Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Tom BeaudoinMarch 04, 2009

For those who have not yet heard, the long-lived ensemble of rock royalty known as U2 are coming to Fordham’s Rose Hill campus this Friday, for an early-morning concert to be featured on the television show "Good Morning America." The rumors began earlier this week and were confirmed in an email from Fordham President Joseph McShane, SJ, today to the university community. The 8:00 am concert will be preceded by breakfast starting at 5:00. Only those with Fordham IDs will be allowed in, according to Fr. McShane’s email. People are to gather on Edwards Parade, the commons fronting Keating Hall, beginning at 5:30. The setup was already underway when I got to the office (in Keating) this morning at 9:30. It looks like the band will be playing on the Keating steps.

This band will be conjuring rock at Fordham a few dozen feet from where we teach students in ministry, 3rd floor Keating, at the Graduate School of Religion.

U2 give an example of rock itself as ministry--of, around, and through that ambiguous but essential rockish atmosphere so inadequately denominated "the secular."

A few other theological thoughts on the U2 setup at Rock and Theology.

Tom Beaudoin

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Despair is easy for anyone who takes seriously the call to love your neighbor as yourself. But hope can come in two ways.
Thomas J. ReeseJuly 16, 2025
A Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 16, 2025
The majority of survey respondents cited their Marian devotions as having played an important role in the discernment and living of their call to religious life.
A young woman kneels and prays at a pew, looking toward the altar of a Catholic church. (iStock/roman_sh)
I have questioned the ethical implications of belonging to an institution with so many members sympathetic to MAGA politics. But I can still rediscover the hope of the Eucharist in my parish.
Kathleen BonnetteJuly 16, 2025