John McGreevy
History
Charles and Jill Fischer Provost; Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History
- American political history
- American religious history
- Global history
- Higher education
McGreevy’s Latest News
McGreevy in the News
The New Yorker
In Chicago, Will the Pope Bump Last?
May 22, 2025
John McGreevy, a historian of Catholicism and the provost of the University of Notre Dame, said that Popes have an opportunity to set an agenda on topics such as climate change or artificial intelligence, which may drive religious behavior in the long term. But, he added, “I don’t know if Popes themselves necessarily drive religious behavior.”
The New York Times
Pope’s Childhood in a Changing Chicago Tells a Story of Catholic America
May 10, 2025
“It’s one of the great dramas of 20th century U.S. history,” said John McGreevy, a historian at the University of Notre Dame and the author of “Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter With Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North.”
The Washington Post
Is Pope Leo XIV a progressive? It’s too soon to say.
May 09, 2025
John McGreevy, a historian of Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said he thought new pope Robert Prevost’s choice of name, Leo XIV, and the fact that he was a math major are significant. Pope Leo XIII — the best known Pope Leo — was focused on the reconciliation of religion and science.
The Washington Post
For U.S. Catholics, surprise and elation at first American pope
May 08, 2025
John McGreevy struggled at first to find the words to express his amazement.
“Unbelievable,” said McGreevy, a prominent historian of Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, minutes after Chicago native Robert Prevost was announced as the next pope. “This is stuff you wouldn’t have ever thought would happen. An American pope. Amazing.”
USA Today
As Pope Francis' funeral nears, fascination with papacy's rituals take center stage
April 25, 2025
“The head of the Catholic Church is the head of an institution that claims over 1 billion baptized members and is arguably the most multicultural and multilingual institution in the world,” said John McGreevy, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. “There’s nothing quite like it.”
CNN
Provost John McGreevy on the Passing of Pope Francis
Video
April 22, 2025
John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University of Notre Dame, discusses the relationship Pope Francis had with U.S. Presidents during his papacy with Jake Tapper on CNN.
The Washington Post
What will Pope Francis’s legacy be? It depends on what comes next.
April 22, 2025
John McGreevy, a University of Notre Dame historian of global Catholicism, said it’s hard to know what will endure. “On all [the] things [Francis did], I think there are no guarantees,” he said.
The Washington Post
What Pope Francis’s papacy meant for the U.S. church
April 21, 2025
The tone of Francis’s letter about Vance’s comment was a direct message to U.S. bishops that he was paying attention to the American church and that they should speak out, said John McGreevy, a University of Notre Dame professor and expert on Catholicism.
The Washington Post
Why it’s hard to imagine another pope like Francis
April 21, 2025
“Francis famously called the Church a ‘field hospital,’ not a fortress,” said John McGreevy, author of “Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis” and a Notre Dame historian.
The Washington Post
‘Anti-pope.’ ‘Blasphemous.’ Criticism of Francis comes in strident terms.
January 12, 2024
“I’m stunned at the criticism of Pope Francis by conservatives,” said John McGreevy, a historian of Catholicism and provost at the University of Notre Dame. This extremely public nature of papal criticism, he said, is totally new and modern.
Financial Times
Pope Francis presides over funeral for ‘taboo-breaking’ predecessor
January 04, 2023
“It was a real break with precedent and very unlike a pope that took the Church’s tradition very seriously,” said John McGreevy, who is also provost at the University of Notre Dame. “It was one of the great things he did.”
Crux
US Catholics recall Benedict XVI as theologian, teacher and pastor
January 01, 2023
John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at the University of Notre Dame, who recently published the book Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis, commented that in some ways Benedict’s death marks the end of the post-Vatican II era.
The Washington Post
How Nazi Germany loomed over Pope Benedict’s childhood
January 01, 2023
John McGreevy, a historian of the modern Catholic church at the University of Notre Dame and author of “Catholicism: A Global History From the French Revolution to Pope Francis,” said that it was clear Benedict was influenced by growing up under an authoritarian regime.
BBC News
Pope Benedict XVI: What the death of a former pope means for the Vatican
December 31, 2022
"We've never had this before where a living pope will help bury a dead pope," Catholic historian John McGreevy said.
The Atlantic
The Reinvention of the Catholic Church
December 11, 2022
As John T. McGreevy observes in Catholicism: A Global History From the French Revolution to Pope Francis, signs that the Church has lost vitality are abundant.
National Catholic Reporter
John McGreevy masterfully traces church history from the French Revolution to Pope Francis
October 17, 2022
John McGreevy's new book Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis is, as the title suggests, ambitious.
The New York Times
11 New Books We Recommend This Week
October 06, 2022
CATHOLICISM: A Global History From the French Revolution to Pope Francis, John T. McGreevy.
The New York Times
An Epic Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism
September 12, 2022
Now comes John T. McGreevy, a professor of history at Notre Dame and author of three books on Catholicism, with an attempt at making narrative sense of one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of the oldest institution in the Western world.
Inside Higher Ed
New Presidents or Provosts: Fitchburg State U, Hampton U, Holy Cross College, Spartanburg Methodist College, Tennessee College of Applied Technology Morristown, U of Arkansas CC Batesville, U of Maryland Eastern Shore, U of Notre Dame, Vermont Law School
May 17, 2022
John T. McGreevy, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History and former dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed Charles and Jill Fischer Provost there.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Transitions: Hampton U. Names New President; Columbia U. President to Step Down Next Year
April 28, 2022
John T. McGreevy, a professor of history and former dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, has been named provost.
The Washington Post
Pope Francis says U.S. bishops debating Biden Communion should be pastors, not politicians
September 15, 2021
John McGreevy, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, said it was “fairly clear” that Francis was encouraging Catholics and bishops “not to use Communion as a weapon against particular politicians for particular issues.”
Religion & Politics
U.S. Catholic Bishops Succumb to Partisan Politics in Eucharist Debate
June 22, 2021
John T. McGreevy is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.
National Catholic Reporter
Villanova conference elevates calls for Biden to be denied Communion
April 27, 2021
Despite a predominantly unified front among most conference speakers in their approach to Biden, University of Notre Dame historian John McGreevy offered a markedly different message.
The Wall Street Journal
Can Catholic Social Teaching Unite a Divided America?
February 05, 2021
Roosevelt called the encyclical “just as radical as I am” and “one of the greatest documents of modern times,” according to John McGreevy, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.
Crux
U.S. bishops ‘working group’ on Biden divides Catholic opinion
November 27, 2020
University of Notre Dame history professor John McGreevy is less concerned about the timing of the announcement and more with the creation of the working group in the first place.