Dr. Joey Belleza Receives Rising Scholar Prize

Dr. Joey Belleza, the Program Director for the School of Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology and Lecturer of Theology, was recently awarded the Rising Scholar Prize by the Academy of Catholic Theology. Dr. Belleza received it for his recently published paper Of Mice and Manna: Eucharistic Semiotics and Theologies of Revelation in Aquinas and Bonaventure.

In the paper, which was first published in the Winter 2026 issue of Nova et Vetera, Dr. Belleza examines the competing approach that two Doctors of the Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bonaventure, took to the disputed question “whether the Body of Christ descends into the stomach of a mouse” to show the differing responses of each around their different approaches to a variety of areas, including metaphysics, transubstantiation, the theology of revelation and Christology.

Dr. Belleza joined the School of Theology in July 2025. His educational background saw him receive his bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco, his master’s degree from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (Berkeley, California) and his Doctorate in Theology & Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge in England.

While at USF, Dr. Belleza was part of the school’s Army ROTC program and upon graduation, joined the Army and served for seven years, which included time spent in Germany, Korea and Afghanistan. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, Belleza served as the Communications Director at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California, and upon returning to the U.S. was the Associate Director of Lay Formation for the Diocese of Sacramento before coming to MTSM.

The Academy of Catholic Theology is an invitation-only organization for those with a doctoral degree or equivalent academic accomplishment and whose work sits within and furthers the Academy’s mission to receive and seek to understand the givens of faith, insofar as the Holy Spirit enables.