Massimo Faggioli

Massimo Faggioli (born 1970) is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, columnist for La Croix International, and contributing writer to Commonweal.

He was on the faculty at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota) from 2009 to 2016, where he was the founding director of the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship. Since 2017, he has been an adjunct professor at the Broken Bay Institute, which is part of the Australian Institute of Theological Education in Sydney, Australia.

Early work
He worked in the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna between 1996 and 2008 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Turin in 2002.

Career
Since 2016 he is full professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia). He was the founding director (2014-2015) of the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship and on the faculty in the Department of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul (Minnesota) between 2009 and 2016. He writes regularly for newspapers and journals on the Church, religion and politics, frequently gives public lectures on the Church and on Vatican II. Faggioli was the co-chair of the study group “Vatican II Studies” for the “American Academy of Religion” (2012–2016).

His "Annual Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Lecture" held at the University of South Carolina on October 7, 2013 and published in America on February 24, 2014 issue, focusing on the relationship between Catholics and politics.

Since November 2014 he is columnist for La Croix International (formerly Global Pulse Magazine), and since 2016 for Commonweal magazine. Since 2016 he is staff writer for the Italian Catholic magazine "Il Regno". In 2018 he received from Sacred Heart University (Connecticut, USA) an honorary doctorate in theology.

Select publications

 * Il vescovo e il concilio. Modello episcopale e aggiornamento al Vaticano II, Il Mulino, Bologna 2005, 476 pp.
 * Breve storia dei movimenti cattolici, Carocci, Roma 2008, 146 pp. (Spanish translation: Historia y evolución de los movimientos católicos. De León XIII a Benedicto XVI, Madrid: PPC Editorial, 2011, pp. 224)
 * Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning, New York/Mahwah, NJ, Paulist Press 2012, pp. 207 (Italian translation: Interpretare il Vaticano II. Storia di un dibattito, Bologna, EDB, 2013, 160 pp.; Portuguese translation: Vaticano II. A luta pelo sentido, translated by Jaime A. Clasen, São Paulo, Editora Paulinas Brasil, 2013, 216 pp.)
 * True Reform. Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium, Collegeville MN, Liturgical Press 2012, pp. 188 (Italian translation: Vera riforma. Liturgia ed ecclesiologia nel Vaticano II, Bologna, EDB, 2013, 192 pp.; German translation: Sacrosanctum Concilium. Der Schlüssel zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, Freiburg i.B., Herder, 2015).
 * Nello spirito del concilio. Movimenti ecclesiali e recezione del Vaticano II, Cinisello B.: San Paolo, 2013, 160 pp.
 * Papa Francesco e la “chiesa-mondo”, Roma, Armando Editore, 2014, 96 pp.
 * Pope John XXIII. The Medicine of Mercy, Collegeville MN, Liturgical Press, 2014, 160 pp.
 * Sorting Out Catholicism. Brief History of the New Ecclesial Movements, Collegeville MN, Liturgical Press, 2014, 224 pp.
 * Pope Francis. Tradition in Transition, New York, Paulist Press, 2015, 104 pp.
 * A Council for the Global Church. Receiving Vatican II in History, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2015, 350 pp.
 * The Legacy of Vatican II, eds. Massimo Faggioli and Andrea Vicini SJ, New York, Paulist Press, 2015, 320 pp.
 * The Rising Laity. Ecclesial Movements since Vatican II, New York, Paulist Press, 2016, 176 pp.
 * Catholicism and Citizenship. Political Cultures of the Church in the 21st Century, Collegeville MN, Liturgical Press, 2017, 165 pp.
 * Cattolicesimo, nazionalismo, cosmopolitismo. Chiesa, società e politica dal Vaticano II a papa Francesco, Roma, Armando Editore, 2018, 176 pp.
 * The Liminal Papacy of Pope Francis. Moving Toward Global Catholicity, Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 2020, 210 pp. (translated also in Italian).
 * Joe Biden e il cattolicesimo negli Stati Uniti, Brescia: Morcelliana, 2021, 208 pp. (translated also in English and in French).
 * The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, eds. Catherine Clifford and Massimo Faggioli, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, 777 pp.

Awards

 * "Yves Congar Award for Theological Excellence" from Barry University in Miami, Florida on January 24, 2019.