Five Representatives from the Institute of Pastoral Studies traveled to Arizona in early February, Drs. timone davis, Nat Samuel, Mike Canaris, and Peter Jones, joined later by Mariana Miller, to attend two conferences and visit the U.S./Mexico border in Nogales.
Dr. Samuel served as the President of the Association of Graduate Programs in Ministry and presided over his final annual AGPIM conference at the Redemptorist Retreat Center in Tuscon, Arizona on February 6 through 8, at that meeting handing over leadership to incoming president Ted Whapham from the Neuhoff School of Ministry, University of Dallas. The AGPIM meeting was well attended and very productive. This is the 15th anniversary of a landmark pastoral letter from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: Co-Workers in the Vineyard. That document builds on the Second Vatican Council and attempts to formalize the development of lay leaders in the U.S. Catholic Church. The AGPIM group was joined by representatives of the USCCB and they discussed the rise of private lay-run groups (like “Evangelical Catholic”), the inconsistent way that Co-Workers has been received and acted upon across the U.S., and the need to rewrite and reissue the document based on what has been learned in the last 15 years and in light of the changing context of ministry in the United States. There are plans for the group to develop a volume addressing these and other issues, with our own Nat Samuel and Mike Canaris serving as co-editors along with Jakob Karl Rinderknecht, director of The Pastoral Institute at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio..
Among the groups comprising the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) is a group of schools offering Pastoral, Theological and Ministerial Education. The IPS Assistant Dean of Continuing Education, Mariana Miller, is the past-chair of this group and joined the team in Arizona. This AJCU group met at the same location on Feb 9 and representatives from IPS, Loyola New Orleans, Fordham, Loyola Marymount, Gonzaga, Seattle University, and more were in attendance. Following a morning meeting, the group traveled to the U.S./Mexico border town of Nogales for an encounter with migrants, refugees, and others seeking asylum in the United States along with those who serve them. The Kino Border Initiative was formed by a partnership among several groups, including the Jesuits, Diocese of Tuscon, Jesuit Refugee Service, and others. Fr. Sean Carroll, SJ., the Executive Director, held a mass in the small building that serves as the first aid clinic, dining area, liturgical space, and a host of other things. Fr. Carroll wrote an op-ed on recent developments and it was published in the Arizona Republic the day of the visit: “Women are raped, children are traumatized because of Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy.”
The
AJCU group walked to the Mexican side of the border with Sr. Tracey Horan, who
works with the Kino Initiative. She led our tour of sections of the border
fence, introduced us to asylum seekers waiting at the fence, and described to
us their mission for visitors to the area: HAC = Humanize, Accompany,
Complicate. She was true to that mission. The group participated in mass,
toured a brand new building that will exponentially impact the services Kino
can offer, and talked with Fr. Sean about the work they’re doing and to learn
more about the border. The trip was an existentially challenging one for all.
Mike
Canaris wrote about the trip, including more historical notes that we’re sure
you’ll find very interesting, and this was published as his weekly column in
the Catholic Star Herald: The
Legacy Father Eusebio Francisco Kino.
2-19-2020|Comments Off on Professors Without Borders
Registrations for the Rome 2019 program are now open. Space is limited. 1st deposit deadline: Dec-15.
*** ALUMNI: Please contact Dr. Mike Canaris (mcanaris@luc.edu) before registering. ***
The IPS 2019 Study in Rome summer program provides a unique opportunity to experience firsthand the historical, cultural, and spiritual benefits of the Eternal City and the Vatican. Led by faculty members with longstanding personal relationships with local academic and ecclesial leaders there, the program is a unique opportunity for students of IPS. Participants are able to draw upon the invaluable resources of Loyola’s half-century presence running a campus for students of various ages and degree programs who choose to study in the Eternal City.
Upcoming Summer June 18–28, 2019 Courses:
IPS 402: Church and Mission, taught by Dr. Michael Canaris
IPS 599: Spirituality of Pilgrimage and the Contexts of Faith, taught by Dr. Bill Schmidt
Shingai Chigwedere and Doreen Kelly are two IPS students who participated in last summer’s Rome program. They have been kind enough to share their thoughts on their Eternal City experience.
From Shingai:The IPS Rome Summer Program is a unique opportunity to engage in faith, fellowship and delicious food. Rome is special because it is a trifecta of rich religious, political and cultural history. Two classes were offered, I took the Theology of Pope Francis class with Dr. Mike Canaris. I was impressed with the way our church tours and tourist location visits connected with our class content on encounter, service, collegiality and ecumenism to name a few. Dr. Canaris and Dr. Jones did a fantastic job preparing semi-lectures and discussion material for our in-situ experience. My class spent 1.5 days in Assisi learning more about the Franciscan influence in Pope Francis’ life. We did volunteer work at Sant’ Egidio community, had an insightful visit to the Jewish Ghetto Museum and Synagogue, and learned more about ecumenical dialogue at Centro Pro Unione.
My favorite part was celebrating Mass and having private prayer and reflection time in churches like St. Peter’s Basilica and Santa Maria Maggiore. Having participated in Loyola’s Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat, it was profoundly heartwarming to celebrate Mass in St. Ignatius’ room, with a Jesuit celebrant, with classmates from a Jesuit University, in Rome, during the pontificate of a Jesuit Pope. Wow, what a unique moment in time! It was enriching to walk with (figuratively and literally, we walked a lot!), learn with and from committed and passionate IPS classmates. The time we spent getting to know each other (encountering each other) as we broke bread and enjoyed great food and gelato was priceless. Don’t miss out on this educational and spiritually enhancing opportunity!
From Doreen: What I expected: To visit and learn about places important to the history of the early Church, to celebrate Eucharist in some unique and special locations, to eat great food, to walk a lot.
What I found: All of the above and so much more!! Rich stories about artwork and architecture shared by extraordinarily knowledgeable classmates and our professor; an unexpected and simple call from God to be with God in amazing places which commemorated both sinners and saints; walking that became a pilgrimage on which I met God in others; meals that became celebrations of friendship; the best gelato in the world; deep conversations which expressed faith seeking understanding; intense times of silence in the presence of places that had been inhabited by or items once belonging to saints; an opportunity to serve and pray with a community making a difference in the daily lives of immigrants; deeply spiritual sacramental moments.
How it has changed me: IPS Rome 2018 awakened the pilgrim in me, that belief that whether the road is ordinary or extraordinary, God waits there to be found in both subtle and majestic ways. I am ever grateful!
Dr. Luca Badetti has just joined the IPScommunity as an Adjunct Assistant Professor. He will be part of the Pastoral Counseling program and will teach two Fall 2018 classes: “Research Methods” and “Foundations of Pastoral Care”.
Dr. Badetti was born in Rome, did middle school in Milan, and then moved to the United States. He obtained a master’s in Clinical Psychology from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences at Divine Mercy University and a doctorate in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), writing his dissertation on “Self-Determination and Community Life in Persons with Intellectual Disabilities”.
VoyageChicago recently published a detailed profile on Dr. Badetti, highlighting among other things his current work as the Community Life Director at L’Arche Chicago, “a multi-cultural faith community on the west side comprised of three homes in which people with and without intellectual disabilities live together ordinary life (sharing meals, going on outings, praying together, etc.).” In this role, Luca supports community life across its different layers: hiring and training assistants/staff, leading team meetings, events and retreats, accompanying, listening and walking with people as they grow through their community journey.”
We would like to share below Dr. Badetti’s responses to a few questions we recently posed to him:
Why IPS? What drew you to this program?
I have come to believe that life reveals itself to us as we journey along – it can surprise us and lead us, sometimes in very unexpected ways. This is true across its different domains, even the academic and professional one.
I didn’t plan to find Loyola University’s Institute for Pastoral Studies but I found it, and it found me.
To give a bit of background, during my undergraduate studies I wanted to study the human person in a holistic way, and one discipline was not enough to do so! I therefore double majored and double minored, seeking to bring together theology, philosophy and psychology.
I obtained a master’s in clinical psychology from a graduate institute of the psychological sciences (its abbreviated name was IPS too!), which sought to combine psychology with theology.
I then continued my own reflection on integration, which continues to this day. This reflection also informs and has been informed by my community leadership and pastoral experience in L’Arche, a movement of faith communities in which people with and without intellectual disabilities share life together in a spirit of belonging. I currently am the Director of Community Life in our Chicago community, which I became a part of once I moved to the city about eight years ago for my doctorate in Disability Studies.
I was already interested in IPS when I found out about it years ago, having known some of its students but also one of its founders. Considering my background, here it was…an institute that sought to combine psychological and theological insights for the accompaniment of people! How could I not be interested?
IPS then found me, inviting me to teach as one of its adjunct professors.
How do you feel about joining IPS?
I am honored and pleased.
I just mentioned a bit about my academic/community background…I find so many connections between it and the focus of IPS. I am glad to now be part of the IPS team.
Coming originally from Rome and currently living in Chicago, I also find quite exciting that IPS has a presence in both Chicago and Rome. Yet another connection!
What are your expectations about being part of the IPS family?
I am ready to be surprised!
Expectations, on the other hand, can be tricky, precisely because of what I was mentioning before about life revealing itself. Expectations can be like little boxes in our heads, while life is so much bigger than them. But, yes, I am open to being surprised.
Finally, can you share a personal spiritual practice that continues to restore and re-energize your mind, body, heart and spirit?
I believe there is a deep core to spirituality, beyond words, that is very intimate, mysterious and profound. Like other intimate realities, it should be protected and not exposed.
There is also a level in spirituality that is personal while also being communal and social, from which one can share with others using words and from which I am drawing my reply to your question.
Instead of using the concept of a practice I do, I’d like to speak of a reality I like to enter into – and also nurture: leisure.
What in Italy is called the “dolce far niente” (the sweet doing nothing) is a beautiful being present. Whether sharing coffee with a friend, listening to music, enjoying good food, sitting quietly, strolling around and so forth, leisure can be a delightfully human, and therefore profoundly spiritual, experience. That primacy of being over doing.
A Lenten reflection from IPS Assistant Professor, Michael Canaris:
Theologian Daniel Groody, CSC has reflected on strengthening our spiritual disciplines in various demonstrations of solidarity and renewal, some of which are particularly appropriate for Lent: focusing on prayer, simplicity and recollection in regular moments like the Sabbath. One of the most eye-opening of these practices he suggests is considering a “fast from technology.”
The average American checks their phone every 12 minutes or over 80 times per day. More than two-thirds of us get at least substantial portions of our news from social media sources, which are intentionally designed to offer stories based on previous inclinations and interests. Self-sorting “traditional” media outlets on television and radio provide much of the same. All of this results in an increase in tribalism and the silos of echo-chambers that characterize so much of our public discourse. Dialogue with one another becomes strained. And if we claim to love God who we cannot see while refusing to hear the cries of our neighbor who we do, then we are liars according to the Word of God.
We often have recourse to fall back somewhat easily on the (admirable) directives of the church when it comes to questions of what our fasts should look like during Lent. These regular calls to penitence help us raise our hearts and minds to God, to focus on our radical dependence and constant need for God’s presence, forgiveness and revitalization in our lives.
But it’s also important to remember that God does not somehow intrinsically prefer one half of our surf and turf predilections over the other on certain days of the week. Choosing lobster over filet on Friday merely out of a rigorist interpretation of the law offers negligible impact on one’s spiritual life, and even less on the nature of God’s unbegotten and eternal beatitude and beneficence. (That said, I have eaten meatballs after midnight on early Saturday morning raids to the refrigerator more times in my life than I would like to confess in public.)
But to recalibrate the grounding of our self-mortifications consistently, it is essential to return often to the words of the prophet Isaiah, among my favorite in all of Scripture:
“Why do we fast, but You do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but You do not notice?”
“Look,” says the Lord, “you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
You fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down your head like a reed, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
And you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this rather the fast that I desire: to loosen the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the foreigner into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wounds shall be healed quickly.”
Our use of technology, which has given us countless blessings, is also increasingly enabling us to practice all too habitually the last of these divine condemnations. When our phones and computers hinder real connections and instead allow us sufficient cover “to hide our humanity from our own kin,” we know that we have not only a cultural but a theological problem.
Fasting from food is not the same thing as forced starvation. So too, a willingness to examine our practices regarding technological communication is not a compulsory abandonment of those realities that are necessary for the betterment of our professional and personal lives. But an honest scrutiny will likely reveal addictive or detestable practices for which a day of fasting may now be appropriate or necessary.
This may be the year when assessing and addressing these tendencies could help us grow closer both to our human neighbor and to God.
This reflection first appeared in Catholic Star Herald. Michael Canaris, PhD is an Assistant Professor at IPS. You can reach him at mcanaris@luc.edu.
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Join the Loyola community in prayer and celebration at HOLY WEEK services and events across the Chicagoland campuses. Click here.
A Lenten reflection from IPS Assistant Professor of Spirituality, Jean-Pierre Fortin:
According to the Gospel of John, when Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, he tells the Roman governor: “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Jesus was born, came among us to bear witness to the truth. For us Christians, who profess to be followers of Jesus, a fundamental task and challenge to accomplish and face is to bear witness to Jesus. As it invites us to experience and celebrate the mystery of Christ’s Passion, death and resurrection in particular fashion, the Lenten/Easter season is a most suited time for us to reflect on the quality of the witness we bear of and to Christ.
A formative way to do this is to follow Pontius Pilate’s example, who admits to being profoundly challenged by the person and words of Jesus when he responds to Jesus’ witness with an honest question: “What is truth?” (John 18:38) Pilate opens himself to the possibility that he may be encountering a truth he had never foreseen. This encounter with truth in person may change who he is in profound ways. During this Lenten season, then, we may reflect on the ways Jesus questions our assumptions about our lives, we may think about the questions we have been carrying with us for some time (perhaps even a long time) which we know we should ask to Jesus in person. What are the questions that would liberate us, allowing us to pursue the truth revealed in Jesus in more faithful, complete fashion? We may bring these questions before Jesus in our prayer, with the desire and hope of being transformed so as to be able to bear witness to the truth that he is.
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See below for other Lenten offerings, resources, and events taking place around Loyola University Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area.
The Mission Office invites you to begin and end this Lenten season with an Ignatian examen focused on forgiveness and healing. Each session will begin with an examen followed by shared reflections on the insights or fruits of the examen. The first examen will focus on forgiveness, and as we begin Holy Week, the second examine will focus on healing. For more on this program, go to: https://www.luc.edu/mission/employeeprograms/lentenofferings/.
The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Department of Parish Vitality and Mission is delighted to provide Catholics and non-Catholics with a wide variety of opportunities to take Pope Francis’s words to heart and begin a Lenten mission of deepening relationships with those around them and with Jesus Christ. For specifics, go to this page: https://pvm.archchicago.org/lenten-resources.
Finally, for web-based resources, Campus Ministry has collated the below handout:
Did you know that in the last three years, several IPS Faculty have published over fifty-plus scholarly works?
Congratulations to Michael Canaris, Jean-Pierre Fortin, Peter Jones, Therese Lysaught, Daniel Rhodes, Heidi Russell, William Schmidt, Brian Schmisek, and Deborah Watson for continuing to uphold IPS’s tradition of dynamic scholarship as an integral component to the formation of diverse and dynamic leaders for creative, compassionate, and courageous service to church and society.
These published works are broken down as follows:
Books: 10
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals: 18
Chapters in Books: 9
Encyclopedia articles and other academic publications: 3
Pastoral Resources: 7
Book Reviews: 7
For a full list of these published works, read on below.
Books (10)
Rhodes, Daniel. Can I Get a Witness? The Forgotten Tradition of Radical Christianity in America, edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018. (In press)
Canaris, Michael M. Living Christian Joy Daily: Everyone’s Call – Essays from Rome. Co-edited with Donna Orsuto, STD. Foreword by Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2017.
Rhodes, Daniel, and Tim Condor. Organizing Church: Grassroots Practices for Changing Your Congregation, Your Community, and Our World (Chalice Press, 2017).
Russell, Heidi. The Source of All Love: Catholicity and the Trinity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian. The Rome of Peter and Paul: A Pilgrim’s Guide to New Testament Sites in the Eternal City. Pickwick Publications, 2017.
Canaris, Michael M. Francis A. Sullivan, S.J., and Ecclesiological Hermeneutics: An Exercise in Faithful Creativity. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. Grace in Auschwitz: A Holocaust Christology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016.
Schmisek, Brian. Ancient faith for the modern world: a brief guide to the Apostles Creed. Chicago, IL: ACTA Publications, 2016.
Schmisek, Brian. A Greek reader for Chase and Phillips selections from antiquity. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016.
Russell, Heidi. Quantum Shift: Theological and Pastoral Implications of Contemporary Developments in Science. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2015.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals (18)
Canaris, Michael M. “The Church as Migrant: A New Model of the Church for a ‘Cross-ing’ People,” The Ecumenist (in press).
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Prayerful Spirituality as Experiential Theology: Teresa of Avila’s Mystical Transposition of Augustine’s Confessions.” Studies in Spirituality (in press).
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Christ Risen, Wonder Arising: A Christian Theology of Miracles.” Toronto Journal of Theology 33, supplement 1 (2017): 25-38.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Divine Kenosis: Building the Human Community Out of Mercy.” The Ecumenist: A Journal of Theology, Culture and Society 54, no. 2 (2017): 8-17.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Symbolism in Weakness: Jesus Christ for the Postmodern Age.” Heythrop Journal 58, no. 1 (2017): 64-77.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Four Perspectives – Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation. By Charles C. Camosy.” Horizons 44, no. 1 (2017): 160-64. doi:10.1017/hor.2017.5.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Confession as Spiritual Communion: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Theology of Forgiveness and Reconciliation.” Touchstone 34, no. 3 (2016): 14-24.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Spirituality as Lived Interpretation: A Transformative Encounter between Two Traditions.” Religious Studies and Theology 35, no. 1 (2016): 37-51.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Geographies and Accompaniment: Toward an Ecclesial Re-ordering of the Art of Dying.” Studies in Christian Ethics 29, no. 3 (2016): 286-293. doi:10.1177/0953946816642977.
Lysaught, M. Therese. Issue editor, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 41, no. 6 (December 2016). Special issue on The Anticipatory Corpse, by Jeffrey P. Bishop.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “From The Anticipatory Corpse to the Participatory Body.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 41, no. 6 (December 2016).
Rhodes, Daniel. “Time Emptied And Time Renewed – The Dominion Of Capital And A Theo-Politics Of Contretemps.” Journal of Religious Theory (December 12, 2016).
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Spiritual Empowerment for Love: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics of Resistance.” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian Journal of Bonhoeffer Studies 3, no. 2 (2015): 19-40.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Critical Theology, Committed Philosophy: Discovering Anew the Faith-Reason Dynamics with Origen of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo.” Philosophy and Theology 27, no. 1 (2015): 25-54.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Clinically Integrated Networks: A Cooperation Analysis,” Health Care Ethics: USA 23, no. 4 (Fall 2015): 6-10.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Roman Catholic Teaching on International Debt: Toward a New Methodology for Catholic Social Ethics and Moral Theology,” Journal of Moral Theology. 4, no. 2 (June 2015): 1-17.
Schmidt, William. “Integral Theory: A Broadened Epistemology,” American International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 3, no. 1 (2017).
Schmisek, Brian. “The “Spiritual Body” as Oxymoron in 1 Corinthians 15:44.” Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture 45, no. 4 (November 16, 2015): 230-38. doi:10.1177/0146107915608597.
Chapters in Books (9)
Canaris, Michael M. “Immigration and Ecclesial Receptivity: Congar and Rahner as Resources for An Ecumenical and Philoxenical Ecclesiology of Reception,” in The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration. Edited by Alexander Hwang and Laura Alexander. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, (in press).
Lysaught, M. Therese. “A Midwife of Grace: Sr. Mary Stella Simpson,” in Can I Get a Witness: The Forgotten Tradition of Radical Christianity in America, edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018. (In press).
Rhodes, Daniel. “A Sickness Unto Life: Cesar Chavez and the Quest for Farmworker Justice.” In Can I Get a Witness? The Forgotten Tradition of Radical Christianity in America, edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018. (In press).
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Catholicism in the Neonatal Context: Belief, Practice, Challenge, Hope.” In Religion and the Newborn, edited by Ron Green and George Little. Oxford University Press (in press).
Canaris, Michael M. “Alma Mater, Mater Exulum: Jesuit Education and Immigration. A Moral Framework and its Historical Roots.” In Undocumented and in College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility, edited by Terry-Ann Jones and Laura Nichols. New York: Fordham University Press, 2017.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Incarnating Caritas.” In Incarnate Grace: Perspectives on the Ministry of Catholic HealthCare, edited by Charles Bouchard. 11-26. (Catholic Health Association, 2017).
Canaris, Michael M. “A Rahnerian Reading of Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church,” in Learning from All the Faithful: A Contemporary Theology of the Sensus Fidei, edited by Bradford E. Hinze and Peter C. Phan, 196-212. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Ritual – A Framework for Ritual at the Deathbed.” In Dying in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Lydia Dugdale. 67-86. MIT Press, 2015.
Watson, D. Sculpting narratives: Experiencing positive narratives in therapy. In The therapist’s notebook for children and adolescents: Homework, handouts, and activities for use in psychotherapy (2nd ed., pp.), Sori, C. F., Hecker, L. L., & Bachenberg, M. E. (Eds.). New York: Routledge, 2016.
Encyclopedia Articles and Other Academic Publications (3)
Rhodes, Daniel. “Brownson, Orestes Augustus”; “Christian Community Development Association”; “Garvey, Marcus”; “Morehouse, Henry Lymon”; “Open Doors”; “Stringfellow, Frank William”; “Word Gospel Mission”. Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Edited by George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Watson, D. Genograms. In J. Carlson & S. Dermer (Eds.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Marriage, Family, and Couples Counseling. 733-737. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2016.
Rhodes, Daniel. “The Contradiction of Hope in an Estranged World: David Harvey’s Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism,” in Syndicate Theology (April 6, 2015).
Pastoral Resources (7)
Schmidt, William. Editor, Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion: Year B (2018). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy for Music Ministers: Year B (2018). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy: Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis for Sundays and Solemnities: Year B (2018). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy Sunday Missal 2018. Liturgical Press. 2017.
Schmisek, Brian. Fundamentos del Nuevo Testamento: Jesús y sus discípulos. Paulist Press. 2017. (Translated from English Edition: Catholic Bible Study Program: New Testament Foundations Student Workbook Paulist Press. 2008).
Schmisek, Brian. El Programa de la Escuela Bíblica Católica: Fundamentos Del Antiguo Testamento: De Génesis a 2 Reyes. Paulist Press. 2016. (Translated from English edition: Old Testament Foundations Student Workbook. Paulist Press).
Book Reviews (7)
Jones, Peter L. “Review of Theology in the Flesh: How Embodiment and Culture Shape the Way We Think about Truth, Morality, and God,”International Journal of Public Theology [in press].
Canaris, Michael M. “Review of Will Pope Francis Pull It Off? by Rocco D’Ambrosio.” The Way, Oxford, October 2017.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Review of Joseph Selling, Reframing Catholic Theological Ethics.” Studies in Christian Ethics 30, no. 4 (2017): 509-513. doi:10.1177/0953946817720910j. https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946817720910j.
Jones, Peter L. “Review of Bulls, Bears, and Golden Calves: Applying Christian Ethics in Economics, by John E. Stapleford.” International Journal of Public Theology 10, no. 1 (2016), 125-127. doi:10.1163/15697320-12341431.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Review of Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation, by Charles Camosy,” Health Progress 97, no. 3 (May–June 2016): 67–68.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Book Review: Michael Banner, the Ethics of Everyday Life: Moral Theology, Social Anthropology, and the Imagination of the Human.” Studies in Christian Ethics 29, no. 3 (2016): 339-342. doi:10.1177/0953946816642960. https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946816642960.
Jones, Peter L. “Review of Ethics that Matters: African, Caribbean, and African-American Sources,” International Journal of Public Theology 9, no.1 (2015): 113-114.
Meet Masters in Spirituality Student: Br. Lee ColombinoCan you tell us a bit about yourself?
By origin, I am a yooper donchaknow, eh?! But, most of my life has now been spent outside the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A few years after undergraduate studies, I entered the Society of Jesus and I have been a brother for nearly twenty years. I have been greatly blessed in my life as a Jesuit. I have been in community with some fantastic men and I have met so many amazing people from the wide range of experiences I have had over the years. Despite my many resistances, it has been a fascinating journey in seeking to grow within God’s Love.
What were you involved in prior to studying at IPS? How did you discern IPS to be a next step?
Two years ago I was teaching in the Visual Arts Department at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, IL. Then starting in September 2016, I worked with Jesuit Refugee Service in Kampala, Uganda, for four months. In early January 2017, I went to Nairobi, Kenya for six months to participate in the East African Tertianship program (tertianship is the last stage of Jesuit formation). It was a phenomenal experience, but one that I am still ‘unpacking’. It was during this time in East Africa that I felt an expanding desire to grow in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, along with a desire to cultivate the skills in being able to give the Spiritual Exercises and to go into spiritual direction.
What are you currently studying at IPS?
Masters in Spirituality: Spiritual Direction concentration
What has your IPS journey been like so far?
In many ways, it has been the perfect continuation of my heart-based experiences in East Africa. I feel very grateful for my instructors and classmates this semester. I particularly enjoy our class conversations as they make the readings come to life. Due to the nature of the readings and conversations, I’ve been doing quite a bit of ‘soul-work’, which has been helpful in ‘unpacking’ my experiences of the last year. My experiences in IPS are providing me with substantially delicious ‘food’ for the journey.
What are some of your favorite Chicago-related pursuits?
Walking around in the city to simply take in the city life; the Chicago skyline and architecture (Architectural Foundation walking tours and river boat tours); Art Institute, Robie House, & other museums; I am looking forward to getting down to Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza after Thanksgiving, as well as getting glögg in Andersonville; finding new restaurants with friends; being by the lake; and walking through the Botanic Gardens.
If you could teach a class at IPS, what would it be called?
This is a fun question. Hmmm…something like: “The Contemplative Life and Art Appreciation / Art Making”
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
At this point, I would offer to my provincial my desires of working in a retreat house as well as my openness to possibly work abroad.
Finally, can you share a personal spiritual practice that continues to restore and re-energize your mind, body, heart and spirit?
Meditational and repetitive mark-making that is like saying the rosary, but instead of speaking, I draw with pen and ink on paper, with the work developing as it does.
In light of recent events, IPS Dean Brian Schmisek penned an opinion piece reflecting on the rising sentiments of racism and sexual assault we are seeing in the national discourse.
Add your thoughts to the discussion below.
By Brian Schmisek
60. That number is the percent of white Catholics who voted for President Trump, the candidate who admitted to the behavior of a sexual predator and appealed openly to racism. Even a leader of his own party said his words were the “textbook definition of a racist comment.” Now that the election is over and we are in the first year of the Trump administration, will the USCCB be calling for a ‘fortnight of freedom’ for women, immigrants, and minorities? Or will the focus remain on “religious liberty” and the contraceptive mandate? Those on the right claim the Supreme Court vacancy was the crucial factor in electing Trump. Does this grand prize, Gorsuch on the bench, excuse or at least rationalize the behavior of the chief executive? Though there are many things to critique about a Trump administration, this troubling number, 60, deserves attention from US Catholics for what it says about us.
Since the 1980s many quarters of Catholic leadership, including some US Bishops, reduced the pro-life issue to abortion, saying it was so beyond the pale that any candidate who openly supported a pro-choice position was thereby ineligible for consideration for elected office by Catholics. About ten years ago, some bishops claimed it was the defining moral issue of the last thirty-five years. Many bishops spoke about denying communion to such politicians, and the fervor increased with each election year. Even if this was never the official position of the USCCB, many thought leaders in conservative Catholic circles argued for that position and it took deep root in the hierarchy and among many of the faithful.
Now, while the US Catholic hierarchy and their conservative allies were focused on that issue, we have elected a President who denigrated entire classes of people based on race, and admitted to, even bragged about sexual assault. Apparently, as 60% of the white Catholic vote indicates, these were not disqualifying factors. In fact, According to the Pew Research Center, Trump received a greater percentage of the votes of white Catholics than any other candidate, Republican or Democrat, in at least 20 years. Indeed, from another more recent study by Pew, comes this startling line: “And among white Catholics – as with white evangelicals – those who attend religious services at least once or twice a month are more approving of Trump’s job performance than are white Catholics who attend Mass less often (61% vs. 44%).”
This overwhelming support from churchgoers seems to be a clarion call that something is wrong with our priorities. There is a problem with the way we are educating and catechizing our people when a blatant racist empowering alt-right groups, neo-Nazis, and other fringe elements receives 3 out of 5 votes from white Catholics, and stronger approval from Mass attending Catholics than not. Trump’s cultivation of support from these extreme groups was mocked in a spoof commercial of “Racists for Trump” on Saturday Night Live, but after a marked increase in hate crimes and violence from what he has unleashed, the stakes have been raised. We need to take a closer look at our role and ourselves as Catholics in this unique time.
Rather than seek to remove the splinter of the contraceptive mandate from the eye of the Affordable Care Act, the bishops would do better to remove the log from their own and that of their flock. Though it pains me and even shames me to say it, that log is latent, pernicious racism, and the minimization of sexual assault among the white Catholic faithful. That log is excusing behavior we would not accept in our children to achieve a seat on the Supreme Court with the hope of ending the contraceptive mandate.
Immediately I can hear the reply that elections are complicated affairs with a variety of issues at stake; white Catholics are not racists and do not minimize sexual assault. I would like to agree. But the election results and the racial divisions it exposed should cause us to reconsider. Where were the letters from US bishops that seem to have been so plentiful in previous presidential cycles? When a candidate is so openly racist and misogynistic, might he have been disqualified from consideration by followers of Jesus who claim to love their neighbor?
The fact that a majority of white Catholics thought such a vote acceptable means there is much work to do, more leadership needed from our bishops. For example, the USCCB might devote at least as much energy to eradicating racism and the trivialization of sexual assault as they do the contraceptive mandate. There is much in Scripture about hospitality, treatment of the other, the stranger, the alien, the immigrant, the widow, and the orphan. It says nothing about a contraceptive mandate. Some bishops have even been ahead of the curve and already spoken about these issues. For example, one of the few African American bishops, Bishop Braxton, published a Text and Study Guide on the topic. This is part of a solid foundation on which to build.
The election of Trump has seen fathers deported, families torn apart, mothers separated from their children, and policies called ‘inhumane’ and ‘contrary to the values of the country and its legal system,’ by at least one federal judge. Hate crimes are increasing; as is violence against minorities. Closeted racism, never locked away tightly, has emerged with a frightening boldness. The free press is threatened; truth itself is under assault with alternative facts and propaganda “news.” A ‘meanness’ and viciousness drives this administration that tears at the fabric of society, and the meaning of truth itself. It’s as though Trump is echoing the words of Pilate, “What is truth?” The contraceptive mandate and the creation of a permanent committee for religious freedom seems to be among the least of our concerns, akin to chasing windmills in the storm of racism and assault.
Was the election of a bigot and braggadocios predator worth a seat on the Supreme Court? Have we given the modern equivalent of 30 pieces of silver for that one vote? If so, there is nothing we can do now but run into the darkness and weep, hoping against hope that at some future resurrection we as a church will be forgiven by a Risen Christ who will embolden us with the command issued three times: feed my sheep. Then, the church will experience a rebirth with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost. On that day, our priorities will reflect Jesus, his commands and his mission. We will welcome the stranger, protect the widow and the orphan, and love our neighbor as Christ loves us.
9-21-2017|Comments Off on 60: IPS Dean Schmisek Reflects On A Troubling Number
In light of recent events, IPS Dean Brian Schmisek penned an opinion piece reflecting on the rising sentiments of racism and sexual assault we are seeing in the national discourse.
Add your thoughts to the discussion below.
By Brian Schmisek
60. That number is the percent of white Catholics who voted for President Trump, the candidate who admitted to the behavior of a sexual predator and appealed openly to racism. Even a leader of his own party said his words were the “textbook definition of a racist comment.” Now that the election is over and we are in the first year of the Trump administration, will the USCCB be calling for a ‘fortnight of freedom’ for women, immigrants, and minorities? Or will the focus remain on “religious liberty” and the contraceptive mandate? Those on the right claim the Supreme Court vacancy was the crucial factor in electing Trump. Does this grand prize, Gorsuch on the bench, excuse or at least rationalize the behavior of the chief executive? Though there are many things to critique about a Trump administration, this troubling number, 60, deserves attention from US Catholics for what it says about us.
Since the 1980s many quarters of Catholic leadership, including some US Bishops, reduced the pro-life issue to abortion, saying it was so beyond the pale that any candidate who openly supported a pro-choice position was thereby ineligible for consideration for elected office by Catholics. About ten years ago, some bishops claimed it was the defining moral issue of the last thirty-five years. Many bishops spoke about denying communion to such politicians, and the fervor increased with each election year. Even if this was never the official position of the USCCB, many thought leaders in conservative Catholic circles argued for that position and it took deep root in the hierarchy and among many of the faithful.
Now, while the US Catholic hierarchy and their conservative allies were focused on that issue, we have elected a President who denigrated entire classes of people based on race, and admitted to, even bragged about sexual assault. Apparently, as 60% of the white Catholic vote indicates, these were not disqualifying factors. In fact, According to the Pew Research Center, Trump received a greater percentage of the votes of white Catholics than any other candidate, Republican or Democrat, in at least 20 years. Indeed, from another more recent study by Pew, comes this startling line: “And among white Catholics – as with white evangelicals – those who attend religious services at least once or twice a month are more approving of Trump’s job performance than are white Catholics who attend Mass less often (61% vs. 44%).”
This overwhelming support from churchgoers seems to be a clarion call that something is wrong with our priorities. There is a problem with the way we are educating and catechizing our people when a blatant racist empowering alt-right groups, neo-Nazis, and other fringe elements receives 3 out of 5 votes from white Catholics, and stronger approval from Mass attending Catholics than not. Trump’s cultivation of support from these extreme groups was mocked in a spoof commercial of “Racists for Trump” on Saturday Night Live, but after a marked increase in hate crimes and violence from what he has unleashed, the stakes have been raised. We need to take a closer look at our role and ourselves as Catholics in this unique time.
Rather than seek to remove the splinter of the contraceptive mandate from the eye of the Affordable Care Act, the bishops would do better to remove the log from their own and that of their flock. Though it pains me and even shames me to say it, that log is latent, pernicious racism, and the minimization of sexual assault among the white Catholic faithful. That log is excusing behavior we would not accept in our children to achieve a seat on the Supreme Court with the hope of ending the contraceptive mandate.
Immediately I can hear the reply that elections are complicated affairs with a variety of issues at stake; white Catholics are not racists and do not minimize sexual assault. I would like to agree. But the election results and the racial divisions it exposed should cause us to reconsider. Where were the letters from US bishops that seem to have been so plentiful in previous presidential cycles? When a candidate is so openly racist and misogynistic, might he have been disqualified from consideration by followers of Jesus who claim to love their neighbor?
The fact that a majority of white Catholics thought such a vote acceptable means there is much work to do, more leadership needed from our bishops. For example, the USCCB might devote at least as much energy to eradicating racism and the trivialization of sexual assault as they do the contraceptive mandate. There is much in Scripture about hospitality, treatment of the other, the stranger, the alien, the immigrant, the widow, and the orphan. It says nothing about a contraceptive mandate. Some bishops have even been ahead of the curve and already spoken about these issues. For example, one of the few African American bishops, Bishop Braxton, published a Text and Study Guide on the topic. This is part of a solid foundation on which to build.
The election of Trump has seen fathers deported, families torn apart, mothers separated from their children, and policies called ‘inhumane’ and ‘contrary to the values of the country and its legal system,’ by at least one federal judge. Hate crimes are increasing; as is violence against minorities. Closeted racism, never locked away tightly, has emerged with a frightening boldness. The free press is threatened; truth itself is under assault with alternative facts and propaganda “news.” A ‘meanness’ and viciousness drives this administration that tears at the fabric of society, and the meaning of truth itself. It’s as though Trump is echoing the words of Pilate, “What is truth?” The contraceptive mandate and the creation of a permanent committee for religious freedom seems to be among the least of our concerns, akin to chasing windmills in the storm of racism and assault.
Was the election of a bigot and braggadocios predator worth a seat on the Supreme Court? Have we given the modern equivalent of 30 pieces of silver for that one vote? If so, there is nothing we can do now but run into the darkness and weep, hoping against hope that at some future resurrection we as a church will be forgiven by a Risen Christ who will embolden us with the command issued three times: feed my sheep. Then, the church will experience a rebirth with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost. On that day, our priorities will reflect Jesus, his commands and his mission. We will welcome the stranger, protect the widow and the orphan, and love our neighbor as Christ loves us.
|Comments Off on 60: IPS Dean Schmisek Reflects On A Troubling Number
Victor Hugo once wrote that “contemplating shadows is a serious thing.” And to a large degree, I think that’s what this panel is an effort to do, to fix our collective gazes upon marginalized communities who are living at the existential peripheries of an interconnected and interdependent world. That is to say, to those dwelling in the shadows.
Hopefully, we all likely realize that this panel and the Jesuit Refugee Services concert series with which it is connected are intentionally tied to Lampedusa for a very specific reason: It was there that in the pope’s first official visit outside of Rome, he lamented the “globalization of indifference” which continues to fail to turn its sights upon the countless refugees and displaced persons around the world in search of security, opportunity, and dignity.
In case some people here are not aware, the tiny island off the coast of Sicily is an entry point for the desperate and destitute to gain a first foothold into Europe. People living on the precipitous edge of subsistence existence with nothing more than they can carry are common images from this rocky outcrop in the Mediterranean, as are rows of coffins of recovered bodies, and the wreckage of any kind of floating vessel you can imagine littering the tiny island. The highlight of the trip was the pope’s memorial and comments given in a makeshift “boat cemetery.” The destabilization of places like Libya and Tunisia, as well as further south in Africa and east towards Egypt and Syria have led tens of thousands of people to risk what is now the deadliest migratory route in the world across the waves, where hundreds die at a time. And yet, so many in the world react as if this is not of their concern….. there is, as the pope put it, a “globalization of indifference.”
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” they seem to echo Cain in callously asking.
Their ambivalence is now being superseded in many quarters by outright hostility.
That day the pope made clear:
“The blood of the lifeless cries out to me, says the Lord. What have you done?
This is not a question directed to others; it is a question directed to me, to you, to each of us. These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace; they were looking for a better place for themselves and their families, but instead they found death. How often do such people fail to find understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find solidarity. And their cry rises up to God!”
What then, if any, is the responsibility of a Jesuit, Catholic institution of higher ed, such as Loyola, to address this “indifference”? Are we called to “contemplate these shadows” of their difficult plight, and if so, what resources, whether intellectual, theological, or material do we have to respond?
First, Christians are given an unambiguous mandate to care for the widow, oppressed, and exile in their scriptures. The xenophobia (fear of foreigners, strangers, aliens, travelers) that is bandied about in our political discourse is rarely counterbalanced by the antidote put forward in the Old and New Testaments. There we find the explicit call to “philoxenia” (love of foreigners, strangers, aliens, travelers). In fact, the entire Christian experience is one of pilgrimage-movement-exile, the first Christians were called practitioners of The Way, all of religious life can in some sense be seen, as Thomas Tweed has put it, as the sort of complementary mutually-informing experiences of crossing and dwelling. We move from darkness toward light, from sin toward redemption, from history toward eternity, a process of unfolding, migration, movement. And in so doing we find resettlement, home, community, “our true native land to be” as the English translation of St. Thomas’s O Salutaris Hostia puts it. So we, as the inheritors of the Christian and Ignatian tradition, are in fact a people of exile, a people received and interwoven into and in solidarity with: a wider vista of community than the provincial and nativist among us would like us to admit. We are all refugees, who seek shelter in the transcendent and in the experience of authentic humanity. Whoever receives you, receives me, says Christ. And Matthew’s gospel makes clear that on the Last Day we will be judged according to how we treat the exile. How prophetic do Jesus’s words ring out when read metaphorically with the rise of today’s majority world: “At the judgment, the queen of the south will rise up against this current generation and condemn it.”
In addition to these biblical mandates, the whole history of Catholic Social Teaching prioritizes the necessity of working for justice, peace, and the common good, with a preferential option for the poor. Theologians like Gutierrez and Boff have consistently argued that the primary issues of our day for all men and women of good will do not revolve around those described as “non-believers” so much as those who societal forces name as “non-persons.” Chief among these are the staggering number of refugees and displaced persons, who the powers that be continue to insist are invisible, irredeemable, and thus, inadmissible (anywhere).
Our commitment cannot stem from a patronizing sense of charity, drawn from privileged largesse, but as the Arrupe College initiative here at Loyola makes clear, it is a moral imperative that all in our community work with, learn from, and better understand ourselves through solidarity with marginalized communities…much more than simply a mandate to “help” the disadvantaged.
However, in this vein, I may surprise some of you here, because I do in fact think we need a wall. A “big, beautiful, powerful” wall. Completely impenetrable. It’s the only way we can make our people great again, recover our true patrimony and protect our historic culture. And, I agree that we ought not be the ones responsible for its construction, someone else ultimately will be the one underwriting it, and be willing to do so to boot.
“For the Lord said to Jeremiah: If you utter what is worthwhile and not what is vile then I will make you unto this people into a fortified wall of bronze; they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you. For I am with you, to save you and deliver you, says the Lord. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.” (Jeremiah 15).
Thus we are called, as both Christian and Americans, to serve as a prophetic “wall of bronze” against hatred, racism, fear of the unknown or protectionism. Hardness of heart and narrowness of mind are not excuses for putting polic
ies ahead of people.
We must stand firm against those who tell us to pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, to the myopia infecting a world that wants desperately to somehow un-remember or rationalize away those troublesome words on the statue of liberty, forged in the crucible of a world torn asunder by hatred and division:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Do we have the courage to stand as a brass wall against those intellectual vandals who rush headlong toward this New Colossus with pitchforks and crowbars to deface our national identity? Is America (in relationship with her allies around the world) still “the mother of exiles”? How do we balance legitimate concerns about national
AFP PHOTO/BULENT KILIC (Photo credit should read BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)
security and internal peacekeeping with those “tired and poor, homeless and tempest-tossed” we pledged to welcome, without fear-mongering allegations that they could not be properly “vetted?” The answer lies in speaking what is worthwhile and not what is vile.
As members of the Loyola community we are called to recognize the value and dignity of all God’s people, especially the most vulnerable, the “bruised hurting and dirty” — the same adjectives Pope Francis uses to describe the church as a “field hospital” can be seen in the faces of Syrian children in shelters and ambulances. We must offer our time, talent, and treasure in support of those in the shadows of death. We cannot fall prey to false narratives where all victims of war and systems of violence are equal, but some victims are more equal than others, to borrow an Orwellian phrase.Can Christians see in the church and its partners like Loyola (of course enthusiastically open to people of all faiths and none) a reflection of those divine attributes we acknowledge with all children of Abraham: a defense for the defenseless, a refuge in the day of distress, a fortress, a shield and a stronghold? For the breath of the ruthless, as Isaiah puts it, is no more than “rain against a wall.”
Let us always remember that we are that wall, and thus Make Christian Witness Great Again.
-Dr. Michael Canaris | Profesor at Loyola University Chicago, Institute of Pastoral Studies | Theologian
