Fr. Lawrence Madden has served as a beacon of change throughout his life. As a graduate student in the early 1960s, Madden found himself in the center of the burgeoning cultural revolution, performing on the “The Ed Sullivan Show” with his barbershop octet. And since arriving on the Hilltop 35 years ago, adden has brought changes to the community, developing the university’s Office of Campus Ministry and founding the Center for Liturgy. For anything from religious guidance to musical history, Madden has long been a resource for students on campus.

What did you do to develop the Office of Campus Ministry?

First of all, before they had Campus Ministry, they had just Jesuits who were chaplains, but there was no organized, collective ministry of the chaplains meeting together and planning together and so forth, and secondly, everybody was a Catholic chaplain. The only other person here who was a chaplain who wasn’t a Catholic was Rabbi [Harold] White, who’s still here. But he was associated with the Jewish Student Association. . So we brought Rabbi White into the campus ministry office, I hired a Protestant chaplain, an Orthodox chaplain, but even more shocking, the first woman chaplain. And then we expanded the office, so we started – everybody met together.

How long were you in charge of campus ministry?

Ten years, until 1981. Then I thought that I did enough damage, so I resigned – I resigned over a year before that to let them know. Then I started this Center for Liturgy.

Do you live in the Jesuit Residence?

I do. I’ve been here so long that I’ve got a nice room on the fourth floor. River view.

What are your favorite memories from Georgetown?

Well, I certainly love being with the students at Georgetown, I really do. I really appreciate being able to be part of their lives and their learning, I really do. It’s funny, it means more to me now than it did years ago. I came to Georgetown initially when the ’60s were still in bloom, that is, the culture of the ’60s, and it was a crazy time because I remember, if you were over 30, you had to prove you were a decent human being before young people would even talk to you. It was really a big suspicion of the older generation, and it’s so refreshing because that is not the culture today, nor was it even 10 years ago. I watched that change over the years. I find it’s delightful to be with students now. They’re intelligent, they’re open, they’re interested. It’s great.

Tell me about the time when you were on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

When I went to theology studies, they had a tradition there of having an octet, a barbershop, you know, octet. So they asked me if I’d take over directing it, which I did. And it was a time when folk music was very popular, so we started doing folk songs, too, and we added a bass and a guitar. And then the seminary was always looking for money, so we said, maybe we can do a record, cut a record and then sell the record to make money for the seminary. . We did one that was a little 45, a single, you know, and that got a lot of radio play, and we were invited on ” The Ed Sullivan Show.” So we opened up the Christmas Show, 1964. “The Ed Sullivan Christmas Show.” And I have the video of it. And actually if you Google the Woodstock Jesuit Singers, you’ll see us live on ” The Ed Sullivan Show,” because they’re advertising a CD on something like, “Inspirational Moments on ` The Ed Sullivan Show,'” and we’re on there.

The record went very well. Columbia wanted us to go on tour. But we were all graduate students, you know, we couldn’t go on tour. And then the next year, a bunch of us finished studies, so we were gone. So the group disintegrated. It was a very short, fleeting career.

– Interview by Emily Liner