Fall 2011 Corbie Chronicle

THe

corbie chronicle

S t. A nselm’s A bbey S chool • W ashington, D.C. • F All 2011 • V ol. 20 N o. 1

The Corbie Chronicle Fall 2011 • Volume 20, Number 1

St. Anselm’s Abbey School 4501 South Dakota Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20017 202-269-2350 www.saintanselms.org

The Corbie Chronicle is published two times a year by the Communications Office of St. Anselm’s Abbey School.

We welcome correspondence and submissions from the St. Anselm’s Abbey School community. Please direct letters, class notes and other communication to James Leathers, ’04, at the School or via email at jleathers@ saintanselms.org.

Photography in this publication has been provided by the St. Anselm’s Abbey School photography club and yearbook and newspaper staffs, as well as by David W. Powell and school faculty and staff.

We apologize in advance for any errors and/or omissions.

Design and Layout: James Leathers, ’04 Production and Printing: Camera Ready Graphics On the Cover: The Varsity cross country team huddles before the PVAC championship meet on November 2.

Photo: Mr. Jose Padilla

A Message from the President

Fr. Peter Weigand, OSB

3

Reflections from the Headmaster

Mr. Louis Silvano

5

Campus News

6

Faculty Notes & Essay

8

Monastery Elects Fifth Abbot

10

Panther Sports

12

Service at St. Anselm’s

14

Fall Scholarship Gala

15

Class Notes

17

In Memoriam

18

Above: William Avery Gray (Form III), Cameron Johnson (Form V), and Maurin Mwombela (Form V) perform in the Priory Players’ production of Fiddler on the Roof.

A Message from the President Man is indeed fashioned in the image of God, but this image has been damaged by the Fall and now requires supernatural help if it is to achieve its normal shape and operation.

G.K. Chesterton

Dear Alumni, Students, Members of the Board of Trustees, Faculty and Staff, Past and Present Parents, Benefactors, and Friends of St. Anselm’s Abbey and School:

When you receive this issue of the Corbie Chronicle, we will have been traveling our way through the Advent season and very soon be arriving at the celebration of Christmas. As we prepare for the Coming of Christ among us, we acknowledge, as did Chesterton, the fact that the whole of Creation is being renewed. Most people appreciate Chesterton as a journalist, novelist, literary figure, and apologist for our Catholic faith. But the strength behind all these accomplishments really comes from his insights as a theologian. Chesterton’s theology is based upon ancient tradition going back to Saint Augustine of Hippo (d.

354) and his Felix Culpa doctrine, “O happy fault that merited such and so great a Redeemer.” This is echoed in Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s assertion that the Incarnation was the only way that the human race could be made whole again along with all of Creation: “All nature is created by God and God is born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. God who made all things made himself of Mary, and thus He refashioned everything He had made.” And so, we are being renewed both by the coming of the Word and by our faith in His presence among us.

As a Catholic school, we closely adhere to the liturgical seasons as we progress through our academic work in the search for peace and wisdom. In the 2010-2011 Annual Report, I began my introduction with the Church’s celebration on June 24th of the Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. This New Testament prophet proclaimed the coming of the Messiah. This same John the Baptist plays a prominent role during Advent when he points the way to salvation as a “voice crying in the wilderness.” With this fall issue of the Corbie Chronicle, we continue our journey to God from the Ordinary Sundays of the Year to the Feast of Christ the King on November 20th. And then we continue through our prayer and work from the Sundays of Advent to Christmas. Likewise, this publication will bring readers up-to-date on what has been happening at St. Anselm’s Abbey School since the end of June.

Now that I am in my 71st year, and having spent 47 of them at the Abbey, I enjoy an enduring perspective. In August, the school embarked upon its 70th year of academic excellence.

We began another school year with 232 students; we have had another Career Day, another Gala, another Open House, another series of faculty meetings, and a successful fall season of sports and activities. The Middle School has already finished the first trimester, and soon we will have another set of semester exams for the Upper School. And come this spring, we will have another All-Alumni Reunion, another year of college placements,

Fr. Peter Weigand, OSB

another commencement in this never-ending circle of events.

And paralleling these happenings, the monastic community started this September to celebrate its 87th year of prayer and work as the Benedictine Foundation at Washington.

Bridging the academic years, I had summer Alumni Gatherings in the Chicago, Milwaukee, Eugene, Oregon, Albuquerque, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas areas. The largest gathering was in San Francisco, where 15 out of 20 members of the Class of 1991 met to be with classmate Patrick Landers, who was suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Sadly, I must report that Patrick passed away the afternoon of December 6th.

Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

On September 19th, the Alumni Association held a most inspiring Career Day for our Fifth and Sixth Form students, which you can read about later in this issue. Our Director of Alumni Affairs, Mr. Lawrence Hamm, ‘68, is now hard at work planning the school’s fourth annual All-Alumni Reunion Weekend on April 27th, 28th, and 29th; I hope all alumni will keep these dates open and come back to St. Anselm’s to relish these festivities.

On October 29th, the school held its 29th Fall Scholarship Gala, this year honoring all the lay faculty and staff. With a successful auction and gifts, the school grossed over $175,000,

corbie chronicle 3

before the fall term. The Search Committee has interviewed three search companies to find a firm that will be most able to find the best candidates. The Search Committee has also talked to students, faculty, and parents.

Please keep this committee in your prayers as they continue in this most critical work for the future of the school.

I hope that you have received our Annual Fund appeal literature. In my letter to you, the monks are asking you to contribute to the 2011-2012 Annual Fund.

Through your gift, you have Ten alumni spanning five decades gathered at St. Anselm’s on the afternoon of September 19 to help an opportunity to designate Fifth and Sixth Formers think about the higher education and career decisions they will be making where your Annual Fund in the next few years. This year’s alumni participants were (L-R): Zach Axelrod, ’02, Joe Bedessem, donation should be applied: ’86, Philippe Hensel, ’86, David Missar, ’83, Richard Rodgers, ’87, Pierre Boehler, ’76, Paul-Mar1) Overall School Needs; 2) tin Foss, ’98, George Mattingly, ’56, Kevin Barefoot, ’00. Participating but not present for the photo: Current-Year Financial Aid, Mark Roddy, ’92. or 3) Support of the Monastic Community. As Abbot James the proceeds of which will be used for current scholarship said at some recent gatherings of parents, friends, business aid. Two years ago, we celebrated 900 years of our patron people, and alumni, all three of these compelling needs Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s impact upon the Church and require your help. the world. At that time, the school honored all the monks who taught in the Priory and Abbey School, so it is fitting I trust you all had most pleasant Thanksgiving. Here on the that as we begin celebrating our 70th year, we should honor Saturday after Thanksgiving, Abbot James celebrated our our lay women and men, who number more than 50 and annual Alumni Memorial Mass. This was followed by a carry the bulk of teaching and who do the heavy lifting work light supper in the Commons, and then came our traditional of the school.

Alumni - Varsity basketball game, which was followed by a reception. All who attended had a wonderful time, especially Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who was able the alumni, who won the game. to attend this year’s Gala and for sharing in our Benedictine mission of recreating our world through education. I want Let me take this opportunity to wish you a most Blessed to thank all of our donors, benefactors, sponsors, parents, Christmas and a very Happy New Year. The joy of this season our Board of Trustees, faculty, students, and friends for is summed up by the Magnificat Antiphon for the Octave helping the monks in their work. For a Benedictine school, Day of Christmas, which reads: “O wonderful exchange. the sole purpose of every aspect of its program, every The Creator of mankind, being born of a Virgin, has Himself segment of its day, every activity, project, or department become a man. And we have been made sharers in the divinity must be to encounter God through love of learning in a of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.” wholesome atmosphere of holiness, happiness, and hope.

Your involvement in the Fall Scholarship Gala ensures that Pax in Sapientia, many students who otherwise could not attend, are here at St. Anselm’s today. This year 39% of the student body receives some kind of financial help.

The Board of Trustees is very busy working with their ad hoc Search Committee to find a new headmaster to start

4 corbie chronicle

Fr. Peter Weigand, OSB President

Reflections from the Headmaster Servant Leadership Blessed Mother Teresa said: “It is not how much we do that matters, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” Her mission was to tend to the needs of the poor and as a servant leader she led by example, she did everything with love.

It is not how much we do that matters, but how much love we put in the doing.

It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.

Each year, during the month of November, the entire student body is engaged in a community service project. This year, the students collected food and other personal items for the Jeanne Jugan Residence, a local nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. Each of the four Houses (Alban, Austin, Main and Moore) was responsible for collecting a different category of items, and the goal was to have 100% student participation. The students rose to the challenge, and all of the collected items were delivered to the Little Sisters of the Poor on the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday.

We celebrated Thanksgiving as a whole school by gathering for our traditional Thanksgiving service followed by a simple meal. Student leaders read the Thanksgiving Proclamations of President Lincoln and President Obama. Following the reading of the healing of the lepers from St. Luke’s Gospel, Fr. Michael gave a reflection on the origin, meaning and significance of Thanksgiving. We concluded the service by singing the familiar Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts.”

This year, we decided that we would have a simple meal in lieu of a complete turkey dinner, as in many faith traditions it is common to hold a fast in preparation for a feast. Rather than holding a fast we decided to have a more frugal meal. The money we would have spent on a turkey dinner and desserts was donated along with the other items we collected. In this way, we supported needy families by living our faith through action.

For the communal meal students were seated at tables in their Houses so that they had the opportunity to bond with each other. The Form VI student leaders served soup to each table followed by grilled cheese sandwiches and finally each student was given an apple. In the clean-up afterwards students and teachers worked together to clear the tables and hang up the chairs. After dismissal, student volunteers loaded all of the donated items on the truck and delivered them to the Little Sisters of the Poor for the Jeanne Jugan Residence. Through their selfless acts of giving the students were exercising their commitment to servant leadership, and like Mother Teresa, they did it with love.

Pax,

Louis Silvano Headmaster

corbie chronicle 5

Campus News Global Citizens Convene at Model U.N. Upper School Students Host 3 Local Schools at Early-Season Conference The Abbey Model United Nations team hosted its second conference for local high schools the first weekend in December. Monk MUNC, as the conference is known, made its return to St. Anselm’s after a year-long hiatus and proved to be a great success that we can build on in the years to come.

We had developed the idea of hosting a low-pressure, non-competitive Model U.N. scrimmage four years ago in collaboration with Georgetown Visitation, the Academy of the Holy Cross, and St. John’s College High School. The aim was twofold. First, we wanted to give students a chance to practice the requisite skills of Model U.N.—issue analysis, consensus building, and constructive debating—before attending several demanding university-hosted events later in the year.

Secondly, we wanted to bring students together not just socially as high schoolers, but as citizens of a larger global community to discuss some of the pressing issues that will face their generation.

Global citizenship was the central theme of our keynote address at Monk MUNC, which was delivered by Mr. Frank Sesno to kick off the weekend. Currently Director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Sesno was one of the original CNN anchors and became the Washington bureau chief and Senior Vice President. He

Upperclassmen from the Model U.N. team pose with keynote speaker Frank Sesno. From left: Patrick Low (V), Vince Marcantonio (V), Robert Hankins (V), Nick Tucci (VI), alumnus Michael McCutchen, ’11, Mr. Sesno, Nico Bell (V), Joe Nahra (V), Blaise Fortier (VI).

gave a spirited and engaging talk in the Devine Theater the 70-plus students attending from four schools and participated in a Q-and-A session afterwards.

In an exchange with one of the student-delegates, Mr. Sesno asked how old the student would be in 2050. He pointed out that 2050 isn’t that far away, and some of these pressing global issues—climate change chief among them—are projected to manifest themselves acutely by then.

Mr. Sesno argued that the world we have known is changing fundamentally as America’s role changes fundamen-

tally. Our challenges are transnational, no longer so starkly defined by borders, walls, laws and tribes. Instead, he said, we face challenges that pay no attention to national frontiers: climate, trade and commerce, terrorism and security, population growth and migration, water and food. With the perspective of a journalist and an educator of college age students, he set the stage for the student-delegates to tackle the new challenges, threats and opportunities that confront the Class of 2012 and beyond.

- Kirk Otterson, Model U.N. Moderator

Middle Schoolers Explore African Masks Deborah Stokes, Curator of Education at the Smithsonian’s African Art Museum, visited the School on October 31 and gave a lecture to students in Forms A and I on African masks, specifically those of the Yoruba tribe in West Africa. This lecture was timed to coincide with the students’ recent lessons on West Africa in their Geography class. This also gave the students a chance to learn about the history and practice of mask-making before we embarking on their clay project in Art class, in which they made and decorated clay masks with the assistance of Bruce Ciske, a local potter. Special thanks go to Br. Marvin, our librarian, who helped load and unload the masks for Ms. Stokes’s presentation.

- Elizabeth Peak, Art Teacher Left: First Former Brandon Henry works on his clay mask in Art class.

6 corbie chronicle

Campus News

St. Anselm’s Hosts Local Educators at Annual Dinner On October 16, St. Anselm’s Abbey School hosted the annual fall dinner of Independent Education, a consortium of over 80 independent schools in the greater Washington area. This was the first time St. Anselm’s had hosted the event. Over 150 independent school teachers, administrators and trustees gathered for a reception and dinner in the Athletic/Performing Arts Complex. The keynote speaker for the evening was Morgan O’Brien, ’62, co-founder of Nextel, current St. Anselm’s Trustee, and former Board chair at the Field School in Northwest Washington.

Left: Morgan O’Brien, ’62, addresses the gathering of independent school educators on October 16.

Activities & Accomplishments For the second straight year, four St. Anselm’s seniors have been named Semifinalists in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. This year’s semifinalists are Andrew Houghton, Daniel Magee, Aidan Mehigan and Jacob Wasserman. These young men are among the top 16,000 of more than 1.5 million entrants based on their performance on the PSAT/NMSQT, placing them in the top one percent of high school seniors nationally. Each of these young men is now eligible to receive one of approximately 8,400 National Merit scholarships awarded annually to graduating high school seniors. The four semifinalists come from a senior class of 30 students, representing over 13% of the class as a whole.

The Priory Players presented the classic Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof” the weekend of November 18.

Large crowds turned out for each of the show’s three performances, which took place in the Devine Performing Arts Center. Ms. M. Catherine Diggle, now in her 15th year as the Drama Director at St. Anselm’s, directed the production, with musical direction by Dr. Charles Downey.

The St. Anselm’s “It’s Academic” / Quizbowl Team continues to make a name for itself, both in the greater Washington area and nationally. They kicked off the year by winning an earlyseason tournament on September 8 hosted by Thomas Jefferson High School

Senior Garrett Jansen played the role of Tevye in the Priory Players’ November production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in the Devine Performing Arts Center.

for Science and Technology in Fairfax County. On September 17, the team taped the 51st season premiere of “It’s Academic” at the studios of NBC-4 on Nebraska Avenue, where they trounced Magruder and Herndon High Schools to qualify for the first playoff round later in the season. On November 13, the updated national Quizbowl rankings published by the Quizbowl Resource Center put the St. Anselm’s team at number 12 in the country. The first

weekend in December, the team lived up to this impressive billing by defending their championship at the well-regarded annual tournament hosted by the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies in Richmond, Va. Special recognition goes to senior co-captains Aidan Mehigan and Jacob Wasserman, as well as their teammates John Erath (Form III), Andrew Houghton (Form VI) and Patrick Merkle (Form V).

corbie chronicle 7

Faculty Notes Director of Development Ms. Valerie Brown stepped down from her position at St. Anselm’s effective December 1. In the interim, Fr. Peter will oversee the work of the Development Office with the help of Mrs. Kimberly Walhout, Assistant Director of Development. The Abbey and School are grateful to Val Brown for her two years of service, and we wish her well as she pursues new opportunities.

Director of College Counseling Mr. Hal DeLuca participated in Gettysburg College’s Civil War Institute in late June. Over 300 high school and college teachers, and professional and amateur historians attended. Coinciding with the Civil War Sesquicentennial, the theme for this year’s program was the first year of the conflict, particularly Manassas and the West Virginia skirmishes. The lecturers included many notable Civil War scholars like Gary Gallagher from UVA; Ed Bearss, Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service; Wilson Greene, Director of Pamplin Park; Joseph Glatthaar from UNC, and Gettysburg’s Allan Guelzo. The week-long program included lectures, panel discussions, book talks, and field experiences. Mr. DeLuca spent one day following the footsteps of the Union and Confederate armies leading the the First Battle of Manassas.

He also had the opportunity to walk Pickett’s Charge, following the path of Kemper’s Brigade during the Battle of Gettysburg.

age for beer and wine in the District of Columbia was 18. Tom, an alumnus of St. Louis Priory School, an English Benedictine school in St. Louis serving boys in grades 7-12, noted the long tradition of monastic brewing in Europe and credits his Benedictine education for his interest in beer. More information on Schlafly Beer can be found at www.schlafly.com.

In early August, Physics teacher Mr. Bryan Taylor spent a week at the National Superconducting and Cyclotron Laboratory in East Lansing, Mich., at Michigan State University. He was there for a week-long workshop for educators on the Physics of Atomic Nuclei (PAN).

Mr. Taylor writes: “These were topics I am not well versed in and I was thrilled to get the opportunity to spend a week at a top research lab. We spent the week learning nuclear physics and astrophysics and performing experiments in the detection of cosmic rays. Getting the chance to meet some of the top research scientists in their fields was very interesting. I hope to see many Abbey Boys in their places in the future, and I will gladly come visit!”

Abbot James Wiseman, OSB, was one of four speakers at a Conference on the Origin of the Universe, held at the Washington Theological Union on Saturday, November 12. The conference was the first of four that will be held over

the next two years, all of them sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation and intended to provide persons active in Catholic ministry with resources to help them articulate a religious understanding of creation that is in harmony with scientific findings. In his presentation, “Theology and the Big Bang,” Abbot James first gave a summary of how most scientists nowadays came to accept what is commonly called the theory of the big bang. He then spoke about the essential meaning of the Christian doctrine of creation, showed why it would be unwise to tie this doctrine too closely to any particular scientific theory, and concluded with reflections about the richness of the doctrine as found not only in Scripture but also in the writings of some prominent scientists, theologians, and poets. Other speakers included Dr. Stephen Barr, a research scientist at the University of Delaware, Dr. Sten Odenwald, an astronomer at NASA, and Dr. Robert Miller, a Scripture scholar at The Catholic University of America. All of the presentations are available in both video and print format at the website www.atompluseve.com .

The next conference, on “The Origin of Life and Its Development,” will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2012. Persons wishing to attend this free event may register at the above-mentioned website.

Dr. Herb Wood is excited to announce the birth of his 19th grandchild, Lilly Anne Wood, on November 9, 2011. She is named after her two greatgrandmothers.

Art teacher Ms. Elizabeth Peak recently donated eight prints (watercolors, monotypes and etchings) from various phases of her career to the Library of Congress. She also had three recent prints juried into the Drawn to Washington International Print Exhibition, organized by the Washington Printmakers.

Former faculty member Mr. Tom Schlafly (1972-1974) is pleased to report that Schlafly Beer is now available at select locations in the Washington area, including Dixie Liquor in Georgetown, with which Tom became familiar as an undergraduate, when the legal drinking

8 corbie chronicle

Mr. Bryan Taylor, left, poses with three fellow physics teachers at the PAN workshop at Michigan State University in August.

Dr. Wood served as a balloon handler in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the eighth year in a row.

This year, he helped to steer Kung Foo Panda Po through the streets of Manhattan.

Faculty Essay

By Ms. Janine Dunne, English Teacher

Discovering St. Benedict in a Remote Place In July of this past summer, I arrived at a cold dock in Anacortes, Wash., prepared to take the last ferry to Friday Harbor to spend two weeks in the remote San Juan Islands. Coming from Santa Fe’s formidable heat that morning to the green cold of Washington state, I felt shock and displacement. On the ferry over, the grey, dimpled water made no crests, and like oil and God, it was absolute.

It faded to white at the horizon. We crossed a pool of dark between two still and quiet, black mountains. Comet trails of rain streaked the window, and the engine hummed and rumbled its duty.

The writer Annie Dillard also spent time on these islands. She lived and wrote here in 1975. The place inspired her to write a little book called Holy the Firm, which I picked up at Friday Harbor upon arrival that July evening. I too planned to briefly live and write in this place. I hadn’t planned on thinking much about my life on a campus in D.C. I didn’t expect St. Benedict to make an appearance in the space of my thoughts here.

Annie Dillard is the one who first brought St. Benedict to mind.

While in this Mecca for orca and eagle and poet, Dillard wrote of fetching the communion wine for her church. She thought, “How can I buy the communion wine? Who am I to buy the communion wine?” and she recalled the cold on the way and how she wanted to warm her hands in her pockets. She reconsidered her words and thought, according to the Rule of St. Benedict (which admits, “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee”), she should instead say “Our hands in our pockets.” She pondered the need for a rule for the purchase of communion wine, and with these familiar thoughts of Benedict’s rules, I found communion with a writer and a place.

St. Benedict followed me west to what Dillard described as “the edge of the known and comprehended world.” I had traveled there from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, where I had been studying O’Connor and Kierkegaard. I made my way from Kierkegaard to Dillard, from Santa Fe’s stretches of sky to a waterfront home surrounded by tall pines and attentive tides slipping in and out along the point on which my house sat. Here I’d planned to walk and ride and write and shuck oysters. No thoughts of school. But they came more than once.

Ms. Dunne with Sister Dilecta of Our Lady of the Rock Monastery in Shaw Island, Washington state.

I perused the travel books about the San Juans and discovered Sam Green, Washington State’s former poet laureate, who lived on Waldron Island, the smallest of the San Juans. Pleased at another literary discovery in this place, I Googled him and was moved by his descriptions of this, my temporary home far away from Fr. Peter and Ms. Brown and the well-heeled and well-read boys at St. Anselm’s. Green wrote of “farmers / who have broken ground with faith, / who in their minds saw crops that break / ground in their turn.” I knew these farmers’ fields of rosy hay that made the inland look like sunny down. And I had seen the water that posed as relief above them always in the distance. Daily my friends and I biked and looked and exhausted our senses with these sights.

But I hadn’t finished finding this place’s coves and campgrounds.

I kept reading. In fact, each morning and evening, I propped up my Chucks, the flats of my feet and my focus facing the straits over which our house kept vigil, a lighthouse of sorts, I imagined, for passing vessels. And there in the pages of an old guide, I discovered that not miles away on Shaw Island lived a group of women faithful to the traditions of St. Benedict. Our Lady of the Rock was indeed a monastic space not unlike St. Anselm’s, except for the gender of its inhabitants. And its crops.

My cousin Sarah and I contacted the monastery and were invited to spend the day. Mother Hildegard assigned Sister Dilecta to be our guide. She wore a habit made of denim, the work wear for these women. After a short tour of the wide grounds and wooden chapel, we walked to the garden. Watched by a gentle steer named Fredo, the only male resident, I was given a weeding tool and sent to a far corner of the plot. Sarah plucked lettuce from the ground with Sister Dilecta. Lettuce must be picked, pulled, cut, knifed from the earth, she said. Here in a small and holy place, my task was to make room for this lettuce and squash and assortment of short, green crops. So be it, I thought, I will weed and hope to find meaning in my lonely post.

Sister Dilecta noticed that my duties seemed more like penance and assigned me to water the garden in their company instead. I joined the conversation. She named every flower in every row. She joked about the size of the squash. She gave instructions for the simple job of retrieving bales from high lofts. She showed us the field where the hay is grown and told us of the man who plows it for the women of the Rock. In her hot habit, brow soaked more than the plants below me, she told us of the dangers of the garden – snakes in the hay and wasps in the salad. She raised her arms to appear larger and advised we face the large llamas and alpacas with conviction. She told us familiar tales of fields and farming, stability of place and heart, and the animating spirit of ora and labora. We left deeply satisfied with having stood and worked with this woman.

That evening back on the deck of my home on the edge of the world, I shucked eight oysters and poured some wine. I put my Chucks up and looked out at the littler sun-kissed San Juans. The hallowed islands were still and yellow, the oysters, plump and milky.

And I imagined the nuns of the Order of St. Benedict, seekers of God, to have found Him too, alit and aplenty in this place. “All things come of thee, O Lord,” wrote St. Benedict, “and of thine own have we given thee.” And I thought about how daily down the leaf-lit paths on a little island in D.C., I am given a classroom and young thinkers. My task, a weeding of sorts, to help make room for the yield.

corbie chronicle 9

Monastic Community Elects Fifth Abbot Beginning 8-Year Term, Abbot James Wiseman Welcomes Cardinal Wuerl to St. Anselm’s

Above: Abbot James Wiseman addresses the 300-plus guests who turned out for the Mass of Thanksgiving on September 11.

Below left: Cardinal Wuerl and Fr. Adam Park join Abbot James and Fr. Michael Hall in celebrating Mass. Below right: Oblate and School Trustee Herbert Brooks serves as a lector.

10 corbie chronicle

Following his election this summer as the fifth Abbot of St. Anselm’s Abbey, Abbot James A. Wiseman, OSB, and the monastic community welcomed Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, to St. Anselm’s for a Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday, September 11. The Mass was held to celebrate Abbot James’s election and the beginning of his second term as Abbot.

Abbot James was elected June 16 and succeeds the Abbey’s previous superior, the Very Rev. Dom Simon McGurk, OSB, who served as Prior Administrator from June 2006 until the election.

Abbot James will serve an eight-year term as the Abbey’s leader.

Abbot James entered the community of St. Anselm’s Abbey at the beginning of Advent in 1964. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he first came to Washington as an undergraduate at Georgetown University. During his 47 years at the Abbey he has served in various positions, including as the community’s second abbot from 1975 to 1983, eleven years as novice master, and as prior of the community from 1990 to 2006.

He did his theological studies for ordination at The Catholic University of America and was ordained priest on May 16, 1970.

Abbot James subsequently proceeded to doctoral studies in theology at the same university, obtaining his degree in 1979.

He began teaching at St. Anselm’s Abbey School in the fall semester of 1969 and has taught a religion course (and occasionally other courses) every semester since then. In 1985 he also began teaching theology full-time at Catholic University, where he served for five years as chairman of the department of theology.

In 1999 he received the university’s Alumni Achievement Award in the area of education. Abbot James is the author or editor of six books.

Remarks from Abbot James Below is the text of Abbot James Wiseman’s remarks on Sunday, September 11, during a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Anselm’s to celebrate his election as Abbot.

A single Latin word, inscribed above the entrance to many Benedictine monasteries throughout the world, says a lot about what our way of life should be. That word is pax, “peace,” which has been the motto of the worldwide Benedictine Confederation for centuries. The motto is well chosen indeed, for the word figures prominently in the Rule of St. Benedict. Already in his prologue, Benedict quotes a verse from Psalm 34: “Let peace be your quest and aim.” Then, with an allusion to something St. Paul once wrote, Benedict says in his chapter on “The Tools for Good Works”: “If you have a dispute with someone, make peace with him before the sun goes down.” In a later chapter, on the distribution of goods according to each monk’s need, he writes: “Whoever needs less should thank God and not be distressed, but whoever needs more should feel humble because of his weakness, not self-important because of the kindness shown him. In this way all the members will be at peace.” And in his inspiring chapter on the way guests should be received, Benedict stipulates that once a guest has been announced, “the superior and the brothers are to meet him with all the courtesy of love. First of all, they are to pray together and thus be united in peace.”

The theme of peace likewise appears in every celebration of the Eucharist, when right before Communion we hear the priest pray this beautiful prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, ‘I leave you peace, my peace I give you.’ Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your church, and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom.” And just a few days ago, on the feast of Mary’s nativity, the Opening Prayer at Mass concluded

with the words: “May this celebration of her birthday bring us closer to lasting peace.”

All of that would sound inspiring in any part of the world and at any time, but there is a special need to ponder such lines in our own country and at the present time. You may have read a thought-provoking front-page article in the Washington Post this past Monday, September 5. The author, Greg Jaffe, wrote that unlike previous decades, when both the military and the American public viewed war as an aberration and peace as the norm, nowadays, ten years after the attacks of 9/11, we seem to be living in what the Pentagon’s most recent assessment of global security called “a period of perpetual conflict,” and this has led some to view our wars as unending and to consider any talk of peace as “quixotic and naïve.” The article went on to note that earlier this year the House of Representatives came close to denying all funding for the congressionally funded United States Institute of Peace, leading the institute’s president to conclude that the very word “peace” in its name was partly to blame for this problem and that it might make sense to change the name to “The United States Institute for Conflict Management.” “Peace,” he said, just “doesn’t’ reflect the world we are dealing with.”

Now no one, I suppose, could be opposed to conflict management, but as a Benedictine and as a Christian I found that entire article very sad. It’s not just a matter of seeing my order’s very motto obliquely coming under fire. More importantly, what does all this say to those of us who try to live according to Jesus’s Beatitudes, including the seventh: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”? What does it say about the ongoing efforts of someone like Paul Chappell, himself a captain in the United States Army, who in his various books has been trying to change our entire way of thinking about war, for he argues that war is not inevitable and that there are specific things we can all do to promote peace and mutual understanding among the peoples of the world? Certainly perpetrators of terrorist violence should be tracked down, certainly our civil leaders should continue to do all they can to keep our people as safe as possible, but let us never conclude that working for a more peaceful world is “quixotic or naïve,” or that our Benedictine motto has somehow become antiquated. As I noted at the beginning of these remarks, St. Benedict wisely quoted the Psalmist: “Let peace be your quest and aim.” May we keep those words in our minds and hearts throughout Abbot James and Cardinal Wuerl distribute communion to those who attended the Mass of the weeks, months, and years to come.

Thanksgiving on September 11 in the Devine Theater.

corbie chronicle 11

Panther Sports

Abbey Cross Country Has Another Banner Year The 2011 season for the Running Panthers of St. Anselm’s Abbey School started off quite literally “with a bang,” when lightning and amazing rains from Tropical Storm Lee canceled our first meet. It was an indicator of the muddy running that lay ahead for the team this fall. At our first home meet of the season the following week, we started the season off right with a victory over our rivals Field and Edmund Burke.

Despite the course being muddy, the boys still ran solid times.

Michael Laskowski was the first Abbey runner to hit the finish line, running the course in 18:17.

We then drove to the very large Lake Braddock High School and participated in our first-ever relay race under the football stadium lights! We got beat badly, but we were racing some of the top public school teams in Virginia. Apart from the results, it was fun to have a cross country meet under the lights.

Our first large Saturday invite was at Maymont Park in Richmond, Va. It was very muddy and very hilly. Andrew Houghton was our first JV runner to cross the line, finishing in 21:57, and Blaise Fortier was our top Varsity runner at 18:34. Jacob Wasserman, was not felling very well at all, came across the line with a solid time of 22:27. The team overall was quite strong, finishing midway through the pack of very talented teams.

We then ran at the fast and fun Glory Days Grill invite.

Despite the solid cold rain that started right when the gun went off, the JV runners had a great day! Matt Jones had a PR (personal record), coming home in 24:02. That’s even with some serious mud holes and a driving rain. Matthew Huerta (27:23) and John Biffl (24:25) also had huge PRs that day.

John’s time was fast enough to win him a biggest improvement award! In the varsity race, Michael Laskowski almost

12 corbie chronicle

broke 18 minutes. (I had him at 17:59 on my watch. Michael, you broke 18 by my standard!) Jack Anninos also had a great race, running 18:01 and nearly catching Michael in the finishing straight.

At the PVAC Mid-Season Challenge, we were relieved to have some beautiful weather. Every PVAC school packed onto our campus and we had a great race! We won by 24 points, putting a target square on our backs for championships. Blaise Fortier stepped up big-time and ran an 18:19, and another big improvement came from Sam Sherman in 21:24.

Two weeks before PVAC Championships at a small home meet, Field came to show us that they had been working hard.

They came within two points of beating us on another muddy day. Instead of scaring us, this squeaker of a meet focused the boys. We had the best three workouts of the year after this race. This primed us for championships.

Thankfully, the weather cooperated, and championships were held on an ideal fall day here at the Abbey. After the first loop, Field was in firm control of the race with their top five ahead of our third, fourth and fifth. We had talked all year about being strong on the second loop, then kicking it home, and the young men did exactly that. Jack Anninos put in an amazing performance and ran a 17:59 on our difficult course.

Jared Allen and Connor Williamson also had great races, running 18:27 and 19:13 respectively. These young men, along with Michael Laskoski (18:07), Blaise Fortier (18:29), Dan Magee (20:13), and Conor Hearn (20:30) put us in solid command of the meet. We won by 21 points for our third PVAC title in four years. Congrats to all runners on a great season!

- Coach Bryan Taylor

Panther Sports Varsity Soccer

The 2011 Varsity soccer squad was led by head coach Michael Edelin, ’06, in his first year as Varsity coach after coaching the J.V. team last year. Front row, left to right: Alex Turner (Form V), Chang-Wu Mungai (V), Jimmy King (V), Nico Bell (V), Sam Girardot (IV), Matthias Pecoraro (V), Ellis Berns (IV), Francis McCarthy (V), Luke Foley (VI). Back row, left to right: Chang-In Mungai (VI), John Recchia (V), Kyle Winkler (VI), Michael Paganelli (VI), Sean Attridge (VI), Nick Tucci (VI), Sam Thirumalai (VI), Erich Schwartz (VI), Luke McCormick (VI), Coach Edelin.

J.V. Soccer

Middle School Soccer

Front row, left to right: Miles Moore (Form III), Stephen Kpundeh (III), Bennett Parr (IV), Michael Dudinsky (IV), Thomas Bui (III), James McFeeters (IV). Back row, left to right: Conor Sloan (III), Pierre de Dreuzy (V), Sean Swartz (III), Mark Yde (IV), Devan Abercrombie (IV), Chang-Hwan Mungai (III), Coach Michael Mowery, ’03.

Front row, left to right: Micah Shenk-Evans (Form I), Christopher Ozgo (A), Michael Libanati (I), Julian Sainty (I), Marco Sequeira (A), Aidan Dwyer (I), Tyler Pirovic (I), Nathan Dangle (II). Back row, left to right: Coach José Padilla, Johnny Andrews (I), Nick Klinkenbergh (II), Cameron Underwood (II), Jacob Burns (II), Clement Williams (II), Pablo Ruiz (II), Brendan Sloan (II), Jonathan Hutto (I), Dominic Lyles (A).

corbie chronicle 13

“Education for Service” in the Upper School Tuesday-Morning Placements Take Upperclassmen to Inner-City Schools, Nursing Homes, More Education for service is an important part of any program that aims at preparing young people for life in the larger community. For this reason most schools, independent and public, have in recent decades instituted “community service” programs for their students with participation as a graduation requirement.

The question can be raised and has been raised as to whether charity can be made mandatory. Is that not a contradiction in terms? On one level the answer might be affirmative, but on a deeper level we all know from experience that as part of their development students need to be exposed to areas of learning and experience which at first might not appeal to them. Certainly a Christian and monastic school such as St. Anselm’s wants to involve its students in opportunities to serve others, both within the school community itself and in the larger local community.

For 30 years now, St. Anselm’s Abbey School has had in place a unique service program for all Fifth and Sixth Form students. Established in the early 1980s, the program grew out of reflection within the faculty and consultation between myself as Headmaster, Paul Boman, Upper School Master at the time, and Marcie Fallon, then the School’s guidance counselor. We looked at many factors that affected our students: the great distance most of them travel each day to and from school, the very heavy demands of their academic program, and the limited afterschool time they had due to the unusually large percentage of students involved in athletics or other extra-curricular programs after school. The decision was made to create a “release time” program during the school week. Thus every Tuesday morning after one or two academic classes all juniors and seniors leave campus for service sites around the area where they work until noon, returning to campus for afternoon classes and activities. Students choose sites where the work has an interest for them – tutoring, assisting the elderly or disabled, food pantry manual work etc. Faculty members in school vans provide transport to and from campus, or students with permission of parents may drive to the sites in their own cars.

Most schools with service programs require a defined number of service hours to be performed at sites located by the students or their parents and on their own time. We at St. Anselm’s felt that

14 corbie chronicle

Senior Garrett Jansen works with a young man at Maury Elementary School, a public school in Northeast Washington, on a recent Tuesday morning as part of his community service placement.

Photo: Yakntoro Udoumoh, Form V

the use of class hours and participation by school groups at the sites was a valuable way of witnessing to the commitment of the school as a whole to importance of community service education. We have also found that the service sites come to rely of the regular arrival on Tuesdays of “the Abbey guys” to plan their own work distribution internally.

This school year, our 28 seniors and 42 juniors are working at 11 agency locations. They are engaged in tutoring younger students at St. Anthony Catholic School, our local parochial school in Brookland, Maury Elementary School, a D.C. public school on Capitol Hill, and at Potomac Lighthouse Public Charter School here in our neighborhood. Five of our students work with classroom teachers and aides at the Kennedy School, assisting developmentally challenged young people.

Several of our students who are studying Spanish work at the Spanish Educational Center in Petworth area assisting classroom teachers. There are six boys working at the nearby St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home, socializing with pre-school boys and girls who have almost no other male presence in their lives. The elderly and disabled are served at two sites, the Carroll Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at Providence Hospital, where the students

socialize with residents and assist the staff.

A group of boys join with other volunteers at Christian Community Group Homes, working with the elderly in their homes with house and yard work, painting, and repairs. We have boys working at two neighborhood food banks, Food and Friends, and Capital Area Food Bank.

Finally this year we have two students who work at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception as tour guides and providing assistance to visitors at the welcome desk at this Catholic pilgrimage site.

We hold periodic reflection sessions for the students in the program to share experiences and to reflect with one another on the value to those they serve and to themselves from participation in the program. No program is perfect, and we are always working to fine tune and improve our community service program, revising site lists, and ironing out practical problems. We are proud of what our St. Anselm’s boys are doing at their sites, where we know they are greatly valued.

Similarly we are looking for ways to expand our program in various ways into the lower grades of the school.

- Fr. Michael Hall, OSB, ’56 Headmaster Emeritus Chaplain & Community Service Coordinator

The 2011

Fall Scholarship Gala Saturday, October 29

The 2011 Fall Scholarship Gala, held on Saturday, October 29 in the Athletic/Performing Arts Complex, grossed over $175,000 for scholarship aid at St. Anselm’s. This year’s Gala celebrated the School’s 70th academic year and honored the faculty and staff for their dedication to St. Anselm’s.

Above: Auctioneer Patrick Haggerty gets animated during the live auction. Below left: Abbot Aidan Shea shares a laugh with William Dolan, ’02, and a friend during dinner. Below right: Parents mingle in the Commons during the silent auction before dinner.

corbie chronicle 15

fall Scholarship Gala

Clockwise from left: Abbot James Wiseman gives the invocation prior to dinner on Coach Brian Murphy Court.

Nearly 300 guests mingle in the Commons prior to dinner. Attendance was strong despite an unseasonable blast of snow that passed through Washington the afternoon of October 29.

Religion teacher Robert Alspaugh and his wife chat with Form III parents Raymond and Virginia St. Pierre during the silent auction.

Headmaster Louis Silvano and his wife, Jan, talk with current parents.

16 corbie chronicle

Class Notes 1959

Michael Craig-Martin, a London-based conceptual artist and painter, will have an exhibition at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery at George Washington University from January 11-February 17, 2012. This is his first exhibition in Washington.

For more, visit www. michaelcraigmartin.co.uk.

1960

Joe Chalmers was elected to the School’s Board of Trustees in September. He is also serving on the Headmaster Search committee.

George O’Keefe writes: “Our son George returned last spring from deployment to Afghanistan, and he and wife Jodi are expecting their second child (our third grandchild).”

1962

Morgan O’Brien was the keynote speaker at the annual fall dinner of Independent Education, which was held at St. Anselm’s on October 6. Independent Education is a consortium of more than 80 Washington-area independent schools. For more, see page 7.

1980

Stephen Kinnaird was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Board’s September 2011 meeting. Mr. Kinnaird, a partner in the Washington office of Paul Hastings LLP, has served on the Board since 2009.

lives with his wife, Kerri, and daughter, Elise.

1983

Michael Gorman and Kurt Hansen won the doubles title at the Damian Crane ’55 Alumni Pool Tournament on October 26. It was the second straight year that a pair of 1983 grads won the doubles bracket, with Michael Corrigan and John Corrigan taking the 2010 title.

1993 Tom Resing co-authored the reference book Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out, published this fall by Microsoft. Tom is a technology consultant in San Antonio, Tex., where he

Nesti Aréne won the singles championship at the annual Damian Crane ’55 Alumni Pool Tournament on October 26. Over 40 alumni turned out for this year’s event, which was held at Buffalo Billiards near Dupont Circle.

2004 Tom Resing, ’93

1995

Mark Corden has moved to Monrovia, Liberia, to work at St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital (run by the Order of St. John of God), for the next year. Sponsored by two Bay Area NGOs, he hopes to help improve pediatric care on a local and national level (he’ll be one of three pediatricians in the entire country) and assist with the delivery of HIV prevention and treatment services.

Jeremy Tuchman and the former Lindsay Sullivan were married on August 5 in Savage Mill, Md. Classmates Ben Johnson and Charles Steelman were in attendance.

Mr. and Mrs. Tuchman now reside in Athens, Ga.

2005

Sebastian Smoot married Julianne Foster on August 1 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Among those in attendance were Sebastian’s St. Anselm’s classmates Eamon Nolan and Fadil Aliriza.

Sebastian and Julianne live in Silver Spring, and Sebastian works as an engineer for GHD, a global engineering, architecture and environmental consulting company, in Bowie.

2008

1976

Leo Eskin joined the Board of Trustees in September. One of eight alumni on the Board of Trustees, Leo also serves on the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. Leo is President and COO of LPP Combustion, LLC, a Maryland-based clean energy company.

1999

Kurt Hansen, ’83 and Michael Gorman, ’83

Matthew Moniz was quoted in a November 4 story in the New York Times about college students who change majors.

Originally an engineering major, Matthew switched to a double major in psychology and English.

He will graduate from the University of Notre Dame in May and plans to pursue a career as a clinical psychologist.

corbie chronicle 17

In Memoriam We Extend Our Deepest Sympathy to the Families of Those in Our Community Who Have Died Mr. William R. Barlow

Mr. Rourke J. Sheehan

Father of Mark Barlow, ’70, and Sean Barlow, ’75

Father of Charles J. Sheehan, ’72 Brother-in-law of Fr. Thomas Fahy, OSB, ’48+

Ms. Lucia Cefaratti

Mr. George Allan Smalley, Jr.

Mr. Joseph A. Falzon

Mrs. Claire Alberte Springuel

Sister of Philip Cefaratti, ’82

Class of 1953

Father of Dr. Charles C. Falzon, ’96

Mother of René M. Springuel, ’73 Grandmother of Padraic Springuel, ’98

Fr. John Farrelly, OSB

Mrs. Mary Kelleher

Sister of Fr. Hilary Hayden, OSB

Mr. J. Patrick Landers Class of 1991

Mr. John N. Stafford Class of 1958

Mr. Edward Sweeney

Brother of Dr. John Sweeney, Jr., ’59, and Dr. Dennis Sweeney, ’61

Mr. James B. Long

Mr. John F. Unger

Ms. Laura McGrath

Mr. John Weigand

Class of 1966

Class of 1954

Mother of Aidan Craver (Form V) and Luke Craver (Form A)

Father of Fr. Peter Weigand, OSB

Dr. Istvan Nyirjesy

Non-graduating member of the Class of 1969 Brother of Christopher S. Werner, ’65

Father of Francis Nyirjesy, ’74+, and Paul Nyirjesy, ’77; Grandfather of Christopher Bragale, ’11

Mrs. Helen M. Santini

Mother of Stephen Santini, ’73, David Santini, ’74, Gerard Santini, ’75+, and Dominic Santini, ’82

18 corbie chronicle

Mr. Kevin M. Werner

celebrating

70 years

1942-2012

The St. Anselm’s Experience Needs Your Support!

Make Your Gift to the Annual Fund Demand for scholarship aid has never been higher.

Make your tax-deductible gift by June 30 and show your support for our outstanding students and faculty!

Learn more and donate securely online at saintanselms.org/support.

CFC Agency Code: 15844 • United Way Code: 8967

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID

4501 South Dakota Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20017-2753

Suburban MD 208 Permit No. 1

address service requested

Winter Open House Sunday, January 22 • 1-3 p.m.

Word of mouth is our best form of advertising.

Spread the word about St. Anselm’s to your friends and neighbors!