Where Faith and Academia Meet
A new fellowship honoring a cherished priest and theologian is enabling Seton Hall scholars to strengthen Catholic communities.
In Fall 2025, when Mary Landriau received an email about a new fellowship offered by Seton Hall’s Center for Catholic Studies, her eyes lit up. The fellowship was designed to support faculty members or graduate students pursuing projects that connect the University with local Catholic communities, such as parishes and schools. It was so obviously up Landriau’s alley that she quickly received forwards of the same email from several friends. “People who know me know that this is my passion and my wheelhouse,” she says.
The fellowship honors the memory of Monsignor Edward J. Ciuba ’55, who died in January 2024 at the age of 89. A New Jersey native born to Polish immigrants in 1935 and ordained in 1959, Monsignor Ciuba left behind an extraordinary legacy of service, scholarship and spiritual guidance. His long clerical career included roles as a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark and seminary rector and professor of biblical studies at Seton Hall. Known to most as “Father Ed,” he strove to bridge the intellectual and spiritual lives of the Catholic Church.
The Monsignor Edward Ciuba Fellowship fosters connections between academia and faith communities by enabling scholars to use their expertise to meet the Church’s needs, ensuring a dynamic exchange of knowledge, spiritual growth and pastoral outreach. Friends, parishioners and colleagues of Monsignor Ciuba raised nearly $100,000 to endow the fellowship, ensuring his legacy will endure for years to come.
“As a gifted teacher, a genuine shepherd with a priestly heart, and as Rector and
Dean of
Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, Monsignor Ciuba helped to form
generations of ministers for service to the people of God,” says Seton Hall University
President, Monsignor Joseph Reilly.
Landriau, a senior faculty associate and director of practicum in Seton Hall’s bachelor of Social Work program, is the inaugural recipient of the Monsignor Edward Ciuba Fellowship. Sitting at the nexus of academia and aid, the fellowship spoke both to Landriau’s spiritual calling as a servant of Christ, and her professional interests as a longtime social worker and counselor with expertise in substance abuse and mental health. “This just defines me,” she says. “I’m a professor, and I’m interested in writing and scholarship, but I’m even more interested in healing people.”
Through the yearlong fellowship, Landriau is leading an initiative to reestablish a women’s group ministry at her diverse hometown parish of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Plainfield, New Jersey. “One of Monsignor Ciuba’s passions involved fostering small Christian communities — evangelizing and healing in small groups,” she says. “This seemed like a natural fit.”
Father Ed's legacy is the reason we're doing this. I feel his presence.”
Funds from the fellowship cover the cost of meals for the group’s regular meetings and also enable Landriau to create educational booklets about female saints the group studies. “The idea is to facilitate dialogue not just on why these women were important, but why they’re important now and what we can learn from them.” Additionally, the women in the group do community service work, including a food drive, and Landriau is looking into a group retreat as well. “The Holy Spirit tells us where we need to go.”
Landriau says the fellowship has given her space to grow spiritually while also enriching her professional life. Though she never got to meet Monsignor Ciuba, she feels a deep connection to him through her work. “Father Ed’s legacy is the reason we’re doing this. I feel his presence in our ministry,” she says. “The intersection of his scholarship and his work as a priest really resonates with me, so I feel like he’s smiling down on the project.”
