by Isabelle Camoin ’26 on January 1, 2026
News
Over winter break, it was announced that Father Justin Brophy, O.P., received a promotion to the role of Sr. Vice President of Mission and Ministry at Providence College and he began this role on Jan. 1. Fr. Brophy, a faculty member in the Department of Political Science, served as an associate chaplain in 2012, left for graduate school in 2015, and then returned to PC as an assistant professor of politics in 2020.
I had the delightful experience of sitting down with Fr. Brophy to hear more about him and what this new role looks like for him in the PC community. At PC, Fr. Brophy has done “two-tours of duty,” as he calls it. He was ordained in 2012, and his first assignment as a Dominican priest was to Providence College.
Fr. Brophy was thrilled to be assigned to Providence College, since it is an institution he has always loved. Additionally, he was excited to be working with Father James Cuddy, O.P., whom he had known and studied with before arriving at Providence College. Fr. Brophy recalled what he enjoyed about PC during his “first tour”—all aspects of beginning his priesthood and preaching in St. Dominic Chapel, working with Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, and even hosting a WDOM radio show called “Bro-ing out with Fr. Brophy.” During the show, he would play classic rock and pop, interview members on campus, and host discussions with Fr. Cuddy, really integrating himself into the community as a Friar.
His professional assignment consisted of being an associate chaplain. He held this position for three years while also teaching in the Theology department. Fr. Brophy recounted teaching a Theology of the Human Person class and an Intro to Theology course, which he renamed to be a course on love. The class consisted of reading Plato’s Symposium, and Pope Benedict XVI’s God Is Love. It was during this class that Fr. Brophy encountered students’ questions that led to his dissertation on Symposium. Fr. Brophy recalled that in class, all the students were eager to learn and asked great questions, but when asked about the third rung on the Ladder of Love —as posed in the text and the meaning of love of laws and practice, he was unsatisfied with the answer he presented to the class and knew there was more to think about on this subject.
In 2015, Fr. Brophy was accepted into the University of Notre Dame’s Ph.D. program, taking a five-year leave from PC in order to return with a Ph.D. in political science and a completed dissertation that had been dedicated to his students from 2012–2015.
His return in 2020 consisted of assuming a role as a professor in the Political Science Department. Coming into his sixth year, he confidently attested to his love for the Department and teaching the subject area, which extends to the Greeks as well.
I asked Fr. Brophy, in his return to a new teaching role, if he had envisioned receiving these promotions as head of Catholic Center for Dominican Studies and now Senior Vice President of Mission and Ministry. He said he had not foreseen these positions, but he appreciates these roles and continues his work of passion for the human person. He is constantly guided by the questions of: What does it mean to live a good life? A virtuous life? To live a good, virtuous life, freely? As someone who now works closely with directing academic programming, Fr. Brophy’s questions closely connect the Catholic mission of the college to the academic curriculum.
The role of Sr. Vice President of Mission and Ministry is to promote the Catholic and Dominican mission of the College. For Fr. Brophy, this includes thinking intentionally about education and showing that the academic intentions of the school are upheld by the institution’s religious commitments. Fr. Brophy used an analogy to help make sense of what this feels like, articulating the difference between being a university in a Catholic neighborhood or being a university in the true sense of the word, universal. He asked the question, “What is the universal that unifies the University? For us, it is God.”
Fr. Brophy acknowledged that in his Great Books I class at Notre Dame, one of his first courses as an undergraduate, his professor warned that the great books are dangerous because they can change your soul. Fr. Brophy recalled that the lesson stayed with him, acknowledging that the message held truth and value.
During his time as a student, Fr. Brophy “received something good,” and in his roles at PC, he “wants to pass the good down.” What he finds beautiful about Catholic tradition is that it finds unity in diversity and diversity in unity, and that there is a hand on this tradition that can then be handed over to others. He identified a cycle that can be found in a Catholic institution: “study, receive, hands-on, share.” That is how Fr. Brophy views his role and seeks to share this tradition with members of the PC community. Fr. Brophy explained the value in this cycle because, as a Catholic institution, “we belong to a long socially embedded conversation about the Good.” He feels deeply rooted in this conversation and “passionate about bringing people into that conversation,” especially when entering his new role.
Fr. Brophy plays in a bowling league on Tuesdays. In fact, during our time together, he received an update that his team is now No. 1 in his league! They are currently on week 22 out of 32, so there is still work to be done, but it is an activity he thoroughly enjoys. When I asked what his personal record was, Fr. Brophy shared the story of how he achieved his personal best of 279. This occurred when playing an “open frame,” scoring a nine and then scoring 11 straight strikes.
Fr. Brophy loves sports and music. If you ask him what his favorite music is, he will share that he listens to everything, but he’s particularly infatuated with Classic Rock and Vinyl. He has recently been listening to Abbey Road by the Beatles and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac on his sound system. His favorite reads are, of course, Plato, Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy, Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich, and Tolkien books, particularly, Lord of the Rings. His favorite movie is It’s a Wonderful Life. In sharing this, he quoted the movie, “No man’s life is a failure who has friends.” He then drew the connection to Thomas Aquinas, who also teaches that a life without friends is no good.
Fr. Brophy wished to share some words of wisdom with students such as, “Don’t give up on reading, read the stuff that you like, it can change you.” Reading is a good thing, and he shared that in life we ought to “share the good things, we are made for communion, and to keep that in mind.”
“Fr. Justin brings a deep understanding of Providence College’s mission to be an academically excellent, faithfully Catholic and Dominican liberal arts college to the position,” said PC President Father Kenneth Sicard, O.P.. “He seeks to pursue a vision that demonstrates that Providence College’s commitments to academic excellence and to Catholic and Dominican mission are not commitments held in tension, but rather commitments which are unintelligible without the other.”