St. Charles Borromeo Seminary has named Father Thomas Dailey the first incumbent of the John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications. St. Charles Borromeo is the seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

On his blog, Seminarian Casual, Father Dailey noted: “In his last apostolic letter, Blessed John Paul II described the digital world as ‘the first Areopagus of modern times’ because ‘Ours is an age of global communication in which countless moments of human existence are either spent with, or at least confronted by, the different processes of the mass media.’” Father Dailey’s mandate is to explore the theological dimensions of the world of social communications.

Do you know of other seminaries that have professors of media studies? Let us know in the comments!

St. Charles Seminary has also announced that its undergraduate division will remain open. The seminary had considered closing its College Division because of low enrollment while keeping its Theology Division open. The Theology Division is a graduate-level theological school that prepares future priests for ordination — a “theologate” in Catholic parlance.

In March, the seminary announced that it planned to sell 45 of the present seminary’s 75 acres, including the College Division building. A task force headed by Newmann University President Rosalie M. Mirenda recommended that the College Division move into shared quarters with the theologate and be rebranded as St. Charles Borromeo Seminary College.

Read more about the new chair in media studies here.

Read more about the decision to keep the seminary’s College Division open here.