REGINA: You’re a Millennial, the child of divorced parents.
BRODY: I am a 32-year-old cradle Catholic. I was raised by my mother in Tyringham, Massachusetts. Throughout the course of my life, I have had a deep devotion to the Roman Catholic faith, finding from a young age that I gained great spiritual comfort and a sense of clarity of purpose from the study of the church’s teachings, and the writings of such doctors of the church as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine.
REGINA: You’ve also been a teacher.
BRODY: I graduated from Tufts University with a BA in history and political science. I participated in Teach for America after college, teaching English, science, and social studies to middle school students in New Orleans, which was at that time still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. I then completed a Fulbright fellowship in South Korea, where I taught English to university students in the city of Daegu.
REGINA: And a lawyer.
BRODY: I earned a JD from Boston College Law School and an MPA (Master of Public Administration) from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York.
REGINA: How did you become interested in saving churches?
BRODY: My work to ensure that churches continue to exist stems from my belief in the importance of retaining “sacred space” in the world and its value in the lives of Catholics. So many times, as I grew up, and especially in the last 15 years when hundreds of churches have been closed, I have heard again and again that “a church is just a building.”
REGINA: Yep, that’s a common trope coming from those who, by the way, are benefitting from their sale.
BRODY: Canon law clearly states that a church is not “just a building.” Canon 1214 of the Code of Canon Law of 1983 defines a church as a “sacred building,” and other canons explain the difference between “sacred” and “profane” space.
REGINA: Good question. How does the Church define the difference between sacred and profane?
BRODY: To put it simply, “sacred” spaces are those set aside specifically for worship and sacred activities, and that makes them different from one’s home or place of work.