Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., preached the Labor Day
homily at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception,
Washington, D.C., and the Red Mass homily for the legal profession in the
Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. In Eugene, Oregon, he gave three lectures
in the annual Chi Rho series on "Biblical Justice, Christian Faith, and
American Culture," on "Contemplation: A Long Loving Look at the
Real," and on "A Christian Spirituality: World, Eucharist, and
Cross," and preached on "Justification by Grace" on Reformation
Sunday at the Central Lutheran Church and in the Catholic Chapel at the
University of Oregon. In preparation for the new millennium, he preached and
lectured at St. Augustine parish, Richmond, Virginia, and on New Year's Eve
will preach at Our Lady of Lourdes, Bethesda, Maryland. With Father Ray Kemp, he
co-directed a national Preaching the Just Word retreat/workshop at San Damiano
Retreat House, Danville, California; also retreat/ workshops for priests of the
Diocese of Helena, Montana, the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana, and the Diocese
of Allentown, Pennsylvania; three weeks of PJW for the Archdiocese of Toronto,
Canada. Together they conducted a two-day seminar for clergy and laity of the
Diocese of Galveston-Houston, on the preaching and practice of biblical justice.
Three books are scheduled for publication between December and April.
Drew Christiansen, S.J., spoke to Law School Faculty
at the Catholic University of America on "Just War and Humanitarian
Intervention," and at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Washington, D.C., on
"Sharing a Common Table; The Catholic Vision of Justice." Continuing
his work on issues of peace and justice in the Holy Land, he convened the
Episcopal Conference Working Group for the Holy Land which was held in Rome this
October. At the end of November, he served on the Vatican Delegation to the
World Trade Organization Conference. Fr. Christiansen recently published two
articles in America, "Peacemaking and the Use of Force: Behind the
Pope's Stringent Just War Teaching," (May 15, 1999) and
"Humanitarian Intervention and the Use of Force" (August 28, 1999). He
leads the International Visiting Fellows Program at Woodstock, now in its third
year.
J. Leon Hooper, S.J., along with 25 ethicists and
activists, participated in an October conference, "Common Ground: Faithful
Ground?," jointly sponsored by the Aspen Institute and Common Ground for
Life and Choice. From within a variety of religious and moral traditions,
participants tried to clarify to those outside their traditions their own
theological justifications for seeking common ground with those with whom they
religiously and morally disagree. He is developing a bibliography on the role of
electronic media in the new "globalization" of the economy, with
special focus on its cultural impact.
Raymond B. Kemp hosted an evening of conversation in
October in the Woodstock Library on "Restorative Justice" with Father
Jim Consedine of New Zealand, Judge Andrew Sonner, and Attorney Michelle
Roberts. Participants included several members of the D.C. judiciary,
ex-convicts, recovering addicts, policymakers, chaplains, and interested
parties. The evening spawned a Woodstock Forum on criminal justice to be held in
late February. Father Kemp also organized a Preaching the Just Word Reunion at
the national Justice/Jubilee meeting at UCLA, and a wonderful tribute to Fr.
Burghardt from the 3,000 participants. A four-lecture series for priests and
deacons of the Archdiocese of New York on preaching justice, evangelization, and
the millennium concludes the PJW calendar year.
Dolores R. Leckey has continued research for a work in
progress, While Shepherds Kept Watch. This has included in-depth
interviews with bishops and other leaders as well as archival research. St.
Bernard's Institute (Rochester- Albany) invited her to open their academic
year with an address based on her book, Seven Essentials for the Spiritual
Journey. She also gave the major presentation to the annual faculty
convocation of the Washington Theolog-ical Consortium in late September. Her
topic, "Spirituality: Does it Have a Place in the Seminary?," was
followed by four prepared responses. At the end of October she gave the keynote
address to the Albany Diocesan Parish Convention, a gathering of about 400
parish leaders. Her subject was "Authentic Church Leadership: Some
Theological and Spiritual Reflections." Her newest book, Blessings All
Around Us (Resurrection Press) was published in Septem-ber. She will speak
about that book and Seven Essentials at an adult education program at St.
Ann's Parish in Arlington, Virginia.
Gasper F. Lo Biondo, S.J., facilitated Woodstock's
Global Economy and Cultures (GEC) Consultation from September 10-17. He then
traveled to New Delhi, India, where he participated in an international Jesuit
Colloquium on Population, Poverty, and Social Issues. He gave an overview of the
work carried out by the international Jesuit network on the GEC. Afterwards,
further south, in Hyderabad, he visited the site on the Musi River, where human
rights data for the GEC project was gathered. He continued south to learn about
the work of Savarimuthu Lazar, S.J., and Aloysius Irudayam, S.J., at the
prestigious Jesuit Indian Social Institute in Bangalore.
Then, in Chennai, at the Jesuit regional school of theology, Arul Kadel, Frs.
Vincent Sekhar, S.J. (former Woodstock visiting fellow) and Michael Amaladoss,
S.J. accompanied him to Madurai, where Fr. Francis Jayapathy, S.J. director of
the Folklife Resource and Research Center at Jesuit-run St. Xavier's College
in Palayamkottai, took them into the villages, where the lower caste people and
their cultures are experiencing the impacts of the global economy. He even
reached scenic Cape Comorin, the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent,
where St. Francis Xavier walked the beach with the Mukkuvar fishing people, who
remain Christian till today. On his return, he gave a lecture on November 16 to
MBA students at Georgetown University on "Ethics and Micro-Credit for the
Poor."
James L. Nolan spoke at Seton Hall University's
Conference on "Evangelizing the Workplace: Ministry For the New
Millennium" on July 29 and the Ignatian Spirituality Conference at St.
Louis University on July 30 describing the Woodstock Business Conference. In
September, he introduced the "Business Executives for Economic
Justice" in Chicago to the WBC process of theological reflection. On
October 24, he and William J. Byron, S.J. led a day of reflection,
"Everyday Spirituality in the Workplace," for the Order of Malta,
Federal Association. He delivered an address, "A Spirituality of
Engagement: 7 Questions for Good Moral Decision-making," on November 22 to
the faculty, students, and friends of St. Paul's College, University of
Manitoba, and to invited guests from the Winnipeg business community.
J. Michael Stebbins presented a one-day workshop based
on the Faith and Values at Work seminar for the alumni association of
Seattle Preparatory School in late October. He facilitated a leadership retreat
for the CEO, vice presidents, and other managers of Franciscan Health System, a
hospital chain serving the South Puget Sound area in Washington state. In
November, he and consultant Bridgette Theurer led a two-day core values retreat
for the executives and top managers of FINCA International, Inc., a non-profit
organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that provides self-employment
loans through village banks to people with very low incomes in 18 countries.
Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., received the Jerome Award from the Catholic
Library Association at the annual National Catholic Educational Association
meeting in New Orleans on April 9, for "outstanding contribution and
commitment to excellence in scholarship." At Saint John's University,
Collegeville, Minnesota, he delivered the Godfrey Diekmann Lecture on "Just
Word and Just Worship: Biblical Justice and Christian Liturgy." It will
appear in the September issue of Worship. He presided and preached at
weddings in Raleigh, North Carolina, Pasadena, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.;
preached for the 35th anniversary of a priest-friend's ordination
in Brunswick, Maine; and preached at a Mass for parents of former students at
Gonzaga College High School in the District of Columbia. With Father Ray Kemp,
he co-directed Preaching the Just Word retreat/workshops
for priests in the Diocese of Saskatoon in Canada and the Dioceses of Yakima and
Spokane in Washington state, and preached at each. As of May 18, the number of
Preaching the Just Word retreats reached 78, with 3,267 retreatants.
Drew Christiansen, S.J., gave a briefing on Capitol Hill in April on
the "Situation of the Christians in the
Holy Land." Later that month he spoke on "Abrazos: Solidarity in the
Americas," at Saint Peter's College, Jersey City, New Jersey. Also in
April, he was a participant in the Seventh Millennium Evening at the White
House, the topic of which was "The Perils of Indifference: Lessons Learned
from a Violent Century," and was a panelist on National Public Radio's
"Talk of the Nation," on the subject of forgiveness. In May he
traveled to Lebanon to participate in the First Congress of Patriarchs and
Bishops of the Orient. His article, "Peacemaking
and the Use of Force: Behind Pope John Paul II's Stringent Just-War
Teaching," appeared in the May 15 issue of America magazine.
J. Leon Hooper, S.J., will teach a two-week course this summer at the
Washington Theological Union entitled "John Courtney Murray and Dorothy Day
on Working for the Social Good." The course is more broadly a study of
American Catholicism, given that together Murray and Day were the most
influential American Roman Catholic thinkers of this waning century. Hooper will
examine the distinctly Roman Catholic perspectives and approaches they shared,
but also their differences that in mid-century divided-and continue to divide-their followers.
Raymond B. Kemp coordinated three Preaching the Just Word
retreat/workshops with Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., for priests of the Diocese of
Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the Dioceses of Yakima and Spokane in
Washington state. He keynoted a regional gathering of Separated and Divorced
Catholics in Columbia, Maryland, and addressed the D.C. Chapter of the American
Catholic Historical Society on the church's response to the aftermath of the
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. He addressed the
Lutheran/Anglican/Roman Catholic Conference of West Virginia in Huttonsville and
keynoted the National Catholic Conference on Evangelization in New Orleans. He
published an article in the April-May 1999 issue of Pastoral Music and
addressed St. Augustine's parish in Washington, D.C., on The Emergence of a
Black Catholic Community, St. Augustine's in Washington by Morris J.
MacGregor (The Catholic University of America Press, 1999).
Dolores R. Leckey began the research for her new book, While
Shepherds Kept Watch. The research included interviews in Ohio, Kentucky,
Kansas City, and San Francisco. She gave the final lecture in a series on the
laity sponsored by St. Ann's parish in Arlington: "The American Catholic
Laity from the Council to the Millennium." Finally, she has been preparing
for the seventh Church Leadership
Retreat-Workshop to be held July 18-23, 1999, at St. Mary's Center for
Continuing Formation in Baltimore.
Richard M. Liddy is writing an article on "The Catholic
Intellectual Tradition: Achievement and Challenge" for use in a collection
of articles for faculty members at Catholic colleges and universities. In June
he will give a presentation at the Lonergan Workshop at Boston College on
"Lonergan and Newman." In July he will give a retreat to a group of
priests belonging to the Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests in Camarillo,
California. He is also completing a work on the personal appropriation of
Bernard Lonergan's Insight.
James L. Nolan was the featured speaker at a meeting of film industry
and other business executives on Business and Spirituality in Los Angeles in
April. He described the Woodstock process that promotes the integration of
religious faith and work for the National Center for the Laity's Conference on
spirituality and work in Chicago. In April and May, he spoke at Woodstock Business Conference chapters in New York City, Long
Island, and the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey.
J. Michael Stebbins traveled to the Pacific Northwest in March to lead
a day-long program entitled "Faith and Values at Work: An
Introduction" for a group of about thirty alumni, trustees, and staff at
the Jesuit-run Seattle Preparatory School. He also spent a day giving
presentations to most of the members of the junior and senior classes on the
connection between faith and ethics.
July - December 1999
[Woodstock Report, March 2000, No. 61]
April - June 1999
[Woodstock Report, June 1999, No. 58]
See Also: