Woodstock Report | Briefings

A Year of Prayer

This year, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus is holding a lecture series touching on themes such as healing and hearing God's call. Among the lecturers have been two Woodstock fellows, a Woodstock board member, and a former Woodstock director.

The lectures parallel the Year of Prayer being coordinated by the province, which encompasses Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. Jesuits and their lay partners are taking part in small faith-sharing groups, study circles, and other gatherings that focus on the four graces outlined in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus. Those four are gratitude, healing, call, and co-laboring, themes that progress through Advent and Lent, leading up to Pentecost.

Former Woodstock director James L. Connor, S.J., who is one of the coordinators of the Year of Prayer, spoke about the four graces during an October 17 lecture. Woodstock fellow William Bole addressed the question of forgiveness as a road to peace, as part of the healing theme, on January 9. Another Woodstock fellow, James F. Salmon, S.J., gave a talk on February 13 titled "Building the Earth" on the vision of the Jesuit philosopher and mystic Teilhard de Chardin. That lecture was in the context of "call," as was a February 27 talk by Woodstock board member John Butler, president of John Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., dealing with evangelization and discipleship.

"Our hope is that those who participate in the Year of Prayer will discover how the Lord is calling them to renew their service of faith and promotion of justice in the institutions and communities in which they live and work," said Timothy B. Brown, S.J., Maryland provincial of the Society of Jesus. "This Year of Prayer is meant to stir our desire - to seek God, to behold God, to find God, to be possessed by God."

St. Ignatius Church and the St. Ignatius House of Prayer are coordinating the lectures.

More information about the Year of Prayer, including prayer and meditation materials, can be found online at www.mdsj.org/yop. A text of William Bole's talk on forgiveness and international politics is available at http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/programs/forgive_bole.htm.

Eating with Conscience

Catherine Halvey Goodwin, Andrew Kimbrell, John Farina, Margaret Weber, and Dean Kleckner

"Eating is the most intimate relationship that we have with Creation."

Those were the words of Andrew Kimbrell, speaking at a forum titled "The Ethics of Eating: Will Genetically Engineered Food Feed the World?" sponsored by the Woodstock Program on Catholicism and Civic Renewal. The purpose of the event, held October 25, 2005, at Georgetown University, was to begin airing the ethical and theological questions surrounding the debate over whether to promote genetic engineering as part of international development aid, said Woodstock senior research fellow John Farina, who coordinates the program.

Kimbrell started off by stressing the importance of eating not only to our physical well-being, but also to our spiritual well-being. Drawing an analogy to the Eucharistic meal, Kimbrell noted that in the Catholic tradition "you may not break bread in that sacramental fashion unless you've had an examination of conscience.. I wonder if eating with conscience isn't something that we should all do regardless of our religious tradition."

People need to not only eat with consciousness but also "think conscientiously" about food and how it's produced. In that vein, Kimbrell argued that the benefits of genetically modified seeds - the claim that these seeds will "feed the world" - have been greatly exaggerated by large corporations and that the potential dangers are awesome. Agreeing with him, Margaret Weber, coordinator of corporate responsibility for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, warned that genetically modified crops could have harmful effects on human health and the environment, through increased use of herbicides, as well as on the economy of small and indigenous farmers.

Disputing nearly all of their points was Dean Kleckner, an Iowa farmer and chairman of the organization Truth About Trade, who argued that, among other things, genetically engineered foods will improve diets because many of these foods have been enhanced with proteins and nutrients.

The discussion did not settle the argument over the benefits and drawbacks of genetically engineered foods, but it was, for Woodstock, a first step toward exploring "how our theologically informed understandings of creation, the person, stewardship, social justice, of enfranchisement and participation, and the like, might shape our analysis" of this accelerating technology, said Farina.

This item is based partly on a report of the gathering prepared by Catholicism and Civic Renewal assistant and Georgetown College sophomore Rebecca West. Ms. West's full report and texts of the presentations are available at http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/programs/ccr/ccr_eating.htm.

Essaye Takes Chair

Rev. Gasper Lo Biondo, S.J., Woodstock's director, and Mr. Anthony F. Essaye, the new chair of Woodstock's Board of Directors

Anthony F. Essaye has been elected chair of the Woodstock Theological Center Board of Directors, succeeding Mr. Michael F. Curtin, who had served in that role since May 2001.

Essaye is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School. He enjoyed a long career with Clifford Chance LLP, the world's largest law firm, heading the firm's Paris office from 1974-1976 and practicing French law as a conseil juridique. He then served as managing partner of the firm's Washington office from 1978 until his retirement in 1998.

Essaye's involvement with other non-profit organizations includes service as co-president of the International Senior Lawyers Project, an organization founded in 2000 that engages highly experienced lawyers to volunteer on legal projects in developing nations, projects aimed at furthering human rights, social justice, economic development, and participation in the global economy. Essaye and his wife Eileen are active parishioners at Holy Trinity Church in Washington, D.C.

"As I have become more deeply involved with Woodstock over the last few years," said Essaye, who joined the Woodstock board in 2001, "I have grown more convinced of the importance of the Center's work. I have been impressed by the depth and quality of the insights and commitment that Board members have brought to their recent strategic planning work. I look forward to working with Father Lo Biondo, the other Board members, and all the research fellows and staff as we seek to further Woodstock's important mission."

Father Gasper Lo Biondo, S.J., Woodstock's director, expressed his gratitude to Essaye and other board members. "Woodstock does not carry out theology in the abstract," he noted. "Rather, we have been charged with the concrete task of carrying out 'theological reflection on the human problems of today.' Thus Woodstock must always remain grounded in the challenges and spiritual realities that people experience in the spheres of business, government, education, and church and family life. Our Board of Directors plays an important role in helping us to remain true to that calling. Tony Essaye brings to his role as Board chair a wealth of wisdom and a deep commitment to the Jesuit mission. I'm delighted that he has agreed to serve Woodstock and the Society of Jesus in this new role."

Fellows from Afar

During the 2005-2006 academic year, Woodstock is playing host to six international visiting scholars whose research areas range from economic justice and Trinitarian theology to human rights, pluralism, and Chinese Christian philosophy.

Raul Gonzales Fabre, S.J., of Venezuela, is pursuing research related to his areas of interest, which include theories of economic justice as well as the practice of microeconomics. Gill Goulding, IBVM, is a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loretto). A native of Scotland and professor at Regis College of the University of Toronto, she is undertaking a research project titled, "Divine Intimacy: A Trinitarian Dynamic for Ministry," which seeks to apply Trinitarian theology to pastoral ministry.

Catherine Halvey Goodwin, who is originally from Ireland and recently worked among indigenous people in Brazil's Amazon region, will address ways of speaking about human rights in the context of her Amazonian experience. Saviar Seshuraja, a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Madurai, South India, will probe the principles that underlie caste domination in that region. Vincent Sekhar, S.J., a Jesuit from the same region, is looking at how religion and society influence each other in a multicultural, pluralistic context.

Thomas Zhang Xian, a philosophy professor in the Institute of Comparative Religion at Zhongshan University in south China, is pursuing research for his book, the working title of which is "Towards a Christian Philosophy in China." He tells his American colleagues that he has a Christian heart, a Greek mind, and a Chinese life. Among the ways that the international visiting fellows share their research is by giving presentations at monthly brown-bag lunch gatherings held in Woodstock's offices.