"Harvard and Catholic … are not incompatible": Father William Porras' Chaplaincy at Harvard University, 1954-1960

In 1954, five years after the outbreak of the crisis involving Father Leonard Feeney and the St. Benedict Center, Boston Archbishop Richard J. Cushing appointed Father William Porras, a priest of Opus Dei, as chaplain to the Harvard Catholic Club. Throughout the six years of his chaplaincy (1954-1960), Father Porras fostered an active and integrated Catholic presence at Harvard and combated Catholicism's perceived isolation. His initiatives were instrumental in bringing about the regular celebration of Mass on campus and the inauguration of the Charles Chauncey Stillman Chair of Catholic Studies, the birth of the magazine Current, and the beginning of more cordial relations between Harvard and the Boston Archdiocese. The study of Father Porras' ministry in light of Father Feeney's approach offers insights into the relationship between American Catholicism and secularization in the period prior to the Second Vatican Council.