Catholic University in Iowa Opens Sex-Segregated Islamic Prayer Space

The new prayer space, which is equipped with sinks for ritual foot-washing and separate areas for male and female worshippers, was built in memory of Father Joe DeFrancisco, a professor of comparative religions who died last July at the age of 69.

At the priest’s “ecumenical” funeral Mass in 2017, fellow Catholic clergy were joined at the altar by a rabbi, an imam, an Anglican priest and a Lutheran chaplain, according to the college’s website.

The school said that the prayer room was named in honor of the priest “as an acknowledgment of his efforts to promote the universality of faiths throughout a 27-year career as a St. Ambrose professor of Theology.”

According to senior Student Government Association President Matthew Mahoney, the idea for a dedicated Islamic prayer space began with a suggestion by DeFrancisco himself, who felt that Muslim students “didn’t really have a substantial enough prayer rooms on campus.”