Barbie and the Loss of Paradise

Claudio M. Burgaleta, S.J. was born in Havana, Cuba and came to the United States in 1969. He grew up in Essex County, N.J., and after two years at Columbia University, entered the then New York Province of the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew Hall, Syracuse, N.Y. He completed his collegiate studies as a Jesuit at Fordham University, the University of Madrid (Complutense), and Comillas University, also in Madrid. As part of his Jesuit formation he taught at St. Peter’s Preparatory School in Jersey City, N.J. and then obtained M.Div. and STL degrees at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, California in preparation for ordination. He was ordained to the presbyterate in June, 1992, and that fall began doctoral studies in theology at Boston College. He completed his Ph.D. in historical and systematic theology in December, 1996. 

Fr. Burgaleta has taught theology at St. Peter’s and Fordham Universities, worked in Jesuit formation, and Latino Ministry. He is the author of several books on Jesuit history, theology, and Latino pastoral ministry. From 2016-2022 he was superior of the St. Peter’s Jesuit Community in Jersey City, N.J., and represented the U.S. East Coast Province of the Jesuits at the 71st Congregation of Procurators in Loyola, Spain in May, 2023. Since July 31st, 2023, Fr. Burgaleta serves as the superior of the Boston College Jesuit Community (St. Mary’s Hall).

M. Cathleen Kaveny is a scholar who focuses on the relationship of law, religion, and morality, serves as the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, a position that includes appointments in both the department of theology and the law school. She is the first faculty member to hold such a joint appointment. A member of the Massachusetts Bar, Kaveny clerked for the Honorable John T. Noonan Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as an associate at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray in its health law group. She was the 2018-2019 Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. Kaveny has published four books and over a hundred articles and essays, in journals and books specializing in law, ethics, and medical ethics. She serves on the masthead of Commonweal as a regular columnist. Her books include Law’s Virtues: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society (Georgetown University Press, 2012); A Culture of Engagement: Law, Religion, and Morality (Georgetown University Press, 2016); Prophecy without Contempt: Religious Discourse in the Public Square (Harvard University Press, 2016); and Ethics at the Edges of Law: Christian Moralists and American Legal Thought (Oxford University Press, 2018). Kaveny regularly teaches contract law to first-year law students. She also teaches a number of seminars which explore the relationship between theology, philosophy, and law, such as “Faith, Morality, and Law,” “Mercy and Justice,” and “Complicity.” Kaveny is the chair of the board of trustees of the Journal of Religious Ethics. She has been the president of the Society of Christian Ethics, the major professional society for scholars of Christian ethics and moral theology in North America. It meets annually in conjunction with the Society of Jewish Ethics and the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics. Kaveny has served on a number of editorial boards including The American Journal of Jurisprudence, The Journal of Religious Ethics, the Journal of Law and Religion, and The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. She has been a visiting professor at Princeton University, Yale University, and Georgetown University, and a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty Center. From 1995 until 2013 she taught law and theology at the University of Notre Dame, where she was a John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law. 

Elizabeth H. Prodromou is a visiting professor in the International Studies Program at Boston College and non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. Her research interests and policy work focus on the intersections of geopolitics, religion, and human rights, with particular focus on the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. Prodromou served a diplomatic appointment on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2004-2012), and she was also a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group (2011-2015). The author of two edited volumes, many book chapters, and widely published in academic journals, her most recent publication deals with Russian influence-building through religious soft power, in The Kremlin Playbook 3: Keeping the Faith. She has taught at Tufts University, Boston University, and Princeton University, and she was a consultant member of the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (2016). She holds a Ph.D. and an S.M. in political science from MIT. She is married to Dr. Alexandros Kyrou, and they are happy parents to their daughter, Sophia.