As classes began recently for more than 23,000 DePaul University students, the St. Louise de Marillac Chapel opened on the Lincoln Park Campus. Meanwhile, the Catholic Studies program gained its own faculty—two renowned Catholic scholars, Peter Casarella and Farrell O’Gorman—who began teaching classes this fall quarter.

Casarella comes to DePaul from the Catholic University of America where he was associate professor of systematic theology and served as director of the university’s Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies.

The Catholic studies scholar has written extensively on topics related to his expertise, including medieval Christian Neo-Platonism, contemporary theological aesthetics. St. Bonaventure’s Trinitarian theology of creation, the idea of emergence in contemporary physics and the Hispanic/Latino presence in the U.S. Catholic Church. He earned a doctoral degree in religious studies from Yale University in 1992.

Before coming to DePaul, O’Gorman was an assistant professor of English at Mississippi State University. He is an expert on American and Anglo-Irish literature, specifically that of Flannery O’Connor. He received his doctoral degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000 and is the author of the critically recognized novel, “Awaiting Orders” (Idylls Press, 2006). The book has been selected for the Loyola Press collection “Best Catholic Writing 2007.”

“We are happy to welcome the first faculty for the Catholic Studies program,” said Karen Scott, director of the program. “DePaul is well on its way to providing a variety of places where students can learn about Catholicism and engage the Catholic intellectual tradition within the diverse setting of the university.”

The 60-seat St. Louise de Marillac Chapel is located in the Student Center, 2250 N. Kenmore Ave., directly across from the Admissions Office. The new chapel will allow the more than 400 Catholic students who regularly attend weekly mass at St.Vincent de Paul Church, 1010 W. Webster Ave., to celebrate mass and to worship on DePaul’s campus.

Mike Vasilko of Vasilko Architects designed the chapel space. The art work in the chapel was designed by well-known Chicago artist, Meltem Aktas, who specializes in sacred spaces. The glass-walled structure includes Aktas’cobalt blue hand-blown glass ornamentation inset into the altar and pulpit and sea-blue glass doors on the tabernacle—giving the chapel a watery, feminine quality.

According to Fr. Chris Robinson, director of Catholic Community and Pastoral Outreach for University Ministry at DePaul, the symbolism of water and birth reflects the feminine spirit of God and of St. Louise de Marillac. “It’s a contemplative, consoling, peaceful and empowering space,” said Robinson. “It’s beautiful and visible, so even if [some] students never walk in, they are still going to pass by and question, ‘Well, what do I believe?’”

Considered the saint of social work, Louise de Marillac was a friend and co-worker of St. Vincent de Paul. Her work in 17th century France was devoted to the care of the poor, specifically women. She founded the Daughters of Charity and developed a model system of hospital care that is used by the organization even today and has been expanded to include orphanages, institutions for the elderly and mentally ill, prisons, schools and combat zones.

Editors Note: J-PEG images of the chapel are available upon request.