Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P., published  an essay entitled, “Love’s Greater Freedom: A response to David S. Yeago” in the June/July issue of First Things.  He also signed the following statement with many prominent Evangelicals and Catholics in defense of religious freedom in the same publication:

Eighteen years ago, this fellowship of Evangelical and Catholic pastors, theologians, and educators was formed to deepen the dialogue among our communities on issues of common concern, to explore theological common ground, and to offer in public life a common witness born of Christian faith. Since our founding in 1994, we have addressed, together, such important public policy questions as the defense of life, even as we have proposed to our communities patterns of theological understanding on such long-disputed questions as the gift of salvation, the authority of Scripture, and the call to holiness in the communion of saints. We hope that this collaboration has been a service to both Church and society; it has certainly drawn us closer together as brothers and sisters in Christ, and for that we are grateful to the Lord of all mercies.

At the beginning of our common work on behalf of the gospel, it did not seem likely that religious freedom would be one of our primary concerns. The communist project in Europe had collapsed; the commitment of Christian believers to defeat totalitarianism through the weapons of truth had triumphed; and throughout the world, a new era of religious freedom seemed at hand.

We are now concerned—indeed, deeply concerned—that religious freedom is under renewed assault around the world. While the threats to freedom of faith, religious practice, and religious participation in public affairs in Islamist and communist states are widely recognized, grave threats to religious freedom have also emerged in the developed democracies. In the West, certain religious beliefs are now regarded as bigoted. Pastors are under threat, both cultural and legal, for preaching biblical truth. Christian social-service and charitable agencies are forced to cease cooperation with the state because they will not bend their work to what Pope Benedict XVI has called the “dictatorship of relativism.”

Read the full statement here. Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P., is an assistant professor of systematic theology and director of the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception.  His most recent book is Wisdom in the Face of Modernity: A Study in Thomistic Natural Theology.

Father Jonathan Kalisch O.P., Director of Campus Ministry at Dartmouth College, invited Fr. James Schall, SJ, professor of Government at Georgetown University, to give the following lecture at Dartmouth College. Fr. Schall has been named among the top 10 Intellectual Catholic Americans of all-time. This lecture was part of the the 50th anniversary celebration of the dedication of St. Clement’s Chapel at Aquinas House.

Aquinas House is the Catholic Student Center at Dartmouth College, a community where students may nurture their faith and grow in holiness. By actively demonstrating the importance of religion to our daily lives, AQ students become positive role models for the wider campus community. Students not only come to understand their faith, but to articulate it for others who may not share their views. Most importantly, through worship, prayer, service, and fellowship, students draw ever closer to the person of Jesus Christ.

St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village was recently filled with guests who had been invited to join Cardinal Egan as he celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving for his 80th birthday. Cardinal Egan, the main celebrant and homilist, was joined at the altar by Cardinal Dolan; Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, Vatican nuncio to the United Nations; Bishop Timothy McDonnell of Springfield, Mass., whom Cardinal Egan had ordained as an auxiliary bishop; as well as a host of Dominican friars including Fr. John McGuire, Fr. Romanus Cessario, Fr. Dominic Izzo, and myself.

The guests in the church included all manner of family members, friends and associates, namely from his tenure as Archbishop of New York. As he looked back on his 80 years of life, he said he was happy to recall “in loving memory” those who have witnessed Jesus Christ to him.

Cardinal Egan spoke about the saints who have walked the same streets as the rest of us do each day, ticking off a familiar litany that began with St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. John Neumann and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and included others such as Rose Hawthorne, founder of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne; Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the great communicator; and Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

The reception was held after the Mass in the gleaming new Catholic Center at New York University, where the furniture had arrived only that week. Just a few blocks away from St. Joseph’s, which serves as the university’s Catholic parish, the new facility overlooks Washington Square Park.

The Catholic Center, on the ground floor of the five-story facility, includes a 181-seat chapel, a lecture hall for 200 people, a meeting room that can accommodate 180 and a common room holding another 100, plus a kitchen, a confessional room and other amenities. Father John McGuire, O.P., the pastor and director of the Catholic Center at NYU, said such a structure is quite in keeping with the university’s standing as home to the largest number of Catholic students in the nation.

Each week, a Dominican member of the Provincial Preaching Advisory board prepares this Preacher’s Sketchbook in anticipation of the upcoming Sunday Mass. The idea of the Preacher’s Sketchbook is to take quotations from the authority of the Church–the Pope, the Fathers of the Church, documents of the Councils, the saints–that can help spark ideas for the Sunday homily. Just as an artist’s sketchbook preserves ideas for later elaboration, so we hope the Preacher’s Sketchbook will provide some ideas for homiletical elaboration.

Sketchbook Pope Benedict XVI:

“When someone has the experience of a great love in his life, this is a moment of ‘redemption’ which gives a new meaning to his life…. The human being needs unconditional love…. If this absolute love exists, with its absolute certainty, then—only then—is man ‘redeemed,’ whatever should happen to him in his particular circumstances. This is what it means to say: Jesus Christ has ‘redeemed’ us. Through him we have become certain of God…. Man’s great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God—God who has loved us and who continues to love us ‘to the end.”… If we are in relation with him who does not die, who is Life itself and Love itself, then we are in life. Then we ‘live.”

Pope Benedict XVI:

“Only the great certitude of hope that my own life and history in general despite all failures are held firm by the indestructible power of Love, and that this gives them their meaning and importance, only this kind of hope can then give the courage to act and to persevere.”

Pope Benedict XVI:

“Thomas Aquinas, as is well known, defined truth as the adequation of the intellect to reality…. The perception of the truth is a process which brings man into conformity with being. It is a becoming one of the ‘I’ and the world, it is consonance, it is being gifted and purified. To the extent that men allow themselves to be guided and cleansed by the truth, they find the way not only to their true selves but also to the human ‘you.’ Truth, in fact, is the medium in which men make contact, whereas it is the absence of truth which closes them off from one another…. If the truth purifies man from egotism and from the illusion of absolute autonomy, if it makes him obedient and gives him the courage to be humble, it thereby also teaches him to see through producibility as a parody of freedom and to unmask undisciplined chatter as a parody of dialogue. It is victorious over the tendency to mistake the absence of all ties for freedom. Thus, the truth is fruitful precisely by being loved for its own sake.”

Saint Thomas Aquinas:

“Truth and goodness include one another. The truth is something good; otherwise it would not be worth desiring; and the good is true; otherwise it would not be intelligible.”

Blessed Guerric of Igny:

“Jesus laid bare the whole strength of his love for his friends before pouring himself out like water for his enemies. Handing over to them the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, he instituted the celebration of the Eucharist. It is hard to say which was the more wonderful, his power or his love, in devising the new means of remaining with them to console them for his departure. In spite of the withdrawal of his bodily presence, he would remain not only with them but in them, by virtue of this Sacrament.”

Blessed John Henry Newman:

“We have no love for Him who alone lasts. We love those things which do not last, but come to an end. Things being thus, he whom we ought to love has determined to win us back to him. With this object He has come into his own world, in the form of one of us men. And in that human form He open his arms and woos us to return to him, our Maker.”

Monsignor Luigi Giussani:

“What is truth must be repeatedly looked at in the face.”

Resources Readings

Seventh Sunday of Easter or the Ascension of the Lord

Sunday Preacher’s Resource

Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year B)

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (Year C)

Additional Preaching Resources

• The Holy See: The Easter Season
• Fr. Thomas Rosica (Salt and Light Media)
• The Torch
• The King of Ages
• Fr. Francis Martin Website
• Biblius Clerus, a resource of the Congregation for the Clergy
• The Catena Aurea of St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P., for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

On May 13, 2012, Rome hosted the second annual National March for Life in the city of Rome.  Thousands turned out to show their support of the cause of life.  Despite being a Catholic nation, abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978.  Some of those attending were Dominicans from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas — the Angelicum.  Among those in attendance was American, His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke, the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and formerly the Archbishop of St. Louis. The procession began at the Colosseum, went past the monument to Victor Emmanuel, walked down the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to the Largo di Torre Argentina, and then continued across the bridge of the angels to finish at Castel Sant’Angelo, near St. Peter’s Basilica.

In a recent AP story appearing in the Washington Post, Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP, a priest of the Province of St. Albert the Great (Central Province) and a professor of philosophy at the Angelicum, is referenced as saying, ”the march united people from around the world against legalized abortion.”

Below is a slideshow of the March.

Incorrupt body of Bl. Imelda in the University Chapel in Bologna

For a person with no faith, the story of Bl. Imelda (1322-1333, feast – May 13) must seem one of the most frightening.  That might sound strange to say about this child-saint who is also the patron saint of first communicants.  But she is not so regarded because her story merely romanticizes a pious and devout first communion story, but because she enjoyed something a bit more unexpected in her first holy communion – death by love.

Bl. Imelda entered the monastery of Dominican nuns to the south of Bologna at the age of nine.  By the age of eleven she was begging to receive first communion, which wasn’t given out till twelve or fourteen in her day.  She had faithfully been following the monastic way of life, even at her incredibly young age, and was incredibly devoted to the Eucharist.  Nevertheless, her confessor would not let her receive communion until she reached the requisite age.  Yet, on the vigil of the Ascension in 1333, our Lord provided.

After Mass, the community went about their duties.  Soon afterward, a pleasing fragrance filled the air of the monastery and drew the nuns back to the chapel where they found its source.  There, before the kneeling Imelda, floated a miraculous host.  The chaplain was soon called.  When he approached, the host rested on the paten he had brought.  After this, he gave Imelda her first communion, and she died on consumption.  As one author wrote:

The transport of love which took possession of her little heart at this moment was too great for a finite being.  She died from sheer joy and made her thanksgiving for First Holy Communion among the angels in heaven.

Bl. Imelda was named the patron saint of first communicants because of the great love she had for Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament.  She loved Him so much, especially as He was present in the consecrated host, that her love overflowed into something uncontainable.  When she was joined to Lord in communion, she entered into full communion with Him in heaven.  The Eucharist wasn’t just food for the wayfarer for her.  It was that which truly joined heaven to earth and led her into the eternal banquet of the Lamb.  Her story adds a vibrant reality to the admonition that all of us should receive Holy Communion as if it were our last.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who, wounding the Blessed Virgin Imelda with the fire of Thy love, and miraculously feeding her with the Immaculate Host, did receive her into heaven, grant us, through her intercession, to approach the Holy Table with the same fervor of charity, that we may long to be dissolved, and deserve to be with Thee, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Click Here for the Summer 2012 Dominican Vocation Events

For young men considering a vocation to the Order of Preachers there are excellent opportunities available this summer to meet many friars and visit houses and priories of the Province of St. Joseph. New England, New York City, Ohio, Maryland, and our nation’s capital will be the venues for ordinations, professions, special masses, a silent retreat, and for the first time: a high school vocation event.

Men should contact the Director of Vocations if they are planning to attend any of these events.  The next Vocation Weekend will be September 28-30, 2012 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.

This memorial originally appeared on the website of Aquinas House, the Catholic Student Center at Dartmouth.

Prof. Charles Stinson
1931 – 2012

In Memoriam

Prof. Charles Stinson

In the summer of 1985 before entering Dartmouth, my classmates and I received an unofficial, student-published, guide to the College. There was an intriguing section that rated the best professors at Dartmouth, men and women that the editors irreverently referred to as “gods.” One of those gods, ironically, was someone who would teach me a lot about God: the religion professor Charles Stinson. Although I was a history major, I ended up taking three classes with him. Those classes and the wisdom he imparted made an indelible impression on me and have served as intellectual touchstones ever since.

The first of them was on the theology of St. Augustine. It was not long before we realized why Prof. Stinson was so popular as a lecturer. He would pace back and forth, narrating the life and writings of Augustine, interspersing wisecracks and flights of fancy with an effortless treatment of various points of view – modern, traditional, believing and unbelieving. At times he would stop and stare at a point on the floor and intensely review some key matter, for instance Augustine’s treatment of memory in Book 10 of the Confessions, and compare it favorably to the latest reflections of scientists and philosophers. Charles, a practicing Catholic, was yet not apologetical: he objectively communicated the modern take that Augustine was judgmental and a prude. But he also was fair to his source, and one always got the sense in that class, amidst the secularism and decadence of student life, that maybe, just maybe, the sinner turned saint had something valid to say today.

The second class I took was the most natural sequel – the theology of Aquinas. As ever, Charles’ lectures were gripping. He gave a marvelous context to Aquinas’ thought, exposing the advent of the scholastic method with Anselm, Abelard and Lombard, and, once we got to passages from the Summa, taking time out to compare them to works of the Franciscan school. Again, despite Charles’ presentation of alternative views, his subject would shine through. One began to appreciate why Aquinas “won”, so to say – that is, why he became the Universal Doctor and quintessential Catholic theologian. His explanations of, for instance, the Eucharist and angels, as elucidated by our professor, made sense. At least for me, there seemed no possible superior way to address these topics. Through Professor Stinson’s class, I glimpsed a Thomistic worldview that, for me, replaced a merely political or ideological one. It was truly profound, high as the heavens, and as wide as all reality.

The last class I took, my senior spring, treated the history of Christian thought since the Reformation. Prof. Stinson ably presented the drama of Christian theology as it passed into the modern age. Famous names became familiar and great intellectual movements were examined at their roots. I remember three thinkers from the class chiefly: Calvin, Schleiermacher, and Newman. They were respectively representatives of the Reformation, of liberal Protestantism, and of the Catholic response to philosophical  Liberalism. My own favorite was Cardinal Newman naturally, and it was a blessing to have a professor who, although he didn’t push a view on the class, was sympathetic to the argument that Newman, among these different thinkers, simply spoke the truth. There was a juxtaposition in Charles of academic independence and Catholic loyalty. He joked irreverently about the long-reigning anti-Liberal Pope Pius IX, but then recounted the story of a Protestant theologian who went to Rome, suspicious of the pomp of the Vatican, and was stunned to see in this pontiff a thoroughly simple Christian disciple.

The great twentieth century Biblicist and apologist, Msgr. Ronald Knox, published a book called The Hidden Stream in 1953. The title refers to an underground watercourse at his beloved Oxford that served as a metaphor for the quiet but vital Christian intellectual life still present in that skeptical atmosphere. To me, Charles Stinson represented that hidden and life-giving stream of Christian intellectual life. He was not a crusader, just a man of faith and an academic. In his retirement, we talked once about how it was not necessary for a professor to defend Catholicism at a secular liberal arts institution like Dartmouth; one merely needed to let it speak for itself, to give it a fair shake. Since Dartmouth, I have had many excellent professors of Christian theology, but Charles and those wonderful classes still stand out. Thank you, Prof. Stinson, for giving Christianity a fair shake so brilliantly. Rest in peace.

 

 

The Meeting of Sts. Dominic and Francis by Fra Angelico

In April, we announced the publication of a new book on St. Francis Assisi by Dominican historian, Fr. Augustine Thompson, OP, of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.  The book, entitled Francis of Assisi: A New Biography, is an attempt to provide a new perspective on this legendary saint based on the historical record.

Recently, Our Sunday Visitor had the opportunity to interview Fr. Thompson about his book.  In that interview, published on the OSV website, Fr. Thompson discusses many of the common views of Francis that find little support in the historical record.  In discussing the book, the article lists three of the most common misconceptions that people make about Francis, according to Fr. Thompson.  The first misconception revolves around the story of his parents’ strong opposition to him.  Rather, says, Fr. Thompson, the earliest accounts of Francis’s life reveal that:

they don’t understand they have a saint on their hands, that’s the earliest description of the relationship. … By the time you get to the 1240s, his father has been turned into a totally evil person and his mother has become the secret protector, but in the earliest versions [his father is presented] as someone who is suffering and doesn’t understand his son.

The second misconception revolves around the timing of his conversion.  The common view is that this occurred at about the same time Francis renounced his fortune, removing even the clothes on his back so as not to take a anything from his family.  But, Fr. Thompson is quoted in the article as pointing to another far more important event in his life:

[St. Francis's] encounter with lepers, not the act of stripping off his clothing before the bishop, would always be for Francis the core of his religious experience.  As near as we can tell, it happened on the outskirts of Assisi. … Wherever the leprosarium was, Francis lodged there with the residents and earned his keep caring for them. His experience with them had nothing to do with choices between wealth and poverty, knightly pride and humility or even doing service instead of conducting business. It was a dramatic personal orientation that brought forth spiritual fruit. … Francis says, ‘When I was in my sins, God took me among the lepers and he worked mercy through them and he made what was previously bitter to be sweet. I did not wait long to leave the world.’

St. Francis of Assisi

Finally, the third greatest misconception regarding St. Francis relates to the modern tendency to bestow upon Francis a modern, progressivist outlook.  The modern world tends to view him as fiercely independent and individualistic, and in such a way that runs in opposition to the authority of the hierarchical Church.  But, according to Fr. Thompson, as a devout 13th century Catholic, Francis would never have identified himself as “an ecologist, a feminist, you can go down the list.”  He would have identified himself as a faithful Catholic, obedient to the Church’s legitimate authority.

This is most clearly seen, for Fr. Thompson, in his approach to the liturgy.  In his writing, Francis exhibits what a modern progressivist might term a near obsession over the need for clean altar linens, proper liturgical vessels, and correctly following rubrics.  But the proper and worthy celebration of the Holy Mass was a major part of Francis’s own understanding of a healthy and Catholic spirituality.  As Fr. Thompson is quoted in the article:

[Francis] has six letters harping on this. The usual biography of Francis just deep sixes that because today being a rubric hound and sacristy rat is not what those who like to talk spirituality think a saint should be.

Confronting these truths about St. Francis can often bring anxiety to people used to the Francis of modern myth.  As Fr. Thompson explains:

I have often been astonished at how unhappy students can be when they encounter a different Francis from the one they expect. Oddly enough, the most painful moment usually comes when they discover that St. Francis did not write the ‘Peace Prayer of St. Francis.’ … The ‘Peace Prayer’ is modern and anonymous, originally written in French, and dates to about 1912, when it was published in a minor French spiritual magazine, La Clochette. Noble as its sentiments are, Francis would not have written such a piece, focused as it is on the self, with its constant repetition of the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘me,’ the words ‘God’ and ‘Jesus’ never appearing once.

But it is important to clear away some of the modern clutter that obscures the real story of one of the Church’s greatest saints.  Only then can we understand truly what his life can teach us.  As Fr. Thompson observes:

The core of his spirituality was absolute dependence on God, and the desire to always be the lesser brother. … His willingness to follow wherever God leads him even when it’s not something he expected, that kind of spontaneous seeking to do God’s will … is a theme of his life, a beautiful theme and I think it’s true.

For more information, or to purchase the book, see the Friars’ Bookshop.

Each week, a Dominican member of the Provincial Preaching Advisory board prepares this Preacher’s Sketchbook in anticipation of the upcoming Sunday Mass. The idea of the Preacher’s Sketchbook is to take quotations from the authority of the Church–the Pope, the Fathers of the Church, documents of the Councils, the saints–that can help spark ideas for the Sunday homily. Just as an artist’s sketchbook preserves ideas for later elaboration, so we hope the Preacher’s Sketchbook will provide some ideas for homiletical elaboration.

Sketchbook St. Catherine of Siena, from Dialogue

The human heart is always drawn by love. He could not have shown you greater love than by giving his life for you. You can hardly resist being drawn by love, then, unless you foolishly refuse to be drawn…. The human heart is drawn by love and with all its powers: memory, understanding, and will. If these three powers are harmoniously united in my name, everything else you do, in fact or in intention, will be drawn to union with me in peace trough the movement of love, because all will be lifted up in the pursuit of crucified love. So my Truth indeed spoke truly when he said, “If I am lifted up high, I will draw everything to myself.” For everything you do will be drawn to him when he draws your heart and its powers.

St. John of the Cross, from The Spiritual Canticle

You considered

That one hair fluttering at my neck;

You gazed at it upon my neck

And it captivated You…

Oh how worthy of utter admiration and joy! God is taken captive by a hair! The reason this captivity is so estimable is that God wished to stop and gaze at the fluttering of the hair, as this verse asserts. And as we pointed out, for God, to gaze at is to love. If in His infinite mercy He had not gazed at us and loved us first—as St. John declares (1 John 4.10)—and descended, the hair of our lowly love would not have taken Him prisoner, for this love was not so lofty in its flight as to be able to capture this divine bird of heights. But because He came down to gaze at us and arouse the flight of our love by strengthening and giving it the courage for this (cf. Deut 43.11), He Himself as a result was captivated by the flight of the hair, that is, He was satisfied and please. Such is the meaning of the verses, “You gazed at it upon my neck and it captivated You.” It is indeed credible that a bird of lowly flight can capture the royal eagle of the heights, if this eagle descends with the desire of being captured.

St. Thomas More, Treatise upon the Passion

Who can in adversity be sure of many of his friends when our Savior himself was, at his capture, left alone and forsaken by his? When you go forth who will go with you? If you were a king would not all your realm send you on your way alone and then forget you? Will not your own family let you depart a naked, feeble soul, you know not whither? Let us all in time, then, learn to love as we should, God above all things, and all other things for him. And whatsoever love be not referred to that end, namely, to the good pleasure of God, is a very vain and unfruitful love. And whatsoever love we bear to any creature whereby we love God the less, that love is a loathsome love and hinders us from heaven. Love no child of yours so tenderly but that you could be content to sacrifice it to God, as Abraham was ready with Isaac, if God so commanded you. And since God will not do so, offer your child in another way to God’s service. For whatever we love that makes us break God’s commandment, we love better than God, and that is a love deadly and damnable. Now, since our Lord has so loved us, for our salvation, let us diligently call for his grace that in return for his great love we be not found ungrateful.

Bl. Pope John Paul II, Homily 4 May 1997

“I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16). Mother María Encarnación Rosal, the first woman from Guatemala to be beatified, was chosen to continue the charism of Bl. Pedro de San José Betancourt, founder of the Order of Bethlemites, the first Latin American order. Today its fruit endures in the Bethlemite Sisters who, together with all the members of the great family of the Lay Association, strive to put his evangelizing charism into practice in their service to the Church.

A constant and tenacious woman motivated above all by charity, her life was fidelity to Christ her assiduous confidant through prayer and the spirituality of Bethlehem. He brought her many sacrifices and troubles, having to wander from one place to another to establish her work. Giving up many things did not matter to her, as long as the essential was saved, as she said: “May all be lost, except charity”. Basing herself on the lessons learned in the school of Bethlehem, that is, love, humility, poverty, the generous gift of self and austerity, she lived a splendid synthesis of contemplation and action, uniting to her educational activities the spirit of penance, adoration and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May her example continue among her daughters, and may her intercession accompany the Church’s life on the American continent, which is preparing with hope to cross the threshold of the third millennium of the Christian era.

God calls everyone to holiness, but without forcing anyone’s hand. God asks and waits for man’s free acceptance. In the context of this universal call to holiness, Christ then chooses a specific task for each person and if he finds a response, he himself provides for bringing the work he has begun to completion, ensuring that the fruit remains. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you You are my friends” (Jn 15:9, 14), the Lord continues to repeat and he waits for our answer, as he did with the new blesseds. Their example reminds us that, each in a different way, we are all committed to bearing fruit, not only for our own good, but for the whole community.

Resources Readings

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Sunday Preacher’s Resource

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year B)

Additional Preaching Resources

• The Holy See: The Easter Season
• Fr. Thomas Rosica (Salt and Light Media)
• The Torch
• The King of Ages
• Fr. Francis Martin Website
• Biblius Clerus, a resource of the Congregation for the Clergy
• The Catena Aurea of St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P., for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

In 2012, the Catholic Church marks a major anniversary of one of its more strictly pastoral councils, one that singled out for comment the importance of preaching and the need for its renewal.  Its deliberations extended several years–making it the third longest in Church history.  In its span, the Council saw the death of one pope a little less than a year after it opened and the election of his successor.  Despite the fact that most of the Council’s attention had been devoted to pastoral issues, there were many who thought the Council Fathers did not go far enough in their reforms.  As history can well attest, this Council was shortly followed by a massive upheaval and many defections from the Church.  It was a time of great upheaval not only in the Church, but seemingly the whole world.  In some sense, the pastoral challenges facing the Church were far graver after this Council than they were before.  Many even believed the Council was a failure.  Yet, none of this affects the validity of the Council’s teaching or its contributions to the pastoral life of the Church.  Even though the world has changed greatly since the time the Council was called, the Church still does well and can benefit from re-familiarizing herself with its teaching.

This great pastoral council, which the whole Church joins in celebrating in this anniversary year, is, of course, the Fifth Lateran Council.

Pope Julius II

This date–May 10, 2012–marks the 500th anniversary of the reading of the papal bull proclaiming the opening of the council in St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome, the fifth and last to be held there, and thus the anniversary of the opening of its first session, which would meet in a further eleven sessions between 1512 and 1517.  The two popes involved were Julius II (1503-13) and Leo X (1513-23), and the major upheaval was the rebellion launched by the Augustinian friar, Martin Luther, just seven months after the closing of the Council.

In many ways, the Fifth Lateran was also a very Dominican council.  One of its primary figures was Thomas di Vio Cajetan, then the Master of the Order, but best known for his later work as a Cardinal in his paternal, but ultimately unsuccessful, encounters with Martin Luther.  Cajetan was one of the leading voices at the Council both for the reform of the Church and for the primacy of the Pope.

While the Council’s efforts to reform the Roman curia, religious life, and credit organizations will doubtless receive much coverage during this important anniversary year, it is the Council’s instruction on preaching from its eleventh session on December 19, 1516 that garners our attention today.

Cardinal Cajetan and Luther

 

The papal bull approved by this session of the council begins with words of praise for the act of preaching.   It says that preaching is of “first importance” and “very necessary” but only when it is done so rightly out of love for God and neighbor and according to the precepts and example of the fathers.  Those entrusted with the office of preaching are reminded to reflect upon the fact that they are now responsible for maintaining that which was begun by the Jesus Christ himself and handed down by the apostles:

Preaching is of the first importance, very necessary and of great effect and utility in the church, so long as it is being exercised rightly, from genuine charity towards God and our neighbor, and according to the precepts and examples of the holy fathers, who contributed a great deal to the church by publicly professing such things at the time of the establishment and propagation of the faith. For, our redeemer first did and taught, and by his command and example, the college of twelve apostles — the heavens alike proclaiming the glory of the true God through all the earth — led back from darkness the whole human race, which was held by the old bondage under the yoke of sin, and guided it to the light of eternal salvation. The apostles and then their successors propagated far and wide and rooted deeply the word itself through all the earth and unto the ends of the world. Therefore those who are now carrying this burden ought to remember and frequently reflect that they in turn, with respect to this office of preaching, are entering into and maintaining that succession of the author and founder of this office, Jesus Christ our most holy redeemer, of Peter and Paul, and of the other apostles and disciples of the Lord.  [Fifth Lateran Council, Session XI, 15 December 1516]

The instruction recalls with sorrow the fact that there are many entrusted with the office of preaching who ignore this fact and preach things contrary to the teachings of the church and thereby give scandal to the faithful all for the pursuit of vainglory.

When they turn aside from the official sacred teachings, which they ought particularly to follow, they separate and move far from salvation those who listen to them. For, as a result of these and similar activities, the less educated people, as being more exposed to deceit, are very easily led into manifold errors, as they wander from the path of salvation and from obedience to the Roman Church.  [Fifth Lateran Council, Session XI, 15 December 1516]

Pope Leo X

This is a perennially valid point, even nearly five hundred years removed from time of the Council.  The words of the preacher either maintain and strengthen what was founded by Jesus Christ and the apostles leading the believer into all truth or they lead astray, obscuring Christ, and safeguard vice and error. Preaching can lead astray in one of two basic ways: by moving those who listen to place their faith and confidence in something other than God and His revelation (e.g. introducing new prophecies, revelations, or superstitious practices) or by sowing doubt and disbelief (e.g. erroneous interpretations of Scripture, denials of articles of the faith, or disdain for received tradition).  (See 2 Tim 4:3-4)  The office of preaching, however, is intricately linked with the unity of the faith, the unity of our Baptism, and the unity of Christ in whom we place our trust for salvation.  Its mission is to safeguard and build up that unity, and to be an instrument of God’s saving grace for countless souls.

May this year of celebration in honor of the opening of this great Council help us to consider anew its important teachings, and be led by its wise pastoral counsel.

Dominican Cooperator Brothers Study

“Dedicating Ourselves to God, Following Christ to Lead an Evangelical Life in the Order (LCO 189, I) Dominican Cooperator Brothers of the United States Gather for an Historic Meeting

Recently, Dominican Cooperator Brothers throughout the U.S. met to discuss the vocation of brothers in the Order.  Below is a description of the fruit of some of their recent discussions.  The meeting of the brothers was requested by the Master of the Order to review the status of the cooperator brother vocation.  These meetings in the United States will culminate in meetings in Rome with brothers from throughout the world.

U.S. Dominican Cooperator Brothers. Photo by Br. Lupe, OP

Is the Order of Preachers dying? Such a question would seem absurd to some, alarming to others, but the “vocation crisis” of men interested in the consecrated life as Brothers in the Church today is very real. The decline has been especially felt in the Order by the Dominican Brothers, who, as one brother described, have seen a 57% decline in numbers since the 1980s, as compared to a 20% decline in the number of Dominican priests (cf. Curia Generalizia Frati Domenicani). To combat this alarming trend, the Master of the Order has called for a study of the vocation, formation and ministries of cooperator brothers in provinces around the world.  The study, under the direction of a Core Team, consists of regional meetings in the Provinces where Brothers are asked to come together to discuss ways in which this decline might be addressed in order to promote the renewal of the vocation and ministries in the Order.  The meeting of Dominican Brothers in the United States was the first of several similar meetings to be held in the near future in Mexico, Canada, Vietnam, Poland, Congo and other Provinces throughout the Order. Information and recommendations gathered during these meetings will help the Master of the Order prepare for an international congress of cooperator brothers called for by the General Chapter of Rome (2010).

Sixteen brothers, including five in initial formation, from all four U.S. provinces attended the regional meeting hosted by St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland, California from March 30th-April 1st, 2012. Under the theme “dedicating ourselves to God, following Christ to lead an evangelical life in the Order” (LCO 189, I), the Brothers were invited by the planning committee to prayerfully dialogue about their experiences as brothers, their formation, their ministries, vocation promotion, and steps the Order could take to radically challenge the decline and promote the revitalization of the vocation of Dominican Brother. It was an overwhelming impression among all gathered that the question of renewal of the Brother’s vocation was vital to the renewal of the whole Order. One Brother remarked “It is a question of renewal of our entire way of life.  We speak frequently about being a Dominican Family, but to be that family we need every part to be thriving.  As communities of friars, cooperator brothers cannot flourish without our priest brothers, and neither can the priest brothers without the cooperator brothers.”  It is the central hope of the Brothers who participated in the Oakland Meeting that all friars of the Order will come to believe that renewal of the Order is essential in the Church’s plan for the New Evangelization.

But radically challenge the decline? What does that mean? The first step is giving a voice to the Dominican Brothers themselves to articulate what their vocation is all about. One of the central components of the vocation decline is the general confusion about or inability to describe correctly or adequately the vocation of the Dominican Brother by the friars themselves, including vocation directors, formation directors and local and provincial leadership.

Another component to the problem is the general lack of discussion of the Brother’s vocation as it relates to vocation promotion, formation and ministry and articulation with Dominican life, history and provincial ministries and identities. Indeed, several of the recently professed brothers reported “switching tracks” from clerical to brother status during early formation, showing the need for more information on brotherhood during the application process and novitiate.

The third key component is the current limbo state that the formation of Dominican Brothers is experiencing in many provinces throughout the Order.  Lack of formation structure and leadership for Brothers, the absence of brother formators and/or brother representatives in houses of formation stalls the on-going reexamination of possibilities for Dominican Brothers for ministry in today’s world.

Photo by Br. Lupe, OP

Clearly, many of the recommendation of the participants related to an overhaul of vocation promotion and formation policies and ministry.  Included were suggestions for new leadership responsibilities that would give Brothers and their particular needs greater voice in representation in the Order’s Curia. The creation of a “Promoter of Cooperator Brothers” would facilitate the on-going discussion needed Order-wide to bring about a greater sensitivity to the identity, ministry, and renewal of the Brother’s vocation and the Order at large. At the same time, it was acknowledged that every brother, cooperator and priest, is responsible for promoting the vocation of Dominican brother, and that much good could be achieved by the Brothers collectively, across provincial boundaries, to promote the vocation and to support those Brothers already in the Order.

While some of the hurts of the past and of current times were named, much more palpable was the joy that each of the Brothers generously expressed in having the privilege of being in the same room with men who understood and valued their vocation and ministry as Dominican Brothers and who were not hesitant to share their experiences.  As one Brother noted, “The discussions unveiled for me the absolute beauty of our vocation as it has played out in the lives of so many unique and holy men.  The variety of ministerial experiences and personalities was astounding, ranging from self-initiators and elite academics to those who had joyfully waited for assignments and met the needs of the Order and the Church in any way requested.” The presence of the Spirit and the vision of Christ and of St. Dominic was felt deeply, as were lives of many saintly brothers from the Order’s past—Martin de Porres, Juan Macias, Francis Shoyemon, James of Ulm, Carino of Balsamo, Simon Ballachi, Paul of St. Mary, the Bother martyrs, and Oderic of Normandy (first brother of the Order). With the turning over of the success of this historic study to God, the first such study in the eight hundred year history of the Order, emerged the profound sense of hope that what the Brothers were talking about was not numbers or ministries, but a beautiful way of relating to God that will continue to be relevant, a way worth calling others to join. Clearly, the theme for the study ““dedicating ourselves to God, following Christ to lead an evangelical life in the Order” (LCO 189, I) was given renewed life in this experience.

US Regional Meeting Planning Committee: Paul Byrd, OP (Central Province); Herman Johnson, OP (Southern Province); Frederick Narberes, OP (Western Province); Ignatius Perkins, OP (Eastern Province)

For further information about the study, contact Ignatius Perkins OP, Chair of the Core Team @ brotherignatius@aol.com or 801 Dominican Drive, Nashville, TN 37228.

 

Relics of St. Antonius, Church of San Marco, Florence

St. Antoninus of Florence (1389-1459, feast – May 10) was an eminent pastor.  He was so well respected during his life that Pope Nicholas V, who canonized St. Bernadine of Siena, said that he thought Antoninus, even while Antoninus was still alive, was equally worthy of canonization.  His pastoral skills come out in three particular areas: counsel, generosity to the poor, and teaching.

Firstly, St. Antoninus had been especially blessed with the gift of counsel.  Because of this, he was even known as the “Angel of Counsels.”  Princes and prelates would turn to him for advice.  He was sought out to bring peace to warring groups.  He was so respected in this regard that Pope Nicholas V even forbade appeals to be made against sentences passed by Antoninus.

Secondly, Antoninus was known to be extremely generous to the poor.  Having been trained to understand the vow of poverty by Bl. John Dominici and Bl. Lawrence of Rippafratta, and making his novitiate with Bl. Peter Capucci and Bl. Fra Angelico, Antoninus maintained a life of simplicity even as a bishop.  Whatever he had was just as much the property of the poor as it was his own.

Finally, he was an eminent teacher.  He penned great works of theological importance, especially his Summa Theologica Moralis which served as an immensely helpful aid to pastors and confessors.  Moreover, he took his teaching office seriously, establishing Confraternities of Christian Doctrine in Florence to educate the youth.

May we be helped, Lord, by the merits of your holy confessor and bishop, Antoninus, that as we make known your wonders in him, we may also rejoice at your mercies to us.  Through Christ our Lord.

In her Dialogues, the Sienese Dominican St. Catherine of Siena, is famous for her deep mystical relation with Jesus Christ.  Much of her spirituality revolves around that intimate rapport that a life of prayer can bring.  Her great metaphor–the Bridge of Christ–re-casts the body of Christ as a great medieval bridge, beginning at his feet, resting in his heart, and hearing the truth from his very mouth.  And it is through Christ–the way, the truth, and the life–that one may enter into the eternal life of love that is the Holy Trinity.

But, what about the role of Mary in St. Catherine’s spiritual writings and teachings?  Certainly, as a Dominican she would have absorbed the great piety the Order had for the Mother of God.  But how does this manifest in her writings?  In his article, “Mary in the Life and Thought of St. Catherine of Siena“, Fr. Vincent Wiseman, OP, the former Student Master of the Province of St. Joseph and currently a missionary in East Africa, attempts to answer that very question.  Fr. Wiseman begins his treatment in this way:

“In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and of gentle Mary.”  With these words, Catherine begins her book, Il Dialogo, as well as all but a few of her three hundred eighty-two letters, indicating the close link that Catherine makes between gentle Mary and her crucified Son. Catherine’s birth on March 25 in 1347, a year in which the customary date of the Annunciation coincided with Palm Sunday, might seem to have anticipated the close relationship Catherine would draw between Mary and the Redemption. For Catherine, Mary is not a passive or peripheral figure to the story of salvation but one who is vitally involved in its decisive moments.

As has been seen, Catherine, unlike a number of medieval authors, emphasizes the Incarnation as the beginning of the redemption. Thus, she writes:

This Word was engrafted in her flesh, this blessed and sweet field of Mary, as the seed that is cast on the earth. Through the warmth of the sun, it germinates and draws out the flower and the fruit and the shell remains on the earth. So, truly, [it was] through the warmth and the fire of divine charity which God had for the human race, casting the seed of His Word in the field of Mary. O blessed and sweet Mary, you have given us the flower of the sweet Jesus! And when did this blessed flower produce the fruit? When He was grafted on the wood of the most holy cross. Then we received perfect life. [Letter 144]

For St. Catherine, Mary plays no mere passive role in the incarnation of her son.  As the Word was given to Mary, so Mary gives the Word to the world in bearing her Son.  Mary is united to Christ in his work of salvation, and so is united to us as that same salvation is worked in us.

To read the rest of Fr. Wiseman’s article, click here: “Mary in the Life and Thought of Catherine of Siena“

Image of the Madonna, Protectress of the Order, which hangs in St. Dominic's cell in Santa Sabina, Rome

In the Vitae Fratrum, the Lives of the Brethren, which was written very soon after the Dominican Order was founded, the Blessed Virgin Mary appears in over 100 of the stories.  Some of the stories even include visions in which Mary is seen as the foundress of the Order because she begged her Son to send preachers into the world to convert heretics.  Others mention her protection over the brethren as they prepared to die or as the Order itself was attacked by demons, heretics, or even other Christians.

Since its very beginning, the Dominican Order has had a great love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on May 8th, we celebrate her patronage over the Order.  Throughout the centuries, she has aided the Order and supported us in our task of preaching for the salvation of souls.  On this day, we renew our fidelity to following her, and we thank her for the great gifts she has brought to the Order, she who is our benefactress and mediatrix.

The following prayer is recited in many of our communities to commemorate this:

Virgin Mother Mary, with trust we approach you. We, your preachers, fly to you who believed in the words sent from heaven and pondered them in your heart. We stand close around you, who are always present to the gathering of apostles.

In you the Word was made flesh, that same Word which we receive, contemplate, praise together, and preach. Therefore, under your guidance we today devote ourselves anew to the ministry of the Word. Furthermore, we declare to you that, hearing with you the Word within ourselves and anointed by the Spirit, whose sacred vessel you preeminently are, we are consecrated in the name of Jesus Christ to the evangelization of the world.

With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you understood the mystery of the Word.  Through you we, too, are able to perceive the presence of that same Word in the history of our time, so that we may finally contemplate him face to face.

Through you the Father sent his Son into the world that he might save it. Through you we will be powerful in the sight of your people, becoming witnesses of that truth which frees and of that love which unites.

To this place we have brought our needs and here we ponder them. Do you, Mother, give us strength and preserve the harmony of our family, so that what was begun by our profession may be brought to completion by our love for one another, for the salvation of the world, and to the praise and glory of God.

Fr. Bruno M. Shah, O.P. is joined in studio with the director of adult formation from his parish of St. Vincent Ferrer, Mary Schwarz, and over the phone by NYC vocation director, Fr. Luke Sweeney.

On Friday, May 11, 6:30pm – 8:30pm the The Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, will welcome Dr. Peter Kreeft and Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P., in celebration of their upcoming documentary, The Sea Within: Letters to a Young Surfer on the philosophy of surfing. The project features Peter Kreeft and is based on his three books on the subject: I Surf Therefore I Am, If Einstein Had Been a Surfer, and The Sea Within. Dr. Kreeft and Fr. Gillen, O.P. will discuss their joint project, as well as share with us their Surf Lessons for the Spiritual Life.

The Lecture is entitled: “The Sea, Surfing, and Waves as the Meaning of All Things”.

There will also be a possible first preview and showing of clips from the upcoming documentary, The Sea Within: Letters to a Young Surfer.

Discounts on all books by Peter Kreeft will be available. Food and refreshments will be served. $20 at the Door. Please RSVP to contact@cicdc.org

On Saturday, May 12, 11am – 1pm Dr. Peter Kreeft will offer a book signing and a lecture entitled, “Tolkien’s Songs of the Sea: What J.R.R.Tolkien can teach us about preparing for our final sea voyage.”

“Great stories give us the grace of a mystical experience, on the level of the imagination.”
– Peter Kreeft, “The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind the Lord of the Rings”

About the Catholic Information Center
The Catholic Information Center strives to make the Catholic Church present and alive in the hearts of the men and women who work in the international, financial, and business center of the nation’s capitol. Located in downtown Washington DC, CIC’s chapel is a quiet refuge for prayer where Holy Mass, confession, and Eucharistic adoration are offered daily. With panel events, book signings, and an ongoing series of lectures and discussion groups, the CIC works to provide the tools necessary for Catholics to share and increase their faith.

The Catholic Information Center  is located at 1501 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005-1401.  They can be reached at (202) 783-2062.

Window of St. Vincent Ferrer, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome

I can only imagine that St. Vincent Ferrer must have been intense.  Vincent Ferrer (c. 1350-1419, feast – May 5*) was an amazing preacher and a wonder worker.  His did both with such zeal and passion that it can truly be said of him, “Zeal for your house has consumed me” (Ps. 69:10).

Through much of his life, St. Vincent Ferrer was a preacher – a famous preacher.  He traveled all throughout Europe zealously preaching.  Grace, coming through the instrument of his preaching, led to the conversion of around 25,000 Jews, 8,000 Muslims, and even more Catholics who were not living lives based on the Gospel.  He was famous, in particular, for preaching the apocalypse.  He became so well known for this that the Pope even allowed him to style himself as the Angel of the Judgment, and in Christian art he is often portrayed with angelic wings.

As prodigious a preacher as he was, St. Vincent Ferrer was also a thaumaturgus – a worker of miracles.  In fact, when he would preach, there was a bell that traveled with him called the “Miracle Bell” that would be rung every time he would work a miracle.  (Our parish of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York still has its “Miracle Bell” in honor of her patron.)  When it came time to examine his life for the process of canonization, when the officials reached 800 miracles, they asked for no more.  That was more than enough

His miracles were not just the more regular ones like healing the sick either.  He worked some truly fantastic ones.  On one occasion, a woman had gone crazy, killed her son and chopped him up, and then attempted to serve him in a stew to her husband.  When he found out about it, he fled to St. Vincent Ferrer who then came and worked a miracle in which he both put the boy back together and brought him back to life.

Through St. Vincent Ferrer’s intercession, may the Lord grant us the grace to be zealous preachers of the Gospel and faithful servants working for the spread of His kingdom.

O God, through the wonderful preaching of your confessor, the blessed Vincent, you granted that a multitude of peoples should come to acknowledge your name; grant, we beseech you, that we may be worthy to be rewarded in heaven by him whom he announced on earth as the Judge who is to come, our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever.

* N.B. On the Roman calendar, St. Vincent Ferrer’s feast is April 5, but because that date often falls during Holy Week or the Easter Octave, in 2001, the Dominican Order received permission to celebrate his feast on May 5.

Rev. Miroslav Konštanc Adam, O.P. takes the Oath of Fidelity

Earlier last month, it was announced that Rev. Miroslav Konštanc Adam, O.P., had been appointed as the new rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas(the Angelicum) in Rome.  Fr. Adam has previously served as the Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Angelicum.  In the presence of the faculty and students, Fr. Adam took the canonically required Oath of Fidelity before assuming his new office.  Also in attendance were His Eminence, Georges Marie Cardinal Cottier O.P., the retired theologian to the Papal Household; His Excellency, Archbishop Jean Louis Bruges, O.P., the Secretary for the Congregation for Education; Hon. Miguel Diaz, Ambassador of the United States of America to the Holy See; and the Very Rev. Ed Ruane, O.P., serving as the vicar of the Master of the Order of Preachers.  Fr. Adam succeeds Most Rev. Charles Morerod, O.P., who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as bishop of Lausanne, Genève et Fribourg, Switzerland.  Following the Oath of Fidelity there was a light reception at the Angelicum.

Below is a collection of photographs from the event:

On April 30th, the traditional feast day of its namesake, the Dominican parish of St. Catherine of Siena in Manhattan honored three individuals with the St. Catherine of Siena award, for their activity in health care work and ministry.

The St. Catherine of Siena award is given typically given to an ecclesial leader, or a local doctor or chaplain for his work in healthcare ministry. The award was given to His Eminence, Donald Cardinald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, Sr. Elaine of the Congregation of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Br. Ignatius Perkins, O.P., upon the establishment of the St. Catherine of Siena chair in Catholic health care ethics at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (PFIC) in Washington DC.

Dr. John F. Brehany, Ph.D., STL, of the Catholic Medical Association, stated that the “Dominicans really want to provide more and better education than ever to their own friars, so that they can bring Catholic wisdom to bear on people who teach about and those who provide and support Catholic health care.”

Rev. Jordan J. Kelly, pastor of St. Catherine’s church, explained that  “regardless of one’s political affiliation, we can readily observe that matters relating to medical care and life issues will impact each one of us now and in the future.”

Most Rev. Steven Boguslawski, O.P., president of the PFIC in Washington, explained that  “the friar must provide the immediate pastoral care that brings sacramental and personal solace – the cura animarum [care of souls] -  while simultaneously guiding patients and caregivers about moral and ethical obligation arising from the faith during their treatment.”