The SignatureThe Student Newsletter of the Department of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas

December 2008

UPCOMING EVENTSMaster Essay Presentations

Tuesday, December 9th, 5:30 p.m.OSF Library (Room 108)

Our Lady of GuadalupeCelebration

Friday, December 12th, 12:05 p.m.Mass - St. Thomas Chapel

Lunch following – Sitzmann Hall

Catholic Witness/Shine Christmas Dance

Friday, December 12th 3rd Floor O’Shaughnessy Gym

Catholic Studies Advent Open House and Cookie Decorating

Wednesday December 17th, 12:00-2:00 p.m.

Sitzmann Hall

Handel’s MessiahSunday, December 14

Brunch: Great Room in McNeely Hall, 11:30 a.m.

Lecture: Great Room in McNeely Hall, 12:00 p.m.

Performance: Orchestra Hall, 2:00 p.m.

Who would choose to reject or ignore something that is “a gift of Christ

and a call of the Holy Spirit”? (CCC, n.820) Hardly anyone, I imagine. However, ecu-menism is probably not the first thing that a person thinks of that fits this description. I would even care to wager that perhaps at least half of American Catholics do not know the Church’s vision for authentic ecumenism.

Ecumenism involves Christian dialogue and interaction in order to strive towards restoring Christian unity in the world. We are all too fa-miliar with why rifts ex-ist in the Body of Christ. However, not many people make the effort to discover the points of unity among Christian churches, “whose power [to save] derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has en-trusted to the Catholic Church” (CCC, n.819)

The Catholic Church has laid a foundation to explain the relevance of unity and what it ought to look like. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning…the Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her” (CCC, n.820) Catholics and Protestants alike can do this in many ways including interreligious dia-logue, interfaith prayer services, growing in knowledge of others’ practices and beliefs, and through living holy lives centered on the Gospel message (CCC, n.820).

A common concern is how we, as Catholics,

can participate in ecumenical dialogue and worship if we are not willing to compromise particular and essential components of our Faith, such as the real presence in the Eucha-rist, the intercession of Mary and the com-pany of the saints. No Catholic should deny his core beliefs in order to participate in ecu-menism. In fact, it would be a false type of

ecumenism to think that it involves radical com-promise as such.

So practically speaking, how can we become ecumenical? One way is to be open to conversa-tion with people of oth-er faiths. We can learn much from the rich, bib-lical tradition of many Protestant churches. An-other way is to share the truths of Faith without a hidden agenda of con-verting the other person. Through embracing, rather than avoiding, these conversations we

can nourish one another in faith.

In his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, the late Pope John Paul II wrote about his concerns and hopes for the new millen-nium. One of his main areas of concern was in achieving greater Christian unity. “By the year 2000 we need to be more united, more willing to advance along the path toward the unity for which Christ prayed on the eve of His Passion,” John Paul wrote. “This unity is enormously precious... The future of the Kingdom of God in the world is at stake.”

Ecumenism in the Catholic Church Today

St. Thomas Chapel: Daily Mass: 7:00 a.m., 12:05 p.m. Sunday Mass: 11:00 a.m., 6:45 p.m. Confession: Mon.-Fri., 3:15-4:15 p.m.Nativity Parish: Daily Mass: 8:15 a.m., 5:00 p.m. Sunday Mass: 7:00 a.m., 8:15 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 5:00 p.m. Saturday: 5:00 p.m. Confession: Mon.-Fri., 7:45 am, 4:30pm Saturday, 3:40-4:30 p.m.St. Mark’s Parish: Daily Mass: Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m., M/W/F, 5:15 p.m. Sunday Mass: 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., Saturday, 5:00 p.m. Confession: Saturday, 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Liturgy Schedule

Pope Benedict speaking with a rabbi

Elizabeth Jamison

Page 2 The Signature December 2008

On Sunday, December 14th, the Catholic studies department will host a lecture and a trip to see Handel’s Messiah. Before

the trip, Fr. Michael Joncas will give an informational talk to pre-pare the audience for what they will see. Fr. Joncas shared some information with the Signature in order to let readers know what they are getting into, or what they are missing, whatever the case may be.

One important item Fr. Joncas mentioned was that the Messiah is an oratorio. This means that, while there will be soloists and instrumentalists, there will be no acting, costumes or sets. It is not an opera, but a “piece of dramatic choral work,” he said. However, while it will not look like Fiddler on the Roof, it also won’t look like a choir concert. The oratorio has 3 parts: preparation, the life of Jesus, and Revelation. Handel wrote his oratorios around Bible stories. He was not Catholic, but the first performance of the Mes-siah actually took place for Catholics in Ireland as part of a charity concert.

Georg Frideric Handel, a German composer from the Baroque pe-riod, wrote the Messiah in 24 days. His music has two distinctive features: word-painting and drama, since Handel had a good in-stinct for effect. Word painting means that the music expresses the words. When the words say “angels’ wings” the music sounds like angels’ wings—it flutters about in a high range.In his lecture, Fr. Joncas will play passages from the work and project the score on the wall so the audience can see what they are hearing. He will orient the audience to the oratorio to help those who have never heard Classical music and don’t know anything about it. Fr. Joncas calls the Messiah a masterwork of civilization that makes a wonderful meditation. “This would be for musicians what the rosary is for Christians,” he said.

Fr. Joncas said the audience may come for nostalgic memory (it’s tradition) or for a spiritual experience, or maybe just to hear the performers. He expects the audience to be mostly Christians due to demographics in Minnesota, but said it can be enjoyed both as an aesthetic performance or a religious performance. A non-Chris-tian could enjoy it just as much for its aesthetic quality.

Fr. Joncas provides students with three persuasive reasons to go: a) It’s Advent. With finals, students find it hard to take time to pray and reflect. However, Advent is the most important time for them to do so. b) People need to experience a classical concert. Fr. Joncas said that one can hardly call him/herself a well-rounded, educated person, other-wise. c) It will be sociologically interest-ing. “You will see people from all walks of life in that audience,” he said. Fr. Jon-cas also hopes it will be a source of spiri-tual growth for people.

If you find that the Sunday before finals week is free, you may want to get tickets to go see Georg Frideric Handel’s Messiah. It may be just the thing to ease your stress and put you in spirit of Advent.

The Year of St. Paul

The Messiah: A Must-See for this Advent

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI declared 2008 the “Year of St. Paul” to celebrate

the 2,000th anniversary of this great mis-sionary saint’s birth. While this “Pauline Year” will have a special significance in Rome, where St. Paul’s tomb lies, it will also be celebrated throughout the world. Benedict announced that this year must have an “ecumenical dimension” to it.Beyond Rome, Benedict has declared that all over the world, “initiatives will be or-ganized in dioceses [and] institutions of study and assistance which carry the name of St. Paul or which have been inspired by him and his teaching.” The St. Paul Semi-nary has responded to Benedict’s request to celebrate its patron by sponsoring a series of five luncheon talks on the history and theology of St. Paul. The series is entitled

“St. Paul: Theologian, Pastor, and Mission-ary. Reflections on the History and Theol-

ogy of our Patron,” and is free and open to

the public. The speakers hail from the St. Thomas Theology department and the St. Paul Seminary.The first and second talks of the series were by Dr. John Martens, whose specialty is the New Testament, particularly the writings of St. Paul. Martens spoke of how St. Paul “appropriates” scripture, meaning he takes possession of it and uses it as his own. All of Paul’s scriptural appropriation stemmed from the idea that scripture is the Word of God and is about unity and looking at the whole picture. Paul’s method of interpret-ing scripture is not unlike that practiced by the Rabbis of his day, who attempted to ap-ply the Torah to contemporary situations and use it to make sense of the world in which they lived. We are called to study scripture in a similar way today.

Marissa Evans

St. Paul continues on page 5

Statue of St. Paul in the courtyard of the St. Paul Seminary

Fr. Michael Joncas

December 2008 The Signature Page 3

While walking back from class, I remarked to one of my fellow Bernardians that, despite our best ef-

forts, it is often obvious to the Italians that we are tourists. On this point I was promptly corrected—“We are not tourists!”

Upon reflection, I have realized that this is quite true, not sim-ply because of the length of time that we are here, but also be-cause of the manner in which we are here. We have not come just to see the sights, snap photos and move on. We have come to enter into the life of the city as part of the experience of our Faith. Further, we come not only to take what Rome has to of-fer, but also to share what we have to offer. With the help of the Bernardi chaplaincy and our UST professor, Dr. Cavana-ugh, we have found numerous avenues through which to do this.

Working with the Poorest of the Poor: Mission-aries of Charity and the San Egidio Community

One new experience that we have found difficult is encounter-ing the very poor on a daily basis. Anywhere we go in Rome, we are confronted by homeless men, women and children beg-ging on the streets. Being unable to help all of them, and unable to distinguish which of them most need our help, we are often unsure how to reach out to these brothers and sisters in Christ.

Some of us have found our niche by volunteer-ing with the Missionaries of Charity, Blessed Mother Teresa’s sisters. Across the street from the Circus Maxi-mus, the Sisters run a homeless shelter for men, mainly immi-grants who are not able to find work or receive government assistance. We never know exactly what to ex-pect when we arrive—washing floors, snapping beans, serving food and learning to scrub clothes by hand are all part of the fun! We are also privileged to be able to pray with the men and practice our Ital-ian by trying to talk to them. They are very patient with us, though often amused by our mistakes. As one of the Sisters explained to us the first day, we have learned that the language of love is universal. Smiles seem to suffice when verbs don’t come out in the right tense!

Another group that reaches out to Rome’s poor is the lay com-munity of San Egidio. They gather each evening for prayer in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, and unite to serve the needy in creative ways throughout the city. Some of these in-clude delivering meals to those living in the streets and train

stations, running a restaurant where they employ the men-tally handicapped, and managing a soup kitchen in Trastevere.

The soup kitchen is unique. Instead of a line that is rushed and chaotic, it has a restaurant-like atmosphere where peo-ple can sit down, relax, and be served at tables. Each of us was placed in charge of only one table, so that we could be completely available to our guests and converse with them.

Serving those who Serve— Little Sisters of the Lamb

Others have found great joy in working with The Little Sisters of the Lamb, another religious community that serves the poor. Originally founded in France, the Sisters bring the light of Christ through the witness of their own pov-erty. They live by begging for their meals in poor neigh-borhoods. Initially, this seems strange, but their mission is to become like Jesus, the Lamb who makes Himself vulnerable and ap-proachable to the lit-tlest ones. Through the Sisters, the poor are able to encoun-ter the Church, be-cause He comes to them in weak-ness and humility. Having the oppor-tunity to give also makes people open to receiving what the Sisters have to give them—the message of Christ’s love through prayer and catechesis.

The role that my fellow students have here consists of help-ing out with odd jobs at the convent, especially the garden which is an important source of food for the Sisters and the poor that they visit. Gardening, maintenance and yard work (which has included tackling the gigantic cactus that threat-ens to take over!) help sustain their life and beautiful mis-sion. The Sisters’ example of deep prayer and genuine gratitude continues to edify and inspire the group that serves with them.

Through serving at these communities, we are able to con-nect with the poor in a personal way in this great city.

Local Best: Three opportunities to be Ecclesia in Rome

Two seminarians tackling a cactus at the Little Sisters of the Lamb convent

The Missionaries of Charity in their soup kitchen

Kalynn Webster

Page 4 The Signature December 2008

“The Family: Searching for Fairest Love”Fall Philosophy Conference at Notre Dame

Melissa Hackenmueller

“The natural family, as an intimate com-munion of life and love, based on mar-riage between a man and a woman, consti-tutes ‘the primary place of humanization for the person and society,’ and a ‘cradle of life and love.’” So said Pope Benedict XVI in his 2008 World Day of Peace mes-sage. The family is integrally important to society and to the individual, yet it seems that many aspects of our modern Ameri-can world attack the family. How can we as sincere Catholics defend the family? Even more basically, what is the family?

These questions were the focus of the Uni-versity of Notre Dame’s annual Fall phi-losophy conference, sponsored by Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture. The conference was held from November 6-8th, 2008, and was titled: “The Fam-ily: Searching for Fairest Love.” Nearly thirty St. Thomas students attended this conference through the sponsorship of the St. Thomas Philosophy Department.

And search it did. Professors, scholars and students from all over the country presented on a wide variety of topics. These ranged anywhere from the relationship between the family and the State, to bio-technology and bioethics, to the human family as image

of the divine, and everywhere in between. There were many presenters from the Uni-versity of St. Thomas, including Dr. Coul-ter, Dr. Kemp, and senior Molly Leonard.

One particularly interesting presentation was by the Fernandes family, who immi-grated to the United States in the 1970s from India. Dr. Fernandes and his three sons spoke about challenges to the Faith when raising a family in an unfamiliar land. The Fernandes learned early that to embrace Ca-tholicism in its fullest aspect, one must be an active part of the parish community. This is necessary because it is easy to feel lost and isolated in the day to day struggles without some social structure for support. Without the support of a parish community, growth in one’s faith life is much more difficult.

Dr. Catherine Deavel, from our very own philosophy department, presented a paper on “My Brother’s Keeper: Siblings and Virtue.” In her presentation, Dr. Deavel reflected on the importance of siblings to the family as a whole, but specifically as builders of virtue in one another. In a fam-ily with two or more children, there is simply more opportunity to build virtue, argued Deavel. The children must learn to share both their toys and the attention of

parents with other siblings, to cooperate peacefully with each other, and to suffer “injustice” when an older sibling is allowed to do something that the younger is not.

Senior Jessica Connelly was impressed with the presentations that she attended. “The people who gave the talks had put a lot of research and thought into their papers,” she said. “Because of that, they were able to present quite well since they really knew the topic on which they were presenting.” David Solomon (director of the Center for Ethics and Culture) re-marked on this same thing during the clos-ing dinner on Saturday night. He said he has never had to turn away so many high quality papers as at this year’s conference.

For those interested in reading the pa-pers presented, check out this web site: <http://ethicscenter.nd.edu/archives/conf.shtml>. Although the topic has not been chosen for next year’s conference, it will doubtless also be of stellar quality. As always, students are welcomed and highly encouraged to attend the confer-ence, so mark it on your calendars early!

If you’re reading this article, I hope that you will someday find yourself a visitor to Rome, the Eternal City. … and that you will be disappointed.

If you come to Rome with an itinerary bursting at the seams, a guidebook boasting that every top tier site can be seen in 36 hours and the idea that one can “do Rome” in three days, then I hope you miss out.

No, I am not the Ebeneezer Scrooge of tourism. Like every other major city, Rome’s streets are filled with people from every corner of the planet. Smarmy tour guides with brightly-colored umbrel-las accost you in St. Peter’s Square to sell you a flash tour; visitors vie to pose in front of Michelangelo’s Pieta and Bernini’s canopy; people want to see it all, see it quickly and bring back pictures to prove to their friends how they too, came, saw, and conquered.

The tourists all look, and look, and look, but they never truly see.Now, lest we roll our eyes at seemingly trivial matters of seman-tics, let it be known that the difference between looking and seeing is of fundamental importance for human beings. In 1988, German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper published a short, though stir-ring, book entitled Only the Lover Sings. In it, he puts forth an extraordinary vision of the human person as finding his true good in that which he places before his eyes.

Pieper says that “the ultimate fulfillment, the absolutely meaning-ful activity, the deepest satisfaction, and the fullest achievement of human existence must needs happen in an instance of beholding, namely in the contemplating awareness of the world’s ultimate and intrinsic foundations” (p.22). Far from the brief glance of the tour-ist or the snap of a lens shutter, Pieper emphasizes the importance of “contemplating awareness”:

For Those Who Have the Eyes to See…

Rome continues on page 5

December 2008 The Signature Page 5 Rome continued from page 4

Nicholas George

St. Paul continued from page 2

“Whenever in reflective and receptive contemplation we touch, even remotely, the core of all things, the hidden ultimate reason of the living universe, the divine foundation of all that is, the purest form of archetypes (and the act of perception, immersed in contem-plation, is the most intensive form of grasping and owning), when-ever and wherever we behold the very essence of reality—there is an activity that is meaningful in itself taking place” (p.23).

As Christians, we learn that acts of nat-ural perception and contemplation find their ultimate fulfill-ment in the Beatific Vision—seeing God and beholding Truth Himself for all eter-nity. In a sense, the criterion for entering Heaven is the mea-sure in which we let God transform us into the kind of men and women who have eyes that can look at Him as He Is, accepting and loving Him and His Truth.All this brings us, of course, back to Rome, where a cynical tour guide points out the self-portrait of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgment and muses aloud why the great artist looks so angry to see Jesus back so soon. The Chapel itself is full of men and women from all over the planet craning their heads upward to look at God the Father borne aloft by angels and racing toward Adam, who apparently sees little reason to rise from his La-Z-Boy recliner for the occasion. Light from the clerestory win-dows floods the chapel, reflecting off the ceiling and into the eyes of the hundreds below. No doubt they perceive the frescoes: some of the finest works of art ever created, made for the purpose of depicting something true and essential about what it means to be a human being. At least, they perceive for a moment before they are rushed away. And rightfully so—the Coliseum tour is at 3:00, followed by the Trevi at 4:00, the Pantheon at 5:15 and dinner near the Spanish Steps to follow. But in all that, I’m not convinced that

they ever see.

Rome is full of art. The very city is a work of art in itself. And all true art has a truth, a virtue to show us—if we have the eyes to see it. Art is meant to draw our hearts and minds up, even past the ceiling of the Sistine Cha-pel, to the highest Truths, the most perfect realities, to the contemplation of God Himself. It draws us, as Pieper says, in to a contemplative “feast”—the perfect ex-pression of which is found in beholding and worshiping the living God. Pieper tells us that the feast into which art leads us is “at the same time the remembrance of primordial bliss and the anticipa-tion of future fulfillment” (p.69)—a reminder of who God is, of who we are, and of the eternal joy in God that awaits us if we hold fast until the very end.

Some say that you come to Rome a tourist and leave a pilgrim. If ever you come to Rome and are disappointed not to have seen everything you wanted, fear not. In fact, I hope that you don’t see everything on your list. If, instead, you can spend even a few minutes truly fixing your eyes on the Pieta, the Last Judgment, Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul, and see what is really there waiting for you, then it doesn’t matter how much else you saw or what pictures you were able to bring back. Rome will have been what it is meant to be—a taste of something more, something deeper. A perception, however dim, of nothing less than “that city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

Dr. Martens’ second lecture on the life of St. Paul. Paul traveled around the world because of his burning desire to bring the Gospel to as many people as possible. He founded churches and traveled to them to support, encourage, and build them up. When he couldn’t be with the people of the churches, Paul wrote them letters, often ad-dressing specific problems they were fac-ing at the timeFr. Betancourt gave the third lecture on the topic of Christ as the center of Pauline the-ology. Fr. Betancourt adopts the idea held by many that Christ is the core from which all of Paul’s teachings develop. The fact

that the word “Christ” itself is used 270 times in Paul’s letters certainly weighs in on this idea. Several images of Christ are portrayed throughout the epistles, includ-ing Christ Crucified and Christ as a Second Adam. Paul also uses the mystical language of “In Christ,” that is having Christ within me or you.If you haven’t been able to attend a Pau-line lecture yet, you still have a chance! Friday February 20th, 2009, Fr. Scott Carl will speak on “Practical Theology: Paul as Theologian for the Church.” The lecture begins at 12:30 p.m. in Ireland Library on south campus. And while you’re in the

area, stop by to see the beautiful statue of St. Paul that has stood proudly just outside the St. Paul Seminary since mid-August. It is believed to be the first permanent out-door statue of St. Paul within this city. So celebrate the patron of the seminary and of our great city by attending one of these free lectures and gazing upon the beauty of this incredible saint.

Paula Thelen

A painting of the Resurrection in one of Rome’s many churches

The colosseum on a tourist-free day

The Signature is published by the Department of Catholic Studies

Department Chair: Dr. Robert KennedyEditor: Melissa HackenmuellerLayout: Mark Lanari

The SignatureDepartment of Catholic StudiesUniversity of St. ThomasMail 55-S2115 Summit AvenueSt. Paul, MN 55105-1096

For the Fridge

“Where to Search for the Lord”

“The Christmas story reminds us once again it was not man’s idea that the Son of God should be born in a stable. And so the first thing we learn from Jesus’ birth is that the Lord will not

always be found where we expect to find Him. We tend to look for Him in the nice, the clean, the warm. We expect Him to

be in churches and in the Bible and in hymns of praise and in Christmas cards which have Scripture verses on them…And if these are the only places we search for the Lord, then we’re not

looking in the stable. This reality is expressed with dramatic force in these lines from Michael Quoist’s book called Prayers:I am not made of plaster, nor of stone, nor of bronze. I am liv-ing flesh throbbing, suffering. I am among men [and women]

and they have not recognized Me. I am poorly paid, I am unem-ployed, I live in a slum. I am sick, I sleep under bridges, I am

in prison. I am oppressed, I am patronized. I sweat men’s blood on all battlefields. I cry out in the night and die in the solitude

of battle. And yet I said to them: ‘Whatever you do to My brothers [or sisters], however humble, you do to Me.’ That’s clear! The terrible thing is that they know it, but don’t take it

seriously.”

---James F. Colaianni, Sunday Sermon Masterpiece Collection, Vol. II, p. 694

Faces of Catholic Studies:2008 Talent Show