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The The Christendom Christendom College College Update Update Instaurare (vt. to restore, strengthen, renew)
April 2004 Volume XII, Number I
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
Crocker Talks Catholic Freedom page 4
An Ideal Husband Break Down page 5
All American Hoopster page 8
Give to God What is God’s – page 2
Alumna Directs Crisis Pregnancy Center – page 3 Cardinal Arinze to Speak at Summer Institute– page 5 Regis Martin Begins Literary Revival – page 6 Message of Mercy at Christendom – page 7
Supreme Knight Gives Keynote at NDGS Patronal Feast Carl Anderson Exhorts the College to Persevere in Faith and Reason to Renew Society
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Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde joined 130 other friends, benefactors, faculty and staff to celebrate the Patronal Feast of Christendom College’s Notre Dame Graduate School (NDGS) on March 24, 2004, at the Washington Golf and Country Club in Arlington, VA. Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, delivered the keynote address. Anderson is the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of the world’s largest Catholic family fraternal service organization (KofC), which has 1.6 million members. Pope John Paul II has appointed Anderson as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life; an auditor to the October 2001 World Synod of Bishops; a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; a Knight in the
Order of St. Gregory the Great; and a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family. Additionally, Anderson has served in various positions in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, including Special Assistant to the President and acting Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. He is vice president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center and the Board of Trustees of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, both in Washington, DC. “Christendom College is an initiative that has grown steadily because so many administrators, faculty, and families were determined to give God permission to let Him work through them,” he began. “Because of that, Christendom College is succeeding and in so doing is changing Catholic education. And I believe it will continue to
Christendom President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell, Arlington Diocese Bishop Paul Loverde, and Supreme Knight Carl Anderson at the NDGS Patronal Feast dinner on March 24.
do so for a long time.” He continued by explaining that the very name,
see ANDERSON, page 7
College to Sponsor First-Ever President’s Invitational Golf Tournament for Student Center
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On May 24, Christendom College will hold its first-ever President’s Invitational Golf Tournament at Bull Run Golf Club in Haymarket, VA. Located in the picturesque foothills of historic Bull Run Mountain, the golf club boasts one of the area’s premier day fee courses. Nationally acclaimed golf course architect Rick Jacobson designed the course to be a modern classic that is both fair and challenging. Large, wide fairways through the beautiful hardwoods of Virginia provide ample landing area from the five sets of tees. Proceeds from this tournament will help fund a new Student Union Center on Christendom’s campus.
Christendom College 134 Christendom Drive Front Royal, VA 22630
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Dean of Student Life J. Michael Brown is directing the planning and fund drive for this project, one which will add tremendously to the already vibrant student life on campus. “Students need to have a designated and an appropriate resource for recreation and leisure on campus,” says Dean Brown. “Currently, the College does not have such a place. In the past few years, the lack of a student center has been a consistent concern of Christendom students. Just as a family needs a ‘living room,’ that is, a place for the family to gather to commune and to nourish their relationships, so our students need a similar place to make possible see STUDENT CENTER, page 5
Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 6445 Merrifield, VA 22081
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The following is Dr. O’Donnell’s welcoming address that he delivered to the students, faculty, and staff at the opening of the Spring semester. Since this address charts the course for Christendom’s community in 2004, Dr. O’Donnell offers this to you that you may enter into the spirit of what Christendom is striving for as a College community: Our Holy Father, in his beautiful apostolic letter Incarnationis Mysterium, wrote, “the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem is not an event which can be consigned to the past. The whole of human history, in fact, stands in reference to Him: our own time, and the future of the world are illumined by His presence. He is ‘the living one’ (Rev. 1:18) ‘... e Timothy T. O’Donnell, STD, KC HS who is, who was, and who is to come’ (Rev. 1:14)... In the encounter with Christ every man discovers the mystery of his own life.” I am sure most of you saw Return of the King over the Christmas break. There is a stirring moment when Theoden, the King of Rohan, cries out “war is upon us, prepare for battle!” For the Christian this is always true. As Hilaire Belloc once observed, “to be a Christian is to be a soldier.” This Thursday is January 22nd, the annual March for Life, where we will join together as a community to bear witness against abortion, the great demonic evil of our time, based upon lies and murder. Our Lord told us that these were the signs of the evil one for “he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.” On Thursday, we will close the doors of Christendom College (as we have done from our founding) since all are expected to join this crusade and to participate fully in the day’s events. We will begin with all night adoration prior to the March, continue with Mass the morning of the March, and then we will travel to Washington, DC, praying all four sets of mysteries in our Lady’s rosary. This will allow us to bear corporate witness to the sanctity of all human life. The horror of this issue was once again brought home to me over Christmas break when I spoke with a young woman who worked at a pro-life counseling center just outside DC. The unique thing about this counseling center is that it actually shares a common wall with an abortuary run by a 70-year-old doctor who has been performing abortions most of his life. This young woman told me of the screams which could be heard through the common wall every day. The description was horrible; often one could hear women next door weeping and sobbing and crying out, “no, no,” or “stop, stop.” She told me the story of one young woman who screamed and ran out of the abortuary half way through the procedure and came into the pro-life center. They rushed her immediately to a nearby pro-life, Catholic doctor and he was able to save the pregnancy. This woman now has a little girl, seven months old, who she holds tightly to her heart. Let us all join with our brothers and sisters in Christ and men and women of goodwill in bearing public and corporate witness to the sanctity of life through our participation in the March. I would also like to speak to you today about the Christian community that is Christendom College. Every Christian reality is built upon human frailty. Building our community at Christendom College is hard work, and we all have to keep working at it. We have to be attentive to the way we study, the way we pray, and the way we recreate. There is a temptation, very much in vogue today, always to be seeking diversion. This is especially the case when one is engaged in intellectual
INSTAURARE, April 2004
Give to God What is God’s and spiritual labor. At Christendom College each one of us is responsible for the growth of the other members within the community. Our Lord infallibly teaches us that each one of us is infinitely loved and is infinitely capable of loving and can grow in this capacity without limit! It is important to remember and to reflect upon the reality that in this life there is no terminus to the depth with which we can grow in charity. At Christendom College, our Catholic love of learning and longing for God establishes and builds our community. As we begin another new year, let us resolve to consecrate ourselves once again to Him who “makes all things new.” We all need to examine our consciences. Do we joyfully pursue this arduous good of acquiring Catholic wisdom? Do we lead and inspire others to pursue this good, or are we just putting in time and actually are interested in other pursuits less worthy of man? Do we really seek to draw closer to our Lord and lead others closer to Him in our thoughts, prayers, actions and in the habits which we are forming here?
studying in history, literature, theology and philosophy to remain an intellectual exercise, but hold it in your heart and live it in an integral way. I must confess that I am always a little saddened when Christmastide passes. However, upon visiting our Chapel I was reminded that there it is always Christmas, for our Lord is truly Emmanuel, God with us. The red sanctuary light hovering in our sanctuary is the star for it marks out for us the house of bread, “which is the meaning of Bethlehem.” It remains always flickering in our Church, reminding us that this is where the Child is. I plead with you once again, in the spirit of our Holy Father’s apostolic letter, Dies Domini, to attend and participate fully at our 10 am Sunday Mass. In this letter, the Holy Father exhorts all of us to make this the central act of our day. The fight to reclaim Sunday and give our Lord the dignity and honor He deserves is essential in the culture war we are all involved in. I remind all faculty how important it is to participate in and support your home parish; but you are also invited to attend Sunday Mass in our Chapel with your family at least once a month and then come to the brunch which follows.
All of our actions and discussions must stem from our love for Him, not an idea, not a concept, not a doctrine, not an ideology, but a person! He is the bedrock of all we do. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is as important as our relationship with Jesus Christ.
In this effort to build a community, we must recognize the central role of the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I ask you to reflect with me today on a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien to his son Michael: ...You speak of ‘sagging faith’, however. That is quite another matter. In the last resort faith is an act of will, inspired by love. Our love may be chilled and our will eroded by the spectacle of the shortcomings, folly, and even sins of the Church and its ministers, but I do not think that one who has once had faith goes back over the line for these reasons (least of all anyone with any historical knowledge). ....the only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith, it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals. Also, I can recommend this as an exercise (Alas! Only too easy to find opportunity for): make your communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children – from those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who the moment the tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn... Go to communion with them (and pray for them). It will be just the same (or better than that) as a Mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people. (It could not be worse than the mess of the Feeding of The 5,000 – after which our Lord propounded the feeding that was to come.)
Some have claimed they do not have time on their Sunday to enter fully into the solemn celebration of the Eucharistic mystery. Considerations of time should not determine our prayer, especially on Sunday, the Lord’s day. Rather, it is precisely our prayer which determines time. If we give this time to God in a spirit of joyful sacrifice on His day, He will give us the time we need and will build our community.
Sometimes it seems we can get lost in secondary issues – important issues, but still secondary. All of our actions and discussions must stem from our love for Him, not an idea, not a concept, not a doctrine, not an ideology, but a person! He is the bedrock of all we do. Nothing, absolutely nothing is as important as our relationship with Jesus Christ. The new evangelization, which our Holy Father speaks about with such passion, starts right here on our campus, in our hearts, which need repentance and conversion. We need to ask ourselves in all sincerity, are we building up one another and supporting one another as we pursue the good together? Are we keeping our eyes fixed on Christ? We have daily Mass and adoration. It will never be easier for any of us. If you make the time, He will reward you. Our Lord has never been outdone in generosity. I urge you to live what you are learning. Do not allow what you are
I urge all of you to study hard, pray hard, and to consecrate your mind and will to our Lord with your whole heart. Strive during this semester to truly love our Lord and one another and together we will have a great semester.
I would like to close with one final thought and it is a “tremendous trifle” as Chesterton would say. Let us not neglect courtesy towards one another and those who visit here. My Dad when he visited our campus a few years ago made a comment to me that I have never forgotten. He asked me, “Do you know why I love to come and visit here?” And I said, “No, why?” He said, “Because everyone is so joyful and happy here and you just don’t see that in young people today.” This community’s witness to a joyful courtesy is truly powerful indeed. Courtesy is important in our interactions with one another, remembering always that on this campus you have never met a mere mortal! As Belloc once wrote, Of courtesy, it is much less Than courage of heart or holiness Yet in my walks it seems to me That the grace of God is in courtesy
Praised be Jesus Christ – now and forever!
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Alumni Offer Mentorship Edel Finnegan ‘91 Helps Women and Children Live From her youth, Edel Finnegan has had an interest in to Juniors and Seniors working with women facing crisis pregnancies. She On February 21 over 40 alumni returned to Christendom College to speak with the current Juniors and Seniors about the number of career options that await them upon graduation. Under the direction of Career Development Officer Tom VanderWoude, the Second Annual Alumni Network Career Mentoring Reception attracted area alumni from such diverse fields as law, education, computer technology, administration, business management, real estate, building trades, insurance, sales, communications, government, and law enforcement. The setting for the evening was informal, with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres (prepared by College Chef Ron Steckman), and short introductions by the visiting alumni. Students and alumni mingled, conversed, and exchanged ideas. It was indeed an important gathering for seniors, helping them better to understand the world of work many of them will soon enter.
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attributes this interest to the example set by her parents and their friends in the pro-life movement in Havertown, PA, where she grew up.
“My Dad prayed weekly outside of an abortion clinic and my Mom volunteered with a crisis pregnancy hotline. And, for a few years, our family served as a shepherding home for unmarried women facing crisis pregnancies,” says Finnegan. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from Christendom in 1991, Finnegan moved to the Northern Virginia area where she volunteered her time at a local crisis pregnancy center, A Woman’s Choice. She continued volunteering for a number of years while working fulltime in other jobs. At that time, another alumna of Christendom, Mrs. Becky (Walz) Irving, was serving A Woman’s Choice as its Director. Due to the birth of her new baby, Irving left her position and encouraged Finnegan to apply. Finnegan did so and was hired as Director in early 1996. A Woman’s Choice, Inc., founded in 1985, is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia with a Federal 501(c)(3) status dedicated to protecting the sanctity of human life as well as the dignity of marriage and of the family.
The Christendom ladies enjoyed being spoiled by the men during the annual Valentine’s Day dinner: Marie Antunes (left), Catherine Quest, Anne Wolpert, Eryka Bukowski, Emily Meeks, and Margaret Ginski.
As a crisis pregnancy center, A Woman’s Choice provides free pregnancy testing, counseling, and other support services such as maternity and baby items, referrals for housing, financial and medical assistance, and referrals to licensed adoption agencies. They offer the single woman and her boyfriend counseling on chastity; for married couples, they provide information on Natural Family Planning as appropriate.
Alumna Edel Finnegan (left) is the Director of A Woman’s Choice crisis pregnancy center in Falls Church, Virginia.
fetal development, the dignity and humanity of each unborn child, as well as the damaging effects that abortion has on the health and well being of the mother. In turn, we also present the option of adoption as a possible solution to the crisis pregnancy, and direct interested clients to licensed adoption agencies.” Funding to operate A Woman’s Choice comes mainly from private and organizational contributors, all of whom share its commitment to saving lives. Donors span the entire United States, but the majority are members of the community that the center serves. A Woman’s Choice sends out contribution letters to supporters as a means of sharing the organization’s successes and aspirations with them and telling them how their money is used in the pro-life movement. If you would like to help A Woman’s Choice, please contact Director Edel Finnegan by calling 703.538.4305 or visiting their website at www.awcforlife.org.
“When a woman comes to the center for a free pregnancy test and with the intention of aborting her child,” says Finnegan, “we are able to explain the various stages of
Development “State of the College” Address Serving the lovely Valentine’s Day meal for the ladies of Christendom were (left to right) Nick Oligny, Larry Henson, Brandon Vaughan, Kyle Miller, Josh Kacsir, Patrick MacDougall, Arthur Dhanagom, Chris Pelster, Bielinski Boy, Jeff Sciscilo, Brian Hadro, Kelly Franklin, Zach Akers, Anthony Smitha, and Fred Gruber.
Join Christendom College on a Pilgrimage to Fatima & Spain For Young Men ages 15-19 August 7-20, 2004 Spend 8 days in Fatima & 4 days in Spain with Fr. Joseph Mary Brown, Brother Nathan Cromly and Christendom College Professor Dr. William Fahey. Price of $2475.00 includes: Round-trip airfare from Washington Dulles Air taxes ~ Accommodations in Tourist Class hotels All hotel taxes, service charges, meals, and entrance fees Reservation deadline is May 3, 2004. Deposit of $400 is required. Limited financial assistance may be available. If interested in providing financial assistance for this pilgrimage please contact Mike Brown at 800.877.5456 ext. 271 or mbrown@christendom.edu
134 Christendom Drive ~ Front Royal, VA 22630 (800) 877-5456 ~ www.christendom.edu
Only by the grace of God and the generosity of dedicated faculty, staff, and donors has Christendom been able to keep on the economic “straight and narrow.” Christendom is a well-managed college worthy of your continued support. Please review the following statistics: To meet the threefold surge in undergraduate enrollment since Dr. O’Donnell became president in 1992, the College acted decisively. In the last decade, Christendom expanded its financial assistance program by 173%, including a 220% increase in academic scholarships alone; doubled floor space requiring maintenance (new dormitories, new classrooms, new gymnasium); and hired 79% more faculty members and 32% more support staff.
John F. Ciskanik
On the revenue side, the story is different. Unlike many other colleges, Christendom has kept tuition, room, board, and fees increases close to cost-of-living increases. In fact, enrollment at Christendom College costs under $18,500 for the 2003-2004 academic year. Let me put this in perspective. The achievements listed above mean that Christendom has grown in “business terms” more than 50%. The College has accomplished this while lowering its total debt, keeping tuition down, and not accepting Federal government or Virginia financial subsidies!
This remarkable growth is due to the generosity of benefactors who remained faithful – even during turbulence in the financial markets. May Our Lord bless you! As I look ahead, let me draw your attention to two important initiatives: first, the need to re-capitalize the St. John the Evangelist Library project and, second, the need to grow Christendom’s endowment. As reported last September, President O’Donnell and the Board of Directors are working to raise the remaining $2.3 million needed to complete the library without incurring burdensome mortgages. Since debt is the most common cause for the failure of small liberal arts colleges, Christendom regards this matter as a serious “yellow caution flag.” Christendom’s growing endowment certainly is cause for optimism. Recently, more and more benefactors have taken advantage of the attractive financial rates of return offered through our Charitable Gift Annuity Program. I encourage you to review Christendom’s web site at www.christendom.edu to see how you may support the College and receive a life income through a gift annuity. John F. Ciskanik is Vice-President of Development, Planning & College Relations.
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H.W. Crocker III: The Church Defends Freedom
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Author H.W. Crocker III delivered a lecture entitled “The Catholic Church: Defender of Freedom?” to an attentive audience at Christendom on February 9. Harry Crocker holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and American Literature from the University of California at San Diego, and a Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations in London.
Author H.W. Crocker III delivered a lecture at Christendom on February 9.
Among his many books, Crocker is the author of Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church, A 2,000-Year History. Christendom College founder, historian, and author Dr. Warren H. Carroll called it “the best one-volume history of the Church that I have ever read.” “Catholics say that freedom begins with the right to life, and that freedom cannot be defined as the right to kill those who are dependent on us; freedom cannot be defined as the abolition of responsibility,” he said. “Let’s step back for a moment and distinguish two realms of freedom, because the Catholic Church is attacked on both – the personal and the political.” According to Crocker, who, when not writing, works as a book editor at Regnery Publishing in Washington, DC, the Catholic Church is generally seen by outsiders as “a repressive institution that wrongly inhibits harmless and natural desires, inculcates unnecessary guilt, and is hypocritical in any event, full of sodomite priests, doddering bishops, and brutal nuns who attempt to force their minions to march in lockstep rote recitation of a rather gruesome and intolerant fairy tale.” Crocker explained that in fact the Church affirms man’s freedom through the doctrine of free will – a doctrine that puts the Church at odds with the world. It is generally the world that talks of the fate of nations and individuals as being determined by race, economics, history, psychology, genetics, fate, astrology, the will of Allah, or even, predestination. The Catholic Church stands alone in radical defense of man’s free will and his God-given right to that freedom, he said. “Catholics have never tried to ban human nature,” continued Crocker. “Instead, if we understand authentic freedom as freedom in the truth we understand that creation is good, the natural law is written on men’s hearts, and happy are those who march beneath the sign of the Cross – but there is a Cross, and our lives are a drama, a lifelong journey of sin and redemption.” Crocker then refuted the erroneous but often made claim that the Western world did not taste of freedom until the Protestant revolt of Luther. In fact, said Crocker, the Reformation Protestant critique of Catholicism was that it was too free. Catholics were seen as “drunks, layabouts, and party animals, insistent on celebrating every possible saints’ day with booze and brawls. The Church was full of art and luxury and paganbook-loving sensualists who forgave all rather than condemned all,” Crocker said.
“On which side is freedom: celebrating life, the joys of creation, the nativity, or banning everything to abolish sin and improve economic productivity?” questioned Crocker. “And who today, stands for the freedom of every unborn child to the right to life?” he asked. “Who stands today for the absolute integrity of every individual life against genetic or other engineering of the human person? What institution in the United States is the greatest non-government provider – that is, non-coercive provider – of education, medical care, and aid to the poor? And even here, the freedom for which the Church stands is under threat by interest groups and bureaucrats who would compel the Church to turn its hospitals into abortuaries, to force its insurance providers to cover the costs of artificial contraception that the Church considers sinful, and even potentially to dictate what is taught in Church schools.” But Crocker warned that there are even more insidious ways to penetrate and secularize the Church from within. An institution like the Church, he said, is always an attractive target for certain revolutionary types. “Today, one is less likely to find a French Revolutionary shooting priests, abolishing the Church of Christ and replacing it with the Church of Reason, throwing out the Gregorian calendar and starting again with the Year Zero. Yet just as dangerous, if not more so, you will more likely find men and women in Catholic institutions and in priestly and religious vocations who are at one with the secular world and who are content to leave everything standing but to cunningly empty it of significance,” he cautioned. He explained to his captivated audience that we can all find and defend freedom if we pursue the truth. “When modern men adopt the cynicism of jesting Pilate, saying ‘What is truth?’ we can tell them. We have not washed our hands of the responsibility of searching for it.” Through reason, Revelation, and in our free acceptance of truth through the gift of the Holy Spirit we are able to find freedom, he said. “The spirit of Catholic freedom will always be vibrant, because it is a key to the faith. The true Catholic is someone who believes in loyalty to persons and institutions, fidelity to the Faith, and otherwise letting the good times roll. I have confidence that this is also the spirit of Christendom College. You have a great slogan that I’ve seen: ‘To change the culture, it helps to have one.’ You can be sure you have the right one,” he concluded.
Corrections to a Case of Mistaken Artistic Identity In the December issue of Instaurare, it was incorrectly stated that the artwork below was painted by Henry Wingate. The true artist of Madonna and Child is Rachel Gecan-Rondinelli and the artwork has a copyright under the names of the present owners, Charles and Loretta Major of Germantown, MD.
Professor Adam Schwartz Helps Commemorate the Birth of Muggeridge Dr. Adam Schwartz, Assistant Professor of History, participated in commemorations of the centenary of British author Malcolm Muggeridge’s birth. Muggeridge was born in 1903. He initially embraced his family’s socialist ideas, but he became an early, lonely critic of Stalinism after witnessing the 1933 Ukrainian famine and having his reporting about it censored in Britain. Muggeridge’s attraction to and disillusionment with communism were part of a search for meaning that eventually led him to become a Roman Catholic in 1982. His conversion was driven by revulsion at modern materialism in all its forms, both communist and consumerist, and his feeling that only Catholicism provided a satisfactory alternative to the “death-wish” that he felt gripped his hedonistic age. Schwartz traced Muggeridge’s religious and cultural beliefs in “Vanity Fair’s Thanatos Syndrome: Malcolm Muggeridge, Modern Capitalism and the Culture of Death.” This article appeared in the December 2003 issue of Touchstone, which was devoted to Muggeridge’s life and legacy. Dr. Schwartz’s article was based on a paper he was invited to deliver at the Malcolm Muggeridge Centenary Conference, held at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, in May 2003. This conference was the chief commemoration of Muggeridge’s centenary, and attracted close to 100 delegates. Among the other speakers was National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr.
Published quarterly by the Christendom College Development Office. Managing Editor, Layout, Design: Tom McFadden Copy Editor: Kathleen Blum Photos: Tom McFadden Christendom College 134 Christendom Drive, Front Royal, VA 22630 (800) 877-5456 ~ www.christendom.edu
Crocker speaks with student and fellow Californian Christen Tedrow after his talk on February 9.
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Cardinal Arinze to Deliver Keynote at Summer Library Needs 2003 Network and is the host of the weekly EWTN proInstitute on July 17 Periodicals gram, The Journey Home, will join Dr. Timothy His Eminence Francis Cardinal Arinze will deliver the keynote address at Christendom’s Summer Institute this year. Entitled Confronting the Culture of Death: John Paul II’s Prophetic Vision for the Renewal of Christian Culture, the conference will be held on the Front Royal campus on Saturday, July 17. Cardinal Arinze is the current prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, succeeding Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez. Marcus Grodi, a former Presbyterian pastor, who serves as the Director of the Coming Home
O’Donnell, Dr. John Cuddeback, Fr. Anthony Mastroeni, and Dr. Jonathan Reyes for this one-day conference.
Informational brochures and registration forms will be mailed to regular Instaurare subscribers in May. Additional information about the 15th Annual Summer Institute can be obtained by visiting Christendom’s website at www. christendom.edu or by calling 800.877.5456. Space for this dynamic conference will be limited and attendance will be determined on a first-come, first-served basis.
Christendom College does all that it can to provide its students with as many educational resources as possible. Among these resources are the valuable periodicals and newspapers that it receives each year. Among these periodicals are magazines and journals such as Homiletic & Pastoral Review, National Catholic Register, National Geographic, and This Rock. For many years the Christendom library has ordered these subscription titles from an established distribution agent, RoweCom, Inc. Unfortunately, as a result of a case of financial mismanagement, many of the subscriptions paid for by the College Library to this distributor were never received in 2003. To donate old copies of any of the needed periodicals, or to find out the complete list of periodicals needed, contact Andrew Armstrong by calling 800-877-5456 ext. 231 or emailing armstrong@christendom.edu.
Christendom Students Produce An Ideal Husband The Christendom Players performed Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband at The Theatre at Washington, VA, in a three-day run in mid-March. Student Michael Powell directed the four outstanding performances. Dr. Patrick Keats and alumna Sherry Spring ‘02 assisted the Director.
An Ideal Husband was first performed on the London stage in 1895. Popular in its own time, “Husband” stands up equally well in our own age. It was adapted into a
Vicomte De Nanjac (Adam Wilson) interrupts the idle banter between Mabel Chiltern (Christina Matatics) and Lord Goring (Hugh O’Donnell).
Mrs. Cheverly (Bree Dail) negotiates a bribe with Sir Robert Chiltern (Julian Ahlquist).
successful film in the 1990s, starring Jeremy Northam and Minnie Driver. Also, some of its plot devices—including a scandal that involves “insider trading”—are highly relevant for today’s audiences. The play starred students Hugh O’Donnell (Lord Goring), Christina Matatics (Mabel Chiltern), Julian Ahlquist (Sir Robert Chiltern), Monica Briggs (Lady Chiltern), Bree Dail (Mrs. Cheverly), and Kimon Issigonis (Earl of Cavesham). It featured Donna Shute (Lady Basildon), Holly Krause (Mrs. Marchmont),
Christendom College is now in a position to address this most important need. Plans are underway for a student center designed to provide a wholesome environment for the sorts of social interaction and activities that round out a solid undergraduate education. The Center will house a mini-theater; a meeting place for student organizations and clubs; private study space; a common room featuring recreational games and a comfortable lounge’ a coffee bar; offices for Student Life personnel; and the College bookstore. Doors will open onto an attractive covered pavilion for outdoor
Proceeds from the advertisements placed in the Play Program went toward the new Student Center.
The Earl of Cavesham (Kimon Issigonis) talks with Miss Chiltern (Christina Matatics) about his trivial son, Lord Goring (Hugh O’Donnell).
Lady Chiltern (Monica Briggs) expresses her feelings to her husband, Sir Robert (Julian Ahlquist).
STUDENT CENTER... their desire to live out the life of community, the life of friendship.”
Adam Wilson (Vicomte De Nanjac), Chris Pelster (Mr. Montford), Gene Porter (Mason), Ariel Lynch (Lady Markby), Annie Clark (Duchess), Anthony Smitha (Phipps), and Ashley DeMarco (Harriet).
Mabel Chiltern (Christina Matatics) agrees to marry the Ideal Husband, Lord Goring (Hugh O’Donnell).
Continued from Page 1 dining, and nearby will be lighted courts for basketball and volleyball. Every member of Christendom’s diverse student body should find something to enjoy in this new Student Center. As those most directly benefitting from the project, Christendom’s enthusiastic students have joined the fundraising effort. They hope to raise more than $60,000 of the $400,000 needed to complete the Center. And they are well on their way to reaching their goal with proceeds from a raffle, from the sale of advertisements in the school play program, and from other efforts.
“With a modest financial goal but rapid action we can provide our students–like we never have before–with the opportunity fully to integrate faith, reason, and the joys of communal life, and in so doing provide a tremendous witness to the fullness of Christian life on campus,” adds Brown. For more information on either the Golf Tournament or the newly planned Student Union Center please contact Mike Brown by calling (800) 877.5456, ext 271, or by emailing mbrown@christendom.edu.
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Regis Martin Reminisces About the Catholic Literary Days of Old
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On March 15, Dr. Regis Martin delivered the last of Christendom College’s 2003-04 Major Speakers Program lectures. The title of his lecture was “Remembering Our Past: The Catholic Literary Revival.” “There once existed in this country the most extraordinary revival of interest among Catholics in the arts, literature, philosophy, history; a great flourishing of liturgical and spiritual life; forms of public worship, private devotion, including Corpus Christi and Marian Processions, Forty Hours, and movements of the lay apostolate,” began Martin. “It was really the most splendid flowering of Catholic life and thought, arts and letters. In short, a whole Renaissance of the Catholic Thing.” “And what has become of this great mushrooming of Catholic life and culture?” he asked. “Almost overnight, it seems, it all came to grief. How did it happen? What forces led to so dismal and complete a rout?” Martin, the father of ten children, explained that the decline in the Catholic culture can only be blamed on Catholics themselves, and not “some vast leftwing conspiracy or members of the Red Brigade bent on a Maoist remaking of history.” He also believes that far too many place blame on the Second Vatican Council. “On the contrary: the insistent and eloquent plea of the entire conciliar event that we set about the work of reform and renewal ought rather to have awakened an even livelier interest in and awareness of the Catholic past. Certainly not its liquidation,” he added. He noted that it was in reaction to the fact that the
transcendent was disappearing in attempting to oppose and overcome the enveloping secularization of modern life and culture, that the whole movement of the Catholic Revival arose in the first place. “It was the deepest possible perception in faith among certain highly articulate Catholics themselves, of the sheer beauty and poetry of that transcendent realm, that moved to energize them on behalf of a movement to revive the Catholic Thing,” he stated. “Once upon a time there were On March 15, theologian Dr. Regis Martin delivered the last of the College’s 2003-04 Major certain numbers of Speakers Program lectures. people possessed of a “To build a world whose dimensions remain flat as a sensibility so resonant with a feeling for God, for the map – where neither heaven nor hell exist, but only a sacred, the mysterious, the sacramental, that in concertdull two dimensional world mired in this space and ing their energies to give form to all that they felt and that time, a flat opaque surface covering only the knew, a kind of culture arose which, mediated through emptiness of sheer unending abyss – is not a prospect the sacramental life of the Church, provided a distincI or any sentient being would care to welcome. Such a tive shape and direction to much of the literature and setting in which the choice of good and evil is reduced art experienced among Catholics as recently as forty or to ultimately triviality, is a world fit neither for human fifty years ago.” habitation nor divine penetration. And it does seem to me that thanks in no small part to the exertions of So much of the literature of that time and place was the writers and artists who found a way to harness their blazed with a special intensity, giving off unmistakable talents for God, and thus formed the movement we call glints of glory, he continued. the Catholic Revival, the scale and ferocity of so bleak a prospect we have managed somewhat to keep at bay,” “God and the soul were taken with utmost Martin concluded. seriousness. The world itself was charged with the most awe-ful grandeur of God. And because Martin is a Professor at Franciscan University in SteuGod had invested so much of Himself already benville, OH. He teaches courses on the Trinity, The in the enterprise – of nature, of grace – everyChurch, The Sacraments, Grace, Eschatology, and the thing touching man was equally emblematic of world of the Catholic Literary Revival. He has written adventure and drama not finally of this world. several books, including The Suffering of Love, The Last Man was everywhere free to choose, to decide Things, Garlands of Grace, and Confessions of a Cradle for or against God. But clearly, the highest Catholic. possible choice, the one for which every human being was created, was holiness. Personal sanctity, the restoration of self and the world to Christ, was at the heart of what the movement was about.
Regis Martin discusses the richness of Catholic culture with students Grant Freeman, John Burger, and professor Mary Alice Rice.
College Community Experiences The Passion of the Christ
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On Ash Wednesday, Christendom College rented a local movie theater for a special screening of The Passion of the Christ. Over 275 members of the College community lined up in the cold outside the theater, including College President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell. O’Donnell had already seen a pre-finalized version of the movie this past November and was extremely impressed with director Mel Gibson’s version of the passion of Our Lord. Although the film with its “R” rating is too graphic for younger viewers, O’Donnell truly believes that this picture will have a dramatic impact on our jaded, fatigued, dying secular culture. “In the minutes before the movie began, there was much anticipation,” says O’Donnell of his pre-screening experience. “Those of us gathered were excited and talking randomly. There was a sort of ‘light headedness’ about the room. Then the lights were dimmed and the movie began. For the next two hours or so, there wasn’t a sound. And for a considerable period of time after the movie ended, that silence persisted; broken only by an occasional sob or sniffle.”
Following the film, the movie-goers traveled back to campus where they had a silent holy hour with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. College Chaplain Fr. Robert Ruskamp heard Confessions until the line ran out. “I hope that for those students who watched it, this movie deepened their love for their Savior, increased their devotion to Him, and strengthened their resolve to go out into the world and do as Our Lord commanded, namely, to ‘make disciples of all nations,’” said O’Donnell. “I believe this was the perfect way for our students to begin their Lenten season, and I encourage everyone to make this movie part of their Lenten experience. You will not be disappointed. In fact, I can all but guarantee that everyone will come away from the experience with a much fuller realization of the terrible consequences of sin, and, in so doing, will be a changed person.”
INSTAURARE, April 2004
St. Faustina Brings Message of Mercy to Students
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Catholic performing artist Nancy Scimone presented her one-woman drama on the life of Saint Faustina on February 27 in the St. Lawrence Commons. Using excerpts from the Saint’s diary as her script, Scimone sought to “present Saint Faustina as a ‘living’ model of solace in our present times, when there are so many distractions that can pull us from God. Her dayto-day experiences can inspire us – how she embraces God in her daily work, and how she maintains great faith and trust in God and the Church in spite of great difficulties.” The program also gave background to the Divine Mercy devotion, and Divine Mercy Sunday, which is celebrated by the Church the Sunday after Easter. Saint Faustina Kowalska died in 1938 at the age of 33, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in April 2000. Although she lived much of her life in obscurity, she obeyed directives of her superiors and recorded a diary of both the extraordinary graces she received, as well as her daily life in the convent. Her diary Divine Mercy in My Soul has been published and translated from the original Polish into several languages.
significant facets of the Saint’s life, including trust in God’s mercy, love for Mary, love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, enduring emotional and physical trials, and the need for quiet prayer to hear God’s voice in our lives. After each dramatic segment, Scimone sang a song relating to the scene, with music drawn from both traditional and original sacred music. Fully costumed, Scimone presented her drama without scenery or props, intending that the simplicity of presentation maintain the focus on the spoken delivery of the script. Scimone has performed Saint Faustina – Messenger of Mercy for churches, schools and conferences in both the United States and Canada, as well as at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, DC, and the Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA. Her recordings of Catholic music are heard on radio. As a classically trained singer, she has performed as a soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, and in concert in New York City.
Scimone’s program, titled Saint Faustina - Messenger of Mercy, was presented in a series of seven scenes reflecting
Catholic singer and actress Nancy Scimone delivered a powerful performance titled Saint Faustina - Messenger of Mercy at Christendom on February 27.
ANDERSON... ‘Christendom,’ has been at times a stumbling block for some, due in large part to a misunderstanding of its meaning. But for Anderson, ‘Christendom’ has always stood for an effort at finding a right order in society, that is, the proper balance between faith and reason, and of attempting to integrate it as fully as possible in the life of the believer and in society, including its politics and culture. “The question of a right ordering of faith and reason and its integration in human action is precisely the question of our own time – and so, the term, ‘Christendom’ is a good term to focus our attention on where it should be focused,” he stated. Recent developments in Massachusetts suggest that, as with abortion, the country’s law of marriage is moving in a direction hostile to a Christian understanding of human dignity. But this manner of thinking has been developing through the Supreme Court’s rulings for the past forty years. In case after case the legal structures supporting the institution of marriage have been removed one after the other. “Then why is it that we should believe an amendment to the Constitution or other legislation that provides legal recognition of non-marital relationships can possibly provide a long-term solution?” he asked. “We are in the present situation precisely because lawmakers have ignored the natural purpose of marriage, which is premised on its unique ability to provide for the growth,
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Continued from Page 1 maturation, and socialization of children. That is the reason society has traditionally protected marriage between a man and a woman as a unique institution. There is simply no evidence that any other arrangement can accomplish these results over the long-term and for large numbers of children as well as does marriage.” The formation of the next generation with an adequate understanding of natural law and human anthropology is one of the most pressing issues confronting society, he said, as evidenced by the amount of time that Pope John Paul II has devoted to these issues. “And Christendom College and its graduate school are remarkable by the way in which they have responded to this challenge. We must try not to repeat the mistakes of the past which have produced so many Catholic public officials unable or unwilling to appreciate the implications of natural law on the responsibilities of public office.” He continued by lamenting the fact that, for more than thirty years, Catholics in public office have been illogically saying that while they are personally opposed to abortion they will not impose their view on others. And now these same politicians and others are beginning to use the same language regarding same-sex “marriage.” They say that they do not oppose the teaching of their Church on the matter of abortion, only that is should not have general application, or at least an application supported by law.
NDGS supporter Karen Cence talks with longtime friend Carl Anderson at the NDGS dinner.
“What is difficult to understand is that while these ‘thoughtful politicians’ have for the most part been outspoken on the need to retain the right to abortion, they have been silent about the basis for their personal opposition to abortion. There may be some who oppose abortion simply because the Pope says it is wrong. But I think that on a matter of this importance a public official would want to test the reasoning, the factual and scientific basis underlying this teaching of the Church. On a matter of this importance a Catholic in public office should want to conclude that Church teaching is right because it corresponds with the reality of the situation. Such a person would conclude that abortion is not a morally justified choice on the merits of reasoned analysis and not only because of Church teaching. Such a person would want
to conclude that what the Church teaches is the correct moral position,” he said. He then expressed his difficulty in understanding why Catholic politicians who refuse to use the force of law to protect the innocent also refuse to use the force of their own moral voice to reduce the need for the use of the law. He wondered why politicians who assert they are ‘personally opposed’ to abortion never find the time or the opportunity to tell us why it is that they consider abortion to be a bad choice. Although regarded as moral leaders, they remain silent as to the morality of abortion. “Who knows how many abortions could have been avoided and how many lives saved, if politicians who refuse to vote against abortion would simply speak out against it. Could they not even do that? How can they explain this seeming indifference to more than a million abortions each year?” he asked. He explained that this complicity with abortion is becoming increasingly untenable within the Catholic community as the recent action of the new Archbishop of St. Louis has made evident. It is increasingly untenable, he said, not only because it runs counter to legal tradition and to contemporary science, but also because it is contrary to the renewal of the Church begun by the Second Vatican Council. “Renewal is about a right ordering between faith and reason that leads to an integrated and exemplary Christian witness,” he said. “Most often renewal occurs where the world does not look – for example, on a train passing through the countryside of India, in a starvation cell at Auschwitz, and in a nun’s simple room in Vilnius – and I would also suggest that it has occurred in the basement of a church in New Haven and in classrooms at Christendom College in Front Royal and Alexandria. That is why the work of Christendom College and its graduate school is so important and why it must continue. We each have the opportunity to write our one page in the glorious history of our Church – a history whose final chapter has already been written and which no power on earth can change. And in that reality is a very great comfort and a very great joy.”
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INSTAURARE, April 2004
Senior Kevin Fox Named All-American Basketball Player by USCAA On March 3, the Crusader basketball team traveled to Auburn, ME, to compete in the Men’s Division II United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) national basketball tournament. Of the USCAA’s 25 member schools, Christendom was among the eight teams whose seasons records earned them a place in the tournament.
Freshman Danielle Lussier shoots a free throw to tie the game.
Prior to the start of the tournament, AllAmerican awards were given to ten players from the twenty-five member schools. At the conclusion of the tournament five players from the eight competing teams were selected to the “All-Tournament Team.” Christendom Senior Kevin Fox received both All-American and All-Tournament recognition. Fox averaged 26 points and 9 rebounds per game for the season. In addition, Fox set a school record by accumulating 1849 points during his four years at Christendom.
Senior Kevin Fox receives a team ball from Coach Tom VanderWoude. Fox holds the Crusaders record for most points scored over four years: 1849.
Christendom Marches for Culture of Life Since its founding in 1977, Christendom has been committed to the Catholic Faith and all the Church teaches, including that human life is sacred from the moment of
Freshman Beth Thrun, 5’11”, shoots over her 5’4” defender.
Life in Washington, DC. The College routinely cancels classes on the day of the March, and the Student Activities Council charters as many buses as needed to transport all 375 students, and numerous members of the faculty and staff to the March. In 1984 and 1997, Nellie Gray, President of March for Life, honored the College by asking Christendom students to carry the main March for Life banner and lead the March down Constitution Avenue. In the unfortunate event that abortion is still legal in 2008, Nellie Gray has already booked Christendom College to lead the March that year.
Christendom’s motto, “To restore all things in Christ,” is more than just a motto for the students, as their participation in the March for Life and many other endeavors shows. Christendom’s entire student body once again joined the thousands of Through the vigorous moral and academic other pro-lifers at the annual March for Life on January 22. education that they receive at Christendom, conception to the moment of natural death. In short, the students are well prepared to enter society as “SolChristendom is dedicated to restoring what Pope John diers for Christ,” dedicated to the restoration of all of Paul has called the “Culture of Life.” Christendom. Senior Kevin Fox takes it strong to the hoop against his talented opponents.
On January 22, the Christendom community joined the more than 200,000 pro-lifers at the 31st March for
After Twenty Years, Russell Henry Hangs Up His Toolbelt In July of 1985, Mr. Russell Henry began work at Christendom. On February 27, 2004, nearly 20 years later, he retired from his position as Maintenance Manager at the College. During lunch on February 26, the College community showed their love and respect for this hard-working man by giving him a standing ovation and presenting him with a homemade cake. The faculty and staff later held a dinner in his honor at a local restaurant in Front Royal. At the dinner, a number of the staff who have worked with Henry for the past two decades made remarks about the character and dedication of this good Christian man. Henry responded by recounting a number of amusing stories about his experiences working for Christendom over the past twenty years,; many were tales of managing workstudy students in the Maintenance Department.
Sophomore John O’Herron shows his style and grace as he floats a 10 ft. jumper toward the rim in the Christendom Crusaders close at-home loss to Northern Virginia Community College on February 23.
His dedication, wit, and humor will be sorely missed by all on campus.
Dean of Students Michael Brown presents Maintenance Manager Russell Henry with a homemade cake as a sign of the College’s appreciation for nearly twenty years of service.