Mission
The Thomas Merton Institute aims to provide a well-resourced and sustainable home for Catholic life at Columbia in order to raise the level of formation of students and faculty and to advance the evangelizing mission of the Church at the University. Named in honor of the most famous Catholic alumnus of Columbia, the Thomas Merton Institute provides the spiritual, liturgical, intellectual and human formation that will enable Columbia students to flourish as Catholic Christians.
History & Governance
Founded in 2021 by three Catholic laymen, the Thomas Merton Institute for Catholic Life addresses long-unmet needs for Catholic students, faculty, and alumni of Columbia University by providing them a place to call their own and a foundation on which to build a sustainable, expanding, and vital Catholic presence on campus. The founders share a vision of bringing Catholic formation at Columbia to a level on par with the standards of the university, shaping the future leaders of the Church and society and enhancing the intellectual and common life of the university community.
The Merton Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in the State of New York. Its Board of Trustees is currently composed of the three founders, two of whom have deep roots at Columbia, and two additional Columbia alumni. The Institute expects its primary support over time to come from Columbia alumni and other people sympathetic to the needs and opportunities presented by Merton’s mission.
The Merton Institute, while remaining legally and financially independent, maintains a close and unique partnership with the Archdiocese of New York. The Institute’s chaplain is appointed by the Archbishop of New York. His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan has been an inspiration for the Merton initiative for many years and has offered constant encouragement to the founders and board during its period of incubation.
The staff of the Merton Institute reports to its Board of Trustees. The board is responsible for the strategic direction, fidelity to mission, financial support, facilities and legal matters of the Institute.
The Institute is currently leasing the former rectory of the Church of Notre Dame (114th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive), which is once again the sanctuary for Columbia Catholic Campus Ministry’s liturgical celebrations. After a $1 million renovation of the main floor of the rectory, the Merton Institute opened for students on February 11, 2023. The complete renovation and adaptation of the four-story space lie ahead. In time, the Institute will be a magnificent long-term center for Catholic life at Columbia.
Columbia Catholic Ministry
Columbia Catholic Ministry is the group of Columbia undergraduate and graduate students dedicated to proclaiming, in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, the Gospel on the Columbia campus through prayer and the Sacraments, charity, communion, and learning, teaching, and living the truths of the faith. CCM is comprised of students from Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), Barnard College, the School of General Studies (GS), and the many different graduate programs. This close-knit fellowship of Catholic students seeks others to join them in the mission of CCM.
Please consult its website, Facebook, Instagram, and newsletter.
The Merton Institute works alongside Columbia Catholic Ministry in its evangelizing mission to the University. Thus, in addition to its own formational activities, the Institute supports the Catholic chaplaincy on campus and provides a home for CCM’s activities at the Institute’s student center.
Board of Trustees
Brian McAuliffe
Founder, President, and Acting Executive Director
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​Brian, CC ’74 and Notre Dame Law ’77, is one of the founders of the Merton Institute. He has spent his professional career in financial services, initially as an investment banker with major global firms and later as a trusted advisor to wealthy families. While at Columbia he played basketball for the legendary Jack Rohan. Brian has been an early financial collaborator with Word on Fire, the evangelizing ministry of Bishop Robert Barron.
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Donald Landry, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder and Chairman
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Dr. Landry is the Hamilton Southworth Professor of Medicine, Director of the Birch-Lodge Center for Human Longevity and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University. He obtained a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University in 1979 and an M.D. from Columbia University in 1983 and has remained at Columbia since 1985. In addition to his research on artificial enzymes and drug discovery, he served on the President’s Council on Bioethics. He received the Presidential Citizen’s Medal in 2008, the nation’s second highest civilian honor.
Louis Tellez
Founder and Director
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Mr. Tellez spent the early part of his career working in the chemical industry, and subsequently spent over twenty years administering several non-profit corporations before becoming president of the Witherspoon Institute in 2003. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the James Madison program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Mr. Tellez received a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering as well as an M.B.A. in finance from Washington University in St. Louis.
Gerard Sullivan
Director and Treasurer
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Mr. Sullivan is a portfolio manager with over 40 years of experience in the investment industry. He earned a B.A. in political science (CC’ 82) and an M.B.A. (’86) from Columbia. During his undergraduate years he played soccer for what is still regarded as one of the best athletic teams in Columbia history with four league titles and one final four appearance.
Katherine Carson Straus, M.D.
Director and Secretary
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Katherine Straus, M.D., is a graduate of Princeton University, magna cum laude, in Molecular Biology, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she graduated at the top of her class. Katherine interned and completed residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia, receiving both the John Loeb intern award and the Joseph Muschel housestaff award. Subsequently she served on the faculty as an Associate Professor for three years in the division of General Internal Medicine. Her special interest was Medical Ethics. Katherine is married to John Straus and now resides in Greenwich, CT, where she raises and homeschools her five young children.
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Staff
Father John Wilson
Chaplain
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frjohnwilson@thomasmertoninstitute.org
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Father John Wilson has been the chaplain of Columbia Catholic Ministry since the summer of 2025. Originally from Connecticut, he studied government at Claremont McKenna College in California and worked as a journalist in New York City for three years before discerning a vocation to the priesthood. He was ordained a priest in 2016 and has served at several parishes in the Hudson Valley region of New York, including St. Patrick in Yorktown Heights and St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Lagrangeville. Most recently, he has been pursuing a doctoral degree in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where his research focused on the virtue of faith and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in St. Thomas’s thought. He also serves as parochial vicar at the Parish of Corpus Christi and Notre Dame.
Father Peter Heasley
Assistant Chaplain
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frheasley@thomasmertoninstitute.org
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Father Heasley is currently Pastor of the Parish of Corpus Christi and Notre Dame. A native of Detroit, Father Peter worked as an architect in New York for several years before entering seminary. Ordained a priest in 2013 for the Archdiocese of New York, he finished a licentiate in Biblical Theology in 2014 and a doctorate in Biblical Theology in 2019, both at the Gregorian University in Rome. He has been an adjunct professor of Scripture at St. Joseph’s seminary in Yonkers since 2014 and worked in a variety of priestly assignments since ordination while completing his academic studies.
Renee Burns
Operations Manager
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rburns@thomasmertoninstitute.org
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Renee Burns is originally from Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 2022. Before coming to New York, she worked in data analytics. In 2025, she began pursuing a degree in Instructional Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University. While at Columbia, Renee returned with renewed commitment to the Catholic faith of her family. She has found a spiritual home at the Thomas Merton Institute and is grateful for the opportunity to support its work and to share the Gospel with students at Columbia.
Our Crest
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The Cross in the Middle of the World
Jesus promised that when he would be lifted up, he would draw all to himself (Jn 12:32). The cross is placed in the middle of a circle representing the world to show that in the heart of the world we find the love Jesus showed on the Cross and the work of his redemption. The Merton Institute seeks to give witness to that love and work on the Columbia campus.
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The Lion
The Lion in the upper right corner not only points to the nickname and mascot of Columbia University sports teams, but to Jesus, who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5), to the virtue of courage (symbolized by a lion), as well as to Catholic Social Teaching, which became a formal part of Catholic moral theology during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (Leo is the Latin word for lion).
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The Book
The open book in the upper left corner of the crest symbolizes two things. First, it shows learning, which is at the heart of Columbia life and the work of the Merton Institute. The second is Sacred Scripture, which is not only at the foundation of Catholic faith and life but also of western civilization.
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The Crown
The crown in the lower left corner points to the king’s crown that is one of the most enduring symbols of Columbia and a link to its history, starting out as King’s college. It likewise points to Jesus Christ as King of Kings and of the desire to enter into kingdom. The three crosses point to the three crosses on Calvary where Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews died for the salvation of the human race, which is the fulcrum of history.
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Thomas Merton
In the lower right corner is an image of Father Thomas Merton, OCSO, CC ’38, who converted while an undergraduate and graduate student at Columbia, went on to become a Trappist monk, a best-selling author and probably the most well-known Catholic alumnus of Columbia. He is a witness to the power and possibility of conversion, of the depth of prayer to which God calls us, of the integration of the arts and creativity within the Catholic faith, of the primacy of God in human life and of the importance of interreligious dialogue.