A Newsletter for Seminary Alumni & Friends

DuBois

In this Issue:

• Mount Implements Pastors and Stewards Program with Li l ly Grant

• Seminarians on Annual Retreat in January

• Deacons Reflect on Holy Land Pi lgrimage

• Communion and Liberation Movement Growing at the Mount

• In Memoriam

• Upcoming Events

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Mount Implements Pastors and Stewards Program with Lilly Grantby Chancelor Claypool, S’21, Archdiocese of Baltimore

Since 2012, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, with the Lilly Endowment, Inc., has worked on developing a series of leadership and fi nance Computer Aided Learning Modules (CAMs) available online to seminarians. This past month, they have been awarded a sustainability grant to continue to strengthen the program. The program, Pastors and Stewards, is currently in use by the Mount’s theologians, but will be open to other seminaries in the future as well.

“We want to make sure that each seminarian has at least some knowledge of the terminology, how to create a budget, how to hire, how to let someone go in a charitable way, how to manage a staff,” Dr. Irene Wunderlich explains. Dr. Wunderlich worked closely on the development of the program and the website. She says that unlike other similar courses, “This is the fi rst comprehensive course of its kind that’s specifi cally tailored to Catholic seminarians. It’s specifi cally geared to what they will face as Catholic pastors.”

Currently, the Mount combines the online courses with an in-class seminar, but the option for other seminaries to use it as a stand-alone course remains. The fi ve CAMs focus on developing pastoral leadership, human resources, and fi nances, both personal and parish. The seminary has spent years surveying vocations directors and newly ordained priests across the nation to ensure the courses are comprehensive while staying practical.

Rector Msgr. Andrew Baker says, “As priests we’re not trained, nor should we be trained, in all of the details and all of the particulars. We have to have some trust in experts.”

Second Theologian Michael DeSaye who currently uses the CAMs admits, “They are still working some of the bugs out,” but adds, “They’re great. I really like them.”

For seminarians who may struggle with fi nances themselves and think them secondary to Christ’s mission, Msgr. Baker offers some advice: “Our whole lives should be undergirded by a trust in God. That’s a disposition of the heart,” he says. “That’s not meant, certainly, to be a reason for a laissez-faire attitude toward particulars or administration. It means being attentive, without worry as our Lord Himself was.”

Dr. Wunderlich rejoins, “It’s all pastoral ministry. The fi nances are pastoral ministry. The staff, the working environment, that’s pastoral ministry. Because that’s the mission of the Church.”

The program website is www.pastorsandstewards.com

The

Spring 2016, Volume XX, No. 2 www.msmary.edu/seminary

Photos from the 2015 Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Priests’ Reunion

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDGettysburg, PAPermit No. 28

In January, Mount seminarians participated in their annual fi ve-day retreat at the beginning of the spring semester. Most Rev. Fabian Bruskewitz, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Lincoln, served as retreat master. Bishop Bruskewitz offered conferences on topics such as religious lifestyle, Church dogma, and the importance and limitations of dialogue and tolerance.

Communion and Liberation Movement Growing at the Mount

by Tyler Kline, S’18, Archdiocese of Baltimore

Over sixty years ago a young Milanese priest and seminary professor named Luigi Giussani had an intuition. He believed that the young people to whom he ministered did not share his experience of the faith as a force capable of shaping our lives. Giussani sought to fi nd a method of proposing the truth of Christianity.

His goal was to help his students to see Christ as the fulfi llment of their desires and the fact around which they can structure their whole life.

What resulted was a movement in the Church, known as Communion and Liberation (often referred to as “CL”). “I never intended to ‘found’ anything,” Fr. Giussani once noted. Rather he felt “the need to return to Christianity’s essential elements.”

Six years ago, a small group of Mount seminarians encountered CL and began gathering to use this method to seek Christ. This movement has grown signifi cantly at the Mount over the past couple years, and this year, around fi fteen seminarians, a handful of university students, and area locals participate in the central gesture of this movement, a weekly catechesis known as School of Community. Based on a weekly text, usually drawn from the writings of Fr. Giussani, this catechesis employs Giussani’s method whereby members seek a correspondence between what they read and their own lived experience.

As this community has grown at the Mount, members have reached out to participate in other events

held by the wider CL community. Each January some seminarians take part in the New York Encounter, a three-day cultural festival that seeks to present the relevance and reasonableness of faith through talks and exhibits on topics relating to politics, culture, art, and science. This past October, the CL community at the Mount hosted over 200 members of the movement in the DC area for its annual “Beginning Day.” This gathering included Mass, a conference by national leader Fr. José Medina, FSCB, witnesses from members of all ages, as well as food and games.

CL is one of a number of ecclesial movements that have arisen in the Church following the Second Vatican Council. Many of the seminarians involved see CL as a special charism that will help them in future priestly ministry.

Every year between fall and spring semesters, the Mount deacon class spends three weeks on pilgrimage and retreat in the Holy Land. Here are a few refl ections on the highlights of the trip from some of this year’s deacons:

“The fi ve-day retreat on the Sea of Galilee led by Fr. Mindling [seminary academic dean and professor of moral theology] was certainly a highlight of our pilgrimage. I cannot think of a better setting to spiritually prepare for ordination to the priesthood than in the very place where

Jesus formed his Apostles to be priests…I believe [the pilgrimage] will make me a better preacher and teacher of the Gospel since I have actually seen the places where all of these events took place.”

—Dcn. Craig Borchard, S’16, Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend

“Visiting the Holy Land is like reading a fi fth Gospel, it puts the environment and locations of Jesus’ mission vividly in your mind.” —Dcn. Brian Olkowski, S’16, Diocese of Harrisburg

“The best part of the trip, by far, was getting to stay a whole night in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The fastest 40 minutes of my life were spent in prayer alone in Jesus’ tomb! Later, I sat beneath one of the altars in the Church and read the Crucifi xion accounts, and each time I read the word “Calvary,” I reached out and actually touched Calvary….It was among the most blessed experiences of our lives.”

—Dcn. Jeff Ellis, S’16, Diocese of Norwich

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Deacons Refl ect on Holy Land Pilgrimage

Seminarians on Annual Retreat in January

Rector’s Dinner: April 10, 2016 For additional information contact reetz@msmary.edu or 301-447-5017

Seminary Priests’ Retreat: June 13-17, 2016Upcoming Seminary Events

IN MEMORIAMRev. Richard J. BroderickCollege Class of 1966Seminary Class of 1970Diocese of AlbanyDecember 10, 2015

LCDR W. R. Dermott, USNRSeminary Class of 1982Diocese of AllentownDecember 10, 2015

May they rest in peace.

Every year between fall and spring semesters, Every year between fall and spring semesters, the Mount deacon class spends three weeks on pilgrimage and retreat in the Holy Land. Here are a few refl ections on the highlights of the trip from some of this year’s deacons:

“The fi ve-day retreat on the Sea of Galilee led by Fr. Mindling [seminary academic dean and professor of moral theology] was certainly a highlight of our pilgrimage. I cannot think of a better setting to spiritually prepare for ordination Deacons and Mount faculty on the

Sea of Galilee.

Deacons Phil O’Neill (L) and Craig Borchard (R) at Mt. Arbel.

to seek Christ. This movement has grown signifi cantly at the Mount over the past couple years, and this year, around fi fteen seminarians, a handful of university students, and area locals participate in the central gesture of this movement, a weekly catechesis known as School of Community. Based on a weekly text, usually drawn from the writings of Fr. Giussani, this catechesis employs Giussani’s method whereby members seek a correspondence between what they read and their own lived experience.

As this community has grown at the Mount, members have reached out to participate in other events

held by the wider CL community. Each January some

In January, Mount seminarians participated in their annual fi ve-day retreat at the beginning of the spring semester. Most Rev. Fabian Bruskewitz, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Lincoln, served as retreat master. Bishop Bruskewitz offered conferences on topics such as religious lifestyle, Church dogma, and the importance and limitations of dialogue and tolerance.

Seminarians and university students gather following Communion and Liberation School of Community in February.

Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, meets with Pope Saint John Paul II.

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, who served as this year’s retreat master

Seminarians gather for Lauds in St. Bernard’s Chapel during retreat.

Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, teaches a group of young adults.

“Visiting the Holy Land is like reading a fi fth Gospel, it puts the environment and locations

“The best part of the trip, by far, was getting

Holy Sepulchre. The fastest 40 minutes of my life were spent in prayer alone in Jesus’ tomb!

Church and read the Crucifi xion accounts, Deacons Phil O’Neill (L) and Craig

Seminarians Michael Ammer (L) and Logan Parrish (R) show off their Christmas costumes along with Dcn. Bob Garrow (C)

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