Two Holy Cross religious were among 10 University of Notre Dame educators honored with awards at the University’s annual President’s Dinner May 20, 2014.
Br. Jerome J. Meyer, C.S.C., received the Rev. John Francis “Pop” Farley, C.S.C., Award honoring distinguished service to student life.
Known affectionately as Br. Jo, he has served as an integral part of student life since 1997, when he became Knott’s first male rector after it was changed from a women’s to men’s hall. Whether greeting residents with a warm and jolly “Hullo!”, strolling through the dining hall sporting the latest in the hall’s blaze-orange fashion or hunkering down in his room cooking up a batch of his world-famous chili announced by the requisite “cold day, chili tonight” email he is committed to creating a Christian community where all can thrive.
A Knott resident put it this way: “Brother can be summed up in one word, ‘selfless.’ Everything he does is ordered toward our well-being
Rev. Joseph V. Corpora, C.S.C., received the Rev. William A. Toohey, C.S.C., Award for Preaching. Fr. Corpora, director of the Alliance for Catholic Education’s Catholic School Advantage Campaign, is a dynamic homilist who commands attention with thought-provoking messages, articulating Scripture in ways that help us to understand God’s love and desire for each of us to experience spiritual growth and salvation. He is particularly devoted to the Latino students on campus, with whom he celebrates Mass weekly, and to the residents of Dillon Hall, where he is an active priest-in-residence despite many days on the road leading ACE’s efforts to make Catholic education more available to Latino communities across the country.
Students know Fr. Corpora as an advocate who empowers them to become leaders in liturgy and in the Church in general. The University is richly blessed by his creativity and boundless energy.
