Inside the Core, We Welcomed the Archbishop of Santiago, Chile

Inside the Core this week, we had a wonderful opportunity for a group of Core II students to meet with the Most Reverend Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib, Metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago, Chile. This all happened through the providential encounter of the Archbishop and Professor Ines Murzaku, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Catholic Studies, who met him at a conference at the Catholic University of Puerto Rico last weekend. Finding him to be very warm, friendly and interested in Catholic higher education, Professor Murzaku invited the Archbishop to Seton Hall. He met with Interim President Passerini and Interim Provost Lillquist, who both received him warmly in President’s Hall, and he received an enthusiastic welcome and tour at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, hosted by Rector and Dean Msgr. Gerard McCarren, along with a very excited group of seminarians, surprised to find an Archbishop visiting unexpectedly. The Archbishop also concelebrated Mass in the Seton Hall's main chapel and made a visit to the G.K. Chesterton Institute, greeting its Director, Gloria Garafulich-Grabois.

For the Core, Archbishop Chomali Garib came to the class of Assistant Director of the University Core Maribel Landrau, who was teaching Core II at just the right moment for him to come to a class. He sat down in the front and began interacting warmly with the students, whom he questioned about their majors and their countries of origin. He complimented the class, and Seton Hall overall, for the diversity of our students, who hail literally from all over the world. He noted that this is not typically the case in Chile, and he said that he feels the lack of diversity is a loss. As many of the students were Spanish-speaking, as is the professor, Maribel Landrau, the Archbishop enjoyed conversing with them in his native language, alternating between Spanish and English to the whole group.

It was quite clear that these second-year students enjoyed very much this interaction with a leading church figure, who clearly showed such interest in them. The meeting was comfortable and engaging. Though we (the group traveling campus with the Archbishop) stayed in the class for only about fifteen minutes, I felt sure that this experience is one these students will remember positively, perhaps for the rest of their lives.

Archbishop Chomali Garib is a multi-talented person, as he has a degree in mechanical engineering, as well as a pilot’s license. He also has made a documentary film about the "disappeared" during the civil war and coup that brought in the dictator Pinochet and overthrew Salvador Allende. Gloria Garafulich-Grabois will translate the film from Spanish to English and mentioned that she hopes to have the film shown as part of the Mamalluca Chilean Film Festival/Chilean Cinema Series, of which she is co-founder. I was struck by how multi-talented Archbishop Chomali Garib is, and he brought his enthusiasm for learning, which clearly has informed his life experience, into his encounter with the students.

The whole experience was a delightful interaction of various component parts of Seton Hall. We in the Core are very grateful that Professor Murzaku arranged to have this visit to our Core students, and we are thankful to Archbishop Chomali Garib for making the time so meaningful and enjoyable for all of us who were part of this spontaneous and lovely visit.

Categories: Education, Faith and Service