Inside the Core We Remember Monsignor Jack Radano

Inside the Core we are remembering with gratitude our dear friend, Monsignor John (Jack) Radano. Other venues have given the details of his many accomplishments, his work in the Vatican, where he was appointed to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) in 1984 and became head of its Western Section in 1985; after twenty-five years in Rome, he returned to Seton Hall, where he taught in ICSST and remained active in ecumenical activities until shortly before his death on July 7, 2025. He was also a prolific author. However, in this little piece, I want to focus on some personal memories of Monsignor Radano, “Jack,” as he always wanted to be called, and how he lived out the charity at the heart of his ecumenical work, with loving relationships extending to many, here at Seton Hall and beyond.

I met Monsignor Radano through the Commission of Interreligious Affairs and the Commission for Christian Unity for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. I am a member of the former; Monsignor Radano was a member of the latter, but the two commissions regularly meet together as one group. Through our interactions at the meetings, I was struck by Jack’s wisdom, kindness and commitment to dialogue and ecumenism.  

In fact, in many ways, one might say that it was kindness, in fact, love that motivated Jack’s commitment to ecumenism. Always open to the perspective of others, he sought consistently to find points of dialogue and unity.  For example, his book Lutheran and Catholic Reconciliation on Justification (2009) delves into this topic of unity arising out of what was once a bitter source of division.   Charity, deep and outreaching charity, informed his ecumenical activities, leading him literally around the world as a representative of the Roman Catholic Church, meeting with various church officials and leaders from a wide array of denominations and also in countless individual and personal relationships.  

One such relationship was with Reverend William Rusch, Lutheran minister and former professor at Yale Divinity School. Bill and Jack were friends for some forty years. Bill gave a talk for us at Seton Hall, sponsored by the Core, in 2022. I got to know Bill through Jack, and we had tea and cake once in Jack’s apartment near campus, and another time, Bill invited Jack, Todd Stockdale (Core Fellow and Core II Coordinator), and me to lunch at his club in New York City for a lovely ecumenical time of fellowship. When Bill was in his final illness last fall/winter, Jack visited him in the hospital and, after his death in January of 2025, Jack was invited to speak at his funeral service in February 2025. Their deep friendship over the years epitomized the loving and personal nature of Jack’s wide-ranging ecumenical work.

He was also, as I loved to say to him, “an honorary member of the Core.”  Jack was a wonderfully supportive friend to the Core, coming to a great many of our events and encouraging us in all kinds of ways. He was a regular at our Core parties, getting to know all the Core Fellows and others in leadership in the Core. Everyone loved him. Maribel Landrau, whom we sadly lost on March 20, 2025, used to try to get Jack to teach for us, saying, “Monsignor, I will come to your class and help with the computer.”  (He was concerned about whether he would be able to use technology in the classroom). I love to think of these two good friends continuing their bond in the presence of their Lord. He would always come to our Core Center with a delicious, perhaps Italian style, pastry or other dessert to add to the pot-luck meal we would be having.  

As many have noted, Jack was an active participant in multiple campus events, not only run by the Core, but by the CAST Center, the CAST Program, the Center for Vocation and Servant Leadership, the MLK Leadership Program and other areas. For example, he would always come to our Romero-King vigils-on-the-green, sometimes doing one of the readings. He was interested particularly, of course, in events involving inter-religious or ecumenical dialogue, and he himself invited speakers and initiated many talks sponsored by Catholic Studies, the Core and other areas. Last November, the CORE, the CAST Center, the CAST Program, and ICSST sponsored a talk by Martha Hennessy, Dorothy Day’s granddaughter. Not only did Jack attend the talk on November 6, but, two days later, he accompanied me to visit the Catholic Worker in New York City at Martha’s invitation for a memorial on Dorothy Day’s birthday on November 8.  Jack and I had the privilege of being taken by Martha to see Dorothy’s bedroom, lovingly kept intact with her book collection and personal desk to be seen. It was a truly memorable moment, and I know it meant a lot to Jack to share in this connection with Dorothy Day.

Finally, Jack was a deeply faithful member of our Seton Hall Sant’ Egidio prayer group. One of the most committed members of the prayer group, Jack attended almost every meeting (on Thursdays at 4 in Xavier Chapel and on Teams). Having attended Sant’ Egidio prayer meetings in Rome, Jack was happy to find a Seton Hall expression of the community. This led to some truly beautiful times of fellowship. Sometimes a group of us would attend events sponsored by Sant’ Egidio in New York City, and Jack would usually be among the group to attend. Since both my sisters, Judy and Linda, come to prayer (Judy occasionally in person and Linda regularly on Teams), they both came to know and to love Jack. In fact, since he enjoyed going to Bay Leaf Indian Restaurant, as do Judy and I, a very happy recent memory was meeting him there for lunch with Judy and her daughter, Sarah, on June 14. Characteristically, he insisted on treating us. At the same restaurant, earlier this spring, a group of us celebrated Jack’s 87th birthday on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation. The group consisted of Nkosi Anderson of Africana Studies, Religion and the Core, and a member of the Sant’ Egidio community; Farouk Muhammed and Isabel Guzman of the English Department; Jack and myself. He would always order chicken vindaloo, the spiciest item on the menu. Most of all, he would enjoy getting to know others in these kinds of informal settings. I feel so grateful we got to share what would be his last birthday. Another lovely dinner for the whole prayer group was held, and our two monsignors (Radano and Liddy) surprised all of us by having paid the bill for the group, before any of us even knew what had happened.  

In all these events, whether in formal prayer with the community or in the ever-widening circles of fellowship he enjoyed, Jack would bring his kindness, humility and welcoming spirit to all. As I think of Jack’s decades of devotion to Christian unity, I am reminded of the words of St. Thomas More to those who had condemned him to death during a time when Catholics and Protestants were as far from unity as might be imagined, as he prayed that “we may hereafter meet joyfully together in Heaven.” After a life of working toward healing and reconciliation in the ecumenical movement, Jack is surely enjoying the fruit of his labors, with others gone before him, “joyfully together in Heaven.”

Categories: Faith and Service