Saint Louis University Opens Art Museum
A four-story, historic French revival mansion on the Saint Louis University campus, that was once the center of the city's social scene (and visited by U.S. presidents Cleveland, McKinley, Taft, Roosevelt, Wilson, and Harding), has been transformed into the new Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA).
Having recently undergone a complete restoration, the 55,000-square-foot building provides a variety of galleries.
SLUMA offers works of local, national, and international artists, such as Dale Chihuly, Joachim Probst, Miguel Martinez, Richard Serra, and Charles Lotton. The museum also displays more than 2,000 pieces of family memorabilia and art donated to the university by the late Marion Rumsey Cartier, daughter of Pierre Cartier, founder of the Cartier Jewelers. To find out more about the museum or plan a visit, visit the web site sluma.slu.edu or call (314) 977-3399.
|
|
| Great Vintage: Jesuit Winery Turns 150
The oldest Jesuit house in the Australian Province is in Sevenhill, South Australia, and that is where the Society of Jesus has been making wine for 150 years. The vineyard, established to produce altar wine, continues to produce altar wine as well as wine for general consumption.
To commemorate the anniversary and to honor the seven Jesuit brothers who have served as winemakers (starting with Br. John Schreiner from 1851 to 1884 and up to current winemaker Br. John May, SJ, who assumed his post in 1972), the winery has launched a Cabernet Sauvignon called Seven Brothers Sesquicentenary.
The winery grounds include a retreat house, a parish, and a cemetery and attracts over 40,000 visitors a year. Take a virtual tour at www.sevenhillcellars.com.au
|
 Ordination in Russia
On August 10, Klemens Werth, SJ, was ordained to the priesthood in the Society of Jesus at the Transfiguration Cathedral of Novosibirsk. He was the first Russian Jesuit to be ordained to the priesthood in Russia since 1992 when it became, in Jesuit parlance, an Independent Region that included Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Belarus. Klemens was ordained by his brother, Joseph, also a Jesuit, who is the bishop of Novosibirsk.
The ceremony was attended by the Werth family as well as by Jesuits and a good number of the local Catholic community. The next day Klemens celebrated his first mass at the cathedral.
Novosibirsk is one of four Catholic dioceses in Russia. Jesuits have their novitiate there and run the Inigo Centre. The Russian Region comprises 58 members, among them 25 from other provinces and ten novices. [RIK DE GENDT, SJ]
|
Jesuit Sits in for Mother Angelica
Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, has taken a permanent role at the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), where he has been filling in for the ailing Mother Angelica, who suffered a stroke in 2001.
Fr. Pacwa, who has appeared regularly on EWTN since 1984, will also be involved in developing new programs and assisting with EWTN's online services.
Superior General visits the United States
Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, travels to the United States this fall to meet with Jesuits in Cincinnati, Chicago, Kansas City, and Denver.
He will also attend the meeting of the Jesuit provincials of the United States and Canada in Chicago in October.
Jesuit Volunteer in Belize
"Now that I'm no longer struggling to get through the adjustment process each day, I am able to fully enjoy living," wrote Kelly Jones, a graduate of Gonzaga Prep in Spokane and Georgetown University, who spent two years working with 200 students in Belize for Jesuit Volunteers International.
"At the same time," she continued, "I'm also able to engage in serious reflection about who and what I'm living among . . . I can't ignore the poverty that's become normal to my eyes. I am not without anger and frustration at the complacency I see all around me . . . What I can do is continue asking questions and, more important, teach my students to ask questions too."
Ms. Jones is among the 7,000 people who, since 1956, have been transformed by their experiences as Jesuit Volunteers. They have worked in Bethel, Alaska, inner-city San Francisco, rural Peru, and all points in between. This year 448 men and women signed up to be Jesuit Volunteers, staffing dozens of positions including some new placements, including teaching at Washington Jesuit Academy in Washington, D.C. (see pages 11-16), and doing community organizing in the Bronx.
You will find more information about Jesuit Volunteers at www.jesuitvolunteers.org. GONZAGA PREP'S ALUMNI NEWSNOTES
Reading Between the Lines: Rare Find at Boston College
Burns Library cataloger Ross Shanley-Roberts was inspecting a 340-year-old religious daybook when he made a discovery: a holy card with a woodcut of St. Louis that had been serving as a bookmark, in all likelihood, for more than three centuries.
Inscribed in Flemish, the card was tucked between pages 162 and 163 of Quotidiana Christiani Militis Tessera, a daily Christian treasury by English Jesuit William Stanyhurst published in Antwerp in 1661.
The card, which bears a quote from St. John Chrysostom in addition to the image of St. Louis, likely originated in the same area of Flanders as the book, according to Boston College fine arts professor Kenneth Craig.
The prayer card discovery adds color to the story of the cataloging of one of America's largest collections of Jesuit books published prior to the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. Thousands of the books were acquired in recent years from the Bibliotheque des Fontaines, a large Jesuit library in Chantilly, France, and from the Weston School of Theology.
The job requires Shanley-Roberts to inspect each volume page by page to ensure all the leaves and pagination match. "I feel like I'm digging the sources of Jesuit history out of the ground and restoring them to the light of day," he says. [MARK SULLIVAN, BOSTON COLLEGE CHRONICLE]
Jesuit High Alum Picked Third in NBA Draft
Mike Dunleavy, a 1999 alumnus of Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon, was the third overall pick in this year's NBA draft. After graduating from Jesuit High, he attended Duke, where he helped lead the 2001 team to the national championship. Watch for him this season; he's signed on with the Golden State Warriors.
Richmond Diocese Promotes Sainthood for Eight Jesuit Martyrs
Eight Spanish Jesuits who sailed to what is now Virginia in September 1570 -- 37 years before the English settled at Jamestown in 1607 -- were put to death by Native Americans in 1571 for their Catholic faith near what is now Yorktown and Williamsburg.
Richmond's Bp. Walter Sullivan has opened a diocesan tribunal for the sainthood cause of the Jesuits. Fr. Gerald Fogarty, SJ, who teaches Catholic history at the University of Virginia, said Fr. Baptista de Segura headed an expedition from Florida in August 1570 accompanied by Fr. Luis de Quiros; Brs. Gabriel Gomez, Sancho Zeballos, and Pedro Linares; and novices Gabriel de Solis, Juan Bautista Mendez, and Cristobal Redondo.
Fr. Segura came unaccompanied by the customary contingent of Spanish troops. This factor is considered significant in seeking the cause for canonization, said Fr. Russell Smith, postulator of the cause. According to Smith, Segura felt that the missionaries "had the best chance of bringing the word of God" to the native peoples "by not bringing troops because the soldiers generally set a bad example and acted scandalously. This proves the mission was entirely evangelical. The Spanish missionaries were not interested in political advantage or territorial expansion." CNS
Jesuit Schools on an Enrollment Roll
"Good News" -- these two words are heard frequently at enrollment offices at Jesuit colleges and universities lately. Boston College, Fordham, and the University of Scranton reported a record number of applications for this year; Fordham's application pool has grown 200 percent in the last ten years, and Boston College's application volume places it among the top five private universities in the country. Holy Cross and Marquette were among many other Jesuit colleges and universities reporting an increase in applications.
As far as enrollment goes, Loyola University Chicago registered 1,615 freshmen, 13 percent above last year's mark, and Saint Louis University's freshmen class is 15 percent above last year's. Spring Hill, Wheeling Jesuit, Fordham, and Le Moyne are enjoying the largest freshman classes ever.
Many schools have also reported increases in the number of minority applications and enrollments: Rockhurst's minority applications were 12 percent higher than last year; Seattle University's freshman class, besides being its largest, is also the most diverse, and at Holy Cross, minority applications were up 18 percent.
The numbers of transfer students were up, too, for a good number of schools. Fairfield welcomed the largest group of transfer students in the school's history, and the University of Detroit Mercy's transfer applications were up 6 percent from 2001.
And Jesuit colleges and universities are continuing to attract students from all over: Loyola University New Orleans's students, for one example, hail from 47 states and 16 countries.
Gerard Manley Hopkins Conference in Rome
Scholars from the United States, Poland, Ireland, England, Japan, Russia, Canada, Israel, France, Spain, and other parts of the world travel to Rome this October to take part in a conference on the nineteenth-century Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889) sponsored by Regis University of Denver.
Prof. Victoria McCabe, director of Regis's freshman Commitment Program, has been directing these yearly conferences since 1999; this one, the first held in Rome, will take place at the Jesuits' Gregorian University.
Hopkins is considered one of the most influential English poets of his time, though little of his work was published in his lifetime. Each summer McCabe and Dennis Gallagher, assistant professor of communication arts, have been taking Regis students to Dublin to visit the grave of Hopkins, who was born an Anglican in England.
Participants at the conference, part of Regis's celebration of its 125th anniversary, will attend a reception at the American Embassy in Rome and journey to Naples to visit the residence of the Jesuits who emigrated to the United States and founded Regis in 1877. Visit www.regis.edu for more information about the conference and Regis's anniversary year.
Web sites of interest
Campion Jesuit High School
www.2003campionsreunion.freehomepage.com
Campion Jesuit High in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, may have been closed since 1975, but its alumni keep the spirit alive. This site gives details and registration information for a reunion to be held this upcoming spring in Pensacola, Florida.
Praying with Jesuits
www.goajesuits.org/prayers/praying.htm
A collection of Jesuit prayers for all occasions, reflecting the spirituality of Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises.
Center of Concern
www.coc.org
The new web site for the Center of Concern, directed by James Hug, SJ, is a user-friendly resource for social justice topics.
Smiles
Good as New
John Leira, a Jesuit from 1965 to 1987, once made a visit to Bishop Bernard Topel of Spokane while John was a Jesuit collegian in philosophy studies at Gonzaga University. The two had become acquainted through John's efforts to organize the Cataldo Mission Student Pilgrimage, a 30-mile hike to the Jesuit mission founded by Pierre DeSmet, missionary to the Coeur d'Alene Indians.
"My pilgrimage was modeled on the Chartres Student Pilgrimage in France," says John. "It was great public relations hit for the diocese, Gonzaga, and me.
"I was welcomed into his office; he was gracious and abstract and smiling. He motioned me to sit in a chair in front of his desk. I didn't notice that his wooden staff of office was across that chair. We both heard a crack. I bounced up. His face was concerned.
" 'Well, it looks like I just sat on a bishop's crosier,' I chuckled, picking it up.
" 'Is it broken?' he asked. 'I've got to officiate at a confirmation at St. Al's at Gonzaga this evening.'
" 'Just a little cracked,' I replied. 'You can hold it right here,' I said, putting my hand over the bent section near the crook. 'No one will know the difference.'
"His face let go of his tension, and we went on to chat about the pilgrimage that he was to take a part in.
"That night at St. Al's I saw him, crosier in hand. It had a ring of black tape around the broken section. The next week he sent me a letter.
" 'Dear John,' he wrote. 'I have been looking across my office these days and gazing at my crosier with its electric tape holding it together. You know, I'm getting to really like it. It looks like it's getting some use.' "
The pilgrimages that Leira helped found still go on today, an annual Gonzaga event.
Page maintained by Company Magazine. Copyright(c) 2002. Updated: 12/31/2002