The Newman Rambler

The Newman Centre of McGill University and its History

24 November 2019 ‖ Peter F. McNally

It is a pleasure for me to be with you this evening, participating in the celebrations for John Henry Newman’s canonization. Thank you for coming out in the November cold to hear my thoughts on the history of the McGill Newman Centre, a place with which I have been associated for over fifty years - my entire adult life. As my years in Montreal and McGill have intertwined with the Newman Centre, and this building where we are now meeting, this evening is very poignant for me. Before proceeding further, however, I would like to thank Pablo Irizar, Director, McGill Newman Centre, for inviting me to speak. I would also like to acknowledge Anne Leahy, President of the Newman Association of Montreal, along with past and present members of the Association’s Board, on which I have served since 1975 – including five years as President, 1985-1990.

May I begin by asking the audience a few questions before launching into my talk: Why is this building called the Newman Centre? How long has it been here? Who established it? Who runs it? What is its relation to John Henry Newman? What is its relationship with Newman Centres at other universities? These are all questions that deserve study, for which I do not pretend to have complete answers, but for which I will at least try to provide preliminary answers. In putting together these thoughts over the last several days, I realized that I have ben ruminating about them for many years. My hope is that by the end of the evening we will have gained a better understanding of the history of this place, and places like it. For the moment let me begin by saying that the origins of the McGill Newman Centre date back to over 100 years, back to the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 – a theme that ties very well with this evening’s Corpus Christi sermon on the importance of the monarchy. That Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and the start of the Catholic chaplaincy at McGill University should coincide I find intriguing!  Occupancy of this particular building began 65 years ago, in 1954. In other words, we have been around a long time. The Newman Centre is not something that happened yesterday but is part of a much larger historical development. Before proceeding further, I have a small confession to make. Usually when I give a talk of this sort, I will include visuals on a screen. I find that after a while people get rather tired of listening to my voice – or any voice! Tonight, unfortunately, I have no visuals. You will have to use your imagination or just look around this building, which is in fact this evening’s visual!

When I came to McGill as a young student, I was living in Molson Hall, one of the University’s residences for men at the top of University Street. The first week I was there, a hand-written note appeared on the bulletin board saying “Roman Catholic Mass, McGill Newman Centre,” along with an address on Peel Street.  “Well, why not try it?” I said to myself. Sunday morning at 10:00 or thereabout I showed up to for the promised Mass, which turned out to be a standard celebration of the time. As I was leaving a young woman who, I learned later, was the student president stopped me asking “Won’t you stay and have coffee with us? To which I replied, “Sure, why not?” I might add, she and her husband remain strong friends 55 years later. This is how much of life happens. Was I attracted here by any particular ideology, or by the pure chance of finding something that appealed to me? Why do people continue returning to the Newman Centre? Mass? social events? friends? activities? spiritual or religious reasons? an alternative to the downtown bar scene? I have known many people who have admitted that Newman provided an alternative to questionable lifestyles that did not interest them. The Centre was a home away from home. Newman, although not formally part of the University, provides an important service for students. Our affiliation with McGill permits us to supplement and enhance services given by the University to its students, which is not a minor thing.

Without speaking for too long, my plan this evening is to organize my talk around three major themes: first, establishment of Catholic Chaplaincy and the Newman Centre of McGill University; second, Newman Centres in general, in Canada, US, and abroad; and third, John Henry Newman – his thought and ideas – and how they relate to Newman Centres at McGill and elsewhere. I hasten to add that I am not a Newman scholar. To the extent that I have studied him, it has because of his educational ideas. This relates to my current position as Director of the History of McGill Project – McGill University’s official historian. I am intrigued by Cardinal Newman’s important ideas on the nature and purpose of higher education, and their relevance to the past, present, and future of universities. His ideas continue to resonate.

Consequently, the context of my talk is less Religion than Literacy, Learning, Education and Universities – topics I have studied, taught, and written about during my 40 years at McGill’s School of Information Studies. Working on the assumption that context is central to all historical research, please bear with me as I survey 10,000 years of world history - from the Ancient world to the present, with a particular focus upon the 19th century, the Victorian Era.

Literacy, education, and schooling as we know them are relatively recent developments in human history. Humans have been around for about 1 million years or so, but it has only been over the last 6,000 years or so, beginning in the Middle East, that literacy and formal education emerged as part of the human experience. [2] Around the time of Christ, the height of the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece and Rome were notable for their relatively high level of literacy. Even so, only a small minority of people, perhaps 30 percent, mostly in urban centres, were literate and had received formal schooling. Levels of literacy would have been much lower in rural areas. With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, a Dark Age descend upon Western Europe with the rate of literacy falling to around 1 percent. Some historians describe this period as the “skin of our teeth” era, when the light of civilization practically disappeared. It was the Christian Church, Catholicism, that saved literacy and learning in the face of the barbarian invasions. Over the next 1,000 years, from approximately 400 AD to about 1400 AD - the Christian era - literacy and learning climbed back slowly to levels known at the height of the Roman Empire - about 30 percent in the urban centres and less in rural areas.

In 1455, one of the most significant technological innovations in human communication was inaugurated - the Gutenberg printing press and moveable type. [3] The impact of printing on literacy and learning was enormous. Additionally, however, the printing press unleashed a series of social revolutions, the most obvious from our perspective being the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation, along with the decline of Latin as a universal language and the rise of vernacular national languages. Over the next centuries, printing and the spread of literacy are intimately associated with major events in Western civilization: Shakespeare, national literatures, science, and voyages of discovery to the Americas and across the world.

In the 17th and 18th century, as the rates of literacy began gradually increasing, Western civilization began evolving in ways that religious people, people of faith, did not always find comfortable. There emerged – among other things - secularism, rationalism, skepticism, atheism, and hostility to religion. Also emerging were the scientific revolution, technological innovation, and democratic ideology along with the French and American revolutions.

Two great events in the late 18th century shaped the nineteenth century world and beyond: the Industrial Revolution (1760 – 1840) and the French Revolution (1789 – 1799). The Industrial Revolution centred upon technological innovation and mass production, and coincided with increasing agricultural production requiring fewer farm workers, which in turn led to a population shift from rural to urban areas. Steam engines and railroads exemplify the rise of mechanization and factories that provided employment for people – accompanied usually by terrible working conditions. The French Revolution’s legacy included, among other things, fear of the mob – fear that restless and undisciplined people would create revolution and chaos. This fear was heightened by high levels of illiteracy – labourers in the early years of the Industrial Revolution neither having, nor requiring, literacy.

By the mid-nineteenth century, however, this situation evolved due to social and technological change. Increasingly, blue-collar factory workers needed literacy to handle sophisticated technology. The rise of government, business, and industrial bureaucracies required white and pink-collar workers – men and women - to undertake clerical and managerial positions. In addition, new professions emerged requiring educated practitioners. At the same time, the cost of printing declined enormously and production increased dramatically of books, magazines, and newspapers due to technological innovations such as wood pulp paper and high speed mechanical printing presses. Gutenberg may have produced a couple of books an hour, but 19th century steam presses could produce hundreds or even thousands an hour – in addition to newspapers and magazines. Around 1850 free public schools and free public libraries emerged to ensure and foster mass literacy.

The question now arose, what were the political alternatives for dealing with this new world order - aside from revolution on the one hand or oppression on the other hand? In much of the Western World, the alternatives were democracy and universal suffrage – with everyone having a say in the direction society should take. Socially, economically, and technologically it became both necessary and possible to have mass literacy and mass education. The new reality was for everyone to become simultaneously a voter, worker, and consumer in a technologically focused society that was urbanized, educated, and bureaucratized!

How were universities going to fit into this new world order? In the early 19th century, when John Henry Newman began his academic life, universities were unapologetically elitist, but were drifting away from religious affiliation. In England the century opened with only two universities: Oxford and Cambridge - both officially affiliated with the established Church of England, but at the same time very secular. The classical curriculum – with roots stretching back to the Ancient World and with a strong focus upon Latin and Greek – dominated their teaching. Ignored were Modern Languages and Literature, Science, and the Social Sciences, along with the professions, such as Law and Medicine. Even so, there was a growing sense in Britain and elsewhere that university education needed major reform, expansion, and updating to incorporate new knowledge and the emerging needs of a rapidly changing society that acknowledged the need for mass education. As the century progressed, universities began moving away from the classical curriculum and developing new programs in the humanities, social sciences, and science – superimposed on which were graduate and professional programs. This model is usually characterized as the German-American model of higher education.

Along with curricular reform, the place of religion in academic life began receiving attention, with skepticism and even hostility emerging in some quarters. An assumption emerged, among some, that espousal of science - particularly Darwinian evolution - necessitated a clash between science and religion. Although such a clash is inconsistent with Catholic teaching, many academics assumed that it must be so and acted accordingly. Religion generally, and Catholicism specifically, appreciated that there was no alternative to addressing questions about its role in a world of mass literacy, mass education, and knowledge creation. What was the place of religion in a world with rapidly evolving school and higher education systems, where secularism was becoming increasingly the norm, and where academia was often hostile to religion?  

Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) and Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) brought forward their overlapping and differing visions. In general terms, Pius IX is remembered as the last of the monarchical popes, ruling over an extensive papal state but who ended his pontificate in self-exile - a “prisoner” in the Vatican - following Italian unification. Ultramontanism and papal infallibility will always be associated with his name. His rejection of modernism was clearly stated in Syllabus of Errors (1864). By contrast, Leo XIII made clear his acceptance of scientific progress, and was aware of the pastoral and social needs of the times. His encyclical, Rerum novarum (1891), subtitled "On the Conditions of Labor" revealed his commitment to social reform and the rights of workers. He articulated the Church's response to the social conflict of the age as represented by capitalism, industrialization, socialism, and communism.

John Henry Newman (1801–1890) spans most of the 19th century, and his life as a Roman Catholic fits entirely within the pontificates of Pius IX and Leo XIII. You will forgive me, I trust, for avoiding discussion of Newman’s theological views or his attitudes towards the two popes under whom he served. There are others better qualified than I to handle these topics. Instead I would like to focus upon his relationship with the 19th century’s debates about education, literacy, and higher education. As background, it’s good to recall that Newman, born in London England, was descended from French Huguenot – Protestants - who had fled France and settled in England centuries earlier. His Oxford BA, received in 1820, was dominated by the classical curriculum. After ordination in 1825, he lectured at Oxford, served as an Anglican parish priest, and led the reform movement to recover the Anglican Church’s sacramental roots. In 1845 he walked away from Anglicanism - over the principle of ecclesiastical authority - converted to Roman Catholicism, and two years later was ordained a Catholic priest. In 1879 Newman was created a Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII, and died in 1890. Less than two months ago, October 2019, he was canonized a saint. As one of the great intellectuals of the 19th century, an outstanding theologian, and a prolific author with many publications, he may well be declared a Doctor of the Church. This would place him in the same category as Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Thomas Aquinas.

The period in Newman’s life that attracts my attention is the 1850s, when he became a university administrator and formulated his ideas on university education. I am strongly of the opinion that Newman is in the mainstream of 19th century thinking and activity associated with mass education, mass literacy, mass market printing, and knowledge creation. He was one of the century’s most prolific authors, with a prodigious publishing output: one hundred books, pamphlets, and other separate publications (many in multiple editions), around 170 edited and translated works (including periodicals and multi-volume sets), and approximately two hundred periodical and newspaper articles. In no previous age would the technical ability to publish so extensively been available - nor would there have been the audience to consume such a vast output! Newman’s writings continue being widely read and studied. [4]

In light of the general significance of the 1850s in terms of knowledge publication and reception, Newman’s 1854 invitation from the Bishops of Ireland to become Rector of the newly established Catholic University of Ireland, Dublin, assumes particular significance. While appreciating the desire to provide young Catholic (men) with a higher education alternative to the (Protestant) Trinity College, he suspected that the real intention of the bishops was less about developing a university than creating a seminary. To open a Catholic university simply to shield students from Protestant or anti-Catholic opinions would, he felt, lead nowhere. Given this unclear focus for the new university, it seems hardly surprising that Newman remained for only four years, 1854-1858, and achieved mixed results. What did emerge, however, from his brief tenure were two essays – Discourses on University Education, Addressed to the Catholics of Dublin (1852) and Lectures and Essays on University Subjects (1859) – which in 1873 were transformed into The Idea of a University. [5]

The core of his argument was that the first and foremost reason for attending university was intellectual development – learning to be articulate, and knowing how to exercise good judgement – so as to function effectively in the secular world. Although educated in the classical tradition, Newman appreciated that new knowledge and ways of looking at the world were emerging. New subjects, including science, would have to be included in the curriculum. Although Religion and Theology were legitimate university subjects, not everyone need take them. Seminaries were for the training of priests, not the laity. What is needed for everyone, including the university educated, is to receive moral and spiritual formation – to become a complete individual. This idea of faith was encapsulated in his motto – Heart Speaks to Heart – cor ad cor loquitur! These are complex, much debated, ideas – sometimes understood with difficulty. Even so, they provided the inspiration for Roman Catholic Chaplaincies on non-denominational campuses – to provide a mixture of religious, intellectual, and social activities that will assist young people in secular campuses to maintain and develop their faith in a manner that respects their academic ambitions and achievements.

The first such chaplaincy was established, not surprisingly, at Oxford in 1878 as the Catholic Club and renamed in 1888 the Oxford University Newman Society. In the United States, with over 2,000 chaplaincies, the oldest was established in 1883 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Similar centres emerged throughout  the English-speaking world. In Canada, McGill appears to be the first university with a Catholic chaplaincy, with others emerging also at Toronto 1913, Queen’s 1917, and Dalhousie, 1919. [6]

By the 1890s McGill, under the leadership of its fifth and sixth Principals - Sir William Dawson (1855-1893) and Sir William Peterson (1895-1919) - had emerged as Canada’s leading University. The classical undergraduate curriculum,  modified initially by the more relaxed Scottish tradition, was then supplanted by a liberal arts curriculum – humanities, social sciences, and sciences – superimposed upon which were graduate and professional programs – the German-American approach to higher education. By World War I the University enjoyed an international reputation, personified by Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) and Frederick Soddy (1877-1956) who in 1908 and 1921 respectively received Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for their research at McGill. [7]

Despite being a non-denominational university, McGill’s tone was decidedly Protestant and not necessarily sympathetic to Catholicism. For their part, Catholics were expected to request clerical permission to attend McGill and other secular universities, and to read books on the Church’s Index of Prohibited Books only under clerical supervision. It’s unclear how closely these expectations were actually observed at McGill or elsewhere.

Under the guidance of Fr. Edward J. Devine SJ, the Loyola Club was established in 1897 as the McGill Chaplaincy, with the first meetings held in the Jesuit College, Bleury St. [8] Within ten years, however, meetings came under the jurisdiction of St Patrick’s Church, Dorchester Blvd (now Boulevard René-Lévesque), and the name of the Chaplaincy changed to the Columbian Club. In 1929, along with the stock market crash and start of the Great Depression, the Chaplaincy’s name changed to Newman Club, reflecting the by-now widespread use of the Cardinal’s name for Catholic chaplaincies on secular campuses. Aside from a brief time with a Paulist Father, the Chaplains were diocesan priests. Along with other Canadian Newman Centres, McGill belonged to the Canadian chapter of the (American) Federation of College Catholic Clubs. In 1943, nine Canadian members – including McGill - seceded from the Federation to form the Canadian Federation of Newman Clubs.

From 1941 to 1956, Fr. Gerald Emmett Carter – later Cardinal-Archbishop of Toronto – served as Chaplain, providing strong leadership. Returning veterans were encouraged to be involved in the Club. In 1943, an Alumni organization was formed to include groups previously ineligible for membership: graduate students, faculty, former Newman Club members, and “graduates of other non-Roman Catholic universities resident in Montreal.” Pax Romana, an international organization of Catholic students, was supported. In the late 1940s, the Club became a beneficiary of the Archdiocese’s annual financial campaign.

Buildings to house activities were acquired first in 1949 at 2049 McGill College Ave, and then in 1954 at 3484 Peel St – the Lafleur-Whitehead mansion – which remains the home of the McGill Chaplaincy. The building was large enough to house chaplains on the second floor and (male) student residents on the third. A cook, Mrs. Servage, was hired to provide meals for priests and boarders, and to operate a lunch-time canteen in the basement. The Coach House was rented out to a senior member of the community.

In 1951, the Newman Association of Montreal, Inc. was incorporated by dedicated lay people, with the aim of operating and funding the Chaplaincy. The Association operates under the Roman Catholic Bishops Act and owns the 3484 Peel St property. Notable Association board members of this period included John Turner (1929-2020) 16th Prime Minister of Canada, and Warren Allmand (1932-2016) long-time Member of Parliament for Notre Dame de Grâce and holder of several cabinet positions. They served consecutively as the Association’s Secretary.

In broad outline the Chaplaincy continued to function into the 1970s along the path laid out by Fr. Carter, who was succeeded by Fr. Russell Breen (1956-1965) who would later become a Vice-Rector of Montreal’s Loyola College and Vice-Principal of Concordia University when the College merged with Sir George Williams University. He was succeeded successively by Fr. Robert Nagy (1965-1971) and Fr. Redmond Fitzmaurice OP (1971-1973). Nagy, notable for his artistic talent, would later become Chaplain at Loyola College. Fitzmaurice, an Irish Dominican and graduate of McGill’s Islamic Institute, had spent considerable time in Iran. Their ministries coincided with the tumultuous era of Vatican II, student and youth rebellion, feminism, sexual permissiveness, Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, the drift away from religion, and the Viet Nam War. The growing role of women in religion and universities was reflected in their being elected members of the Association’s Board, becoming Campus Ministers – lay people with religious formation assisting the Chaplains - and Susan Mactaggart BSc’66 being elected the Club’s first woman student president. In the late ’60s, Newman participated in supermarket boycotts on behalf of California grape pickers. Ecumenism became a watchword, with 3484 Peel St becoming the headquarters for McGill’s interfaith chaplaincy service – from the mid 1970s to the opening of McGill’s Brown Students Services Building in 1999. The Newman Club relabelled itself the Newman Centre concerned with students, faculty, staff, and other interested people.

From 1973 to 1990 an American order, the Paulist Fathers, provided leadership for the McGill Newman Centre and other specialized ministries within the archdiocese. Their residence moved from the main building to the Coach House. Boarders in the main building began including women, and the cook’s position was eliminated. This period coincided with the rise of Quebec separatism, Montreal’s declining Anglophone community, and growing concern for the Centre’s financial viability. In 1973, the Pillars Trust Fund - through its annual fund-raising within the Montreal Anglophone Catholic community – began providing much needed support, as did St Patrick’s Orphanage and other diocesan bodies. With the 1976 sale to McGill of Marianopolis College, the Congregation de Notre Dame made a significant financial grant to the Association in recognition of an historic moral claim. In the late 1980s, the Association launched a successful $100,000 campaign that permitted, among other things, electrical rewiring of 3484 Peel St.

Adapting to McGill’s changing profile was required during this period. By 1985, women accounted for 50% of the University’s enrolment, which was becoming less Anglophone and more Francophone, with growing proportions of international students. Graduate programs and research assumed growing significance. The title for the person leading the Centre began changing from “Chaplain” to “Director.” Claude Ryan (1925-2004) - former provincial cabinet and editor of Le Devoir – whose thinking was deeply influenced by Newman became associated with the Centre to which he donated his library.

With the departure of the Paulist Fathers from Montreal in 1990, Fr. Francis McKee – a diocesan priest - became the Director but did not live at the Centre. In 1994, Dr. Daniel Cere became Campus Minister with the goal of extending the Centre’s academic/intellectual profile. The decade ended with Dr. Leon Poddles and his family becoming benefactors of the Association, funding major renovation in 2000 of 3484 Peel St, and in 2011 the Coach House, now a student residence. In addition, the family added significantly to the Association’s capital fund. At the same time, the Poddles endowed at McGill the Kennedy-Smith Chair in Catholic Studies, Faculty of Arts, to anchor an undergraduate Minor Program in Catholic Studies. As the University was unwilling to have the Newman Association, an explicitly Roman Catholic organization, serve as the oversight body for the Chair and Program, a new entity was created to assume this responsibility - the Newman Institute of Catholic Studies. [9]

Since 2000 the Centre’s Directors have held PhDs, or been doctoral candidates, reflecting the growing emphasis upon the intellectual dimension of university chaplaincy. Reflecting the declining availability of priests, the Directors have usually been lay people. Diocesan clergy are appointed, on a part-time basis, as Chaplains. Directors and Campus Ministers are appointed by the Diocese on the recommendation of the Newman Association. Although salaries are determined by diocesan norms, the Association is now playing a larger role in their funding. Ms. Anne Leahy became in 2018 the Association’s first woman president. In 2017/2018, the Newman Association and the Newman Institute – with overlapping Board memberships – collaborated in establishing a Foundation to assist in fund-raising.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your time and patience listening to me this evening. When I look around the walls of this large main floor of the Newman Centre, waves of memory engulf me. This has been a place of friendship, debate, heated argument, and sacramental solemnity. It has been my great fortune and honour to be connected with the McGill Newman Centre and its significant contribution to the lives of successive generations of McGill students, faculty, and staff. Strong friendships are formed here and many lives – mine own included – are the better for it. As a parting note, I would like to quote from a recent document that encapsulates the intertwining roles of the Newman Centre, the Newman Association, and the Roman Catholic Chaplaincy at McGill University:

 “The Association is the Catholic Chaplaincy at McGill University and exists to serve the spiritual, intellectual and social interests of the students, faculty and staff.” [10]

 Notes

1. Professor Emeritus, School of Information Studies, and Director of the History of McGill Project. He is currently researching and writing vol. III (1970-2002) of McGill University: for the Advancement of Learning.

2. Frederick G Kilgour. The Evolution of the Book. NY, Oxford, 1998.

3. Elizabeth Eisenstein. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Pr, 2012.

4. Vincent Ferrer Blehl. John Henry Newman: a Bibliographical Catalogue of his Writings. Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 1978, 8.

John R Griffin. Newman: a Bibliography of Secondary Studies. Front Royal, VA, Christendom College Press, 1980.

Mary Esther Hanley. The Newman Collection of St. Michael’s College Library. Toronto, University of St. Michael College Library, 1977.

Paul H Schmidt. “Selected Bibliography of Recent Scholarly Work on John Henry Newman with a Focus on Literary Studies,” Studies in the Literary Imagination. v. 49, no. 2 (2016) p. 125-129.

Clarence Edward Sloane. John Henry Newman, an Illustrated Brochure of his First Editions. Worcester, Mass, Dinand Library, College of the Holy Cross. [1953].

 5.  Ian Ker. “Newman’s Idea of a University and its Relevance for the 21st Century.” Australian eJournal of Theology. v. 18, no. 1 (April, 2011).

https://www.unav.edu/documents/8871060/8964433/Newman%27s+Idea+of+a+university+and+its+Relevance+for+the+21+st+Century.pdf/bc19eafd-509b-4813-9f1d-f233184371af [accessed, December 4, 2019]

 6. “Newman Centers.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman_Centers/ [Accessed, November 20, 2019]

 7. Stanley B Frost. McGill University: for the Advancement of Learning. Montreal, McGill Queen’s Pr, 1980-1984. 2 v.

 8. Kevin James. “A Place to Call Home: Newmanism and Campus Religion at McGill, 1929-1963.” Honours Thesis, Department of History, McGill University, 1996.

Peter F McNally. “Une communauté chrétienne en situation.” in Réactions et réflexions. Edited by Louise Bourbonnais, Montréal, Fides, 1984. p. 41‑44.

_____. “The McGill Newman Centre, 1897-1997.” Montreal Catholic Times, v. 21, no. 6 (February, 1997) p. 10.

_____. “The Newman Centre: Not only a Place, but a Time-Honoured Tradition for Catholic Students at McGill.”

http://newmancentre.org/about-us/history-of-the-mcgill-newman-centre/ [accessed, December 4, 2019]

 9. “Newman Institute of Catholic Studies.” http://newmancentre.org/education/newman-institute-of-catholic-studies-inc-nics/ [Accessed, January 15, 2020]

 10. Newman Association of Montreal Inc. “Financial Statements.” April 30, 2019. p. 7

APPENDICES

McGill Newman Centre - Directors/Chaplains

Rev Edward J Devine, SJ, 1897

Rev Gerald McShane SS, ca 1906

Rev Martin P Reid, uncertain

Rev Ernest Cooney, uncertain

Rev Gerald Emmett Carter, 1941-1956

Rev Russell Breen, 1956-1965

Rev Bob Nagy, 1965-1971

Rev Redmond Fitzmaurice OP, 1971-1973

Rev Phil Hart CSP, 1973-1977

Rev Thomas Ryan CSP, 1977-1980

Rev Edward Langlois CSP, 1980-1983

Rev Richard Colgan, CSP, 1983-1984

Rev Dr Robert Moran CSP, 1984-1990

Rev Francis McKee, 1990-2000

Dr Daniel Cere, 2000-2006

Richard Bernier, 2006-2008

Nathan Gibbard, 2008-2014

Dr Robert Di Pede, 2014-2017

Dr Cecil Chabot, 2017-2018

Fr Gerry Westphal, 2018 (Acting Director)

Rev Dr John Meehan SJ, 2018-2019 (Acting Director)

Dr Pablo Irizar, 2019-

Presidents of the Newman Association of Montreal

John M Winn, 1952-1957

Dr William J McNally, 1957-1958

James W Hemens, 1958-1960

Brock F Clarke, 1960-1962

W J Bennett, 1962-1964

James Courtright, 1964-1966

Monteath Douglas, 1966-1967

Allen J Hanley, 1967-1971

Otto Cleyn, 1971-1973

Allen J Hanley, 1973-1974

*George Joly, 1974-1976

Paul McDonald, 1976-1977

James Leavy, 1977-1980

Robert C Wilkins, 1980-1985

*Peter F McNally, 1985-1990

*David Stevens, 1990-1995

*John Zucchi, 1995-2011

Mario Paolucci, 2011-2016

*Daniel Cere, 2016-2018

Anne Leahy, 2018-

*McGill University faculty members