The audience was silent as Marci McPhee, the associate director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, walked up to the podium in the Shapiro Art Gallery to describe the Rev. Dr. Walter Cuenin at the most recent installment of the "Tuesdays with..." series March 3. "This is not your ordinary Catholic priest," she said.Cuenin is the Catholic chaplain and coordinator of the Interfaith Chaplaincy at Brandeis University and was the speaker at Tuesday's event. The "Tuesdays with..." series is a joint venture between the Ethics Center and the Brandeis Religious Pluralism and Spirituality Group. In the spirit of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, the series brings together distinguished Brandeis professors and other notable individuals in the community to discuss lessons they have learned throughout life.

As he talked, his countenance took on a look that was distinctly jovial, tinged with the appearance of reflection. His voice had the tone of someone who has thought a great deal about his place in the world, his relationship with people and ideas around him and the questions he has found to be integral in his experiences. Still, while he projected a quiet recollection, Cuenin also displayed a great enthusiasm and sense of expectation for what is happening and what is to come.

As he spoke of his transformation from a traditional to a "progressive" Catholic, his acceptance of religions beside his own and his work to make the Catholic Church's practices more modern and inclusive, Cuenin certainly bore out McPhee's words.

Walter Cuenin was born in Virginia. His father was an officer in the Marine Corps, and according to Cuenin, the Cuenin family lived in "every place."

Cuenin credits his high school years in Paris with "beginning to transform me a little bit, to be open to see that, while I loved my own country, ... the world is exciting. There's a lot to see and do."

After high school, Cuenin initially decided to go to Georgetown University. However, during the summer he changed his mind, because he saw himself as having been called to the priesthood and decided to go to St. John's Seminary in Boston. Cuenin attended the seminary in the 1960s, and during this time he felt the influence of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War.

"As things began to happen, civil rights and the war, I began to be involved in some of those protests, and I also began to realize that these great authorities, like my country, weren't necessarily always so good, they didn't have the truth, or in fact, sometimes they lied to us. So, it began my questioning even about the church," said Cuenin.

After his four years in the seminary, Cuenin traveled to Rome to attend Gregorian University, a time he called "the most transformative of my life because . it was people from all over the world, it wasn't just Boston boys studying to be priests, but people from Africa and South America, it was a mind-boggling experience," he said.

Four years later, Cuenin returned to Massachusetts and worked in the Catholic parish in North Andover before returning to Rome and obtaining his doctorate in sacred theology. Later, he returned again to the United States and worked throughout the Boston Archdiocese in several parishes, also teaching at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and Boston College, before coming to Brandeis University.

At one point, Cuenin asked the audience last Tuesday,"How do you stay faithful to the Catholic Church and its tradition and its rich spiritual heritage but at the same time make it relevant to people in the 20th or 21st century?" Inclusion and modernization were cornerstones of Cuenin's message to the students gathered in the Shapiro Campus Center as he raised questions about the Church's traditional dealings with marriage.

Cuenin spoke about his work in the Marriage Tribunal, an official court of the Catholic Church that annuls marriages.

"It began a sensitivity to me . about where life doesn't work out so smoothly. Half the Catholic marriages today, in the United States, end in divorce, and how do we find a way to welcome these people into the life of the Catholic Church? . So I began to work with couples, . helping them find a way to come back even though the Church couldn't officially recognize their marriage," Cuenin said.

He also brought up the issue of homosexuality and religion. According to Cuenin's biography, which Marci McPhee read aloud at the talk, Cuenin "has been an outspoken leader calling for the full inclusion of women in the life of the Catholic Church and for the welcoming of the GLBT community."

"We had always dealt with gay people in the Catholic Church, but you're in a church that does not permit any sexual activity except in the context of a marriage of a male and a female. How do you work with Catholics who are very committed to their faith but who are gay, who find themselves to be gay?" asked Cuenin.

This message of bringing the Church into the current century and including all people of Catholic faith certainly resonated with the students present.

Interfaith Youth Corps Fellow Remz Pokorny '09 said that he was active in many interfaith aspects of the Brandeis University campus, including the Baha'i Association which brings together students from diverse backgrounds. He said: "I know Father Cuenin pretty well, I've worked with him a lot, and I'm always very impressed by his views and enlightened by his perspectives." Pokorny continued, "I mean, I think that faith is very important to me, though it needs to adapt to modern conditions; it can't stay stagnant and fundamentalist. It needs to take into account all people and views."

In the spirit of Tuesdays With Morrie, Cuenin left the students with one key message.

"For all of us, in life, to be able to change the way you think and the way you are is a great thing, and not only just to do it once in a lifetime, but to be able to keep doing it as you go throughout your life.