They are members of the largest ordination class since 2005, when 15 men were ordained to serve as priests in the archdiocese.

All 10 attended the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity and earned Master of Divinity degrees. Over the past four years they participated in the Teaching Parish Program, spending time in a parish each week to participate in various aspects of pastoral service.

Those who will become priests Saturday are:

Deacon Leonard Andrie, 36, of Inver Grove Heights. He and his mother, Sandy, are parishioners at Inver Grove Heights’ St. Patrick parish. Andrie earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame before working in the field for five years in Minneapolis. He was also a school teacher in Virginia for two years. He then attended the University of St. Thomas, where he earned master’s degrees in Catholic studies, theology and divinity. His teaching parish was St. Odilia in Shoreview, and he spent time in Omaha, Mexico and Venezuela during his summers while in seminary. Andrie will celebrate his Mass of Thanksgiving at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 25, at St. Agatha Church in Coates.

Deacon Andrew Brinkman, 27, of Ann Arbor, Mich. His parents, Ronald and Christine, live in Ann Arbor, and his home parish is Minneapolis’ Church of St. Stephen. An avid skateboarder, Brinkman spent his years prior to seminary enjoying his passion for skateboarding as well as working at a pastry shop. He is intrigued by the potential of evangelizing on behalf of the environmental movement. Brinkman’s teaching parish is also the Church of St. Stephen, and it’s where he’ll celebrate his Mass of Thanksgiving at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 26.

Deacon John Drees, 26, of Shakopee. He and his parents, John and Marie, are parishioners at St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown. Drees enrolled in seminary soon after graduating from high school, and spent one summer doing hospital ministry in Grand Forks, N.D. His teaching parish was St. Pius X in White Bear Lake, and he will celebrate his Mass of Thanksgiving at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 26, at St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown.

Deacon Joah Ellis, 26, of Blaine. He and his parents, Daniel and Carrie Ellis, are parishioners at the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids. After graduating from high school, Ellis worked one summer for the Anoka County Parks and Recreation Department before enrolling in the seminary that fall. As a young boy, he got to know many priests over dinners at his home, which often were followed by games of pick-up basketball. His teaching parish was the Church of St. Timothy in Maple Lake, and he will celebrate his Mass of Thanksgiving at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 26, at the Church of the Epiphany.

Deacon Spencer Howe, 26, of North Oaks. He and his parents, Jeffrey and Jeanette, are parishioners at the Church of St. Paul in Ham Lake. Howe was raised in the Evangelical Lutheran tradition. He became curious about Catholicism after his grandmother returned to the faith in 1999. Two years later, he and his father were received into the Catholic Church together. Howe enrolled in St. John Vianney Seminary immediately after graduating from Mounds View High School. He spent his summers while in the seminary in Ethiopia and Rome, and his teaching parishes were St. John the Baptist in New Brighton and St. Stephen in Anoka. He will celebrate his Mass of Thanksgiving at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, May 26, at St. John the Baptist Church.

Deacon Andrew Jaspers, 34, of Lake Crystal, where his parents, Dr. Anthony and Mary, still live and attend Holy Family Church. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from Marquette University in Milwaukee and Fordham University in New York City, respectively, Jaspers taught at Creighton University in Omaha where he also wrote philosophical articles for various Catholic publications. His teaching parish was the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids. Jaspers’ Mass of Thanksgiving will be at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 26, at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

Deacon Luke Marquard, 33, of Faribault, where he and his parents, Stephen and Mary, are parishioners at Divine Mercy parish. After earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Butler University in Indianapolis and a master’s degree in education from the University of Notre Dame, Marquard worked in public relations, marketing and communications in Indianapolis and Chicago. He then went on to teach Catholic elementary school in Denver as part of Notre Dame’s ACE program. His teaching parish was Forest Lake’s St. Peter Church, and he will celebrate his Mass of Thanksgiving at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 26, at Divine Mercy.

Deacon Brian Park, 32, of Fort Worth, Texas, where his parents, Paul and Mary Kay, still reside. Park began to consider the priesthood while pursuing his bachelor’s degree in history from Texas A & M University in College Station. After graduation, he traveled the country for three years as a team supervisor for NET Ministries, where he led retreats for Catholic teens. He entered the pre-theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in 2007. His teaching parish was St. Paul’s Church of St. Agnes. Park’s Masses of Thanksgiving are at 9 a.m. Sunday, May 26, at the Church of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, and at his boyhood parish, where his parents still worship, St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Ft. Worth at 9 a.m. Sunday, June 2.

Deacon James Peterson, 27, of Minnetonka. He and his parents, Jim and Ann, are parishioners at Chanhassen’s St. Hubert Church. He attended Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria before earning a bachelor’s degree in theology from St. John’s University where he also ran track and field. His teaching parish was Immaculate Heart of Mary in Minnetonka, and he spent his summers while in seminary in Mexico and Venezuela. Peterson will celebrate his Masses of Thanksgiving at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday, May 26, at Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Deacon Andrew Stueve, 40, of Hanover. He and his parents, Bernard and Kay, are parishioners at Mary Queen of Peace in Rogers. He graduated with an associate degree in accounting from Hennepin Technical College before pursuing a 10-year career as an accountant. Stueve’s teaching parish was Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood. His Masses of Thanksgiving will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 26, at Mary Queen of Peace, as well as 10:30 a.m. Sunday, June 9, at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

For more information contact Campus Ministry.

The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity Chorale, directed by David Jenkins, will sing. Michelle Plombon is organist. A reception will follow.

The event is free and open to the public. St. Mary’s Chapel is on the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity campus at the western end of Summit Avenue. For more information visit the seminary’s website or call (651) 962-5050.

Patricia O’Hara will discuss “The Catholic University in the 21st Century” from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 18, in the Frey Moot Court Room, located in the School of Law building on St. Thomas’ downtown Minneapolis campus.

Patricia O’Hara.

The program, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by a coalition of eight St. Thomas centers and institutes. For more information and to register, visit this website or call (651) 962-4842.

O’Hara joined the Notre Dame Law School in 1981. When named vice president for student affairs for the university in 1990 she became the first woman to serve as an officer at Notre Dame. In 1999 she began a 10-year appointment as law dean and now teaches on the law faculty in the areas of corporations, securities regulation and higher education.

“While all institutions of higher learning are confronting economic and demographic challenges, Catholic colleges and universities face added pressures,” explained Elizabeth Schiltz, a professor at St. Thomas’ School of Law and co-director of one of the series’ sponsors, the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy.

“We have additional challenges, but also opportunities,” she said. “Catholic universities like St. Thomas welcome a diverse student body. Some students are Catholic, some are from other religions and some are not from any religion. We strive to respect all students and to nurture this diversity, and at the same time we strive to protect our religious identity.

“This is a delicate and sometimes tricky balance to achieve. At St. Thomas, we found that many faculty and staff have been discussing as well as dealing with this challenge. It led us to create this series and bring to campus noted leaders in Catholic higher education from around the country.”

The series opened in March 2012 and has featured lectures by Father Robert Spitzer, former president of Gonzaga University; Lee Shulman, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching;  John Garvey, president of Catholic University of America; and Father James Burns, interim dean of Boston College’s Woods College of Advancing Studies of Boston College.

In addition to the Murphy Institute, the St. Thomas series is sponsored by the Center for Catholic Studies, John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, School of Law, Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions, Koch Chair in Business Ethics, Center for Ethical Business Cultures and Veritas Institute.

Light refreshments will be served following the program.

A concert that features new and traditional music from the Indian, Persian and Sephardic-Jewish traditions will be performed this spring in Maple Grove, Minneapolis and Rochester.

Commissioned by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, “Embracing the Beloved” was created by Minnesota musicians Nirmala Rajasekar, Maryam Yusefzadeh and David Jordan Harris to explore the shared human values and spiritual aspirations of their three musical traditions.

Each of the musicians will perform with an ensemble specializing in the music of her or his tradition. Voices of Sepharad will perform the Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) works. Robayat will perform the Persian works. A group that includes some of Minnesota’s most-accomplished performers of music of the Middle East and India will perform the Carnatic (south Indian) works.

In addition to Rajasekar, Yusefzadeh and Harris, the concert will feature percussionists Mick LaBriola, Sriram Natarajan, Balaji Chandran and Tim O’Keefe; violinist David Stenshoel; oud player David Burk; and a choir of Indian vocalists.

A highlight will be the participation of all the musicians in new arrangements and compositions that were created for the concert.

“Embracing the Beloved” will be performed at:

• 6 p.m. Saturday, April 20, at Minnesota Hindu Temple, 10530 Troy Lane North, Maple Grove. Admission is $25 and includes a post-show vegetarian dinner. Tickets are available by calling the temple, (763) 425-9449.
• 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, at Sabes Jewish Community Center, 4330 Cedar Lake Road S., Minneapolis. Admission is $15 and tickets are available by calling the center, (952) 381-3499.
• 12:10 p.m. Monday, May 13, as part of the Harmony for Mayo concert series in the Barbara Woodward Lips Atrium of the Charlton building at the Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. Southwest, Rochester. This concert is free and open to the public.

“Embracing the Beloved” is structured around the sun’s passage from dawn to nightfall. Starting from the anticipation of dawn and new beginnings, it moves into the heat of the day with afternoon study and storytelling, then to music of the night and the heart, and finally to gratitude. Audiences will hear nearly a dozen languages, including Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Frasi, Kurdish, Azari, Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish.

Harris is co-founder and artistic director of Voices of Sepharad and is executive director of Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council. A composer and playwright, he has studied and performed Sephardic music throughout the world.

Rajasekar teaches the art of Carnatic music and is artistic director at the Naadha Rasa Center of Music in Plymouth. She has performed around the world and with musicians from western classical, Chinese, Indonesian gamelan and jazz traditions.

Yusefzadeh is a co-founder and performer with the world music quartet Robayat. She is involved with Persian, classical, jazz and world music as a vocalist, arranger, composer, percussionist and educator.

While each of their musical traditions has emerged from different historical circumstances and speaks in its own musical vocabulary, the artists aim to open a door for audiences into their cultures through the language of music.

Yusefzadeh’s repertoire mirrors the complex history of Persia, embracing pre-Islamic Zoroastrian chant, folk and ethnic tribal music, and the classical music of Iran. Rajasekar brings into the collaboration her research into the ancient roots of Indian music – melodies as old as 2,000 years – which create a historical backdrop for the growth of Indian music into the 21st century. Harris brings a tapestry of Sephardic music that stretches over the many lands where Jews resettled after their expulsion from Spain in 1492 – Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey and even into India.

The concert is co-sponsored by the Hindu Temple of Minnesota, Sabes Jewish Community Center and the Harmony for Mayo Program. The Jay Phillips Center is a joint enterprise of the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, Collegeville.

Information about the concert is available on the Jay Phillips website and from David Jordan Harris, (651) 227-2583.

Bishop Arthur Kennedy
(Photo credit: Archdiocese of Boston)

Free and open to the public, the Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library Lecture is co-sponsored by the library and the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity.

Kennedy was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston in 2010 and last year was named Boston’s episcopal vicar for the new evangelization.

He previously served 30 years on the St. Thomas theology faculty, was executive director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and was rector of St. John Seminary in Boston.

For information visit the seminary’s website or call (651) 962-5050.

Dr. Philip Rolnick, a St. Thomas professor of theology, said that over the last 40 years “Barbour has been perhaps the most well-known figure in the field of science and religion. In fact, Ian Barbour did much to found this interdisciplinary study in the contemporary academy.”

Ian Barbour lecturing at Carleton College on the relationship between religion and science. (Photo by Kate Trenerry, courtesy of Carleton College.)

Dr. Alan Padgett of Luther Seminary will open the program with an overview of Barbour’s accomplishments. Next, Dr. Nathan Hallanger of Augsburg College will present the paper “A Brief History of Ian Barbour’s Work.”

Following a short video, Barbour will take questions from the audience.

The program is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception and refreshments. It is co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Theology and Philosophy departments and the Science and Theology Network.

Barbour, who will turn 90 later this year, earned his doctorate in 1949 at the University of Chicago, where he studied with Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. He went on to teach at the University of Kalamazoo, where he chaired the Physics Department, and later enrolled at the Yale Divinity School to study theology and ethics.

Barbour joined the Religion and Physics departments at Carleton College in 1955 and became Carleton’s first professor of science, technology and society. He has written many books and articles on science and religion and in 1999 received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

For more information contact Dr. Philip Rolnick, chair of the Science and Theology Network, at parolnick@stthomas.edu or visit this website.

The multiple-award-winning documentary “Justice for My Sister” will be shown at 7 p.m. Monday, April 15, in Room 126 of the John R. Roach Center for the Liberal Arts on the university’s St. Paul campus.

The film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Kimberly Bautista, its producer and director. “My hope is that audiences from all walks of life will be moved to recognize the violence in our own communities and take a stand against it,” she said.

Adela at age 27.

The program is free and open to the public. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. The discussion with Bautista will be translated from Spanish to English and from English to Spanish.

The feature-length documentary begins with the story of a 27-year-old Guatemalan, Adela, who left for work one day and never returned. Her ex-boyfriend beat her until she was unrecognizable and left her at the side of road.

Despite dismal odds, Adela’s sister Rebeca takes on Guatemala’s corrupt legal system in a three-year fight to bring the ex-boyfriend to justice. Of the 6,000 cases of women murdered in Guatemala over the past decade, only 2 percent of their killers were sentenced.

A trailer for the film can be seen here.

The April 15 program includes the sale of Guatemalan crafts; free-will offerings will be accepted. Checks may be made out to La Paz International Inc. All proceeds go to provide financial support for Rebeca, the subject of the film, and Olga, another Guatemalan woman who lives with her children in poverty.

The program is co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ College of Arts and Sciences, Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion Services,  Luann Dummer Center for Women, and the departments of History, Political Science, Women’s Studies, Family Studies, Justice and Peace Studies, Modern and Classical Languages, and Sociology.

Participants will reflect on questions such as:

• Why and how am I talented?
• How can I become more aware of my natural God-given talents?
• How can I develop my talents? How is God calling me to share my talents with others?
• How is God calling me to encourage others to share their talents in their lives of discipleship?

Explore how your talents relate to all aspects of your life, including:

• Faith
• School
• Relationships
• Career/Vocation
• … and more.

The workshop will take place from 5 – 6:45 p.m. Tuesdays April 16, 23, and 30, and May 7.  Participants must be able to make all four sessions as each builds on the previous.

Register online.  Space is limited to 18 people.  A light meal will be served.  Contact Molly Bird with questions.

The festival, which began at St. Thomas in 1980, traditionally presents a broad range of artistic forms. All of this year’s events are free and open to the public and will be held on the university’s St. Paul campus. They are:

Robin Hemley

Robin Hemley will give a lecture on his book Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in the auditorium of O’Shaughnessy Educational Center.

Nola recounts the life of the author’s sister, who died at age 25 after several years of treatment for schizophrenia.

Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Hemley has published seven books; his stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and many literary magazines and anthologies. He is the editor of Defunct magazine.

Quvenzhane Wallis

Beasts of the Southern Wild, nominated for four Academy Awards and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, will be shown from 8 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, in Scooter’s, located on the first floor of Anderson Student Center.

The film, a drama with fantasy elements, is set in the Louisiana bayou and stars 6-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis. The film will be introduced by Dr. David Penchansky of the St. Thomas Theology Department. More information about the film can be found here.

St. Thomas Alumni Choir, a mixed vocal ensemble of young and old alumni, will present a concert from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 21, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The choir is directed by alumni Sean Barker, Josh Bauder and Casey Johnson.

The choir will perform sacred and secular music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Elizabeth Alexander, Josh Bauder, Jonathan Tschiggfrie, Stephen Paulus, Felix Mendelssohn, Alice Parker, Z. Randall Stroope and Keith Hampton.

The Gabriel Kney organ.

An Organ and Choir Concert, part of a series marking the 25^th anniversary of the dedication of the university’s Gabriel Kney organ, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. Host will be Merritt Nequette, retired professor and former chair on the St. Thomas Music Department.

The program will feature the university’s Liturgical Choir and guest alumni singers directed by Aaron Brown and retired Liturgical Choir founder Robert Strusinski; Orchestra directed by Matthew George; and organists James Callahan, David Jenkins, Kevin Seal and Robert Vickery.

They will perform Noel Goemanne’s “Song of Praise” for choir and organ, which was commissioned for the Gabriel Kney organ dedication in 1987; the Franz Schubert Mass in G; the Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani by Francis Poulenc; and the new Concerto for Organ, Strings and Percussion, featuring its composer, organist and professor emeritus of music James Callahan.

Joyce Lyon

The art exhibit “Passaggio/Passage,” featuring works by Joyce Lyon, is on permanent display on the Campus Way, located on the second floor of the Anderson Student Center.

An associate professor of art at the University of Minnesota, Lyon’s works are in public and private collections nationally, including Georgetown University Law Library, the Florida Holocaust Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center and the Weisman Art Museum.

Her work focuses on the intersections of place and memory. “I work from observation with an acute sense of the layering of time,” she said. “In ‘Passagio/Passage,’ I consider pilgrimage as it relates to a physical and spiritual journey and as a meditation on here and there and the passages in between.”

“Passaggio/Passage” by Joyce Lyon

A schedule of this year’s Sacred Arts Festival events can be found here.

Dave Nimmer

This is the season of hope, with spring around the corner. At my little Evangelical Lutheran Church in Afton, we have weekly Lenten services on Wednesday night. The sanctuary is dimly lit, the parishioners are usually quiet and the music is genuinely prayerful.

My favorite Lenten hymn is “We Shall Rise Again.”

“We shall rise again on the last day

With the faithful rich and poor.

Coming to the house of Lord Jesus,

We will find an open door there, we will find an open door.”

What I found one night, a Good Friday a decade ago, still sticks in my mind and nourishes my spirit. The pastor had called and asked me to read some Scripture. I showed up at 7 p.m. and the sanctuary was almost dark – a few shafts of light piercing the windows – and silent. The altar was draped with a black cloth. An old wooden cross was tipped to one side. I sat next to the pastor.

When it came time to read, the words that came from my mouth had already settled in my mind: “And He went on a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, ‘O my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’”

I sat down. The choir sang. The pastor spoke. The Scripture continued: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” These words could have come from me: the doubter, the prodigal son, the wanderer in the wilderness. This was Christ with the human touch, and his words touched me that night.

Darkness had fallen. I could only see silhouettes. The sound of the organ settled over the sanctuary, slow and sorrowful, and the Scripture concluded, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the Ghost.”

It was over. As the Lutherans left that night, they came silently up the center aisle, two by two, family by family, body and spirit. From my front-row seat, I saw it all: the elderly husband and wife who held hands as they knelt, said their prayers and struggled to rise again; the children who came solemnly, as though they had tapped into a wisdom beyond their years; and the choir, singing “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”

To my surprise, tears streamed freely down my face – one of the few times in my life. It was though I was watching all of humanity, through eons of time, pass in front of me: the young and old, the youthful and fragile, the saints and sinners. When my turn came, I knelt in front of the cross and put my hand on the pastor’s shoulder. Then I got to my feet, walked silently out the back door and felt the mist on my face.

For the moment, I knew all was well with my soul.

Avivah Zornberg

The presentation is sponsored by the Literary Arts Institute of the College of St. Benedict in collaboration with the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, a joint enterprise of the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, and with Adath Jeshurun Congregation. It is free and open to the public.

Drawing on rabbinic and hasidic sources, as well as on philosophical and psychoanalytical thinking, Zornberg will explore the nature of Moses’ speech inhibition and explain why she considers this to be a pivotal issue in the Exodus narrative.

Zornberg earned a Ph.D. in English literature from Cambridge University and holds a visiting lectureship in the London School of Jewish Studies. After teaching English literature at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she turned to teaching Torah in a number of venues in Jerusalem, where she has drawn thousands of students to her lectures.

Known for her highly original and provocative insights into biblical texts, Zornberg is the author of three books that have been widely acclaimed as masterpieces of biblical interpretation: The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, which won of the National Jewish Book Award; The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus; and The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious.

America is a national Catholic weekly magazine that has been in continuous publication since 1909. It has a circulation of more than 36,000 and is distributed internationally. America can be read online here.

Dr. John Martens

Columnists for The Word examine Sunday Scripture readings throughout the liturgical year. The Word is a forum in which biblical scholars provide readers with practical, biblical interpretation.

“It is essential to have solid Catholic scriptural interpretation in print and online,” Martens said. “This is a good way to open up the Scriptures for people from all points of view. Perhaps they can relate and have an encounter with God.”

Martens is an associate professor in the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas, as well as the director of the Masters of Arts in Theology Program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity.

According to its mission statement, America magazine is a forum for discussion of religion, society, politics and culture from a Catholic perspective. Directed by Jesuits and lay colleagues, America is a resource for spiritual renewal and social analysis.

Martens’ weekly column for The Word can be found on the America website.

“I was at a meeting in the library when I got the tweet on my phone,” he said. “I said to the others, ‘I’ve got to go, we have a pope.’”

Christopher Gernetzke

As he made his way to the bell, located at the top of the northwest corner of the seminary’s residence hall, he inserted the earplugs and put on the gloves. “I was warned by a previous bell ringer that it’s really loud up there, and he was right. It echoes like you wouldn’t believe. And the metal wheel you turn on the side of the bell to make it ring is cold and rough, so I’m glad I had the gloves.”

Gernetzke, of Evansville, Wis., is in his fifth year at the seminary and plans to be ordained in 2015. While he has rung bells for the weddings of friends, this was the first time he rang a bell to celebrate the selection of a pope.

“It was great,” he said. “I decided to ring it for 10 minutes.”

Gernetzke had planned not to leave campus until the pope was selected and he kept his phone close at hand so he could ring the bell as soon as the white smoke appeared.  As head sexton, Gernetzke is responsible for tending and cleaning the chapel, including linens, vestments, candles and “other duties as assigned,” such as ringing the bell.

Usually the seminary bell is rung just once a year, during the Eucharistic procession from the university’s Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas to the seminary’s St. Mary’s Chapel. That happens in the fall during the Annual Borromeo Weekend, named for St. Charles Borromeo, patron saint of seminarians.

The seminary’s bell originally came from a town in New York and was made in 1927.

Gernetzke said the view is pretty good from atop the residence hall tower. “You can see downtown Minneapolis in one direction and you can see a lot of the campus in the other. When I was ringing it I looked down and saw seminarians running from the Binz Refectory to our chapel.”

Dr. Charles Reid Jr., St. Thomas School of Law faculty member (Reid holds a law degree and license in canon law from the Catholic University of America as well as a Ph.D. in the history of medieval law from Cornell University): Cardinal Bergoglio is in many respects a natural and expected selection as Pope. He was runner-up to Pope Benedict in 2005. What is unexpected is his inspired choice of names. Pope Francis – suggestive both of Francis of Assisi and of the great Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier. I think by choice of names he is setting the tone of his pontificate. He will be humble like Francis of Assisi. He will show a preferential option for the poor. But he will also be an evangelizer in the mold of Francis Xavier who traveled to the far corners of the world – to Japan and China in the sixteenth century – to spread the word of Christ. I think we can expect from Pope Francis a powerful vision of faith and works.

Dr. Massimo Faggioli, St. Thomas Theology Department faculty member (Faggioli holds a doctorate from the University of Turin and specializes in contemporary Catholicism, religion and politics): The selection of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis is interesting and surprising. He is the first non-European pope, the first Jesuit and the first with the courage to call himself Francis, after Francis of Assisi. It sets standards that are very high.

It also is interesting that eight years ago he was an alternative candidate to Pope Benedict. This time the cardinals took the road they did not take in 2005.

Cardinal Bergoglio was not on the short list of candidates being discussed widely. Some Italians were shocked at the selection; some there thought the cardinals would select a pope from Italy.

That Pope Francis was elected on the fifth ballot means that many cardinals had him in mind. The fifth ballot is early. Evidently, the press missed something that the cardinals had in mind.

Monsignor Aloysius Callaghan, rector and vice president at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas: A great gift, tremendous joy, a very pleasant surprise – “Papa Francesco.”

St. Francis of Assisi – what a model for our Church in these challenging times.

In his youth, Francis began to hear the Lord speak to him and feel the stirrings of the Spirit.

One day, while praying before an ancient crucifix in a forsaken wayside chapel of San Damiano below his town of Assisi, Francis heard a voice saying, “Go Francis and repair my Church which you see is falling into ruin.”  That call, that mandate, changed Francis’ life – he offered his life as “a gift to others.”

Yesterday a “new Francis” heard a similar call, “Repair my Church,” “Rebuild my Church.”

As he stepped out on the balcony – our Holy Father humbly invited our silent prayers for him and then he said “Let us start this journey – a journey of fraternity, love, and confidence among us.

And so we begin!

Visit Campus Ministry for more pope news.

Newly elected Pope Francis I appears on the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on March 13. Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the 266th Pontiff and will lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

The program, free and open to the public, is the fourth in a series of five recitals and concerts marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Kney organ. The Sunday afternoon recitals are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry. A reception will follow.

Michel Bouvard

One of today’s leading French concert organists, Bouvard will perform works by Johan Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Alexandre Pierre Francois Boely, Louis Vierne and Michel Bouvard’s grandfather, composer and organist Jean Bouvard.

Bouvard serves as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory and as organist titulaire of the historic Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Basilique Saint-Sernin, in the city of Toulouse where he lives and teaches.  He also has served as one of four organists of the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles since 2010.  This spring he is visiting professor of organ at the Eastman School of Music.

St. Thomas’ chapel organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott.

These concert performances have been featured on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

The final program in the 25th anniversary series will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28. That program, which is also part of the university’s Sacred Arts Festival, will feature the university’s Liturgical Choir directed by Aaron Brown, Orchestra directed by Matthew George, and organists James Callahan, David Jenkins, Kevin Seal and Robert Vickery.

Music that day will include the Schubert Mass in G, the Concerto for strings and orchestra by Francis Poulenc, and a new concerto for organ, strings and percussion by Callahan.

The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is located on the eastern side of the university’s campus, near the intersection of Cleveland and Laurel avenues.

For more information about the Gabriel Kney instrument, visit this Music Department website. For more information about the series call (651) 962-5050.

The Gabriel Kney pipe organ in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

John Kaltner

Kaltner, the Virginia Ballou McGehee Professor of Muslim-Christian Relations at Rhodes, will discuss “Moses, Jesus and Mary in the Quran” from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, in the auditorium of O’Shaughnessy Educational Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.

Free and open to the public, the lecture is co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Muslim Christian Dialogue Center and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning. The Jay Phillips Center is a joint enterprise of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, Collegeville.

Kaltner teaches courses on the Bible, Islam and the Arabic language. Among his books are Introducing the Qur’an for Today’s Reader (Fortress Press, 2011); What Do Our Neighbors Believe? Questions and Answers on Judaism, Christianity and Islam [with Howard Greenstein and Kendra Hotz] (Westminster John Knox Press, 2007); Inquiring of Joseph: Getting to Know a Biblical Character through the Qur’an (Liturgical Press, 2003); Islam: What Non-Muslims Should Know (Fortress Press, 2003); and Ishmael Instructs Isaac: An Introduction to the Qur’an for Bible Readers (Liturgical Press, 1999).

Information about the lecture also is available online here.

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the process underway to select the next pope has captured the world’s attention. In addition to announcements by the church itself, reporters assigned to cover the story frequently turn to experts … including university and seminary professors … for help.

University of St. Thomas faculty members have a long tradition of helping the media with stories related to business, politics, science, psychology, health, law, sociology, social work, education, history, climate change and more.  The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity and St. Thomas … with its Department of Theology and the oldest and largest program in Catholic studies in the United States … provide reporters with a resource for stories related to theology, ethics and the Catholic Church.

Four university and seminary professors in particular have been helping reporters locally, nationally and even internationally with stories on the papacy:

• Dr. Don Briel, the Koch Chair in Catholic Studies and founding director of the university’s Center for Catholic Studies;
• Dr. Charles Reid Jr., a School of Law professor with a background in both church and civil law;
• Father Andrew Cozzens, assistant professor of sacramental theology at the School of Divinity;
• Dr. Massimo Faggioli, a member of St. Thomas’ Theology Department.
  

  Dr. Don Briel

Briel, who holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Strasbourg, has been at St. Thomas for 32 years.  He is former chair of the Theology Department, former director of the Catholic Studies program and helped launched the Center for Catholic Studies in 1996.

A frequent visitor to Rome and the Vatican, Briel was there during Benedict’s final week as pope. While he has a long history of assisting reporters, locally and nationally, Briel was interviewed less often than usual last week because he was overseas.

He was, however, interviewed for this March 4 story about what popes “do” that appeared in Christian Science Monitor and other publications.  And soon after returning to St. Thomas, he was interviewed by the Catholic Spirit newspaper and the Minnesota News Network, a service that provides news to radio stations around the state.

Dr. Charles Reid Jr.

Reid, a member of the St. Thomas law faculty since 2002, holds a law degree and license in canon law from the Catholic University of America as well as a Ph.D. in the history of medieval law from Cornell University. He writes on topics related to religion, law and politics; a featured blogger for the Huffington Post, his recent “The Last 20^th Century Pope” essay was circulated widely across the Internet.

Locally, Reid was interviewed about Benedict on the Fox 9, KARE 11, KSTP 5 and WCCO 4 television stations. He was interviewed by CNN Online and for half an hour on the nationally syndicated Jim Bohannon radio show. Other interviews were conducted by stations in Tennessee, New York, Connecticut, Los Angeles and even Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (they wanted to talk about chances for a Canadian pope).

Father Andrew Cozzens

Cozzens, on the School of Divinity faculty since 2006, received his doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He was a student there four years and was in St. Peter’s Square to witness the “white smoke” that announced the selection of Benedict as pope.

Cozzens appeared on the Fox 9 Sunday morning program March 3 to discuss Benedict’s resignation.

Faggioli, who is 42 but could almost pass for half that, is a native of Italy. He joined the St. Thomas Theology Department in 2009 after completing a research fellowship at the Jesuit Institute at Boston College.

Dr. Massimo Faggioli

Faggioli holds a doctorate from the University of Turin and specializes in contemporary Catholicism, religion and politics. He is the author of four books, including Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning and True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium, both published in 2012.

As a former staff member at the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna, Faggioli was granted credentials to conduct research in the Vatican’s principal archive from 1998 to 2005 and still visits there regularly.

He writes frequently for journals, magazines and newspapers, including regular articles for the Rome-based newspapers Europa and L’Unita. On March 2, his article assessing “the impact of Pope Benedict’s departure on the mystique of the papacy” was the cover story on the widely read British Catholic journal, The Tablet.

While he has recently conducted interviews about the papacy with Huffington Post, the national Fox News network and Italian public radio, closer to home he was an in-studio guest or was interviewed by KARE 11, WCCO 4, KSTP 5 and Fox 9. At the time of Benedict’s resignation, he woke up early on two consecutive mornings to appear on KARE 11’s “Sunrise” program. “It is fortunate I do not need a lot of sleep,” he said.

When asked if he had any predictions on who will be selected the next pope, he said he tries to avoid that question but added, “there are no front-runners.” He did say, however, that based on how long cardinals have taken in the past to select a pope, the world likely will know who is selected on March 18 or 19.

Inside, the Bernardi lobby is energized with the anticipation of a dozen St. John Vianney seminarians. In five hours, Pope Benedict XVI will appear at his final audience before resigning the papacy.

For me, it’s an early morning. But the seminarians’ excitement for the events of the day is all the caffeination I need to make the brisk two-mile walk to St. Peter’s Basilica. A lone woman, accompanied by a pack of future priests dressed in full cassocks, we descend on the deserted city as we make our pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Square.

Just before 6 a.m., the walls of the Vatican are in sight. We are nearly there, but a critical detour is taken when the seminarians duck into a tiny basement bakery to fuel up on sugary Italian pastries. While their appearance would have you believe they are proper, buttoned-down members of the clergy, at the end of the day (or the very early morning) they remain 20-something college students. And they are hungry.

An extra half dozen pastries are picked up for the UST Catholic Studies students and fellow Bernardians who left campus even earlier – at 2:15 a.m.

Pope Benedict XVI waves at some of the 300,000 attendees of his final papal audience before resigning. (Photo by Mark Brown)

We arrive at the colonnade outside St. Peter’s piazza just as the sun begins to rise over the scaffolding occupied by dozens of news organizations from around the world. We are among the first to get there, but the crowd grows quickly as Catholic pilgrims from seemingly every country arrive to bid farewell to the pontiff. Nearby, a group of American students studying in Austria have just stepped off a 14-hour bus ride.

The sun now overhead, our seminarians form a tight circle and begin the morning prayer as many others join in multiple languages. One of them hands me a prayer card so I can follow along, but as a people-watcher I’m too distracted to keep up. As they say Amen, many begin devouring “round two” of the Italian pastries they had stashed for later in the morning. One even recommends the bakery to the road-weary students from the bus.

Soon, the gates open. The crowd begins to crush toward the security checkpoint. The most aggressive of the pilgrims are a group of nuns, none of whom are taller than four and a half feet and none of whom are younger than 70 years. Seating inside the piazza is general admission and the coveted aisle seats are at stake. Everyone wants to be as close to the roped-off passageway as possible to get the optimum view of the Popemobile as it makes its final laps with Benedict XVI.

A location is staked out. And now, with 300,000 of our closest friends, we wait.

During the two and a half hours between finding our seats and Benedict’s appearance, the piazza is chaotic and joyful. French school children sing American pop music and the French national anthem. Brazilian men stand atop chairs and chant “Be-ne-detto!” Italian teenagers strum guitars and change the words to Beatles songs to lyrics that suited the celebration. In every direction, posters emblazoned with words of thanks are hoisted.

Amidst the almost party-like atmosphere, organ music begins to pour from the speakers and the Holy Father appears. He stands in his armored vehicle, accompanied by his sharply dressed Swiss Guard – the Vatican equivalent of the Secret Service. Legend has it that the uniforms worn by the guard were designed by Michelangelo himself.

Cameras, phones, handkerchiefs and flags go up as well-wishers greet Benedict. He takes his time encircling the piazza and even blesses a handful of children handed to him along the way. The crowd becomes steadfastly pious and respectful – a stark contrast from the boisterous interaction prior to the pontiff’s appearance. Once he reaches his seat at the midpoint between the towering statues of Peter and Paul, the crowd sits as if asked to do so at the beginning of Mass.

Benedict is thankful and lets the crowd know in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German and French. His words are scratchy and weak, but heartfelt and meaningful. His humanity is apparent.

As he finishes, he leads the entire audience in the singing of “Our Father” in Latin. Then, quickly – as if to keep from prolonging the goodbye – he departs, leaving his pilgrims to ponder the stunning Roman afternoon. In the matter of a day, he has vacated the Vatican, making way for his faithful brothers to enter the conclave and choose his successor.

It was by pure stroke of luck that a project brought me to Rome this week. But I am forever grateful to have lived history in this Eternal City.

Kate Metzger, Newsroom associate director, along with Web and Media Services videographer Brad Jacobsen and University Relations photographer Mark Brown, traveled to Rome Feb. 25 – March 3 for a special project on behalf of the Center for Catholic Studies.

The program, free and open to the public, is the next in a series of five recitals and concerts marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Kney organ. The Sunday afternoon recitals are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry. A reception will follow.

Han, a native of Seoul, Korea, has performed throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. David Jenkins, organ instructor at St. Thomas and liturgical music director at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, described her as an imaginative and powerful performer.

Han will perform works by Carl Maria von Weber, J.S. Bach, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Thomas Heywood, Camille Saint-Saens, Louis Vierne, Guy Bovet and Max Reger.

Han’s family immigrated to Atlanta when she was 16. She earned a bachelor’s in organ from Westminster Choir College, a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master’s from Yale School of Music. She is principal organist and artist-in-residence at First Presbyterian Church in Davenport, Iowa, and teaches organ at Iowa State University.

Han was a featured soloist last year at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Nashville.

St. Thomas’ chapel organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott.

These concert performances have been featured on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

Remaining programs in the 25th anniversary series include:

• 3 p.m. Sunday, March 17 – French organist Michel Bouvard, professor of organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music in Paris, will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday April 28 – St. Thomas organists will present a concert with the university’s Liturgical Choir, directed by Aaron Brown.

The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is located on the eastern side of the university’s campus, near the intersection of Cleveland and Laurel avenues.

More information about the Gabriel Kney instrument can be seen here. For more information about the series, call (651) 962-5050.

The atmosphere was fairly charged at the time and reactions had been strong following the recent publication of The Ratzinger Report in which for perhaps the first time many American Catholics began to recognize both the clarity of Ratzinger’s convictions about the need for renewal in the Church and the subtlety of his theological insights which, despite the already defined caricature of ahistorical conservatism, could not easily be reduced to the language of politics.

Years later I spoke with one of those theology majors who was struck by the unexpectedness of Ratzinger’s emphases, especially his prophetic emphasis on the importance for the Church of the future of China.

Pope Benedict XVI shakes hands with director of Catholic Studies Don Briel. (Photo by Mike Ekern ’02)

I have seen Ratzinger occasionally since that first encounter, including a few times since his election as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. In October 2010,  I had an opportunity to speak with him about our shared interest in the life and thought of John Henry Newman following a general audience. Again, unexpectedly, he reminded me that he was an alumnus of St. Thomas, having received an honorary doctorate from Father Dease in New York.

As I think of his legacy, I am reminded of his calm and prayerful expression of the papacy in a time of extraordinary turbulence, a time for which in some ways he was ill-equipped to respond but in other ways for which his papacy has been uniquely providential. Of course, his papacy will not escape the sad aftermath of the clerical abuse crisis, but the integrity of his own response to that crisis also is memorable.

As expected, he placed a strong emphasis on addressing the amnesia of European culture about its Christian roots, and in remarkably sophisticated presentations in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome he reminded secular governments about the essential role of faith in modern democratic assumptions and insisted that faith could not be reduced to a private principle and excluded from civic life. He forged unexpected relations with atheistic and agnostic public intellectuals like Marcello Pera and Jürgen Habermas, who testified to the dangers to the common good and to the human person in certain instrumental political developments in modern culture. As pope, his emphasis on the role of faith in the modern world led Ratzinger to a number of interreligious and ecumenical gestures despite his refusal to accept a lowest common denominator approach to interreligious dialogue.

In the end, the insight of the scholar pope that the new evangelization must proceed not on the grounds of disputation but in the invitation to love, Deus Caritas Est, shaped a new understanding of the vitality of orthodoxy, not as a safe middle between the extremes of traditionalists and progressives but as a vital alternative to their frozen fascination with political accounts of the Church.

Renouncing the papacy, so unconservative in obvious ways, is another example of the unexpectedness of this man, this pope, whose humility, whose life of prayer, whose deep appreciation of beauty in the Church and in the world, whose deep knowledge of the mystery, the profundity and the limits of the papal office, will finally be expressed in a retreat into contemplation and devotion.

As legacies go, Joseph Ratzinger is not easily ignored.

Don Briel is the director of the Center for Catholic Studies and Koch Chair in Catholic Studies.

John Inazu, a professor at Washington University Law School, will argue “yes.”

Nelson Tebbe, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, will argue “no.”

Free and open to the public, the forum is sponsored by the university’s Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy. A complimentary lunch will be served to those who register for the lunch program.

The Hot Topics: Cool Talk series, which explores Catholic positions and other perspectives on provocative issues of law and policy, focuses this year on the challenges of religious freedom in the United States and around the world.

John Inazu

In his book, The Four Freedoms and the Future of Religious Liberty, Inazu wrote that the First Amendment’s freedoms of speech, press, religion and assembly once reinforced each other: “They protected citizens from forced participation in state orthodoxy and created spaces for these citizens to generate and pursue ideas and ways of life apart from the watchful gaze of government. They protected, among other things, a pluralistic civil society that tolerated genuine disagreement and shielded private groups from the imposition of majoritarian norms.”

Nelson Tebbe

The Hot Topics: Cool talk debaters on March 8 will discuss whether these freedoms are crumbling under pressures of anti-discrimination measures and if religious groups are losing the constitutional protections they once enjoyed.

Tebbe teaches courses on constitutional law, religious freedom, legal theory and professional responsibility. He is immediate past chair of the Law and Religion Section of the Association of American Law Schools and is co-organizer of the Annual Law and Religion Roundtable. A graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, he also holds a Ph.D. in the academic study of religion from the University of Chicago.

Inazu’s scholarship focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and related questions of legal and political theory. His first book, Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly, seeks to recover the role of assembly in American political and constitutional thought. He is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina.

Rob Vischer, dean and professor at the St. Thomas School of law, will moderate the March 8 program. More information about the Hot Topics: Cool Talk series is available here.

The program has been approved by the Minnesota Board of Legal Education for an “elimination of bias” continuing-legal-education credit.

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Rabbi Amy Eilberg

The lecture is sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning in collaboration with St. Thomas’ Justice and Peace Studies Department.  It is free and open to the public.

Drawing on Judaism’s rich body of sacred texts about peace and peacemaking, Eilberg will explore why conflict arises among individuals and groups, what contributes to the resolution of conflict, and how each of us can serve the cause of peace.

Eilberg will be rabbi-in-residence with the Jay Phillips Center, a joint enterprise of the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, Collegeville, from Feb. 4 through Feb. 15.

In 1985 Eilberg became the first women ordained as a rabbi in Judaism’s Conservative Movement. A co-founder of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, where she directed the Jewish Hospice Care Program, and a founding co-director of the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction, she is nationally known as a leader of the Jewish healing movement and in the field of Jewish spiritual direction.

From 2007 to 2011 Eilberg served as coordinator of the Jay Phillips Center’s Interfaith Conversations Project, fostering interfaith learning and friendship among Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Twin Cities area. Currently she is the center’s interfaith conversations special consultant. She also works with the Jewish Council on Public Affairs on its Civility Campaign and serves on the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.

Eilberg is also deeply engaged in the work of peace and reconciliation, particularly in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, lecturing and writing on this topic as well as on the art of compassionate listening, healing and spiritual direction. She is at work on a book titled From Enemy to Friend: The Sacred Practice of Jewish Peacemaking.

How many students and alumni dread that question or similar questions and comments, such as “That’s not a very useful degree, is it?” How many people have been afraid to pursue Catholic Studies because they’ve been unable to answer that question for themselves?

Certainly, Catholic Studies isn’t the only degree to raise eyebrows. Many a philosophy major has had to endure jokes about flipping burgers after graduation. But Catholic Studies is a relatively new field of study. Many people have never heard of it and are hard pressed to define what is meant by a major or a master’s program in Catholic Studies. This makes the questions especially urgent. Why would anyone pursue Catholic Studies?

Fourteen graduates of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, undergraduate and graduate alumni from all walks of life, answered questions such as: What attracted you to Catholic Studies? What did you most appreciate about it? How do you use it on the job and in your life?

In many ways, their answers were as varied as their jobs. The alumni profiled in these pages include lawyers, a professor, a teacher, a priest, a seminarian, a pediatric resident, a Ph.D. candidate, a stay-athome mom, a psychotherapist, businessmen and laywomen working for the Church. Some find they are applying their education directly to their careers. Others argue that Catholic Studies shaped them as persons.

But, despite the wide differences in what they have done since graduation, these men and women are also strikingly similar. Many of them came to Catholic Studies to grow as Catholics, intellectually and spiritually. Many spoke of how much they valued the interdisciplinary approach of the program. Those who had the opportunity to study in Rome spoke of it as a life-changing experience. The vast majority of undergraduate alumni were double-majors, strongly encouraged by the Catholic Studies Department. These alumni are hopeful, viewing world events through the lens of Church history. They believe they are called to infuse the world with Catholic thinking. And they said, over and over again that, whether or not it applied directly to their careers, Catholic Studies was a value in itself.

In the words of Erin Dolan ’08, “It prepares you for anything.”

“Catholic Studies Shaped Who I Am”

Tara Anderson ’04, ’07 M.A.
Undergraduate majors: Catholic Studies and philosophy
Associate at Fafinski Mark & Johnson

Tara Anderson’s interest in Catholic Studies began before she graduated from high school. She first came to St. Thomas as part of Minnesota’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options program, which enables high school juniors and seniors to earn college credit. She began talking to one of the professors during this time, and she liked the interdisciplinary approach that he described. Pursuing both Catholic Studies and philosophy as majors allowed her to combine her interests in philosophy and ethics and explore her faith.

By the time she graduated, Anderson thought, “I haven’t done so much that there is nothing left to do in Catholic Studies.” She also wanted to study more with professors such as Dr. Robert Kennedy and explore the intersection of politics and Catholicism, something which the flexibility of the master’s program would allow her to do. She ended up pursuing both an M.A. degree in Catholic Studies and a J.D. through the joint JD-CSMA program.

Reflecting on the program, Anderson most appreciates the professors. “They made the program what it was.” She also liked the interdisciplinary nature of the program and the way she was able to shape it to explore her different interests.

In her current position as an associate with Fafinski Mark & Johnson, Anderson is responsible for corporate transactions and intellectual property, areas of business law, as well as aviation finance. “I manage day-to-day legal business that isn’t litigation related,” said Anderson, who was not interested in litigation. Her UST Law Mentor Externship connected her with the firm. “They needed what I wanted,” she said. Happy with where she has landed, she noted that the firm has a culture that allows her to make decisions that she feels good about making as a Catholic lawyer.

Anderson doesn’t use Catholic Studies on the job the way a chemist might use her knowledge from her chemistry major, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to her. “Catholic Studies shaped who I am as a person,” she said, “which shapes how I interact with clients and approach different situations. It especially influences my focus on ethics.” She added, “For most people who graduate with a major or master’s in Catholic Studies, it’s not career-training, but it’s applicable to a wide range of fields. I wouldn’t ask someone who was pursuing Catholic Studies, ‘So, what are you going to do with that?’”

An Enthusiastic Messenger

Erin Dolan ’08
Undergraduate majors: Catholic Studies and print journalism
Undergraduate minor: Graphic arts
Communication coordinator for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee

For Erin Dolan, deciding to major in Catholic Studies and deciding to enroll at St. Thomas went hand-in-hand. “I was looking for schools that were in a five-hour driving circle of Milwaukee,” she said. She specifically looked for schools where she could learn more about her faith. “My faith was important, but I hadn’t made it my own.” A family member introduced her to St. Thomas. “I was hooked when I knew about the Rome program.”

After some thought, Dolan chose to pursue a second major in print journalism and a minor in graphic arts, because she loved writing and art. She considered Catholic Studies to be a personal interest, and she never planned to work for the Church. After graduation, she landed a job as an editorial associate at a jewelry magazine, where she handled layout and event planning. “It was fun,” she said. Approximately a year into that job, she heard of a job in marketing communications for Catholic schools and St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee. “I could never have created a job like that,” she said. “It was meant to be.” She applied on a whim, not expecting much, since she had so little work experience in that area. To her surprise, she was contacted for an interview and eventually took the job.

She has been there for three years now, and her role has shifted from an emphasis on Catholic school marketing to work with the vocations office. Through the Web, newsletters, ads and radio, Dolan explains the priesthood, its relevance and the need for more priests. She also does development work for the seminary, from organizing golf fundraisers to working on the annual appeal.

For Dolan, Catholic Studies ended up tying into her work far more than she had anticipated. “You can’t underestimate the importance of a solid theological background and solid philosophy,” she said, referring to her position. “I need to know how to effectively communicate Catholic teaching to a broad audience. I need to translate doctrine for the person in the pew.” She has also found that her studies have helped her in an independent, creative venture she has taken on outside of her work for the Church: Second Story Creative. “Many of my clients are small businesses owners, and some are Catholic,” she said. “Catholic Studies has helped me professionally. It has made me more marketable.”

Dolan knows that many Catholic Studies majors don’t end up applying their knowledge so directly in the workplace. “Even if I weren’t working for the Church, I’d still filter what I’ve learned into any job. I may not always have this job, but Catholic Studies is still applicable. It gives value to any path. It prepares you for anything.” One of the ways she sees the power of its influence is through how it prepares young Catholics for positions of leadership and influence. “We need to stand for truth. We have much to say. We have been given the opportunity and the responsibility to be enthusiastic messengers. There is so much to do. We live in an exciting time.”

A Career Grounded in Hope

Gino Lambo ’95
Undergraduate majors: Political science and theology
Undergraduate minor: Catholic Studies
Account executive at Celleration

When Gino Lambo came to St. Thomas, Catholic Studies wasn’t a part of his plan, but the faculty drew him in. He found himself taking first one course and then another. “The faculty members are inspiring,” he said. “That’s one of the department’s strong suits. The faculty are excellent, dedicated and engaging. They’re passionate about learning.”

Lambo ended up in medical sales after graduation, and he has found his St. Thomas education very applicable. “I go into nursing homes, which are not the happiest places, but St. Thomas educates people in the tradition of not losing hope. I know that there’s lots of good in the midst of suffering.” Lambo is grateful for the chance to help people such as an elderly woman with a bad lower extremity wound. Through the medical technology Lambo helped to provide, not only did she keep her limb, but she danced at her grandson’s wedding. Hers is one of many meaningful stories of healing that inspire him. He sees Christ in every human being he meets. “If you do what you love and engage individuals with respect, you will have a fulfilled life. It’s important to live life authentically.”

The friendships and habits that Lambo built at St. Thomas are still a part of his life 17 years after graduation. “I was part of a group that attended daily Mass. I strongly recommend that habit,” he said. He developed a strong understanding of the power of the Eucharist during his college years and has seen it in other people’s lives. Recently he was able to help a friend in Germany whose mother was dying of cancer. Lambo visited the woman, who was in a local hospital, and took her to the chapel. While they  were there, she had the opportunity to receive communion. “Her demeanor changed,” he said. Lambo’s own mother was ministered to in a similar manner by his friend and Catholic Studies classmate Father Ryan Lewis, who went to say daily Mass with her during the last weeks of her life. “I cherish the friendships I developed through Catholic Studies.”

Now a member of the Catholic Studies board of advisers, Lambo has been encouraged by the quality of students he is meeting. As he plans for the gala celebration of the 20th anniversary of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas on Oct. 26, 2013, he finds the faculty as appealing as they were when he was a student. “It’s amazing that the faculty has been engaged for 20 years so very passionately. The Center for Catholic Studies is a thriving part of the university. It’s helped many.”

And about that gala? Lambo is looking for volunteers and hopes that readers will mark their calendars!

“I Knew I Was Home”

Irma Montes ’11
Undergraduate major: Catholic Studies
Undergraduate minor: Psychology
Hispanic outreach coordinator at Holy Name Catholic Church

In high school, Irma Montes knew that she wanted to use her college years to be educated about her Catholic faith. “I was looking for Catholic Studies, not theology or religious studies,” she said. A friend recommended two schools, one of which was St. Thomas, and Montes visited campus during her senior year. “It felt right,” she said. “I knew I was home.” She didn’t apply anywhere else.

Montes was excited about the opportunity to study in Rome – so much so, that she spent her entire junior year there. “Rome changed my life. It was a place where I learned how to live out my faith. I stopped being a rule-follower and stepped into a personal relationship with God. It was a romantic time with the Lord. Every day was another surprise.”

After graduation, she decided to join Christ in the City in Denver for a year, where she served on the homeless task force. “I did a lot of street ministry, serving different populations, such as teens or adults, on different days of the week.” She also spent about half of her time doing outreach to the Hispanic community in a poor neighborhood. “When families immigrate to the United States,” she explained, “a lot of them become cultural Catholics. The parents practice their faith in Spanish, and they can’t communicate it to their kids.” Her mission was to re-evangelize, bringing these young people back to the Church.

Montes saw her work with Christ in the City as an important step following graduation, and taking that step immediately was ideal, since she had the time as a young, single recent graduate. “My missionary work was a fulfillment of my degree,” she said. “I learned what it meant to be charitable and to serve the poor. I wasn’t looking for a career. I just wanted to serve in a Catholic way.” She also went back to school at the Augustine Institute in Denver, diving into Scripture classes. “I enjoy intellectual challenge,” she said, adding, “People on the streets want to know who Christ is. I didn’t know Scripture well enough. It’s my duty to become educated enough to share with them.”

Her year of service ended in July, and she was offered a full-time position continuing at the parish where she did Hispanic ministry. “I’m continuing the same ministry in Denver; I’m just not living in community anymore,” part of her experience with Christ in the City. Her main focus will be Hispanic outreach, although she will continue to do some street ministry.

Were Montes to advise young Catholics facing graduation, she would say that it’s okay to take things slowly. “You can take time off for service. We don’t spend enough time building relationships. We live in a me-focused world.” She also noted, “Our plans are not always God’s plans. Have an open heart. He will never be outdone in generosity, will never disappoint. He brought us this far, why would he abandon us?”

“I Didn’t Come to St. Thomas for Its Catholic Identity”

Dr. Greg Murry ’03
Undergraduate majors: Catholic Studies and history
Assistant professor of history at Mount St. Mary’s University

Greg Murry was an agnostic when he came to St. Thomas, and he came for the reputation of the Opus College of Business. “I was going to be a business major,” he said. He had decided that a business education would open doors for employment, and he would pursue history because he liked it. During his first semester, one of his fellow students in a physics class, Luke Meyer, now chancellor of the diocese of Fargo, told Murry that he should take the Newman class with Dr. Don Briel. “That course, late-night conversations with friends and reading Augustine’s Confessions for my theology class changed everything.”

Soon Murry found himself pursuing Catholic Studies instead of business. “It informed my interests as a historian,” he said. Instead of pursuing a career in business, Murry found himself on track to be a history professor. He pursued a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at Penn State University, where he specialized in early modern European history, and religion and the missionary world. “All of the students crossed disciplinary lines,” he said of his graduate education. “That jived with Catholic Studies, and it is what part of what attracted me to Penn State.”

In the fall of 2010, Murry was hired by Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland, where he teaches history electives as well as core history courses. “The department is similar to Catholic Studies in that it has an interdisciplinary civilization sequence. We cover not just history but literature and the arts,” Murry said. Murry’s background in Catholic Studies ties in very well to his work at Mount St. Mary’s. “The university is committed to Catholic identity. We want to attract serious Catholic students. When we revised our history core, I had input in the discussion. I bring Catholic content into my classes as much as I can, such as the way in which Catholic ethics can shape our perspective of history.” He also put together an introductory liberal arts class for freshmen. “About one quarter of the students are not Catholic,” he said. “I have to get them thinking about a Catholic vision of the human person.”

Although Murry was heavily into the intellectual side of Catholic Studies, he appreciates most his service work while he studied in Rome and the opportunities he had for contemplative prayer. “People who are really into the intellectual side have a tendency to neglect these things. It’s important to also have lots of community and contemplative prayer. I did my service work with a group. Rome pulled these sides together. It provided me with the opportunity to undergo a spiritual conversion after the intellectual conversion I had already experienced.”

Perhaps because Murry has seen the value of community, service and prayer, he recommends that young Catholics get involved in their communities and churches wherever they live after graduation. He notes that in college, they are generally surrounded by others who solidly support their faith. “The best thing you can do is to re- create a sense of community in your new life.”

The Significance of the Day-to-Day

James Schultz ’08
Undergraduate majors: Catholic Studies and philosophy
Junior associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP

James Schultz was attracted to St. Thomas because of the strength of its liberal arts programs, including Catholic Studies. Although he most appreciated the intellectual rigor with which Catholic Studies approaches the study of all the disciplines it touches, he was also drawn to the opportunities for personal formation available through the center. “I wanted both a comprehensive exploration of a Christian vision for the world as well as a personal formation,” he said, so he lived in one of the Catholic men’s houses for two years and was involved in the Leadership Intern program. “The intellectual and the personal were important to me,” he said. “I enjoyed Catholic Studies’ serious exploration of various disciplines,” but he also considered the personal aspect of his growth as essential. “I would rank Catholic Studies as one of the top formative experiences of my life. I grew intellectually and personally through various program offered by the department and the center.”

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Schultz took a position with Kirkland, assisting with the negotiation and documentation of different corporate transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions or securities offerings. He finds that his academic training is a source of confidence on the job. “The big questions that occupy lawyers’ minds – the proper goals of punishment, the merits of economic regulation, the just treatment of the child in the womb – are of course questions that the Christian intellectual tradition can be a great help in answering. On many occasions, I have been able to put forward a more complete explanation of the Christian vision on a subject because I explored seriously within Catholic Studies the intellectual foundations upon which the Christian vision rests.”

While his day-to-day work may not always be directly related to his faith, Schultz brings a sense of vocation and significance to his career. Through the eyes of faith, insignificant pieces of his life become significant. “My work has meaning in part because of my Catholic outlook,” he said. “There is a cynicism present today that says that an individual life is destined to be without impact. One of the many things Catholic Studies leaves with students is a deep understanding of the Christian idea of vocation.” He believes that young people would do well to reflect on vocation and think of how they might leverage the gifts God has given them for good. But the work they do does not have to be great in the eyes of the world. “It’s worthwhile to keep in the forefront of your mind that many seemingly insignificant endeavors have meaning. If you’re doing even simple work well, you’re giving glory to God and making use of the gifts you have received.”

“My Experiences Were Very Helpful”

Rev. Mr. Philip Schumaker ’09
Undergraduate majors: Catholic Studies and history
Transitional Deacon for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee

Philip Schumaker hadn’t even heard of St. Thomas when he began to apply to colleges, but his mother had, and she encouraged him to apply. Schumaker visited campus and met Dr. Don Briel to learn more about Catholic Studies. He liked what he saw, particularly when he was allowed to apply to live in the Catholic men’s house, which was just being started. The idea of living in community with other Catholic men and focusing on personal formation was attractive to him. Impressed by what he learned about Catholic Studies and by the campus as a whole, Schumaker was happy to apply.

“When I first got to St. Thomas, I felt very welcome,” Shumaker said. “A lot of what I appreciated about Catholic Studies was the people. I appreciated their care in forming the whole person, not just academically but the whole person.” He felt that faculty and staff “genuinely cared for people. They wanted to make us better people, who were growing in faith. They wanted to help us succeed.”

While Schumaker considered his personal formation important, he wasn’t certain he wanted to head down the path toward ordination. He had been considering the priesthood for years, and started thinking about it more while at St. Thomas. “The thought wouldn’t go away. My spiritual director, Father Peter Laird, helped me discern. There was never one moment when I knew God was calling; rather, as I prayed with my spiritual director, I grew in conviction.”

Schumaker has frequently referred back to relevant papers and knowledge gained while at St. Thomas as he writes papers in seminary or prepares for Masses. “I reference lots of what I learned,” he said. He also finds his experience of living in the men’s house to be important. “As we tried to form community, I learned what works and what doesn’t. That’s been helpful as deacon of my floor at seminary. I’ve learned how to lead these guys to great holiness and to build us up in brotherhood. I continue to learn, but my experiences were very helpful.”

For Schumaker, the sense of community he experienced at St. Thomas was a source of strength and consolation as he tried to live out his faith, and he recommends that young people continue to seek that sense of community even after graduation. “The most important thing in life is holiness. We all have legitimate concerns, but the first thing is to be holy, to pray and to grow closer to God. It’s not easy to be Catholic.” But if you have a community of like-minded friends, they can help you as you strive toward that most important thing: “to grow closer to God.”

 Bringing Faith Into a World of Life, Death and Uncertainty

Susan Slattery ’08
Undergraduate majors: Catholic Studies and biochemistry
Resident with The University of Chicago Pediatric Residency Training Program

Susan Slattery attended a Catholic high school where she received an excellent education, so she wanted more of the same in college. “I was looking for a school that had strong science and theology programs,” said Slattery, who considered schools from coast to coast. “When I visited St. Thomas, it was a last-minute decision. I met with the theology chair, who showed me textbooks and gave me a copy of Logos. Those two things validated what I was looking for. They were tangible examples of the authentic nature of Catholic academics at St. Thomas.”

Slattery didn’t know about Catholic Studies before her campus visit, but her range of interests in the sciences, theology and philosophy led her to meet with many department chairs, including then-chair of the Catholic Studies Department, Dr. Chris Thompson. The Catholic Studies curriculum looked exciting, “just the topics themselves,” Slattery said. “One of the philosophy classes was on faith and doubt, whether it was reasonable to believe in God, to be a Christian, to be Catholic. A lot of the classes set up foundational thinking at levels challenging students to think critically.”

Now a resident in The University of Chicago Pediatric Residency Training Program, Slattery finds that Catholic Studies affects how she approaches and relates to people. Working in the neonatal intensive care unit, she has had several conversations with parents. “Being involved in conversations about life, death and uncertainty is not unfamiliar to me due to my background in Catholic Studies,” Slattery said. “There’s still a lot of gray, but I try to bring comfort. It’s as simple as maintaining hope when death is involved.” More practically, she is looking at a couple of research projects with the University of Chicago, one of which is faith-based. “The relation of pediatric medicine and faith hasn’t really been studied,” Slattery noted. “There’s a gap there.”

While residency is, of course, incredibly busy, Slattery enjoys it. “It’s amazing to wake up and want to go at an insanely early hour and on very little sleep. I have the opportunity to work with families, looking out for the health and well-being of their kids, and at the end of the day, even if I’m leaving late, I’m still okay, and I’ll be back in the morning, happy to be there.” On top of all that, she is exploring involvement with the programs at the Lumen Christi Institute, which exists to complement higher education of a secular nature with Catholic intellectual dialogue. “Dr. Briel is on its board of advisers,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being involved.”

One reason she is excited about being involved in Lumen Christi is because she has found that it is important for her to stay engaged with the Church in order to consistently apply her faith to life. Her family emphasized what they referred to as “the four ‘H’s’”: happy, holy, healthy and wholesome. Busy as she is, she lives her life by these guidelines, which means not letting her busyness shove aside active involvement in her Catholic faith. “You need to read, have conversations, listen, dialogue, write, consistently participate in the sacraments. It takes practice.”

“There Are as Many Ways to Be Saints as There Are Saints”

Therese Lewis ’10 M.A.
Stay-at-home mom

In 2006 Therese Lewis was a high school religion teacher without children when she applied for admission to the Catholic Studies Master of Arts program for professional reasons and because she simply wanted to increase her knowledge of her Catholic faith. In addition to teaching religion at a Catholic high school, her career path included serving as a campus minister and working as a youth minister and confirmation coordinator. “I loved the feel of the Catholic Studies graduate program,” she said. “During the application process, people remembered me, and I got a wonderful financial aid package. In addition, I could still take classes while working full-time.”

Before she could begin classes, she and her husband adopted Beatrice, now 9 years old. “I deferred for a year, thinking I’d go back to work then.” Her family’s plans quickly changed as they made the decision for her to stay home for a time and adopted a second child, Joyce, now 3. “I came out of all that with different goals,” Lewis said, but her goals are flexible. When she will return to work will depend on her family’s needs. “How will I use my degree? I don’t know the answer, but I use it personally as a mom. I’ve thought about how to help the girls grow up with the sacraments. I don’t know what the future holds, but I feel like Catholic Studies has given me strength to forge a path, whatever it is.” She also serves on her parish council and finds that she draws on her background in Catholic Studies in that context as well.

Among the things Lewis most appreciated about the program was the opportunity to study different Catholics in-depth and learn how they influenced culture. “When I studied Cardinal Newman, I wanted to talk about Newman everywhere,” she said. She also enjoyed studying Flannery O’Connor. “She had an unusual way of speaking the truth. It’s inspiring to have such examples. I’ve learned that I need to be who I am in day-to-day, ordinary life and try to protect the uniqueness of what is. I’ve learned there are as many ways to be a saint as there are saints.”

As a Catholic Studies alumna, Lewis would tell young people to be open to the grace of God to move them in unusual ways. “I didn’t see myself as an at-home mom. You can get so planned, but our lives turn out differently, and that’s good.” She added, “Embrace who you are, who you were made to be. It’s important to embrace your identity as a Catholic. You were created to be someone who brings about goodness in our world.” These two ideas – being the person you were created to be and being open to God – go hand-in-hand, and the Church needs people who embrace both. Lewis noted that living your life in this way can be hard, but important. “Keep at it.”

Seeing Things Through the Church’s Eyes

Nathan Metzinger ’06 M.A.
Executive recruiter at Target

Nathan Metzinger heard about the Catholic Studies Master of Arts program before it was launched through his friend John Rodriguez, then administrator for the program. “I was fascinated,” he said. “It was structured for working people, rigorous, interdisciplinary and flexible, allowing me to focus on business or any other topic within the realm of Catholic thought and culture.” He knew that a Master of Arts Degree in Catholic Studies wouldn’t further his career, but he felt it would make him a better husband and father. It would also transform him “from a Catholic American to an American Catholic” as he learned to see things through the Church’s eyes.

“I’m grateful for an environment where an interdisciplinary approach to the Catholic tradition can be taken,” he said of the program. “You can go deep, but the program is flexible. The fruit is well-educated members of the community, leaders who can interpenetrate society at large, who can bring a Catholic vision to any discipline.”

“There’s not a direct correlation between my master’s degree and being a better corporate executive recruiter,” Metzinger said, but he finds that he views things through a Catholic lens. “I abhor the term ‘human resources,’” he explained. “Humans aren’t resources. Really, work serves man.”

Metzinger expected to enjoy the classes related to theology and philosophy, and he did, but he surprised himself by most enjoying history. “I’d often written history off, but I found that my studies in history enabled me to have a perspective on life beyond the American perspective, especially in the political and social arena.” As he looked at the sweep of international events over the course of 2,000 years, he found that history through a Catholic lens had an explanatory power, allowing him to understand the ramifications of things and to have hope. “The Church has weathered bad times,” he said. Studying history allowed him to fight fear and gain hope through a sense of vision and perspective.

Although most Americans today probably think a lot about the economy, Metzinger, as a recruiter, may be more aware than many of how the economy affects American attitudes. Speaking to young people facing graduation, he quotes John Paul II, “Be not afraid.” “Even now,” Metzinger said, “especially now given the economic environment, there’s a lot of fear. If you’re receptive to the movement of the Holy Spirit, there are amazing opportunities. There is so much negativity in the market, but I’m very optimistic. Remain true, be receptive to opportunities and be ready to seize them. Someone once said, ‘Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.’ Don’t let fear get in the way.”

“It’s Critical Not to Lose the Connection Between Faith and Reason”

Father Mark Moriarty ’11 M.A.
Pastor of the Church of St. Agnes and superintendent of
St. Agnes School

Father Mark Moriarty first encountered professors from the Catholic Studies Department while he was pursuing his Master of Divinity at The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity. “I audited the Newman course, and I also took a class with Dr. John Boyle. I was very impressed,” he said. Wanting to continue to explore the breadth of Catholic thought and culture under professors such as Boyle and Dr. Don Briel, Moriarty applied to the program after he became a pastor.

“My favorite courses, like Europe and the Church: 1789 to the Present, and the History of Western Education, helped me put more flesh onto world-changing ideas,” he said. “Catholic Thought and Culture II helped me most in my understanding of how we got where we are today and how we can help culture remain vital.”

As a pastor and superintendent of a Catholic school, Moriarty draws frequently from his background in Catholic Studies to minister to others. “Part of what a pastor needs to be is a doctor of souls,” he said. This takes place not only as he provides guidance to individuals in his care but also as he ministers to the entire congregation. “You need to know your audience and what their culture is like,” he noted. “Currently there’s a break between faith and reason, as if faith doesn’t belong in the public sphere. I need to understand what led to this and the proper response. Catholic Studies has helped me understand the background to the divorce between faith and the rest of culture – academia, politics, the workplace and public discourse.”

Within the school, Moriarity tries to visit all classrooms as much as possible, not just the religion classes. “It’s critical not to lose the connection between faith and reason,” he said. “Public education has gone more into specialization and secularization. We’re working against that here.” Moriarty believes that education is not just a matter or remembering facts or discussing ideas; instead, a well-educated person will be able to sift through knowledge and culture from the past and present, sort the good from that which is not good. He strives to lead St. Agnes according to that model.

But, even with an undergraduate degree and two master’s degrees under his belt, Moriarty doesn’t believe he is done, and he doesn’t want those under his influence to view education that way either. “Education is a way of life. It’s not just over and done with when you graduate.” He also wants his parishioners and the students in his school to consider what education is for, and for him it is first and foremost about building your character and shaping the culture around you. “It’s not so much about what career you have,” he said, “but about being the best man or woman you can be as a son or daughter of God.” He continued, “No person is meant to be an island unto himself. You are called to be in continual engagement with society. We can provide the underpinning of faith that culture needs.”

The Joy of Seeing Things Through Different Disciplinary Perspectives

Erik Pedersen ’08 M.A.
Doctoral student in philosophy at the Catholic University of America

When Erik Pedersen was an undergraduate student at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, he studied in Rome through St. Thomas’ Catholic Studies/Angelicum Rome program. He appreciated the vision he saw in the Catholic Studies program. He knew that he wanted to attain a Ph.D. and, eventually, teach at a college or university, and he felt that St. Thomas’ graduate program in Catholic Studies would be a good next step along that path.

Pedersen, who had majored in philosophy and political science and minored in Catholic Studies while at Loras, doesn’t believe in hard and fast lines between disciplines – a large part of his attraction to Catholic Studies at St. Thomas. “The lines between philosophy and theology are not always clean. You need a holistic approach. Through Catholic Studies, I was able to get a broad-based understanding of, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas before jumping into more specialized work.”  Pedersen is studying Aquinas and other medieval philosophers at CUA. “Aquinas is a great philosopher,” he said, “but above all, he’s a theologian. Getting a base in Catholic Studies has given me insights into his philosophy here. And it’s not just him; it’s all medieval philosophers. The medieval commentaries on ancient philosophy are hugely important, and you get at them through theology.”

“I appreciate the way St. Thomas doesn’t let the artificial bounds of academic disciplines intrude on the natural development of a subject,” he said. “I was talking with a philosophy professor, who invited a theology professor to join us for lunch. Our talk was not confined to just one subject. It’s not good to talk about a subject only with philosophers or historians.” Pedersen noted that by partitioning subjects off into strict disciplinary categories, we can become blinded to other views. An interdisciplinary approach opens you up to seeing things in new ways.

Pedersen suggests that young Catholics who are facing graduation should be open to taking risks. He went to CUA even though it was far from family and friends and he had never visited the campus, because he knew he wanted to work with the faculty. Rather than letting fear of the unknown stop him, he dove right in. “Don’t be apprehensive,” he said. “As young Catholics, you aren’t doing this blindly. Christ will be there with you. Have faith and hope that things will work out. Have faith that, even if it doesn’t go as planned, it will work out.”

Helping People Answer “Where Are You Going?”

Joe Pribyl ’03 M.A.
Licensed marriage and family therapist and founder, Quo Vadis Therapy Center

When Joe Pribyl pursued his master’s degree in Catholic Studies, he didn’t know he would found a psychotherapy center that would allow him to work with people who were interested in integrating their spirituality with their therapy. At the time, he was working with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a lay minister. He wanted a more academic background in Catholicism and had seen an ad for the Master of Art’s program in Catholic Studies. Intrigued, he followed up and was among the earliest students to complete the new graduate program.

He continued in parish ministry for a while, but he decided to transition fully into the field of marriage and family therapy to work with people in times of need who were looking for guidance within a professional, therapeutic setting. He returned to St. Thomas, this time for a master’s degree in counseling psychology. As a psychotherapist in 2008, he decided to found Quo Vadis. “There are general Christian counseling centers,” he noted, but it’s still pretty unique to find a counseling center that allows clients to explore issues from a specifically Catholic perspective. Anyone may come and request counseling with Pribyl, but his approach allows those who wish to, to incorporate a religious perspective, including a Catholic perspective, into their sessions. “Whether or not someone wants to bring spirituality into their sessions is up to them,” he said, “but they probably come to me aware of my Catholic background.”

While his Catholic background can be a primary draw for his clients, Pribyl is comfortable working with people of other faiths, especially having studied and traveled abroad, including through parts of the Middle East. Pribyl found the idea of a Catholic culture to be particularly helpful. “Catholic Studies gave me an understanding of Catholicism as a culture and how it influences us even when we’re unaware. I appreciate having the chance to see it in that light as well as its interplay with the larger culture.” He noted that therapy is heavily influenced by post-modern culture, and his background in Catholic Studies allows him to explore where post-modernity and Catholicism agree and disagree.

For Pribyl, Catholic Studies can bring value to any work. “Whatever field you might enter,” he said, “there’s a way to be faithful and observant and to bring Catholic culture with you. You can be a positive influence on people.” He feels that Catholics should have no fear of engaging work that has a secular background. “We need to find ways to enhance the workforce” with our faith, he said. For that reason, Catholics shouldn’t see their career options as limited. “You can engage the world wherever you sit,” he said. “The question is how your Catholic sensibility can be infused into your career.”

Finding New Opportunities Through Catholic Studies

John Rogers ’10 M.A.
Teacher, St. Thomas Academy

John Rogers first heard about Catholic Studies from a teacher while he was in high school. Although he considered it, he ultimately pursued an English major at St. John’s University. After he began working as an English teacher at St. Thomas Academy, he began considering the graduate program in Catholic Studies. He wanted to broaden his horizons and make his classes more holistic, connecting literature to the larger Christian tradition.

Now a graduate of the program, Rogers finds that he uses his education regularly. “I’ve been drawing out themes from the books we’re reading as they relate to Catholic life.” Students confront questions such as: How does Romeo and Juliet relate to Shakespeare’s understanding of love and marriage? In Hamlet, how do we consider what’s moral and when it is right to do harm? Rogers said, “I tie in lots of information about music, art and architecture, so my students understand the setting of a piece of literature. I also help students find the connection between literature and Scripture. I see studying good literature as preparation for reading the Bible. When it comes time for my students to study Scripture, they are ready to do so.”

In addition, Rogers has begun teaching theology courses, including church history. “I pull in a lot of primary sources. We read the Church fathers and early papal documents. We don’t just examine these teaching in a vacuum. We consider them in their time periods and context. We look at social doctrine, examining how it developed and changed. We ask, ‘What duty do I have to people on the other side of the world?’ Teens are naturally fired up over questions like these.”

Rogers has found that people are starting to come to him with questions about doctrine and other matters. “I have had opportunities that wouldn’t have been there,” he said. His students are surprised to find that he loves both English and theology. He encourages them to think about what they will study in college, encouraging them not to focus on just a narrow slice of information. “I push against the modern idea that you have to specialize,” he said. “Catholic Studies helped me see the interplay between things, how  all things connect. This is what I want my students to do. I believe it is part of being a well-educated person, and it’s usually lost in a university setting. I encourage my students to make connections instead of deconstructing things.”

Outside of work, Rogers has become more comfortable writing on issues related to the Church and is now writing for the Minnesota Catholic Conference and giving talks at parishes.

“I most appreciate being able to see the Church in context – how it influences culture and how individuals are influenced by it,” he said. “The world is not all that the news cycle says it is. We’re interested in numbers, in that which is measureable, but there’s more to it than that.”

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