Bridge
Volume 1, Spring 2008 Jesuit SchoolofofTheology Theology at at Berkeley Jesuit School Berkeley
Bridging Theology and the Cultures of the
Bridging Theology and the Cultures of the World
Volume 3, Fall 2008
World
Lay Sending Forth School of Americas Watch
Volume 3, Fall 2008
Contents FEATURES Inter-Religious Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Welcome New Trustees . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Contact with Chinese Culture . . . . . . . 6 Remembering Rwanda . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Hopkins’ Poetry & Prayer . . . . . . . . . . 8 Lay Sending Forth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 New Faces on Campus . . . . . . . . . . . 13
DEPARTMENTS Editor’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Profiles in Ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Faculty News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Alumni Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Bridge is the semi-annual magazine of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. The Jesuit School is a theological school faithful to the intellectual tradition and the apostolic priority of the Society of Jesus: reverent and critical service of the faith that does justice. The Jesuit School achieves its mission through the academic, pastoral and personal formation of Jesuits and other candidates for ministry, ordained and lay, in the Roman Catholic Church. The Development Department produces the Bridge. Editor: Catherine M. Kelly Contributing Writer: Casey Hanley Photography: Students & Staff DESIGN AND LAYOUT: Molly McCoy Board of Trustees Kevin F. Burke, S.J., Acting President John E. Kerrigan, Jr., Chair William J. Barkett Thomas E. Bertelsen, Jr. Betsy Bliss Louis M. Castruccio Marx Cazenave Bishop John S. Cummins Rev. Virgilio P. Elizondo Sr. Maureen Fay, O.P. Thomas H. Feely, S.J.
John D. Feerick Loretta Holstein Mark A. Lewis, S.J. Paul Locatelli, S.J. John P. McGarry, S.J. Walter Modrys, S.J. David Nygren Stanley Raggio D. Paul Regan John D. Schubert Tony Sholander, S.J. Thomas Smolich, S.J.
Jesuit School of Theology 1735 LeRoy Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709 Tel: 510-549-5000, www.jstb.edu
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Note
Editor’s
Bridge
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley Bridging Theology and the Cultures of the World
I am delighted to report on the very favorable response we have received to the new magazine format of the Bridge. I am grateful for all the students, faculty, staff and alumni who have suggested and contributed articles to the magazine for this edition and the next, and for the great number of alumni who have sent in their alumni updates. Thank you! The Bridge magazine is definitely off to a great start! In this edition, we feature then-Dean of Students, Jill Marshall’s reflection from the Lay Sending Forth ceremony in May, Francis McAloon, S.J.’s article on the poetry and prayer of Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., Michael Smith’s (M.Div. 2009) Profile in Ministry in West Oakland, Martin Schreiber, S.J.’s (M.Div. 2009) article on Jesuit Contact with Chinese Culture, Emmanuel Foro, S.J. (S.T.D. Student) et al.’s report on the Rwanda Genocide Conference, and Frances Hioki’s (Ph.D. candidate) article on Inter-religious Dialogue. We also welcome our new Acting President, Rev. Kevin F. Burke, S.J., and several new faculty, staff and two new board members. Looking ahead to the next edition, I invite you to submit article ideas, alumni updates and photos to our new editor, Rev. Rob McChesney, S.J., Coordinator of Cross-Cultural Initiatives at the Jesuit School of Theology. Rob has graciously agreed to assume the role of editor since I am moving to Portland, Oregon with my husband who is transferring there. Rob is eager to continue sharing the news and reflections on how the Jesuit School of Theology is preparing leaders for tomorrow’s church. Please send your submissions, including requests to receive the magazine via email, to Rev. Rob McChesney, S.J., Jesuit School of Theology, 1735 LeRoy Ave, Berkeley, CA 94709 or rmcchesney@ jstb.edu. Thank you! Catherine M. Kelly Editor
Cover: Holy water for sprinkling rite at Lay Sending Forth ceremony. Photograph by Brian McClister
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Earlier this year, I found myself journaling one morning, moving from prayer
into poetry as I mused about the meaning of anniversaries and the mystery of time, how one year can last forever while 10 years slip by. ‘Is it ten years already?’ Already the question augers middle age when anniversaries awaken ordinary time. Here at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, the memories of some reach back three or more decades, touching ‘the early years’ of the move from Alma College to Berkeley in 1969. The collective memory of the California Province of the Society of Jesus goes back even further, to the founding of our school in 1934 and the founding of the province in 1909. On the other extreme, our community includes members of all ages recently arrived from various places around the world; they measure their stay in weeks or months or years. But gathered at our Mass of the Holy Spirit, diverse in our many cultures and ages, we prayed as one in a tradition ‘ever ancient, ever new.’ How the years pass! Is it 10 years already since Joe Daoust, S.J. first came to the Jesuit School of Theology to serve as president? It seems hard to believe. And what a decade it was. Marked by strategic plans and creative grant initiatives, a successful capital campaign and the beautiful renovation of our academic center — these 10 years were spent in service of this tradition ‘ever ancient, ever new.’ I myself am neither ‘ancient’ nor ‘brand new’! But as I begin my third year in Berkeley I take up a new set of duties as the Acting President of the Jesuit School. It ‘seems like yesterday’ that I came here from Weston Jesuit to serve as the Academic Dean. But then, 17 years as a student and professor at Weston seem to have passed in a flash. Could it be that I was beginning my own M.Div. degree 25 years ago this fall? I find myself filled with gratitude at the beginning of this year. I am grateful for the call to be a part of the marvelous mission of theological, ministerial, and cross-cultural education that characterizes the Jesuit School of Theology. I am grateful for Joe Daoust and everyone who worked with him to make this past decade in the school’s life so successful. I am grateful for our thousands of alumni serving the Reign of God in such diverse ministries all over the world. I am grateful for the great colleagues and students who embody the mission of the Jesuit School of Theology in this year when we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our founding at Alma and our 40th year in Berkeley. Likewise, I am grateful for the opportunity to help celebrate the centennial of the California Province of the Society of Jesus. Finally, I am humbled and full of hope. The mission of this school links us — former and current students and colleagues, benefactors, parents and family members, stakeholders of many stripes, friends — as “friends in the Lord.” It is a privilege to share your love for the faith that gives this school its reason for being. It is a joy to share your hope in the future of this mission. It is an honor to greet you, as Acting President of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, in the name of your school. May this new academic year, this new stage in our school’s history, be awash in grace! Rev. Kevin F. Burke, S.J. Acting President
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Profiles
in Ministry Ministry in West Oakland at St. Martin de Porres Middle School: Students as Living Stones Michael Smith (M.Div. 2009)
“For the students and staff and families of St. Martin de Porres School, may we grow in our love of learning, grow more unified as a community, and support one another as living stones in God’s house. We pray to the Lord…” So began the Prayers of the Faithful at our retreat prayer service for the sixth and seventh graders. Sr. Barbara Dawson, president of the West Oakland Catholic middle school where I was doing my ministry internship for the Master of Divinity, had asked me to plan an off-campus retreat that might build solidarity among the students, most of whom are Latino and AfricanAmericans from low-income East Bay households. As the 6th grade lector read with her eyes glued to the text, her voice monotone and flat, I wondered if this retreat or any of my other efforts as the weekly service-learning teacher had helped the students learn and grow at all. While I held these questions and doubts in my mind and my guitar in my hands, I quietly invited the students to share any petitions they might have. Silence followed. A little bit of dread rose within me. Finally, one of the seventh grade boys — a particularly mischievous one — raised his hand from the back row. I called on him. He mumbled something. I asked him to stand up and repeat it so we could all hear. “For the eighth graders, and for our sixth and seventh grade classmates who couldn’t make it today,” he said. I nodded, my doubts receding. So began about eight minutes of heartfelt petitions from the students. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:3–5) This scripture passage, suggested to me by one of my Jesuit School of Theology colleagues, served us well in our goal to inspire student unity during the retreat. However, the passage has come to reveal to me deeper wisdom concerning the ministry of teaching children. “Come to him, a living stone….” The students I teach are like those Jesus invites to his side in Matthew 19:14. Jesus calls them to himself — “let the children come” — and announces that they are harbingers of the kingdom of heaven. I am often like the disciples who rebuke those who bring the children to Jesus, as if they mar the scene. I cry “woe is me” when I talk about the challenges
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Michael Smith with student and mother planting a garden in West Oakland.
they bring to my sanity and energy in the classroom. I grow frustrated by their fickle behavior, their “tweener” awkwardness, their impoliteness, or their requests for the repeating of instructions three and four times. I, like cynical consumer product pushers, crotchety “adult Mass” parishioners, abusive or neglectful parents/guardians, and even fellow educators, often objectify children. Our culture alternately reduces them to innocent saints, hopeless animals, economic burdens, sources of entertainment, or potential consumers. Or…it ignores them outright. “Rejected by mortals, yet chosen and precious in God’s sight….” Though they are rejected, or perhaps because they are, God claims them as God’s own. Their vulnerability, their imperfections, their incompleteness, and, yes, their sin, are lifted up into God’s embrace. “And like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” The students at St. Martin de Porres are not moral innocents, determined by their disadvantaged environment. Instead, they are moral, spiritual agents who are discovering and growing into their vocation from God. On a February field trip where students and I toured the Port of Oakland and learned about its environmental and economic impact on the West Oakland community, one sixth-grader was inspired by the stories of a truck driver and decided to march with Oakland advocates calling for a living wage for port truckers. Like the seventh-grader who led us on our retreat into spontaneous prayers of unity, this budding sixth-grade activist and his classmates are just as likely to reveal to us the heart of God, and the ways of teaching, as we adults are to them.
Engaging Particularities — Jesuit School of Theology Participates in Interreligious Dialogue and Theology of Religions Conference Dr. Thomas Cattoi, Assistant Professor of Christology
and Cultures, Sheila Taylor and Frances Hioki (both Ph.D. candidates at the Graduate Theological Union and affiliated with the Jesuit School of Theology) participated in the sixth annual conference, “Engaging Particularities: New Directions in Comparative Theology, Interreligious Dialogue, Theology of Religions and Missiology” in late March at Boston College. The National Jesuit Advisory Board on Interreligious Dialogue and Relations sponsored the conference, which offers a valuable opportunity for graduate students to present their “works in progress” in this new, cutting-edge field of theology. The Advisory Board is one of the initiatives of the U.S. Jesuits following the decree, Our Mission and Interreligious Dialogue, from the 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus. For more information about the Advisory Board, please visit http://groups.creighton.edu/sjdialogue/background. Dr. Cattoi gave the keynote speech, “A World of Narratives? Theology of Religions and the Flight from Ontology,” at the opening reception, which prompted lively discussions on language and the nature of doctrine throughout the conference. Sheila Taylor and Frances Hioki (their respective academic advisors are Jesuit School of Theology professors, George Griener, S.J. and
A. Bagus Laksana, S.J.
Frances Hioki (Graduate Theological Union Ph.D. candidate)
Francis Hioki presenting her paper at the conference.
Dr. Alejandro García-Rivera) also presented papers. Sheila’s paper, “Revelation and Salvation in Theology of Religions,” placed the theologies of religions of Karl Rahner and Paul Knitter in conversation with Mormon theology. Frances presented her paper on interfaith aesthetics, “Tea Ceremony as Dialogical Space: Jesuits and the Way of Tea in Early Modern Japan.” Anh Q. Tran, SJ (S.T.L. 2005), who is now a Ph.D. student at Georgetown University, presented his research on the Confucian view of “on being human” at the panel “Rahner and Other Religions.” Other presenters came from Boston College, Notre Dame, Boston University, Fordham, Georgetown, Loyola Marymount, and Princeton Theological Seminary.
Welcome to the Board of Trustees The Jesuit School of Theology at
Mark A. Lewis, S.J.
David J. Nygren
Berkeley would like to welcome Most Rev. Mark A. Lewis, S.J. and David J. Nygren, Ph.D. to the Board of Trustees. Mark is the Provincial Superior of the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus. His previous experiences include chairing the Social Science Division and serving as the Assistant to the President, Mission and Identity Officer, at Spring Hill College. He also was a Delegate to the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus in Rome. Mark’s academic focus is Church history and he has taught at Spring Hill College, John Carroll University, Pon tifical Gregorian University and Pontificio Istituto Regina Mundi in Rome, and Regis College in Toronto.
David established Nygren Consulting LLC in 2007 where he specializes in Board effectiveness, organizational strategy, and executive leadership. His firm is currently consulting for the Graduate Theological Union’s Alternative Futures Task Force. His previous experiences include serving as a founding leader at Mercer Delta Consulting, LLC and as Executive Vice President at DePaul University, Chicago. Each new trustee will serve for a threeyear renewable term, from 2008–2011. Thank you, Mark and David, for joining the Board and offering your knowledge, resources and experience to our school.
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Contact with Chinese Culture [F]illed with great and numerous public and private edifices, with many temples, pagodas, and innumerable bridges, and ... famous for the fertility of its countryside, for its favorable climate, for nobility of talent, civility of manners, elegance in language, and finally for the multitude of inhabitants. This description of Beijing, which Matteo Ricci, S.J. wrote over 300 years ago, could easily have been in the 2008 edition of the Lonely Planet guidebook minus the favorable climate reference. This summer 25 Jesuits from 15 countries gathered for a month of Contact with the Chinese Culture, among them two students from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Tom Neitzke, S.J. and Martin Schreiber, S.J. The title of “contact” stemmed from a speech by Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. at Santa Clara University where he described solidarity as learned through contact, not concepts. This opportunity invited rich encounters with the religious situation in China and brought attention to the historical and political dance the Jesuits have been involved in for the last 300 years. The hosts for the program were the Chinese Province and the Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, which Ron Anton, S.J. directs. Finding God in China starts with the language. The language functions in characters, which encourages the learner to focus on objects. The character of friendship and family entered into most lectures, conversations or guided tours in Beijing. It seems, however, that the character of religion awaits a proper object. The mustard seed which Ricci often used to describe China might be appropriate. The 2008 Olympic Games are creating a climate of massive construction, ferocious cleaning and a small opening for theological discussion. Currently, China lacks a Chinese theology. A dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity does not enter into the overall training of Chinese priests and sisters. Pope Benedict’s letter to the Church in China1 awaits an outcome. Most recognized the letter as an opportunity for dialogue with the sober realization of the great leaps called for in order to bring about the unity the letter advocated. In the second part of the contact program, students from the Jesuit School of Theology lived and worked next to
Martin Schreiber, S.J. (M.Div. 2009)
25 lepers in the region of Quiebi, a southern province in China. These beautiful men and women are the forgotten of society — the masters of the margins. To live with them became an experience of encountering the humble Christ. One man, Mr. Tao, spoke up as a sister of the Holy Family was cleaning out his wound of 20 years. He asked us, “Why would you come to visit us? Our children, husbands, and wives have abandoned us.” We sat silent until someone said, “The love of God brings us together.” The contact program ended on the island of Sancian, near the southern coast of China, where St. Francis Xavier died awaiting transport to China. Unfortunately, Xavier never set foot in China. Yet, as all 25 Jesuits from around the world silently prayed in a chapel 30 minutes by boat from China, one could not help thinking that his dream became a reality, growing with the speed of a mustard seed.
Top photo: Dragon within the gates of the Forbidden City. Middle photo: Tom Neitzke, S.J. and Martin Schreiber, S.J. with leprosarium community in Quiebi, China. Bottom photo: Martin Schreiber, S.J. with a leper from the village whom he befriended. All photographs by Tom Neitzke, S.J.
1 Benedict XVI, Letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops, Priests, Consecrated Persons and Lay Faithful of the Catholic Church in the People’s Republic of China (May 27, 2007). www.vatican.va/ holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070527_china_en.html accessed September 3, 2008.
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a Genocide Conference in Kigali, Rwanda July 2008 Rev. Emmanuel Foro, S.J. (S.T.D. student), Rev. Jean-Pierre Karegeye, S.J. (S.T.L. 2002) and Rev. Bill O’Neill, S.J., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Social Ethics In July, we participated in an international academic
conference, which the Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies Center (IGSC) organized with the sponsorship of the Rwandan government. Jean-Pierre Karegeye, S.J., Director of the Center, chaired the steering committee. In addition, Jean Baptiste Ganza, S.J., Jean Clement Nikubwayo, S.J, and Fidelis Udahemuka, S.J., Jesuit School of Theology S.T.L. students, attended the conference. The theme was “Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda and Reconstruction of Knowledge.” The conference, geared towards casting new principles of knowing while keeping alive the memory of the Rwandan tragedy of 1994 in which about 800,000 people were killed and millions exiled, was a forum for shared concerns over negationism, a global movement aimed at creating confusion around the events. According to Article 2 of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, genocide consists of “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, ethnical, or religious group, as such.” For Rwanda, this legal definition applies to the Tutsi ethnic group targeted in 1994, although both Hutu and Tutsi shared the destructive consequences. The conference began with a documentary film, Rwanda 94, combining music, drama, history, anthropology, and cultural studies to present substantially the birth and development of hostility between the peoples in Rwanda, as well as the planning and execution of the genocide. The film contained several testimonies of witnesses, survivors, and a few perpetrators. This retrospective look at the events left many of us even more perplexed due to its power to shake once more our ordinarily secure sense of humanity. Then, artists, writers, politicians, government officials, scholars and students of various fields took turns high lighting valuable perspectives on, and dimensions of, the Rwandan reality, susceptible to providing ground for improvement for the future. These perspectives stirred fruitful discussions among the participants. For the panel on Social Ethics, Bill O’Neill, S.J. presented a paper, “Hoping against Hope: the Ethics of Social Reconciliation”, and Emmanuel Foro, S.J. presented, “Meaning from Law and Interpretation: Building Theology on Insights out of the Rwanda Tragedy”. Regarding the reconstruction of knowledge, all scientific findings concur on the tremendous
Victor Adangba, S.J.
Remembering Morally: Left to Right: Emmanuel Foro, S.J., Bill O’Neill, S.J., and Jean-Pierre Karegeye, S.J.
efficiency of the evil intent of the leadership and of the participatory operations of the genocide of 1994. They also recognize the capacity of humanity, in the Rwandans in particular (resilient and creative), to rectify wrongs and achieve good. As a witness to witness, Bill O’Neill, S.J. spoke about the rights of victims to own and tell their story, and of the moral duty of society to responsive hearing of the stories of victims of genocide. The appropriate type of hope is active, spirit-filled, reparatory hoping. Emmanuel Foro, S.J. addressed human intentionality as an important source of activity and a place for sanitizing and eleva ting grace before the future, which preferably we can prepare in the framework of communion among other conceptual options. The task consisted of a skillful and rigorous inclusion of the genocidal violence in the field of ethics and God-talk, which is at heart a hope and future-oriented discourse. The questions addressed included: if theology can no longer be done on the African continent (or elsewhere) without awareness of the genocide, what just place and importance should we assign it in our epistemology? What is the best way to approach the deconstructive reconstruction? Government officials showed much openness to suggestions and change. We learned that all the commonly accepted assumptions of identity (Hutu vs. Tutsi), and motives of conflictual rivalry (land, culture, economy and control of State) could be shaken by more profound and original research in cultural and colonial history as well as in international politics. But, can Tutsi, Hutu and Twa, the three Rwandan social groups, think of reconciliation if their once “murdered” identity is viewed today as a pure colonial construct? How do we evaluate the creatively thought-out Gacaca (community-based) tribunals that raise many questions of credibility and fairness in the work of reconciliation built around truth telling, community service, and forgiveness? We anticipate a follow-up conference next year or a year later in Dakar, Senegal, that will be the third in the series on Rwanda. BRIDGE Fall 2008
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“Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us....” (G.M. Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland, II: 35)
On the eve of the Church’s celebration of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, my family and I gathered in prayer around my mother’s deathbed. At one point, a comment made earlier in the day distracted me: “Your life is never the same after your mother dies.” Now, six years later, I fully appreciate how different is my life…and my prayer! I invite you to join with me as I offer a reflection on prayer, poetry, lamentation, and consolation.
“Let him easter in us”:
Praying with Hopkins’ Poetry
Francis X. McAloon, S.J., Assistant Professor of Spirituality
A few months before she died, I celebrated a home Mass with my mother. The readings that day spoke of death and rebirth. Incredibly, the subject of anticipating her own death arose and with her usual forthrightness, she matter-of-factly affirmed, “I’m ready to go when God wants to take me.” I both marveled at her faith and lamented that my faith seemed so weak in comparison. When the time came for petitions, I quietly prayed for the grace to imitate her faith. Shortly thereafter, her health situation worsened and the family confronted the inescapable fact that we could no longer adequately care for her at home.
Sunrise Prayer
When my mother moved to the nursing facility, I relocated to the local parish rectory, to cover for the pastor during his vacation. The church was only a short distance from the Atlantic Ocean, so my daily pattern was to awake around 5:30, brew a pot of coffee, re-read the day’s scripture, and head to the beach in hopes of coming up with a brief homily for that morning’s Mass. Typically, when I arrived at the water’s edge, light already had crept over the horizon, as night’s darkness gave way to dramatic swaths of deep purple, then blue, followed by shades of crimson, yellow, and white. For an hour or longer, I would walk the beach, think about that morning’s brief homily, and pray for inspiration. Given all the stress surrounding my mother’s quickly deteriorating health, I soon discovered that I could no longer pray as once I had. The breviary collected dust on my bedside table. Ignatian contemplation never got off the ground. Even lectio divina, a tried and true recourse for scriptural meditation, seemed sterile and dry. As I walked the beach, I mostly complained to God. Not very creative,
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I admit, but in its own way, a satisfying prayer. There were no flashes of insight, no shivers from God’s transformative touch; only emptiness, sadness, fear, and mounting anger. I struggled to share my mother’s sure belief. One morning stands out in my memory. As I arrived at the water’s edge, the waves rippled and swirled around my bare feet, the sun climbed the morning sky, and the air blew hot and humid. Suddenly, a rage boiled up within me. I surprised myself by first cursing the sun and then shouting all sorts of reproaches against all that is holy. What sort of God is it, I screamed, who permits the suffering of the frail and innocent? No answer was forth coming, only the insistent rush of the waves. Then, as if by flipping a switch, my mood shifted. Words started coming to my mind and to my lips, words from a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem I long ago memorized. Curiously, the poem was not a sonnet of despair, such as “Carrion Comfort” or “No worst, there is none.” Instead, what passed my lips were words of consolation, incarnation, and praise — Hopkins’ celebrative poem, “Pied Beauty.” Glory be to God for dappled things — For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landscape plotted and pieced — fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.
At first, I quietly mumbled the words to myself. A second time, I recited the poem, this time in my normal voice. When I began a third recitation, I shouted over the din of wind and waves. With no one else in sight, I fulsomely praised God’s glory, in spite of myself. The situation confounded me — first cursing and then praising. Was it an invitation to stay with the paradox of paschal faith: in death, there is rebirth? Was it simply stress giving way to shouting? Probably both, but surely it was a grace.
simply could not focus. Before long, it dawned on me to pray the simple prayers my mother had taught me as a child, especially the rosary. Hour after hour, whether sitting or pacing, I simply prayed decade after decade of the rosary. Mother would have been pleased. She loved the rosary, but she had said her last rosary. It was my turn to imitate her example and pray rosaries for her. As I sat there fingering the beads, I noticed how each Hail Mary lasted the length of three breaths.
Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east….
Concluding Prayer
(G.M. Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland, II: 35) On successive mornings, I continued my oceanside practice of sunrise poetic shouting-prayer. Even though my mother’s condition continued to fluctuate and my moods daily shifted between hope and despair, my morning prayer consistently returned to Hopkins’ consoling poems. Each day’s prayer began with “Pied Beauty,” and then I would turn to other nature poems: “As kingfishers catch fire,” “God’s Grandeur,” The Windhover,” or “Hurrahing the Harvest.”
Deathbed Prayer
For two weeks, life followed this same pattern: seaside poetic shouting-prayer, Mass, visiting mother, spending time with family and friends, and ending the day with another wrenching goodnight to mother at her nursing facility. Remarkably, due to the excellent care she received there, mother’s condition started improving. The nursing staff predicted an eventual discharge in a matter of weeks. Based on this rosy report, I flew to California on Monday for a week of faculty meetings and student advising. On Wednesday of that week, though, mother returned to the hospital because her lungs again filled with fluid. Thursday morning, my sister called with news that our mother had been put on a breathing apparatus and recommended that I return home. I flew back that afternoon, arriving in Florida well past midnight, and drove directly to the hospital, where I found my mother alone and unconscious in the ICU. As I stood by her hospital bed, exhausted and tearyeyed, my thoughts took a surprising turn. Earlier that same summer, I spent a month with the Trappist monks at Lafayette, Oregon, where each morning began at 3:30 with chanted vigils. Standing alone at my mother’s deathbed, I realized another call to vigil, this time waiting for the Lord to come for his faithful servant. Scripture passages streamed through my mind, but I
Well after my mother’s death, I fully appreciated what a precious gift was this all-night rosary vigil. There is poetry in the prayers we pray; a sound, rhythm, and rhyme to even the simplest of phrases found in the “Our Father” and “Hail Mary.” All those years ago, when my mother taught me the words, patterns, and prayers of the rosary, she also introduced me to poetry and the transformative power of language. Through words, metaphors, images, and symbols, she introduced me to a world of saints and sinners, as well as the city of God. I now realize that my love for poetry and my love of God are entirely interwoven. Whether whispering the rosary at my mother’s deathbed or shouting Hopkins’ poetry in the rising heat of oceanside sunrise prayer, I recall Hopkins’ cry of celebration in “As kingfishers catch fire”: Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, Crying What I do is me; for that I came. With Hopkins, I, too, say more. God’s greater glory calls us beyond the fundamental good of simply speaking ourselves, and impels us to seek that greater good, which is to know, love, and serve Christ in all those 10,000 places and faces where God greets us and meets us… in tragedy and joy, work and play, death and rebirth. I still long for the faith of my mother, but while that grace continues to unfold in my life, I carry on with praying the rosary, and, yes, whenever I am near a deserted beach, I will shout my sunrise poetry prayer — as long as no one else is nearby! Oh, and I now know the truth of my friend’s prediction: Indeed, my life has not been the same since my mother’s death.
The heavens declare the glory of God the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork…. (Psalm 19: 1) BRIDGE Fall 2008
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New lay ecclesial ministers profess vow of service. Left to Right: Gina Jenkins (M.Div. 2008), Janelle Peregoy (M.Div. 2008), Jonathan Barber (M.A. 2008), Margaret Sequiera (M.A. 2008), and Meredith MacDonald (M.Div. 2008). Photograph by Brian McClister
For the second year in a row, the Jesuit School of Theology commencement celebrations included a sending forth ceremony for lay ecclesial ministers. The ceremony, held in the Gesù Chapel on the Friday morning preceding the Saturday graduation, offered the community a chance to acknowledge the extensive training and scholarship of the graduating lay students and to affirm their unique call to ministry. The wholly student-planned Liturgy of the Word included readings from Isaiah (61:1–3) and Luke (10:1–9), and a reflection by then-Dean of Students, Jill Marshall. The students selected those responsible for their formation as lay leaders — Jill Marshall; Coordinator of Formation Programs, Rev. George Murphy, S.J.; and Director of Field Education, Sr. Dottie Peterson, F.C.J. — to co-preside at the liturgy. After the reflection, the co-presiders proclaimed the unique gifts for ministry of each of the new lay ecclesial ministers, the graduates expressed a vow of service which they wrote and then they received a blessing. The ceremony concluded with the presentation of a pix as a symbol of the presence of Christ that the graduates will bring with them wherever they go. We are delighted to reproduce here Jill Marshall’s reflection which wonderfully describes the Good News of the Gospel and the Good News that so many talented and well-trained lay persons are called to serve as co-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.
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May 23, 2008
Jill Marshall (M.Div. 1985 and Director of Formation)
T
he Good News of this Gospel passage (Lk 10:1–9) is that Jesus calls people to join with him in the harvest, in his mission of bringing God’s Reign — to heal, to proclaim, to console. The Good News for us here today is that these people [graduating lay ministry students] are answering that call. The Good News in the Church is that the American bishops recognize, affirm and encourage this call and their response in their document, Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord. We are in a new moment in the Church. “See, says the Lord, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Yes, we have perceived it right here — in the classroom, over supper, at Mass — and it is moving out into the Church, the parish, the high school, the campus ministry, the reservation, the prison. In the next few weeks many of these lay ministers will travel to different parts of the country to witness and celebrate the ordination to the priesthood of their Jesuit classmates. Today, these Jesuits — and the women religious who are also their classmates — gather with us to celebrate the sending forth into ministry of their lay classmates. These things could not have happened 20 years ago, when these folks were children, nor even 10 years ago, when increasing numbers of lay students began enrolling in the Master of Divinity program, alongside the Jesuits. It is in these men and women — lay, Jesuit, single, married, engaged to be married, consecrated, young and not so young — and through their gifts that God is bringing about this new thing, this new Church. Jesus begins his public ministry with the passage from Isaiah (Is 61:1–3) we heard a moment ago. “This Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He has been sent by God for this mission: to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the
blind and freedom to the oppressed, and to comfort those who mourn. We gather today to send these women and men out into new ministries. But they have already begun their work of proclaiming, liberating, healing and consoling. They have been leading Bible studies and retreats, visiting prisoners, consoling victims of domestic abuse, accompanying oppressed workers, praying with sick children and their families, planning liturgies, leading prayer… even as they have been studying. They have taken up Jesus’ mission as their own. They have been called and they have dropped their nets to follow Jesus in his mission. Just before this passage in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus “sets his face toward Jerusalem.” He knows that his earthly ministry is coming to an end and his mission will need to be continued after he is gone. He sent out 12 of his closest disciples, and he sees how great the need is. He now sends 70 more: “the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.” But as we see today, the numbers are picking up! Throughout the Gospels we hear about the Twelve and about the masses, the thousands of people who follow Jesus. Then suddenly, he sends out 70 others. Who are they? Where have they been? What have they been doing? How were they chosen? Well, what we know is that they have been following Jesus, listening to him — really hearing him — watching what he does — really seeing him. And because of the way they have responded to him, he now sends them out. He gives them their instructions — pretty much the same instructions he had given the Twelve — and tells them that wherever they go, “the Kingdom of God has come near.” Jesus’ instructions to the 70 are tough “I send you as lambs into the midst of wolves… carry no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.” I hesitate to dwell on this part of the reading. Is this really the day BRIDGE Fall 2008
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Photos Left to Right: Jill Marshall preaches reflection. Neela Kale (M.Div. 2008) holds pix. Dottie Peterson, F.C.J. and George Murphy, S.J. bless the congregation. In Chul Hwang (Th.M. 2009) congratulates Theresa Vela (M.Div. 2008). All photographs by Brian McClister
I want to remind you of the challenges, the discipline, the coming disappointments and frustration? Surely not on this festive day! But you know what? I have already seen you meet challenges and frustration and move with them and beyond them with perseverance and grace. You have amazed me with your energy, your enthusiasm, your creativity, even your patience — a quality I envy, and especially in ones so young. I just want to remind you today of two things that I know have sustained you and will continue to sustain you as you remain faithful to them: community and prayer. I know you noticed that when Jesus sends out the 70 he sends them out in pairs. You know the importance of community, of collaboration, of supporting and challenging one another. Some of you will stay close to one another, support each other in ministry….even if it is by email and long-distance phone. And all of you, I hope, will take what you have learned about community and ministry and in your new situations, forge new partnerships, new sustaining friendships in ministry. When the disappointments come — and you know they will — console one another, support and challenge one another, as you have done here. Celebrate each other’s successes and accomplishments, as you have here. This kind of partnership and communion — especially across those lines that would divide us — can transform the Church and the world. You know that ministry — truly ecclesial ministry — is not something that one does alone. By definition, it involves ecclesia, the People of God. But you also have experienced that sometimes community is not enough. Remember when the disciples use all their skills trying to cast out a demon and are not able? They ask Jesus, “Why were we not able to cast it out?” He tells them that there are times when all else fails and nothing works but prayer.
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You have had those moments…when all your skill and knowledge and even the help of friends are not enough. You must turn to the One who has called you. The very fact that you have arrived at this place, this day — won by hard work, sacrifice, and let us not forget student loans — is a sign of your trust in Jesus and the healing, transforming power of his love. But we know what often happens to prayer when we get busy, when the pressure is on to complete assignments or meet deadlines. Believe me, we neglect it at our peril. And it turns out that faithfulness to prayer is its own reward. Graduates, friends, you remind us that the Kingdom of God has come near to us. You will educate and form a new generation of Catholics. You will accompany and console people broken by grief, by poverty, by violence. You will break open the word for those hungry for meaning in a world focused on possessing and consuming. In a church divided by mistrust and misunderstanding, you will be bridges of understanding and compassion. Your energy, your enthusiasm, your generosity, your wisdom, your ability to love the Church, warts and all, and to forgive, will reap a harvest of hope and love. You are taking up Jesus’ mission and you will walk with him…. in both his passion and his resurrection. Our American bishops rejoice in the emergence of lay ecclesial ministry, saying, “We are blessed indeed to have gifted and generous co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord to which we have all been called. “1 Today we rejoice that in these gifted and generous ministers, the Kingdom of God has come near to us. Let the Church say, “Amen.” 1 United States Council of Catholic Bishops. Co-workers in the Vineyard of the Lord. Washington D.C.: USCCB. Dec. 2005, 67.
Welcome New Faces and New Roles on Campus Casey Hanley (M.A. 2009)
In the last year, the Jesuit School of Theology has welcomed several new faculty and staff personnel on campus and created some new roles for faculty and staff. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new faces and new roles to our readers.
Keith A. Brehob, S.J.
Catherine M. Kelly
The Jesuit School of Theology welcomes Keith A. Brehob, S.J. as the Director of the New Directions Sabbatical Program. Keith comes to the Jesuit School from Seattle University where he was Assistant Professor of Clinical Pastoral Counseling for two years. He is a Jesuit from the California Province and has a diverse background which includes pastoral ministry, teaching, and providing psychotherapy. Keith received a Master’s degree in Social Work from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola College in Maryland. His new position at the Jesuit School entails managing the New Directions program’s budget, planning retreats, providing academic advising for students and accompanying them on their journey. He hopes to continue the good work of his predecessor, Bruce Lescher, Ph.D., who is now the Associate Academic Dean at the Jesuit School, and, “to help the program evolve to be most helpful to the New Directions students.” Keith remarks that he enjoys the variety in his job which allows him to teach and interact socially and spiritually with the sabbatical students. Being a part of the diverse environment of the Graduate Theological Union is an additional privilege. He looks forward to living in Northern California and exploring all of its beauty with the New Directions students.
Kate Brubeck
Casey Hanley
Kate Brubeck comes to the Jesuit School as the Writing Coordinator, providing coaching in writing to international students, individuals, and small groups. She covers all aspects of academic writing including grammar, diction, developing ideas, editing, proofreading, and the Turabian style of referencing sources. She assists the International Student Advisor, Paul Kircher, in those aspects of his job that concern providing international students with writing support. In addition to her position at the Jesuit School, she is also on faculty at Mills College. Her experience includes 20 years of private consultation as a writing and language coach, with both native and non-native speakers, on both creative and technical projects. She also worked at many local language schools, among them the English Center for International Women (a non-profit language school for immigrant and refugee women), and at the now-defunct English Language Program at UC Extension. Given her experience of growing up overseas, she especially enjoys the diverse environment of the Jesuit School and being around people from different backgrounds. Kate comments that she loves “having the opportunity to work individually with writers, and to learn from them about their research, their projects, their experiences, their ambitions.” She finds the quiet and contemplative setting of the school enjoyable as it provides a sanctuary of sanity, reflection, and community. Kate takes pleasure in singing and dancing to Cajun-Zydeco music. BRIDGE Fall 2008
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Catherine M. Kelly
Edna Casteel
Edna Casteel came to the Jesuit School in January 2008 from the California Pacific Medical Research Institute where she was the Director of Research and Finance for eight years. She earned her graduate degree in Business Accounting and Non-Profit Administration from the University of San Francisco. She spent most of career in a biomedical research environment, working closely with senior research scientists, physicians, and Ph.D. scholars from around the world. Edna joins the Jesuit School as the Chief Accountant. This position involves composing drafts of Standards of Business Practice and putting together New Audit Risk Assessment Standards for the school, designing various charts for all business functions, and preparing for the annual Interim Audit in June and the Final Fiscal Year Audit in August. She is also involved in developing a grant proposal for St. Patrick’s Parish in Oakland which would help secure funding for an after school program. Edna looks forward to working in the more challenging environment of business and administration. She remarks, “I am passionate about supporting education and social work at the Jesuit School and within the United States. I am particularly honored and proud to be associated with our dynamic professors.” Edna is very happy to be working in an environment which fosters a true sense of prayer and Eucharistic celebration within the entire Jesuit School community: students, faculty and staff.
David Gill, S.J.
David Gill, S.J. joins the Jesuit School’s faculty as an Adjunct Professor of Biblical Greek and Latin. David ventures to Berkeley from Boston College, where he taught of Classics for 39 years. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Boston College, a Ph.D. in Classics from Harvard, and his S.T.L. from the Jesuit School in Frankfurt, Germany. While teaching at Boston College, David occupied the position of pastor at St. Mary of Angels parish in Roxbury. He also is the associate pastor at St. Patrick’s parish in Oakland where Greg Chisholm, S.J. serves as pastor. These two open faculty and parish positions proved to be an opportune chance to make a change from the East Coast to the West Coast. No stranger to the Bay Area, David was a visiting professor in the fall of 2001 and found the Jesuit School and Berkeley to be lovely. He is teaching two courses this semester entitled, “Introduction to New Testament Greek”, and “Advanced Greek: Septuagint.” David thoroughly enjoys teaching and is excited to be instructing in a new setting.
Casey Hanley
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jesuit school of theology at berkeley
Casey Hanley
Jill Marshall
Jill Marshall returns to the Jesuit School this fall occupying the new position of the Director of Ministerial Formation. Jill first came to the Jesuit School in the 1980’s as a student, receiving her Master of Divinity in 1985. She returned in 1997 as the Director of Continuing Education. In 1999, Jill became the Dean of Students, and held this position until the spring of 2008. A formation group working to assess the Master of Divinity degree program found that a better integration of field education with academic, spiritual, pastoral and personal formation was needed. The group eventually configured the position of Director of Ministerial Formation, in which the director would be responsible for the Master of Divinity field education and spiritual formation for the lay students. Jill works to help evolve the formation process and “make it more responsive to the needs of the Church and students.” Her interest in the position began while working with Tony Sholander, S.J., Rector, and the first-year Master of Divinity students last year. Tony and she both recognized that further adult learning opportunities were possible for the program. She is eager to explore these possibilities and further improve the formation process. Jill is most excited about the diverse new class of Master of Divinity students and Jesuit-lay collaboration among students. It is truly an historic year at the Jesuit School as the first-year students represent the most diverse Master of Divinity class yet. Her work with Tony Sholander, S.J. in the program is an excellent model of lay-Jesuit collaboration.
RoseMary Moore
The Jesuit School of Theology is happy to welcome back RoseMary Moore in a new capacity as the Dean of Students. RoseMary received her Master of Divinity last spring from the Jesuit School. Before embarking upon theological studies, RoseMary worked for the Castro Valley Unified School District for 11 years first as a paraprofessional with English as a Second Language students and later as the Director of Prevention Programs. She directed after school programs, a mentor program, and drug and alcohol prevention. She received a grant to administer an after school program for at-risk students. She attended Mills College while working on a Bachelor’s degree. Although she originally anticipated working for a parish or community-based organization after receiving her Master of Divinity, she went through intense discernment and “feels strongly called by God” to her new position. RoseMary loves working with people and values the time spent listening to and working with students. She is excited to learn more about planning liturgy and watch students grow and become great ministers and liturgists. She treasures the opportunity to be a parent and grandparent, which directly contributes to her ability as a pastoral advocate and counselor. RoseMary prizes her role in helping prepare students to become effective and knowledgeable ministers and academics as they will in turn help build the Kingdom in their future work.
Casey Hanley
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FACULTY NEWS
Jerome P. Baggett, Ph.D. gave a
lecture at the Graduate Theological Union last spring entitled, “Living Tradition in a Post-Traditional Society — The Case of American Catholics” and another presentation at the annual Association for the Sociology of Religion conference in Boston entitled, “Religious Reflexivity and Its Limitations.” He just completed teaching two six-week summer courses called, “Sociology of Religion” and “Political Sociology,” at UC-Berkeley’s Sociology Department.
Thomas Cattoi, Ph.D. spent two
months in China teaching at Sun Yat Sen University in Guang Zhou and then took part in the Institute of Advanced Studies of Asian Cultures and Theologies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His book, Divine Contingency: Theologies of Divine Embodiment in Maximos the Confessor and Tsong kha pa (Gorgias Press), will be published at the end of this year. He will also publish two articles on different aspects
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Mary Ann Donovan, S.C. reports: “To my great joy, over the summer the knee replacement done in February has healed: 100% flexion and 100% extension. Thanks to everyone for prayers and support.”
Catherine M. Kelly
Kevin Burke, S.J. is now the Acting President of the Jesuit School of Theology. He gave presentations at three national conferences this past summer. At the Third International Conference on Theological Aesthetics hosted at the Jesuit School of Theology he presented, “A Voice for Beauty: Mysticism and Politics in the Poetry of Denise Levertov.” He spoke on “The Christology of Jon Sobrino: An Ignatian Mystagogy” at the annual convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America in Miami. Lastly, he co-presented a plenary address at the National Ignatian Spirituality Conference in St. Louis with his sister, Dr. Eileen Burke-Sullivan of Creighton University, entitled, “Veronica Still Walks the Road: The Passion in Everyday Life.”
of Christian-Buddhist dialogue in Religions East and West and BuddhistChristian Studies. He is currently organizing the first Jesuit School theological immersion in Nepal, which will take place in January 2009.
John Endres, S.J. John Endres, S.J., has authored several
articles for The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, including: “Apocalypse of Noah”, “Book of Jubilees”, “Praise”, “Hallelujah”, and “Ignatius of Loyola”. In addition, he contributed an essay for a Festschrift for Professor Betsy Halpern Amaru, “Prayer in Jubilees” in Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism, ed. Lynn LiDonnici and Andrea Lieber, pp. 31–47, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 119 (Leiden: Brill, 2007).
Jane Ferdon, O.P. and George Murphy, S.J. offered their four-
week Summer Spiritual Direction Practicum this past summer for the 18th year. Interns gave spiritual direction and “at-home retreats” to women at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California, as well as to local parishioners and people in the Bay Area. Interns came from Ireland, Belize, the Ivory Coast, and the U.S. Eduardo Fernandez, S.J. did a presentation of the relationship between faith and culture for the School of Applied Theology in Berkeley in April. He conducted another similar workshop in late May at the Lake Dallas Jesuit Retreat House as part of a larger gathering around Hispanic Ministry. He helped the Jesuit novices of the New Orleans Province to do theological reflection around their experiences in the field, and gave a talk in June on the history of Jesuit ministries among Latinos in the U.S. Southwest at a province gathering in New Orleans. He formed part of the team in charge of responding at the National Jesuit Gathering on Social Ministries conference held at Regis in Denver in June and attended the annual meeting of Jesuit Latin American theologians held in Mexico City in August. He also finished editing a Spanish translation of his first book, La Cosecha: Harvesting Contemporary U.S. Hispanic Theology (1972–1998) to be published by Buena Prensa in Mexico next year. Don Gelpi, S.J. attended the annual meeting of the Catholic Theological Society in Miami. He did his annual eight-day retreat in Kings Canyon National Park and vacationed in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. During the fall semester, he is teaching as a visiting professor at Loyola
University Chicago and pursuing research on his book on ecclesiology.
Clare Ronzani co-taught a
program entitled, “Poetry and Prayer” at Maryknoll Mission Institute in Maryknoll, NY in June 2008. She also co-facilitated a retreat on “Timeless Mystics: Hildegard of Bingen and Thomas Merton” at Holy Family Sisters in Fremont, California in August 2008.
Francis X. McAloon, S.J. celebrated the publication of a new book, The Language of Poetry as a Form of Prayer: The Theo-Poetic Aesthetics of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Mellen Press, 2008). Earlier in the spring, he lectured on the topic of Ignatian spirituality at the Institute for Leadership and Ministry, Diocese of San Jose. He continues to assist at St. Columba Church, Oakland and serves as spiritual director for students and others in the Bay Area. Mia M. Mochizuki, Ph.D. is honored to have received four different grants throughout 2007 and 2008. In November of 2007, she received the Newhall Fellowship Award in support of the publication, The Netherlandish Image after Iconoclasm, 1566–1672. In February 2008, she received the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Award for teaching a course in the fall of 2008 called, “Art of the Jesuit Missions (HSRA 5918),” with graduate student Christy Newton (IDS). In May of 2008, she received the Making Connections Initiative Grant from the Lilly Foundation in support of making correlations at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, while researching The Netherlandish Print Abroad: Art, Religion and Economics in the Early Modern World. She was privileged to co-lead an alumni, donors and friends study trip in Turkey from May 28–June 14, 2008 with Tom Buckley, S.J. and John Endres, S.J. entitled, “A Spiritual Journey to Turkey: in the Footsteps of St. Paul and the Early Christian Community.” Bill O’Neill, S.J. recently offered papers at three different conferences. He discussed genocide at a con ference in Kigali, Rwanda. At a conference in Manila, Philippines, his paper explored comparative moral theology. Immigration policy
Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M.
was the subject of his third paper at a conference in Washington, D.C. Recent publications include, “What We Owe To Refugees and IDP’s: The Rights of the Forcibly Displaced,” in Refugee Rights: Ethics, Advocacy, and Africa; and “Visions and Revisions: the Hermeneutical Implications of the Option for the Poor,” in Hope and Solidarity: Jon Sobrino’s Challenge to Christian Theology.
served as a consultor on the Executive Board of the Catholic Biblical Association. During a three-week speaking tour in South Africa, she participated in a “Theological Cafe” on the Gospel of John and hermeneutics at the School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg. She presented a lecture on “The Revelatory Text” to theology students at St. Joseph’s Theological Institute, Cedera, and gave an address entitled, “Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles?” at the Dominican Conference Centre, Pietermaritzburg. She also taught a short course on biblical spirituality as a visiting professor at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.
Jean-François Racine, Ph.D.
delivered a paper at the Colloque International du Réseau de Recherche en Analyse Narrative des Textes Bibliques; La Bible en Récits IV: La Mise en Intrigue, Université Laval, Québec on May 31, 2008 entitled, “L’épisode de la Veuve (Lc 21,1–4): Épisode Tragique sans Solution”. He also delivered the keynote address at the sixth annual meeting of the Association Catholique des Études Bibliques au Canada, Ile St-Bernard, Québec, on May 25, 2008 called, “Écrits Canoniques et Ecrits Apocryphes: un Couple Bien Assorti”.
BRIDGE Fall 2008
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ALUMNI UPDATES
Please send your news (e.g., new ministry, publication, promotion, celebration of marriage or significant anniversary of ordination, vows or entering religious life, birth of child, retirement, travels, etc.) for publication in the Bridge to Rev. Rob McChesney, S.J., Jesuit School of Theology, 1735 LeRoy Ave, Berkeley, CA 94709 or rmcchesney@jstb.edu. Thank you!
1970s
Ronald D. Witherup (I.S.W. 1978–79) has been elected the 26th superior general of the Sulpicians, formally known as the Society of the Priests of St. Sulpice, an international society of diocesan priests focused on the education and formation of priests and future priests. Father Witherup most recently served for more than a decade as provincial of the religious community’s Baltimore-based U.S. province. The Sulpicians also sponsor St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, CA. He served as president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) from 2003–2005.
1980s
Jim Bretzke, S.J. (S.T.M. 1982;
S.T.L. 1986) has been appointed Professor of Moral Theology in Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. Most recently he was Professor and former Chair of the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. James B. Nickoloff (S.T.L. 1984),
programs in San Mateo County that is designed to assist persons who have psychiatric disabilities become ready to live independently. Mark Bittman of The New York Times interviewed Anne on March 2, 2008 for an article on “Techno-Sabbath” (based on a corporate leadership course she facilitated). She was one of the presenters at an international conference in Santa Barbara on “The Mythology of Violence” in early April. She is writing her clinical psychology Ph.D. dissertation on a cross-cultural study of women and betrayal, and continues to lead workshops on transformational leadership with pastors and faith communities, as well as mental health teams. Bernard C. Phelan, M.H.M. (I.S.W. 1986) I am now working in the far north of Uganda where currently I am the Diocesan Administrator of Kotido Diocese, until a new bishop is appointed. The people I work with are among the most marginalized in Uganda and are called generically the Karimojong. They are still living as people in Europe and the U.S. would have lived maybe 200 years ago.
professor emeritus of religious studies at Holy Cross College, earned the first place Catholic Press Association Book Award in the Reference Category for An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies (Liturgical Press, 2007). Orlando Espín, pro fessor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego and a popular professor at the Jesuit School of Theology’s summer Hispanic Institute, co-edited the book. John Buckingham
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1990s
Rev. Henk Kaal, C.I.C.M. (I.S.W. 1993) Our C.I.C.M. (Missionhurst c.i.c.m.) Community in Holland has moved from Vught to Teteringen. It is not a big move but it is a signi ficant one: we sold our property, the house of “Sparrendaal”, and we rent up to 28 apartments and rooms in a home for elderly people. We are living now in a beautiful environment and among roughly 100 lay people and 100 religious: a good and interesting mixture! There is good care available for everyone. And we still celebrate life in our com munity celebrations in and outside the church of this home called Zuiderhout. Greetings to you! Edgar Borchardt (Th.M. 1996) I became the Pastor of St. Joseph Church in Colbert, WA on July 1, 2008.
Anne Dilenschneider, D.Min.
(M.Div. student 1984–1985) has been promoted to Director of Caminar-Eucalyptus House in Daly City — one of only two residential
Michael Mansfield (M.Div. 1988) teaches courses in Social Justice Theater in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC-Berkeley. He has served as an administrator in the department for the last six years. He continues to work as the director of Arts Education Ministries at Arlington Community Church, teaching world religions through the arts. He also works as guest artist in residence at many schools and universities throughout the Bay Area.
James B. Nickoloff
Lynn Bridgers, Ph.D. (M.A. 1998) has just completed her fourth book, under the working title of The Transformative Journey: Adversity and the Road to Spiritual Leadership. She is also a lead investigator for the U.S. Phase of the Global Study of Religious Experiencing.
Randy Sweringen (M.A. 1999) is a development director in the College of Engineering at UC-Berkeley raising funds for projects including CITRIS — Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. Randy continues his work as a spiritual director in the Bay Area.
2000s
Claire Noonan (M.Div. 2000) I
am pleased to announce that I have accepted a new position as the fulltime Director of the Siena Center at Dominican University in River Forest, IL.
Peter Griffiths, S.J. (N.D. 2004) Here in Glasgow, I am the superior of the community and working also at the parish. We have a Jesuit College also on campus here in Hill Street plus the Ignatian Spirituality Centre on the ground floor of our residence, so you see we are quite busy. When the weather gets cool, wet and windy, as it does often here, I think back nostalgically to the Californian sunshine!! You are not forgotten.
Deshi Ramadhani, S.J. (S.T.D. 2004) Greetings from Jakarta. My first two books have become best sellers. I wrote the first Molleen Dupree (M.Div. 2003) book, Menguak Injil-Injil Rahasia married Marc Dominguez on Friday, (Unveiling the Secret Gospels), during June 20, 2008. Matthew Carnes, S.J. and after the heated controversies of (M.Div. 2003) presided at the liturgy, those other Gospels, ranging from which was held at St. Mary-St. the novel style of The Da Vinci Code, Francis de Sales parish in downtown to the Gospel of Judas, and to the Oakland, CA. The happy couple Talpiot Tomb (thought by some to be the family tomb of Jesus). I was now resides in San Leandro, while entrapped. I did my studies on the working in two Catholic high Old Testament, and my first book schools in Oakland. was on the formation of the Gospels and those other apocryphal Gospels. Robert Ballecer, S.J. (M.Div. The second book, Mungkinkah 2004) I am in my second year Karismatik Sungguh Katolik (Can of being the associate pastor at Charismatic Be Truly Catholic?), the University Catholic Center is about Catholic identity in the (the Newman Center) at the University of Hawaii. I am also context of the global Charismatic/ the director of The Center for Pentecostal phenomenon. In some Apostolic Technology, the executive dioceses, that book has become the editor for TheTechStop.net and textbook for the Charismatic leaders the host of ‘gadget’, an internet and priests. I am trying to re-write television show with more than 14 it in English. Hopefully it will be million viewers of its 89 episodes. ready by the end of this year. For more information, please see Shane Carr (N.D. 2004) I am deshisj.blogspot.com. currently on three years leave from active priestly ministry and am Mark Graves (M.A. 2006) My employed as an Assistant Principal book is now out, Mind, Brain, and for Community and Mission in a the Elusive Soul: Human Systems Catholic boys college of 820 boys. of Cognitive Science and Religion I have until the end of next year to (Ashgate). Its URL is: www.ashgate. decide my future and for the time com/isbn/9780754662266. The being I am enjoying this break. book includes work I did on my M.A. at the Jesuit School with Dr. Alex Garcia-Rivera and also
material from the course that Alex and I co-taught in fall 2006 on “Grace and the Synaptic Self ”. I taught a course in the Religious Studies department at Santa Clara on “Dialogues between Science and Religion”. Currently, I am a Scholar in Residence at the Jesuit School of Theology and a Research Fellow at Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University where I will help expand its programming in the area of Science, Religion, and Public Policy. (www.scu.edu/sts/) Margaret Sequeira (M.A. 2008) I accepted the position of Director of Lifespan Faith Development for the Williamsburg Unitarian Universalist and I started July 1. My family and I are in the process of settling into life in Williamsburg, VA after our drive across the country. Janèt Sullivan Whitaker (M.T.S. 2008) released a new CD, These Forty Days: Music for Lent, Passiontide and Ordinary Time, available through OCP. Anne Itotia, R.S.M. (N.D. 2008) Thanks for keeping in touch at a very difficult time in Kenya. The good news is that we have a coalition government and people are prepared to have peace. As you said it well enough, healing will take time. I am in Ireland for business for few days. I found myself busy on many things between theological reflections, consultant work and facilitation and offering some programs in Tangaza College. Next term, I will be teaching in the Marist International College as well.
BRIDGE Fall 2008
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Jerome Baggett Wins 2008 Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award Catherine M. Kelly
Snake-handling Pentecostals in Appalachia, Muslim feminists in the Middle East, and leaders in the Central American peace movement: these are a few of the many religious groups Jerome Baggett encourages his students to explore and “to see.” Baggett is the 2008 recipient of the Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes the values of inter-religious sensitivity and commitment, interdisciplinary approach and content in teaching, sensitivity to ethnic and cultural diversity, and creative classroom pedagogical methods and performance. “I selected the GTU for doctoral “We conflate religion with ‘official’ religion, that is, clerical authority, doctrines, studies so I could work with hymns — and we often mistake religion for ‘a’ religion,” says Baggett. “My goal is to get students out of my classroom and into the Bay Area ‘religious Jerome Baggett. He is passionate classroom’ to experience a diversity of lived religions.” about teaching, insightful, Baggett describes himself as “promiscuous” in teaching methodology, combining lectures with class-led discussion, and movie nights. Recently he and thoughtful, and takes the time to his students watched Jesus Camp over pizza and beer. He says, “I try to figure work with all who are eager to out what the job is, and then use the appropriate tools, much like a carpenter.” What does he most want for his students? “For them to be happy — ” learn.” — Allison Tanner, GTU and that has to do with “developing a deep understanding of ‘the other,’ doctoral student seeing the world in a nuanced and critical way, having humility, and serving a higher truth, however one defines that.” On receiving the Sarlo Award, Baggett humbly quotes Aristotle: “A single swallow does not a summer make.” “That is,” he says, “It’s hard to know if you’re a good teacher until perhaps the end of the summer, or the end of one’s career.” If the esteem in which he is held by students and colleagues is any judge, Baggett has seen more than a single swallow take wing. George Sarlo, motivated by his family’s experience in the Holocaust during World War II, supports the GTU’s [Graduate Theological Union’s] work to educate leaders who will promote justice and peace among people of diverse religions and cultures. Each year, students and faculty honor a faculty member for his/her creativity in guiding students to this end with the Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award. Article reprinted with permission of the Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Baggett is Acting Academic Dean and Assistant Professor of Religion and Society at the Jesuit School of Theology. Development Department Jesuit School of Theology 1735 LeRoy Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709 510-549-5000 www.jstb.edu
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