catholic Historical Association
  • Società Italiana per lo studio della storia contemporanea
  • European Academy of Religion EuARe