Roman Catholic Chaplain Father David O'Leary is expected to be Tufts' next University Chaplain, replacing Interim Chaplain Patricia Budd Kepler. Trustee Secretary Linda Dixon confirmed yesterday that the Board of Trustees approved the offer to O'Leary, which Provost Sol Gittleman and President Larry Bacow are expected to formally make soon.
O'Leary could not hold back a proud smile last Sunday when he announced at his weekly mass that he would likely be offered the job. He said that to the best of his and the National Catholic Campus Ministry Association's knowledge, he would be the first University Chaplain of a private institution in the US. After a long string of Universalist Unitarian Chaplains at Tufts, O'Leary said the University is ready for a change.
"It's been 150 years in the making," O'Leary said last night. "I think there was a push to promote from within; they wanted someone who knew the University very well."
Gittleman would not confirm that an offer will be made but acknowledged that O'Leary was a likely choice. The Provost has been involved in the search for a new chaplain and said the University had not, to this point, looked outside of the Tufts community.
Kepler is scheduled to leave at the end of June, and O'Leary would take over the Chaplaincy by July 1. His duties as Catholic Chaplain will be fulfilled by another Catholic priest, who will direct the Catholic Center and run the Catholic ministry on campus. The new priest will be appointed by the Archdiocese of Boston and then confirmed by Tufts.
O'Leary had to seek the permission of Cardinal Bernard Law in order to secure the position because he would no longer be employed by the Archdiocese, but directly by Tufts.
O'Leary said his love for Tufts made the decision to seek the position easy. He lauded the energy and "giving spirit" of the students he has encountered here. "I love the University," he said. "I've been here four years and it's the best place I've ever worked."
He said religious and spiritual commitment were strong at Tufts, and pointed to the respect the administration pays the Chaplaincy as further evidence of the strength of Tufts' spiritual life. O'Leary said Tufts was the only school he knew of in which the Chaplain reported directly to the President.
"All of the Chaplains have direct access to the president. At others campuses, the chaplains report to the Dean of Students," he said. "If you look in the Tufts fact book ... it goes Trustees, President, University Chaplain."
Kepler was brought on in Jan. 2001 to replace 16-year veteran Reverend Scotty McLennan, who left Tufts for Stanford. Though she was a temporary replacement pending the selection of a successor, last year's presidential search delayed the choosing of a replacement and caused Kepler to remain longer than anticipated. Administrators were even said to have been reviewing the necessity of the position.
"I'm glad that Tufts will have a permanent chaplain that will dedicate the time and energy this job requires," she said. "I've totally enjoyed being the Interim Chaplain."
She said O'Leary was a good choice because the Catholic program he oversees is well-run and Sunday masses well-attended.
"Certainly, I think [O'Leary] is ready for the position," Kepler said. "He has been the chaplain for four years and he's been running a Catholic program that's going very well."
O'Leary arrived at Tufts four years ago to find a Catholic community with little organization. He said one of his biggest achievements has been resurrecting the Catholic Center.
"The highest point has been the reclaiming of the Catholic Center," he said. "When arrived in '98, mushrooms [were] growing through the carpet in the basement."
O'Leary said that as Chaplain, he would now act to support community members of all faiths and beliefs. Often, he said, it meant discussing issues not as an ordained Roman Catholic priest, but as a spiritual leader.
"I'm someone on a spiritual quest," he said.
As part of his involvement with all of Tufts' religious communities, O'Leary said he planned to attend Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, and Islamic services at least once a month as University Chaplain. Though the Catholic mass would be overseen by a new Chaplain, he would hope to participate in it when he attended.
Before working at Tufts, O'Leary was a professor of modern theology at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore. He also worked with interfaith inner city coalitions in both Boston and Baltimore. He currently teaches in Tufts' comparative religion department.
