Mary Catherine O’Reilly-Gindhart Simpson interviews the international scholar who has taken up a post at Trinity College, Dublin.

Where did you grow up?

I was born near Ferrara, one of the great centres of the Renaissance, in northern Italy between Bologna and Venice. My father is from that area, but my mother is from Tuscany: not very far south, but two different geographies, food culture, weather etc. I stayed in Ferrara until the end of high school (Liceo Classico) and then moved to Bologna to attend university.

Did you attend Catholic school growing up?

I did not attend Catholic schools because in Italy Catholic schools had a reputation that is different than in the Anglosphere, they are considered more cliquish, and my parents never attended one. Also, the contacts between state schools and Catholic schools were minimal, almost separate worlds.

What got you interested in theology?

What fascinated me was the impact that theological and religious ideas had and have on politics, society, culture, the arts. Especially in Europe and the Americas, without theology it’s hard to understand an entire civilization. In Italy, there was also a very recent history of relations between Church and politics, from the Fascist regime to the ‘years of lead’ of domestic terrorism between the 1960s and the 1980s that was very interesting to me. And then 9/11 came and the temptation of a ‘clash of civilizations’: the study of theology became even more important for what I wanted to do as a Catholic but also as a citizen of the world.

Massimo Faggioli is Professor in Historical and Contemporary Ecclesiology in the Loyola Institute at the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin.

He is Series co-editor ‘Studies in Global Catholicism’ (Brill) Steering Committee Member ’Vatican II - Event and Mandate’

Mary Catherine O’Reilly-Gindhart Simpson is a research student.

Photo courtesy of Massimo Faggioli