After serving Dallas Catholics for the past decade, Bishop Kevin J. Farrell (also
chancellor of the University of Dallas) has been appointed by Pope Francis as the
highest-ranking American clergyman in the Vatican. Farrell will oversee the Dicastery
for Laity, Family and Life, a new department in which he will focus on the lives of
ordinary Catholics around the world.
University of Dallas President Thomas W. Keefe shared his remarks from the papal announcement:
“This morning’s announcement of Bishop Kevin J. Farrell’s appointment as prefect of the new Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life is bittersweet news for me personally and the greater University of Dallas community. While we are thankful that the church will have such a forgiving leader at this post, we will miss his ardent dedication to our institution and our mission.
“Not only has Bishop Farrell provided me with invaluable counsel, loyalty and friendship, but his unwavering support has been an integral part of the university’s transformation into one of the country’s elite Catholic universities. For this, we are eternally grateful.”
The Diocese of Dallas also shared Bishop Farrell’s remarks on his new appointment as prefect of the new Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.
A flurry of headlines resulted from the news of Bishop Farrell’s appointment, which becomes effective Sept. 1.
The University of Dallas has announced a new director of civil rights, Luciana Milano. Milano, who has a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard College and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, began her new role on Oct. 12.
+ Read More“This is the first time we’ve had a scholarship in honor of a great Catholic intellectual — and now, within the last year, saint,” said President Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA ’82 MA ’83, by way of introducing the St. John Henry Newman Scholarship in Philosophy recently endowed by alumnus Matthew Hejduk, MA '98 PhD '06, and his wife, Julia Hejduk, Ph.D. Julia was a colleague of Hibbs during his time at Baylor University, where she teaches in the Classics Department.
+ Read MoreMichelle Cortez-Gonzales, MFA ’20, was a Fort Worth ISD high school teacher with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Texas at Arlington when she decided to go back to school to get her master’s. At the recommendation of a friend, she visited UD, and knew immediately from the wooded area around the Art Village, the architecture of the buildings, and the faculty members she met that UD was the place for her.
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