Featured Stories | November 06, 2025
“Despite the distance between Taubaté and Milwaukee, we recognized ourselves in one another. We are two communities striving to form thoughtful, prayerful ministers in a polarized age.”
– Dr. Charles Hughes-Huff, Associate Professor of Scripture Studies, SHSST
In early October, four members of the Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology faculty —Dr. Paul Monson, Dr. Megan Furman, Dr. Jeremy Blackwood, and myself (Dr. Charles Hughes-Huff) — traveled to Taubaté, Brazil, to take part in Semana de Filosofia e Teologia (Philosophy and Theology Week) at the Faculdade Dehoniana. The visit deepened our collaborative experience of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (Dehonians) and their central educational center in Brazil.
Founded in 1924 and affiliated with the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro since 1980, Faculdade Dehoniana forms priests, religious, and lay students through its philosophy and theology programs, a graduate track for formators, and an active online extension program. Its 21 faculty members — most of them SCJs — build a community where intellectual discipline and pastoral zeal reinforce each another. We found the environment rigorous and alive with Dehonian expression.
During our trip, we presented papers before an audience of more than 200 students and faculty. Megan Furman’s “Philosophical Trends in U.S. Catholicism” traced the shifting intellectual currents shaping American Catholic philosophical study. I spoke on “Biblical Trends in U.S. Catholicism,” exploring how the Catholic mystical tradition helps resolve an impasse between historical and canonical criticism. Paul Monson’s provocative but well received “Pope Leo XIV as the First Truly American Pope” reflected on Francis, Leo XIV, and the Vatican’s evolving sense of “America.” Jeremy Blackwood responded to Fr Marió Marcelo Coelho, SCJ, whose paper, “Academic and Intellectual Formation: Dehonian Faculty in the Footsteps of Fr Dehon,” examined how Fr. Dehon’s vision of scholarship remains vital for the Church today.
Students asked perceptive questions about theology’s role in healing social divisions, renewing priestly formation, and uniting intellectual freedom with ecclesial fidelity. Their conversation reflected the Dehonian charism of love, reparation, and unity lived with intelligence.
Encounters in the classroom and community
The four of us stayed at the Priests of the Sacred Heart’s Taubaté convívio, where common prayer permeated each day. We joined theology and philosophy classes and were impressed by the professors’ clarity, command of ideas, and pastoral acumen. These professors teach with intellectual precision and an eye to pastoral and social realities, allowing their pedagogy to shape both thought and life.
In conversation with the Dehoniana’s faculty, we exchanged views on pedagogy, curriculum, and formation. Despite the distance between Taubaté and Milwaukee, we recognized ourselves in one another. We are two communities striving to form thoughtful, prayerful ministers in a polarized age.
Visits to Dehonian missions
Our time in Brazil extended beyond the classroom. We visited several Dehonian missions that embody the congregation’s union of contemplation and service.
In São Paulo, we toured the São Judas Tadeu Santuário and the Instituto Meninos, where the SCJs serve children and families in need. Education and faith intertwine there seamlessly. The staff described their work as a daily oblation, a fitting expression of the Dehonian vocation.
In Rio de Janeiro, we visited two parishes, Bom Jesus and Sagrado Coração. Bom Jesus offers free daycare and education to children from nearby favela communities. The Alemão and Penha complex — quite near the parish — recently endured large-scale police raids that left at least 132 people dead. The parish stands in a poor neighborhood yet remains deeply engaged with community life, human dignity, and eucharistic hope. Sagrado Coração serves the city’s wealthier residents. There we saw how devotion to the Sacred Heart takes a different cultural form but still channels parishioners toward adoration and mission.
On October 12, the Solemnity of Our Lady of Aparecida, we joined thousands of pilgrims at Brazil’s national basilica. We recognized a kinship between Aparecida and our own Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin. The link between these Marian sites — between Brazil and the American Midwest — became a living sign of a heart open to Our Mother’s mercy for the needs of her children.
Lessons and reflections
From Dehoniana’s students we learned how theology can remain rigorous yet accessible. From their faculty we saw how scholarship thrives when anchored in prayer and pastoral life. From the missions we witnessed how Brazilian popular piety — rich, embodied, and musical — can renew academic imagination.
Our hosts expressed their interest in how a North American seminary integrates lay faculty, practices shared governance and fosters a collaborative academic culture. Across languages and cultures, we found a shared purpose: to think deeply, teach faithfully, and serve generously. The Dehonian motto of “Sint Unum,” (that they may be one), came to mind often during our trip. We glimpsed unity not as cultural uniformity but as friendship grounded in mission.
Faculdade Dehoniana will publish our conference papers in its journal. Both institutions are preparing a joint volume on Pope Francis’s Dilexit nos, an encyclical on the Sacred Heart that resonates with Fr. Dehon’s spirituality. Faculty exchanges, seminars, and shared language study are in motion. We also plan to link our Marian shrines — Aparecida and Champion — in prayer and study, affirming a Marian solidarity across hemispheres.
A shared mission of the heart
In Taubaté we saw the same challenges we face at home: seminarians eager for wisdom, lay students seeking to integrate faith and reason, a Church called to reconciliation. We are grateful for our hosts’ theological seriousness, hospitality, and courage. They reminded us that theology, at its best, functions not as a solitary exercise but as a form of communion.
This trip reaffirmed that SHSST and the Faculdade Dehoniana share both a founder’s vision and a living mission. We study, teach, and serve so that Christ’s heart may be known in every culture and language. The partnership is not an academic luxury but a missional necessity.
“During our 12 days in Brazil, we saw what Sint Unum can look like: a Church thinking, praying, and serving together.”
The author (right) and Fr. Eduardo, who was at SHSST in October to give a presentation at the Sacred Heart Symposium
The October visit to Taubaté is one of several collaborative moments between the Faculdade Dehoniana and Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology. In May, representatives from the Brazilian institution took part in a “Jubilee Colloquium” in Hales Corners. Both theological institutions are significant international apostolates of the Priests of the Sacred Heart.