In the fall of 2016, Prof.
Martín Carbajo Núñez has began teaching at the “
Franciscan School of Theology” (FST), which was previously part of the GTU in Berleley and, since 2013, is affiliated with the
Universidad de San Diego (California). Prof. Carbajo will thus be teaching at three university centers: the FST and two Roman Pontifical Universities in Rome: the Antonianum (PUA) and the Alfonsianum (PUL). In previous years, Prof. Carbajo had already imparted some summer courses at the FST when it was placed in Berkeley (e.g.
in 2009).
At the global level, FST is currently the only university-level theological center, in the English language, that is managed by and fully belongs to the Order of Friars Minor (OFM).
In 2013, FST was transferred from Berkeley to Oceanside (San Diego), which increased the need to have faculty from other countries in order to ensure the necessary academic accreditation at the civil level. This may have been one of the reasons why the academic authorities of FST asked the former Minister General and Grand Chancellor of the PUA, Rev. Michael Perry, to include Prof. Carbajo among their faculty. This request was approved by the General Definitorium at the meeting held at the beginning of November 2015, and Fr. Martín received the obedience on the 23rd of the same month.
The contract with FST stipulates that Prof. Carbajo will be responsible for at least two courses each year, beginning at the end of August and returning to Rome in December. Thus, he will be absent from Rome only during the first two months of each academic year. The two courses assigned to him for Fall 2016 were: (1) Church’s Social Teaching and (2) Technology and Ethics. For Fall 2017, he was assigned: (1) Ethical Challenges and Laudato Si’: A Franciscan Perspective and (2) Franciscan Spirituality and Ethics in the Digital Age (see description).
In the following years, Prof. Carbajo has taught many other courses, in addition to collaborating in the development of two programs delivered primarily online:
In this second project, Prof. Carbajo collaborates with Keith Warner, from FST, and with Wendell Callahan, from USD’s School of Leadership and Educational Sciences. The courses they are preparing will later be taught by other professors.
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This new service to the academic centers of the Franciscan Order, in the English language, adds to the many commitments that Prof. Carbajo already carries out, but it will also be a valuable opportunity for enrichment through engagement with another cultural and theological context.
