Casa Report

Witnessing to the Fruits of this Year at the Casa Santa Maria

REV. JAMES J. CONN, S.J., SUPERIOR OF THE CASA SANTA MARIA

A retrospective view of the academic year 2021-22 could easily look like any other year: many weeks of regular daily order of prayer, study, meals, rest and fraternal community, all punctuated by some special events and activities: guests to welcome, exams, doctoral defenses, breaks for travel in Italy and beyond, and major vacations at Christmas, Easter, and between terms.

More interesting to me in my role as superior is the longer view of the past three years. My appointment in the spring of 2019 marked a major transition in my life from full-time academic work and daily life in a religious community to what I have come to embrace as a largely pastoral role in a house of continuing formation of diocesan priests. My years as a student and professor of Canon Law in Rome and as a teacher/formator in three stateside diocesan seminaries had already taught me much about the life and ministry of diocesan priests, and forged valued and lasting friendships with many of them. Service as the Casa’s superior and the privileged fraternal conversations I have had with Casa residents have taught this religious much more. The support of my colleagues, Msgr. James McNamara (Rockville Centre) and Fr. Shane Kirby ‘04 (Scranton), have been invaluable.

A second long-term development that came to fuller fruition this year has been a stronger bond between the PNAC seminary and graduate divisions. The newly ordained priests who studied at the College’s Janiculum Campus have integrated themselves into the Casa community with greater satisfaction than in past years. This more pervasive priestly fraternity can be attributed to a positive disposition on the part of the newly ordained and of the priests who have come to Rome for advanced studies after some years of experience in parochial and other ministries in their home dioceses. Further contributing factors include an enhanced orientation program and more extensive and informal hospitality between residents of the two PNAC campuses. The newly ordained alumni feel more at home at the Casa after the welcome they have received as seminarians, especially on lunch breaks or a brief respite during busy class days.

Many Casa residents have commented on the deeper experience of fraternity that was occasioned by the challenges imposed on them by the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions on activity and travel in 2020-21 opened new occasions for home-bound student-priests to enjoy one another’s company. More recent reductions of these restrictions have done much to brighten the lives of all of us.

A final supplement to Casa life has been the initiation of two optional colloquia appealing to special academic and ministerial interests of residents. The Canon Law Colloquium has welcomed experts who have led discussions of practical dimensions of the discipline often left untreated in the curriculum. The CSM participants have included even non-canonists. The Formation Colloquium is designed to provide presentations and discussions led by seasoned formators on topics of special interest to those likely to be assigned to formation ministry.

In hindsight, it has been much more than just another year—we are very grateful for the year that has just passed and we look forward to the one that is to come.