Jesuit receives university honour

An eminent Jesuit scholar has joined one of Britain's best-known comedians and the Principal Adviser to Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor in receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham University. Rev Dr Joseph Munitiz SJ, who is based at the Jesuit Manresa House in Birmingham, has been a guest lecturer and examiner at the university for several years. He is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Byzantine-Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies. He has been made a Doctor of Letters, alongside Birmingham-born Jasper Carrott OBE who was made a Doctor of the University, and Sir Stephen Wall (Doctor of Laws) who was until recently Head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and now advises Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor. Dr Munitiz was born in Cardiff, and was educated in Britain, Spain, Italy and France, where he was awarded a doctorate from the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1976. For seven years, he was editor of the prestigious series of studies into Byzantine culture published by the Catholic University of Leuven and entitled Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca. Other recipients of Honorary Doctorates from Birmingham University this summer included the steeplejack Fred Dibnah MBE, human rights activist Dr John Makumbe from Zimbabwe, and the Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo. Source: Jesuit Communication Service