Building Up the Local Church

As A Community Of Catholic Higher

education, St. Bernard’s is someplace – it is part of a particular community. The Diocese of Rochester and the region of upstate New York have been the scope of its ministry for over a century, with the city of Rochester as the site of its main campus and home to the majority of its faculty and staff. At the same time, the recent expansion of the School has enabled it to be anyplace across the world, through its dynamic distance education program. What a gift to welcome students into our community of formation from wherever they live, from so many different states, time zones, and countries!

The School’s unique shape – the fact that it is someplace and anyplace simultaneously – is a key dimension of how it fulfills its formational and educational mission In order to achieve this, the School privileges two principles integral to the Catholic understanding of social organization, namely, solidarity and subsidiarity

In the context of the School’s educational mission, solidarity is characterized by a communal dedication to the Catholic faith, loyalty to the teaching authority of the magisterium of the Catholic Church, the pursuit of excellence in graduate theological and philosophical education, and the desire to serve the new evangelization anyplace the School is present All students, faculty, and friends are welcomed into the pursuit of this common good that marks our institution from top to bottom

Subsidiarity is also essential for St Bernard’s to thrive, with care and attention paid to the character, purposes, needs, and challenges of each student and each region served by the School Such attentiveness to both the locale and the individual is particularly essential for the School’s service of the someplace in which it finds itself, namely, the Diocese of Rochester and upstate New York

These institutional principles of solidarity and subsidiarity are at the root of a new initiative, the re-launch of a legacy program at our School: St. Bernard’s on the Road. Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, St Bernard’s on the Road was a particularly powerful expression of our School’s mission; it featured the ongoing availability of St Bernard’s faculty for affordable, in-person presentations to parish communities throughout upstate New York. In this way, the School’s solidarity in service of the new evangelization radiated beyond the boundaries of degree programs and classroom experiences, and extended into the local situations of parish communities, assisting them to deepen their knowledge and love of God.

Our current post-pandemic context gives rise to many “joys and hopes… griefs and anxieties”

(Gaudium et Spes, §1) While there is immense joy at gathering together once again without such potent anxiety about health risks posed to oneself and others, there is also the concern that the joys of parish community life experienced prior to the pandemic will never quite return In its attempt to take up “the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and interpreting them in light of the Gospel”

(Gaudium et Spes, §4), St Bernard’s has discerned that the time has come to deepen the School’s direct service to parish communities in upstate New York by making available its faculty members once again for the sake of evangelization, catechesis, and authentic communion among the people of God

There are many current opportunities for parish communities and individuals to build up their faith through the engagement of pre-recorded talks, series, and programs. While so many of these programs are quite excellent, they are never as ideal as live encounters among persons, exchanging not only content, but the personal witness of their lives as they come together for dialogue and contemplation of the divine mysteries. St. Bernard’s is dedicated to this live encounter among persons throughout its educational offerings, cherishing the opportunity to engage in-person in the classroom and/or in live discussion with men and women from around the country in Zoom-based classes. St. Bernard’s on the Road follows the same approach: we are not simply offering parishes helpful content – we are offering the total witness brought by the faculty member, in hopes that in this encounter and dialogue the building up of the faith in one and all will result.

Our great hope is that St Bernard’s on the Road will provide a beneficial spark within parish communities, by which the Holy Spirit may more readily inflame the community in love of God and neighbor By drawing community members together – perhaps for a single evening only, or repeatedly for a series of presentations – the strength and vivacity of the community might again be rediscovered by those present, aiding in some small way the pastor and his staff in revivifying and galvanizing the local Church, which has so frequently suffered in the wake of our cultural forgetfulness of the importance of true togetherness In order to assist the parish community in this way, we have endeavored to keep the cost to the parish quite humble: the School has set the small fee for all St Bernard’s on the Road presentations with confidence that no parish will be disqualified because of limitations of budget

Our faculty have made themselves available for presentations that range from those that address the essentials of the Catholic faith, to those that speak to important initiatives in the life of the Church, such as the Eucharistic Revival and the Synod on Synodality, as well as those topics that sometimes provoke consternation or controversy, such as the role of women in the Church and the Church’s teaching on human sexuality and the call to love.

As an institution that finds itself someplace and anyplace, St Bernard’s strives to be faithful to its mission of formation in the faith in everyplace it finds itself welcomed St Bernard’s on the Road enables the School to carry forth its mission, born from the heart of the Church, into the heart of the Church, into parish communities, where Christ comes to His people again and again in sacramental communion. There is no greater honor for our School than to help build up the local Church, so that the Body of Christ might be strengthened in every way!

To learn more, visit: www.stbernards.edu/on-the-road