LOGOS Fall 2019

Information for alumni, donors, and friends of Catholic Theological Union

A GR A DUAT E SCHOOL OF T H EOL OGY A N D M I N IST RY

FALL 2019

VOL .

31 •

ISSUE

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Priesthood with a Difference

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or 50 years, CTU has prepared for service religious order seminarians, alongside religious women and lay women and men. In April 2017, CTU’s Center for the Study of Consecrated Life hosted a conference “Priesthood in Religious Life: Searching for New Ways Forward,” exploring the distinct nature of ordained ministry within the context of religious life. Liturgical Press published the proceedings in a book of the same title edited by CTU faculty, Stephen Bevans, SVD, and Robin Ryan, CP.

CTU graduate, Sr. Xiomara Mendez, OP, assists Cardinal Cupich in the Rite of Sprinkling at the 50th Anniversary Mass. PHOTO CREDIT: KAREN CALLAWAY, CHICAGO CATHOLIC.

Celebrating a Daring Experiment in Collaboration

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t was a joyous year of events and activities at Catholic Theological Union commemorating 50 years of a daring experiment in collaboration for theological education.

The three religious orders that founded CTU in 1968—a very memorable and chaotic year in our City’s and country’s history—took the risk of beginning something new. The Sacred Heart Franciscans, the Passionists and the Servites pooled their resources and came together in the Hyde Park university neighborhood to do together something they could never do separately— build a school of theology that would serve the future of the church in a unique way. The school would be planted in the heart of the city and welcoming into its classroom lay women and men, as well as seminarians and religious.

Fifty years later, what began as a noble experiment has endured to become one of the premier schools of theology in the world.

Later that year, the national journal Origins published a major document on ordained priesthood developed by the Department of Theology and School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College. Entitled “To Serve the People of God: Renewing the Conversation on Priesthood and Ministry,” it focuses mainly on diocesan priesthood.

Later in April Bevans and Ryan published an article for America Magazine which affirmed the vision of priesthood articulated in the “To Serve the People of God” document while also highlighting distinct characteristics of priesthood in the context of religious life. By these important statements both CTU and Boston College were responding to the urgent need in the Church for future priests ready and willing to serve God’s people in a responsible and collaborative way. What follows is a selection from the America Magazine essay of Bevans and Ryan.

S PRIESTHOOD continued on page 4

S ANNIVERSARY continued on page 6

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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Thriving in Ministry program promotes well-being of professionals in Catholic ministry

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Fifty at 50 Inspiring CTU Alumni and their stories

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New additions to CTU’s Executive Leadership Team

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Three have paid the ultimate price and “ANNIVERSARIES ARE LIKE BIRTHDAYS: were honored at our 50 th anniversary Mass on occasions to celebrate and to think ahead, usually among friends with whom one shares May 5 with Cardinal Cupich. Of these three, Rev. Mark Francis, CSV not only the past but also the future.” This quote Comboni Missionary Fr. Ezechiele Ramin, was from former National Security Advisor Zbigniew martyred in Brazil in 1985 for standing up for the rights th Brzezinski sums up well the past 50 anniversary year at CTU. of landless farmers. He is now being proposed as a special patron saint for the upcoming synod on the Amazon to be celebrated in This year was punctuated by several important moments of Rome during October of this year. celebration with old and new friends during which we gratefully looked back on our founding in the turbulent year 1968. Inspired CTU continues to have a lively interest in our students after by a new vision of Church proposed by the Second Vatican graduation. Funded by the Lilly Endowment, we are engaged in a Council we remembered how CTU in its early years embodied multi-year project of studying the conditions and resources the heady promise of a Church renewed by the call to read “the necessary for our graduates to remain effective and enthusiastic signs of the times” and engage the contemporary world in all its during the first several years of ministry “in the real world.” This cultural diversity. We also looked forward together toward the Thriving in Ministry grant will help us to serve our graduates and next 50 years and shared a vision of how CTU can evolve to meet the Church even more effectively by analyzing the changing the changing needs of the Church and the world by preparing conditions in which they are called to work and help them to find ordained and lay ministers able to dialogue with people—both the best ways to develop skills and spiritual grounding as they down the street and across the globe. contend with the many challenges that beset new ministers.

At its inception CTU’s focus was on the preparation of priests Finally, our Forward in Faith capital campaign has just gone belonging to religious communities. In preparing candidates for “public” this summer. I am delighted to report that we are already a variety of ministries over the last 50 years—chaplains, retreat at 81.5 % to goal. This campaign, which seeks to raise $16 million directors, teachers, administrators, missionaries as well as parish is oriented toward the future—to our next 50 years. Half of the service—CTU has helped our seminarians coming from over money we are seeking to raise will fund an endowment for lay twenty-five men’s religious communities to be flexible enough to scholarships—and enable us to invite qualified lay students to serve God’s people in a range of roles, all the while faithful to the study at CTU who otherwise could not afford the cost. Sustaining charism of their community. Because they learn alongside lay faculty excellence and technological innovation constitute the people, they are also in a better position to appreciate and other goals for this campaign. respect the growing responsibility lay people have assumed in serving the Church over the last 50 years.

I am excited to celebrate this anniversary in this edition of Logos, not only remembering our past blessings but also sharing the Our anniversary was also an occasion to raise up fifty of our promising future with CTU’s friends. P inspiring alums who have made a difference around the world.

Like the last installment of Logos, this edition profiles 25 of our inspiring graduates. Ordained and lay, they have given witness the Good News of Christ in the United States and internationally.

Science in Seminaries

Dawn Nothwehr, OSF

Anne McGowan

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awn Nothwehr, OSF, and Anne McGowan are leading efforts on campus which have resulted in a grant funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The grant funds the participation of seminaries and schools of theology in the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER), a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in consultation with the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). The innovative program focuses on integrating science into the core curriculum of CTU, beginning with nine courses to be offered in the 2019-2020 Academic Year.

Nothwehr and McGowan will lead the Fall Faculty Study Days, bringing together the CTU Faculty with science and theology experts in pedagogy for a 2.5-day workshop. Invited experts will provide lectures, discussion exercises, hands-on syllabi preparation, and field trip excursions for the whole faculty.

A day-long public event with an internationally renowned Keynote Lecturer; activities or lectures by science and theology colleagues from Chicago area Catholic colleges, educators from the Chicago science oriented museums, and presentations on the implications of scientific topics for mission and ministry in the “real world,” are being planned for Spring 2020. P

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Thriving in Ministry at CTU IN 2018, THE LILLY ENDOWMENT INC. AWARDED A MULTIYEAR GRANT OF $1 MILLION to Catholic Theological Union in support of efforts to prepare effective leaders for the Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Dioceses of Gary and Joliet and nationwide.

The innovation grant opens a path for the school to identify and address obstacles and stress points that keep those ministering in the Church from thriving in their work, particularly those who are within the first ten years of ministry.

CTU is uniquely suited to address these challenges in the current climate as a place that engages the full diversity of the Church and its future leadership. Leading the Thriving in Ministry team at CTU is Marian Diaz, DMin, a graduate of CTU who also serves as director of Continuing Education and Summer@CTU.

“Having witnessed the church and its ministry at all ecclesial levels, I know that the church will only grow if we ask and actively seek to answer the hard questions of how to support the flourishing of all who serve professionally in ecclesial ministry. This work involves advocating not only for the well-being of individuals in minstry, also for the well-being of the environments in which they work.”

— MARIAN DIA Z , DMIN

As part of the Initiative, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) conducted a national survey of women and men religious as well as a regional survey of Lay Ecclesial Ministers serving the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Dioceses of Gary and Joliet. The results of these surveys will inform the design and implementation of programs that address real needs and provide a range of resources to support the well-being of our ministers who serve in myriad ways in our parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, clinics and hospices.

The results of these surveys have been compiled by CARA into a special report, “Supporting the Training for Women and men in Religious Life in the Ten Years Following their Final Profession.”

While preparation for and general satisfaction in ministry is high, the level of stress reported in ministry is also high. These findings bore themselves out with both the religious and the lay ministers.

A summary version of the report is available at ctu.edu/ thrivinginministry.

In fall 2019, programming will commence with a pilot program, Thriving Today: Well-being for the Ministerial Journey. This tenmonth ongoing program will encourage community, provide support and foster growth as part of a cohort of professionals in Catholic ministry. Over the following ten months, the Thriving Today team will provide readings, video content, activities as well as online or in-person group discussions aimed at exploring themes crucial to the flourishing of ministers. The selected themes and program structure have been developed directly from existing research on Thriving in Ministry.

Another offering of the Initiative is a one-time Sounding Board consultation, conducted virtually or in-person. We will help professionals reflect on their well-being as a minister and the well-being and fruitfulness of their ministerial context. This service will also connect people to resources as they discern what thriving in ministry means for their work.

In order to have an impact on the formation of religious priests in the United States, the initiative also sponsors Thriving in the Religious Priesthood, an ongoing symposium. The symposium will bring together academic, religious priests serving in seminaries around the country to consider how questions related to thriving in ministry should impact their lives and the way that they implement the education and formation of religious priests today.

The Thriving in Ministry Initiative is part of Lilly Endowment’s grant-making to strengthen pastoral leadership in Christian congregations in the United States. This has been a grant-making priority at Lilly Endowment for nearly 25 years. CTU is one of 78 organizations taking part in the initiative.

CTU knows the blessings and the challenges of ministry in the Catholic Church today. All CTU Alumni and other program participants are invited to participate in the Initiative. P For further information or to inquire about participation, please go to: ctu.edu/thrivinginministry

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S PRIESTHOOD continued from cover The following excerpt was reprinted from the April 1, 2019 online issue of America Magazine from an article titled “Why the Catholic Church needs two different kinds of priesthood,” with permission from America Press, Inc.

Priesthood Shaped by Community Priests who are religious are or should be shaped by their religious community.

“To Serve the People of God” insists that priests today cannot be “lone rangers,” must collaborate with lay men and women, and need to draw “sustenance from relationships within the Christian community and the wider world.” Religious priests, however, are committed to a much more intense community life with members of their own religious congregation. In religious life today, emphasis is placed on making one’s community life the center of one’s life, a source of one’s major friendships and affective life, a life where one finds not only “community” (living together) but “communion.”

While this kind of commitment to community in no way excludes close friendships with women and men who are not community members, it does insist on a certain priority in attendance at communal prayer, meals and special congregational events. In religious community ordained members often live with lay, non-ordained members (religious brothers).

Often—certainly more and more here in the United States—community is marked by multiculturality, a fact that calls for the mutual interaction referred to as “interculturality.” As religious from various cultures, generations and sensitivities rub elbows with one another year after year, they might more easily acquire the flexible “bamboo” resilience that vănThanh Nguyễn, SVD speaks of in his essay in our recent book. Living a life of real community is not always easy, but it can be deeply rewarding. Community rubs off many rough spots and inspires religious in countless ways. It is a source of strong support, challenge and edification.

Community…is a source of strong support.

Priestly ministry so shaped by community might have distinct characteristics, and even some advantages. Living honestly with other dedicated men might have the effect of disabusing a priest of any kind of “specialness” that would separate him from those he lives with or those he serves. Living in close quarters with laymen might make a priest less awkward and more open with lay women and men. The Boston College seminar recommends that priesthood candidates be formed together with lay women and men. This is something that religious congregations have already been doing for years in “Union” schools of theology like Washington Theological Union in Washington, DC, Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

Living in an intercultural community might make a religious priest particularly sensitive to the multiculturality of the parish, hospital, academic or other communities in which he ministers. Living in a community of equality might aid a religious priest’s ability to collaborate more easily with those with whom he ministers. And the kind of leadership exercised in religious communities might affect the way an ordained member of a religious community leads and cooperates with leadership in his ministry.

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Priesthood Marked by Prophetic Witness Pope Francis, particularly during the Year of Consecrated Life in 2015, called women and men religious to embrace the prophetic aspect of religious life. The main way that religious do this is the public profession of vows (or promises) of chastity, poverty and obedience. Lived authentically and reflectively, religious life can offer a strikingly countercultural lifestyle as its members willingly accept a single, celibate life for more risky and unselfish service and dedication, a simple life of community of goods in a world of consumerism and accumulation, and a life that eschews personal ambition and accomplishment for a life open to working for their community’s goals.

More cutting-edge ministries like working with migrants and asylum seekers, pressing for death penalty reform, demonstrating at places that might get priests arrested and ministering to the LGBTQ community could flow from the freedom that comes from voluntary chastity.

These vows, however, should lead religious to other prophetic actions and stances both in the church and in the wider world.

Choices of places of priestly ministry, for example, might be determined by a congregation’s option for the poor. Decisions to promote lay people in particular ministries, especially to include women at a significant level, might be the result of an understanding of obedience that promotes consultation and wide participation. More cutting-edge ministries like working with migrants and asylum seekers, pressing for death penalty reform, demonstrating at places that might get priests arrested and ministering to the LGBTQ community could flow from the freedom that comes from voluntary chastity.

Priesthood Responding to Charism Every religious congregation has been formed in response to special needs in the church and according to a particular charism given to it by its founder. A priesthood shaped by religious life is one that lives out priesthood in ways that embody that charism within priestly ministry. For example, the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) charism is one that is missionary—and so highly attuned to and appreciative of culture, and setting its sights on places and peoples in which the gospel has not been preached or sufficiently rooted.

Passionists have a particular ministry of preaching retreats and missions, calling women and men to meditate on the passion of the Lord and to more deeply enter into the mystery of suffering in human life. The Missionaries of St. Charles (otherwise known as Scalabrinians) carry out their ministry among migrants and refugees. The Missionaries of the Precious Blood focus on the ministry of reconciliation. Jesuits are well known for their teaching ministry and academic excellence and, after Vatican II, have committed themselves to cutting-edge work for justice.

Benedictines live a life of prayer and immerse themselves in the church’s liturgical life. Franciscans have lately emphasized their lay character as brothers, emphasizing their equality whether ordained or not, and dedicating themselves, like their founder, to the care of creation.

Priesthood with a Global Vision The international and multicultural character of many religious congregations brings the gift of a more visible catholicity to the entire church. Priests in religious communities often are formed and minister in situations where they interact with members from several different areas of the world, and are also reminded of their congregation’s internationality and catholicity by international general chapters, communications from their generalates and members returning to their home countries who may have served abroad. On the one hand, they are rooted in the diocese and country in which they serve. On the other hand, they are keenly aware of the global nature of Christianity and the Catholic Church.

Participants gather for the April 2017 conference hosted by CTU’s Center for the Study of Consecrated Life “Priesthood in Religious Life: Searching for New Ways Forward.” (above and facing page)

Priests from these congregations can offer a vision of intercultural harmony to the people among whom they work. Their homilies, retreat talks, prayers of the faithful at Mass, the vestments and altar decorations they use at Mass, can all reflect such a worldwide view of being Christian. They can be in the forefront of anti-racist and anti-xenophobic movements in parishes and the wider communities in which they live.

Conclusion “To Serve the People of God” is an important document, one that needs to be read, studied and discussed by as many people as possible in the church. It is balanced, profound and inspiring.

What our reflection has tried to do is simply to highlight the fact that in the church there is another kind of priesthood that parallels and complements the priesthood presumed in the document. We are not saying that the aspects we have highlighted for religious priests are not present or possible within the priesthood in which diocesan priests participate. We are saying, however, that the aspects on which we focus are perhaps more accessible, more “natural” to priests in religious congregations.

Both priesthoods complement each other. Neither is complete without the other. Both can learn from the other. The Spirit has greatly enriched the church with each one.

It is our hope that ongoing reflection on these two expressions of priesthood will enrich our understanding of ordained ministry and lead to more effective formation of candidates for the priesthood. P The book, Priesthood in Religious Life: Searching for New Ways Forward, edited by Stephen Bevans, SVD, and Robin Ryan, CP, explores the distinct nature of ordained ministry lived within the context of religious life and is available through Liturgical Press.

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S ANNIVERSARY continued from cover

“I realize that in so many different ways the hard work the study, the practical ministry that takes place at CTU spills over and enriches our local Church in countless ways.”

— CARDINAL BL A SE CUPICH

The evolution of the graduate school of theology founded after the Second Vatican Council also has undergone a series of transformations, as the interactive website on ctu.edu illustrates.

A video series on the site, featuring founding faculty member, Rev. Gil Ostdiek, OFM, documents the major periods of the institution’s history.

Over the span of five decades, CTU has achieved many milestones, each contributing to the rich tapestry of its mission.

Among these milestones include the beginning of a Catholic Jewish Studies program In 1968; the admission of the first of a growing stream of lay women and women religious to study at CTU in 1972; the founding of a Hispanic Theology and Ministry program in 1983, and in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Chicago, the launching of the Tolton Scholarship program for Black Catholic Ministers and the Romero Scholarship program for Hispanic Catholic ministers in 1989 and 1994 respectively.

“Centers” at CTU were established to focus study and advancement of key areas in the Church. The Bernardin Center of Theology and Ministry launched in 1996, and the Center for the Study of Consecrated Life in 2014, which have become important parts of CTU’s legacy.

A Year of Celebration In addition to the Founding of CTU event in October 2018 celebrating this legacy, the year-long 50 th Anniversary culminated in a Mass on May 5, 2019, where over 300 CTU community members and supporters gathered to worship together at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Hyde Park.

The Cardinal, who presided at the 50 th Anniversary Celebration Mass, in his homily expressed thanks to CTU “for the invaluable contribution that it has made and continues to make to this local Church, but also to the church in this country and beyond.” The Cardinal continued, “I realize that in so many different ways the hard work the study, the practical ministry that takes place at Catholic Theological Union spills over and enriches our local Church in countless ways.”

Three icons of CTU alumni martyrs, Ezechiele Ramin, MCCJ; Salvatore Carzedda, PIME; and John Ssenyondo, MCCJ, were blessed by the Cardinal. These graduates lost their lives working for justice and reconciliation, missionaries sent into the world from CTU.

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Following the Anniversary Mass, the academic center on the CTU campus was dedicated as the “James and Catherine Denny Center at Catholic Theological Union.”

[The Dennys] helped establish an Islamic studies program at CTU which today is a significant influence in the work of interreligious peace and justice making.

Jim and Cate Denny, along with their daughter, the late Catherine Denny Bowyer, have served CTU’s mission with decades of philanthropic support and vision. During a CTU sponsored visit to Jerusalem in 1999, the Dennys recognized how important the relationship of Christians and Muslims would be for the future of humanity. They helped establish an Islamic studies program at CTU which today is a significant influence in the work of interreligious peace and justice making. Their late daughter Kate, in whose memory the building was named, served on the advisory board of the Peacebuilders Initiative at CTU, a leadership program for Catholic high school students.

As CTU embarks on the next 50 years, it will remain steadfast in answering the ministerial formation needs of religious communities and the Church, a Church that will increasingly rely on Lay Ecclesial Ministers to effectively proclaim the good news, alongside ordained men and women religious. P For additional information, please visit: ctu.edu/50th-anniversary PHOTO CREDIT: KAREN CALLOWAY, CHICAGO CATHOLIC.

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IDEALLY THERE SHOULD BE A COMPANION VOLUME TO THIS HISTORY OF CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION. IT WOULD BE ENTITLED “APOSTLES AND MARTYRS,” AND IT WOULD TELL THE STORY OF THE GRADUATES OF CTU AND THEIR WORK IN MINISTRY. INTERESTING AS THE ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPING PROGRAMS OF THE SCHOOL MIGHT BE, THE ULTIMATE COMMENTARY ON CTU IS THE LIVING DOCUMENT, THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE PREPARED FOR MINISTRY AT CTU AND ARE NOW SERVING IN THE FIELD. Rev. Paul Bechtold, CP, Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, The Founding Years

On the occasion of Catholic Theological Union’s 50th Anniversary, a call was made for nominations to recognize the important contributions that have been made by CTU graduates in theology and ministry. Nominations were received from far and wide, from scores of individuals — faculty, alumni, and community members — sharing the vital and inspirational work that our alumni have accomplished across the globe.

There are countless alumni embodying CTU’s vision to be a transformative force in the Church and world. We are delighted to share a sampling of our outstanding alumni here in our second-half series of 50 inspiring profiles.

LUZ EUGENIA ALVAREZ | MDIV ’14 ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTO PASTORAL, UNIVERSITY OF SAINT MARY OF THE LAKE, MUNDELEIN SEMINARY Oscar Romero Scholar Luz Eugenia Alvarez is an Associate Director of the Instituto de Liderazgo Pastoral at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, where she teaches and directs formation programs preparing Latin@ lay ministers for service in the Archdiocese of Chicago and other Dioceses. She is also an adjunct faculty at Dominican University where teaches a Latin@ Theology course and has facilitated theological reflection at CTU. While completing her MDiv at CTU, Luz served as a volunteer every Friday at the Broadview Detention Center, helping families of loved ones who were being deported.

MARY AMORE | DMIN ’04, MAPS ’99

CYNTHIA “SAM” BOWNS | MDIV ’12

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MAYSLAKE MINISTRIES

ACTIVIST

Mary Amore has served the church in an extraordinary way as the Executive Director of Mayslake Ministries, a Center for Christian Spirituality in the greater Chicago area. Mary herself embodies the kind of thoughtful and dedicated commitment to the mission of the church that her programs have helped instill in thousands of participants in her program. An engaging presenter, Mary has also proclaimed the gospel through her frequent appearances on satellite radio and cable television.

A familiar face at CTU from her time in the Development Office, Sam Bowns now devotes her energy full time to activism for the ordination of Women Deacons.

She has held a leadership role for the Congregation of St. Joseph in Cleveland, preached at multiple parishes throughout the Midwest and co-facilitated a retreat in San Francisco on “Women’s Restoration to the Diaconate,” the second of its kind. Her work and journey have been featured in the National Catholic Reporter, CatholicWomenPreach.com and on PBS.

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GIOACCHINO CAMPESE | MA ’96 PROFESSOR AT THE PONTIFICAL URBANIANA UNIVERSITY, ROME Gioacchino is a prime example of CTU’s strong commitment to the church’s universal mission. His interest in mission is not simply academic but is combined with a strong, practical commitment to service. After receiving his MA at CTU, Gioacchino completed the doctorate in missiology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. Before that he worked for several years at the Casa del Migrante en Tijuana on the Mexico/US border. He currently teaches in the Pastoral theology and Human Mobility at the Pontifical Urbaniana University and directs Casa Scalabrini 634, a center that practices the culture of welcoming and integration among refugees, migrants and native Italians.

JAMES CASSIDY | MDIV ’79 FOUNDER OF ARM IN ARM IN AFRICA CTU graduate Fr. James Cassidy, after 15 years of ministering within the AIDS community in the Twin Cities, founded Arm In Arm In Africa (AIAIA) in 2000 as part of his ongoing response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. His focus became South Africa, the epicenter of the world’s AIDS crisis, and a nation that continues to struggle with the ongoing effect of HIV. Fr. Cassidy continues as president of AIAIA, a non-profit which continues to provide yearly delegations to South Africa. In addition to a 35-year career in providing hospice care, Fr. Cassidy remains a member of the pastoral staff at St. Joan of Arc, one of the larger, welcoming Catholic communities in the Twin Cities.

EMILY (RUSKAMP) CORTINA | MA-ICM ’15 MINISTER AT KOLBE HOUSE A Nebraska native, Emily was drawn into ministry while serving as a youth mentor with Incarnate Word Missionaries in Chimbote, Peru, where she became captivated by the power of parishes as agents of community development. The incarceration experience of her husband, as well as her exposure to reconciliation and restorative justice through studies and practicum at CTU deepened and clarified her calling. Since 2017, Emily has worked at Kolbe House, the jail ministry of the Archdiocese of Chicago, where she practices and teaches the relationship-centered values of restorative justice through family ministry, parish outreach, and volunteer formation.

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FIFTY-YEAR ANNIVERSARY REPRESENTS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY to reflect and to imagine. We at CTU are amazed to look back and give thanks for all that has been built and accomplished in this special place. But we would not be honoring those accomplishments if we fail to also look forward: to imagine and reimagine the myriad ways theology can serve the needs of the Church and of the hurting world.

In celebration of our mission and to mark our 50 th anniversary, CTU has embarked on a capital campaign called Forward in Faith. To strengthen CTU’s mission for the future, we have set a campaign goal of $16 million. Campaign funds will provide scholarships for outstanding students who have the qualities to serve the church with honor; ensure we maintain and develop our superb faculty—one of the hallmarks of CTU; and equip CTU’s educational mission with emerging technology that will be a critical tool in preparing new heroes for the Church.

Because of the generosity of CTU’s sponsoring religious orders and its many lay friends who have already had an opportunity to support the campaign effort, over $13 million has been pledged towards our goal. What makes this generosity all the more extraordinary is that the commitments to this campaign have been made above and beyond the annual support our donors have provided each year to sustain CTU’s operations. Recently a dear friend of CTU has offered us this bold challenge: for every new or significantly-increased donation we inspire, she will match it with a dollar of her own, up to $400,000 dollars through 2020.

The interrelated Campaign priorities detailed on these pages will propel CTU forward in service to our local and global Church as the twenty-first century unfolds.

GERALD GALIPEAU | DMIN ‘99 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MISSION INTEGRATION AT ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CENTER Dr. Jerry Galipeau serves as Executive Director of Mission Integration for three Catholic hospitals in Connecticut, including Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, which was just named one of the 100 best hospitals in the United States by IBM Watson. He served as Vice President and Chief Publishing Officer at J.S. Paluch Company and its music and liturgy division, World Library Publications.

He also served as Director of Liturgy and Music at parishes in Florida and Illinois. Jerry is an author and presents widely on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, liturgical spirituality, and adult spiritual formation. He is a past chair of the Board of Directors of the North American Forum on the Catechumenate.

EDWINA GATELEY | MTS ‘81 AUTHOR, FOUNDER OF THE VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY MOVEMENT Edwina had extensive ministry experience even before she began her Master of Pastoral Studies degree from CTU. She served as a lay missionary in Africa and upon her return to England she founded the Volunteer Missionary Movement, sending many others to be with the people in Africa. After her graduation from CTU she founded Genesis House in Chicago. Edwina has written extensively and is in demand as a speaker for her passionate commitment to the gospel and for serve to the poor.

BILL HUEBSCH | MTS ’82

PATRICIA HUGHES | DMIN ’03

PUBLISHER AND TEACHER

DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF WORSHIP FOR THE DIOCESE OF DALLAS

Bill Huebsch is an author, theologian, former director of religious education, farmer, and long-time Catholic publishing professional. He is founder of PastoralPlanning.com and past president of Twenty-Third Publications. Bill writes and teaches extensively on the catechetical mission of the Church and on the importance of continuing to implement the vision of the Second Vatican Council. Bill served as a diocesan administrator for many years in Minnesota, later serving as Director of Religious Education in a suburban Minneapolis parish.

Shaped initially as a parish organist, Dr. Patricia Hughes has ministered in the Church for over forty years. Currently the Director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of Dallas and an adjunct professor in the Neuhoff Graduate School of Ministry at the University of Dallas, Dr. Hughes has served in similar roles in Louisville, Kentucky and Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2017 she authored Celebrating Sunday for Catholic Families, keynoted the National Gathering on Christian Initiation in 2018, and has a regular column for Pastoral Liturgy magazine.

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Scholarships

Faculty Excellence

The Church needs genuine ministers of the gospel in order to carry out its God given mission. When well-formed religious and lay ministers can inspire, speak and effectively address the world’s needs for reconciliation, peacemaking, and transcending boundaries, Christ’s body the Church is strengthened, and its future made bright.

The CTU faculty is entrusted to inspire, inform and shape those who will serve as the life blood of the Church. As CTU embarks on its next fifty years, it is essential to attract and retain men and women—religious and lay—who excel in their academic disciplines and who are gifted teachers.

As with many Roman Catholic seminaries, CTU’s religious order candidates are decreasing because fewer men are considering religious life. A growing majority of today’s ministers are lay men and women, and women religious, who must seek their own funding for their training. As Lay Ministers take on increasing responsibilities in the Church, investing in scholarships will provide CTU with enhanced ability to attract and retain the very best candidates locally, nationally and internationally, fortifying faith communities all over the world with missionary disciples.

CTU’s committed faculty serves the Church by educating future leaders— in the best of Catholic theology, pastoral ministry and formation for service as disciples of Jesus in a world in need of healing and reconciliation. An investment in faculty will allow CTU’s tradition of academic leadership to flourish, and ensure the development of the next generation of inspirational and mission-driven faculty.

Innovation and Technology A crucial part of CTU’s work is to provide the tools our exceptional faculty and students require to do their work well.

These tools used to be summed up in two words: buildings and books. Today, technology has become a primary medium of education, extending the walls of our classrooms.

As an institution of learning formed in the crucible of Vatican II, CTU has always embraced innovation. Today, CTU seeks to heed Pope Francis’ call to “go to the margins”—to serve the Church and its people beyond our campus. This anniversary campaign is therefore committed to funding technology that will allow us to do that.

BARBARA | MA ’90 NORMAN SHANAHAN | MTS ’89 EMERITUS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CATHOLIC BIBLICAL STUDIES PROGRAM BUFFALO

NOEL KELLER, RSM | MA ’94

Barbara and her late husband Norman assumed leadership of the Catholic Biblical Studies program in Buffalo, New York in 1991 and expanded it to multiple sites in parishes all over western New York State. Barb has enriched parishes with her knowledge of Scripture as well as her abilities to organize and present scripture-based programs in a variety of settings with excellent speakers and presenters, many from CTU. Barb took the knowledge of Scripture that she learned at CTU and shared it with people in her community. She helped to train others to do the same. Thus she has instilled a love and understanding for the Word of God thus fulfilling Christ’s command to go out and preach the gospel.

LEOCADIE LUSHUMBO | MA ‘14

DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE FOR SACRED SCRIPTURE, SISTERS OF MERCY

PHD CANDIDATE, BOSTON COLLEGE

Mercy sister, Noel Keller completed her studies at CTU concentrating on Scripture and went to earn a doctorate. In that capacity she has served as the leader and driving force of the Scripture Institute at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania since its inception. The institute brings together biblical faculty from across the country and offers courses to priests, religious and laity. Over the course of the years, Noel’s dedicated work has brought the beauty of the Scriptures to thousands.

Leocadie is a lay consecrated woman in the Teresian Institute founded by Saint Pedro Poveda in Spain in 1914 and a Congolese native. She completed her Masters in Theological Ethics at CTU and is now PhD candidate at Boston College in theological ethics. She brings to her studies an exceptional experience as a community organizer in her home country and has been a leading protector of women threatened with rape as a weapon of war and an exponent of the political rights of women in Africa.

JULIA MCSTRAVOG | MA ‘14

GLENDA SPEARMAN | MDIV ‘04 CHAPLAIN AT THE ANN & ROBERT H. LURIE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF CHICAGO Winner of the Bishop Quarter Award for Vicariate VI, Glenda Spearman is a chaplain at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She coordinates ministry to Catholic patients and families, supervises the ministers of care, and is actively involved in the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. Her welcoming presence to patients, visitors and staff is often accompanied by a gentle embrace and sign of peace. She is a woman of deep faith whose ministry incarnates the healing, compassionate, merciful presence of Jesus.

MARY ANN PAUSS SPINA | MDIV ‘92, MA 2001

PROGRAM MANAGER, PROGRAMS ON ETHICS, RELIGION, AND THE HOLOCAUST, MANDEL CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES, US HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

PASTORAL ASSOCIATE, PASTORAL COUNSELOR, SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR, WRITER

Upon graduation from CTU, Julia began as a research and program specialist for the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops where she worked on key initiatives for the bishops, including assisting the Vatican Accredited Media Personnel for Pope Francis’s apostolic visit to the United States. and a 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate Conference at the Catholic University of America. A seminary alumna of prestigious Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, she is now designing and implementing Holocaust education programming in her new position with the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Julia is also pursuing her ThD at La Salle University in Philadelphia.

Mary Ann Spina’s dedication to her parish and to the various ministries and organizations that she has been a part of, including her work with Faith in Action in Lake County, is inspiring to witness. Her M.Div. degree from CTU shaped and encouraged her strong pastoral sense.

She found great joy in journeying with those coming to the faith through RCIA and encouraged others to become involved in parish ministry and in social justice activities.

FRAN SULZER, FSPA | DMIN ‘96 SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR

SHERRY MEYER | MTS ’91 MISSIONARY Originally from Indianapolis, Sherry worked under Cardinal Bernadin while studying at CTU. After graduation, Sherry was prepared and sent as a lay missionary for Arua Catholic Diocese in Uganda by Edwina Gately’s Volunteer Missionary Movement (see Gately on page 9). Though her intention was a two-year commitment, she is now in her 28th year—serving as consultant to what is now fully Ugandan leadership.

Sherry’s ministry in Arua has included teaching, adapting texts for training centers, building a pastoral center and founding a diocesan radio.

Sr. Fran’s doctoral work was related to rekindling the founding charism of her religious community. She currently serves as a spiritual director, facilitator and psychotherapist in Chicago. She also runs spiritual companioning groups at St. Peter’s in the Loop. Sr. Fran reflects the mission of CTU in her commitment to the mental and spiritual health of religious and lay people and to her vocation in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

CLARA TERNES, ASC | MA ‘76 deceased FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS HEALTH SYSTEMS

KATHLEEN MITCHELL, FSPA | MA ’11, MDIV ’14 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PASTORAL THEOLOGY, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF FORMATION, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE TEACHING PARISH PROGRAM Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, Sr. Kathleen Mitchell, is Associate Dean of Formation, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Associate Director of the Teaching Parish Program at Mundelein Seminary. Sr. Kathleen has ministered in teaching, faith formation, young adult ministry, vocation ministry and ministry with media. She has a B.A. in History and Communications from Emmanuel University in Boston, MA; and a MEd from Loyola University in Chicago. Sr. Kathleen enjoys working with persons of other cultures and feels she is the best of herself when ministering in settings that mirror the Catholic Church and the world in all its diversity.

Sr. Clara Ternes held degrees from St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing, Saint Louis University, and CTU. As a dedicated medical professional for almost 60 years, Sr. Clara ministered in Pastoral Care at a variety of Illinois hospitals, taught at the Institute of Religion in Houston and Texas Woman’s University, and then served for 19 years as vice President of Mission, Values and Ethics for the Southern Illinois Health Systems in Carbondale, Illinois. She was professed for 72 years as an Adorer of the Blood of Christ.

DR. MICHAEL TRAINOR | MA ’82 VICE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS AUSTRALIAN MEMBER OF THE ADELAIDE ARCHDIOCESE

JAY MOSES | MA ’13 PASTOR, FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF WHEATON Jay earned degrees from Azusa Pacific University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Northern Seminary before earning a Masters in Theology from CTU in Interreligious Dialogue specifically in Islamic Studies. He served in multiple Southern California parishes before joining First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton in 2004 as Pastor of Congregational Ministries. Jay has been on staff at Chicago Presbytery as the Muslim Relation Coordinator in reaching out to the Islamic community, and is currently the moderator of the Ecumenical and Interreligious Work Group.

Rev. Dr. Michael Trainor AM studies models of learning and leadership from the earliest households of Jesus followers and offers an ecological interpretation of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. He teaches at the Adelaide Campus of the Australian Catholic University, Adelaide, with academic teaching status with Flinders University, South Australia. Michael is Board member of the International Council of Christians and Jews; Chair of the Australian Council of Christians and Jews, co-chair of the South Australian Council of Christians and Jews; and co-chair of the South Australian Uniting Church and Roman Catholic Dialogue. He is also pastor of the parish of Lockleys, South Australia.

JOSHUA | MDIV ’13, MA ’19 ELLEN SALMI-VAN CLEEF | MA ‘16 MICHAEL PORADEK | MA ’15

CO-DIRECTORS OF PARISH LIFE AT HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH IN JACKSON, KENTUCK Y

DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF DIVINE WORSHIP FOR THE DIOCESE OF GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN

After graduation from CTU and their wedding, Josh and Ellen headed to Kentucky to work within a new model of Church leadership. They are co-directors of a small rural parish, working to respond to the needs of the community in the absence of a priest. They offer the church as a whole a hopeful vision of how community is formed and missions its love back out to the rest of the world. They are redefining what we mean by lay leadership in the church.

Michael Poradek currently serves as the Director of the Office of Divine Worship for the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Since 2015 he has served as the first lay principal Master of Ceremonies for the Diocese and teaches as an Adjunct Instructor at Silver Lake College of the Holy Family in Manitowoc. Michael serves as the national Vice Chair and Region VII (Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana) Representative for the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions. His ongoing research focus is leadership formation for rural Catholic parishes.

GARY RIEBE-ESTRELLA, SVD | MA ’74 DEAN EMERITUS, CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION A member of the Divine Word Missionaries, Gary Riebe-Estrella was one of the first graduates from CTU. He went on to a leadership role, serving as the president of ACHTUS (the Academy of Hispanic Theologians) twice, first in 1996-97 and again in 2009-10. He served as the Vice President and Academic Dean of CTU for twelve years. Gary’s activism and his early experiences in pastoral ministry with Latin@ communities has brought him the opportunities to work with many religious orders and organizations as a diversity consultant. His publications in the area of Latin@ theologies and ministries are numerous, and establish Gary’s place as one of the first CTU religious alums to make a mark in Latin@ theologies and ministries.

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The Investment forward in faith campaign

$

8

+

million

5.5

$

scholarships

$16 million + $10 million Annual Operating Support 2018–2022

= $26 million Comprehensive Fundraising Goal 2018–2022

50%

+

faculty excellence

Anniversary Campaign Goal

corporation members

million

2.5

$

million

=

16

$

million

innovation and technology

comprehensive campaign: the importance of annual giving CTU’s Annual Fund goal of just over $2 million dollars each year serves as an indispensable complement to the Forward in Faith campaign goal. Our hope is that CTU’s generous benefactors will make special campaign commitments over and above their current level of support to make the campaign vision a reality.

Because of how critical ongoing annual support is to maintain our current scholarship and curricular offerings, the comprehensive $26 million goal represents a combination of campaign investments and anticipated annual support revenue over the five-year horizon. Thank you for keeping the Annual Fund in mind when considering your personal investment in the Forward in Faith campaign.

Campaign Partnership The support of the anniversary campaign reflects the unique partnership between the twenty-four religious communities who are the corporate sponsors of CTU and the generous lay men and women who recognize the important role that CTU plays in the future of the Church and its mission to the world.

50% lay supporters

we have been overwhelmed by the individuals who have responded generously in reimagining with us the myriad ways theology can serve the needs of the Church and the world.

The Forward in Faith Campaign invites your participation in that imagining.

Increased scholarship capacity, support for faculty development, and technological innovation will position CTU to build on past success and to carry out a mission that remains as urgent and exciting in 2019 as it was in 1968. Join us.

Blessed are the Peacemakers CONTINUING THE CELEBRATION of its golden jubilee year, CTU was delighted to honor the tireless death-penalty advocate Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ with the 2019 Blessed are the Peacemakers Award; and pastor, leader and missionary Rev. John J. Wall with the 2019 Diakonia Award.

The evening featured a preview performance of the Chicago Lyric Opera’s Dead Man Walking, which will premier at the Lyric this fall.

Actress and activist Susan Sarandon, who won an Academy Award for her role as Sr. Helen in the film of the same name, provided a beautiful video tribute to our distinguished guest.

Among the record crowd of community members, friends and supporters were representatives of the 50@50 Inspiring CTU Alumni (see page 8).

Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ For a school of theology preparing women and men for ministry in the church of the 21st century, the values exemplified by Sr. Helen Prejean stand at the center of our Christian mission: mercy, justice, compassion, courage, and perseverance. For Sr. Helen these are not abstract values or distant ideals, but virtues that inform the deepest commitments of her life: never forgetting the dignity and sacredness of all human life; walking in solidarity with those condemned to death; embracing those whose lives are shattered by violence and loss; speaking the truth with courage, remaining steadfast when only a few seemed to listen.

Rev. John J. Wall Fr. Jack’s dedication to the mission of the church led to the extraordinary example of leadership he demonstrates now as President of the Catholic Extension, a national fundraising organization that has provided vital resources for Catholic parishes for more than a century. Fr. Jack’s imaginative leadership and ardent pastoral care now reach throughout the United States, bringing support and dynamism to Catholic communities in every corner of our nation. Inspired by Fr. Jack’s tireless energy and commitment, the generosity of Catholic donors across the country has given new life and encouragement to parishes in need. P

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Bishop Robert McElroy is a highly regarded theologian and the Bishop of the San Diego Diocese. CTU honored Bishop McElroy for his efforts as bishop to initiate data-driven transparency, dialogue, and action on behalf of victims of sexual abuse by priests in the San Diego area and for his work with the USCCB on domestic justice, international justice, and ecumenism.

Sister Carol Keehan, DC, is the recently retired President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States in Washington, DC. CTU honored Sr. Carol for her steadfast focus on “the least of these” when wielding significant influence in the complicated and challenging world of American healthcare and healthcare policy.

Commencement Keynote Highlights Transformation WITHIN THE MAGNIFICENT SANCTUARY OF OUR NEIGHBOR KAM ISAIAH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE, CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION CELEBRATED OUR 51ST ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY ON MAY 23, 2019. REV. MARK FRANCIS, CSV, PRESENTED AN HONORARY DOCTORATE IN THEOLOGY TO THE MOST REVEREND ROBERT W. MCELROY AND AN HONORARY DOCTORATE IN MINISTRY TO SISTER CAROL KEEHAN, DC. BELOW IS AN EXCERPT FROM SR. CAROL’S ADDRESS TO MORE THAN 89 GRADUATES WHO RECEIVED CERTIFICATES, MASTER OR DOCTORATE LEVEL DEGREES.

“ALL OF US SHOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL TO YOU for choosing to do advanced studies in theology at this time in the Church. As you are well-aware, the Church has great need of you at this challenging and historic time. Some characterize it as the biggest crisis in the Church since the reformation.

More heartbreaking than the comparison has been the revelations of so much suffering and the scandalous and harsh response to it by some who were most responsible for protecting the people of God, especially the children. Added to that is the heartbreak of watching so many walk away from the Church, so many who do not want to hear Christ’s message because of the behavior of some of his messengers.

Your commitment to making your life’s work the study and sharing of this message is so inspiring and heroic at this time. I look at it as the perfect response to Christ’s question in the 6th Chapter of St. John’s Gospel, “and you, will you also walk away?” Your commitment echoes Peter’s response, “to whom shall we go, you have the words of everlasting life.”

I was so impressed and encouraged by the mission statement of the Catholic Theological Union. You speak of your mission “to prepare effective leaders for the Church, ready to witness to Christ’s good news of justice, love and peace.”

How much we need witnesses of Christ’s good news today. We have such credibility problems that words just won’t really help. It is witnesses that are desperately needed to regain the credibility to effectively proclaim Christ’s message. What an incredible witness your lives are. They proclaim louder than any words could. This message is so wonderful, so important and so life-giving that I will make understanding and sharing it my life’s work.

It also witnesses in a very important way that Christ’s message and his Church are grounded in the Gospels, not in the behavior of the hierarchy or some organizations of the Church. True they have a solemn responsibility to reflect the Gospel, but when they do not, it is flawed humanity, not a flawed Gospel. It is when we need to ground ourselves more than ever in the Gospel.

Your vision for your graduates to be a transformative force in the Church has never been more essential.

We must all contribute to the transformation the Church needs and you are especially well-equipped to lead in that. Your gifts and the efforts you have made to better understand and articulate the message of the Gospel will be such a gift to the Church. Pope Francis labels it “the joy of the Gospel.”

That is the great gift you bring, helping us to see that the ultimate good news really is the Gospel.”

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ON JULY 1, 2019, REV. RICHARD BENSON, CM, BEGAN HIS BOARD APPOINTMENT AS CTU’S VICE PRESIDENT AND ACADEMIC DEAN. BENSON IS A MEMBER OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION (VINCENTIANS) AND HAS A LONG AND DISTINGUISHED CAREER AS PROFESSOR, ACADEMIC DEAN, AND FORMATOR. FATHER BENSON, WHO WAS MOST RECENTLY AN ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY IN THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES DEPARTMENT, SERVED FOR 15 YEARS AT ST. JOHN’S SEMINARY, CAMARILLO, CALIFORNIA, AS ACADEMIC DEAN AND CHAIR OF THE MORAL THEOLOGY DEPARTMENT. HIGHLY RESPECTED AS A LEADER IN SEMINARY FORMATION, HE WAS SINGLED OUT BY THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR AN EXCELLENT MODEL OF PEDAGOGY FOR SEMINARIANS.

On Service, Science, and the Holy Spirit: Thoughts from Rev. Dick Benson, CM I BELIEVE THE JOB OF AN ACADEMIC DEAN is in essence a service position. You serve the students. There is a lot of paperwork and a lot of behind-the-scenes administration, but dealing with issues about accreditation, about faculty development and concerns about the quality of pedagogy, the quality of the courses is ultimately, I believe, student-centered work.

Of course, it’s hard if you’re sequestered in an office looking at a computer all day to form the kind of relationships that are revelatory or expressive of that service perspective and of the mission of CTU. So I hope to be teaching at least one course at any given time. I have a background in science—bioethics—so that may be a focus of my courses. It will certainly inform my work as Dean.

For one thing, I am more data-driven than the average theologian. I have a cordial relationship with data. I would like to see everybody who studies Scripture in a graduate school be comfortable reading Greek and Hebrew. Why? Because to be data-driven is to seek the foundation, the primary rather than the secondary sources. To know how to look directly at the nuances in the Greek and Hebrew when preparing a sermon, for example. I will also assign great value to the student evaluations we collect at CTU. Analyzing that data will help us be more effective at what we do.

Science also helps us approach the big theological questions: How does God work in the universe? How can we perceive God in that universe? Sixteen hundred years ago, St. Augustine wrote that God offers two books of Revelation: the Bible and creation. John Paul II wrote that reason (science) and theology are two wings on a single bird. I like the image of a bird here because both scientists and theologians can shut themselves up in theory and study—but the great challenge and opportunity we face at CTU is to bring traditional Catholic theology into the 21st century and to make it relevant for the new evangelization. To make it fly. Because the issue is not that people will know what the church teaches, but that they will know Christ.

“At CTU, religious men are studying for the priesthood and for vowed life alongside religious women and laymen and women, actively learning respect, healthy boundaries, and gendered dynamics of all kinds. CTU is one of the few Catholic formation centers that offers that.”

— FR. BENSON

So I hope in my role as Dean to show that what we do here is much bigger than CTU. The degree our students earn here is not the pinnacle but rather the foundation for the trajectory of the rest of their lives— and of the Church’s life as a whole. That I believe is part of what CTU tries to teach. Darwin said that when a species environment is challenged to the point where the species can no longer exist in that context, the species only has three choices. It either goes extinct, it moves or it evolves. In my view, the church has been in evolution for 21 centuries, and it continues to be. Part of CTU’s mission is to help people understand their own church and realize that the church is always moving. Always drawing on our wonderful treasury of faith and inviting new perspectives. The goal of a good minister is not so much to encourage folks to “go” to church, but to encourage folks to “be” church. At CTU, religious men are studying for the priesthood and for vowed life alongside religious women and laymen and women, actively learning respect, healthy boundaries, and gendered dynamics of all kinds. CTU is one of the few Catholic formation centers that offers that.

I’ve known CTU more than 45 years. There is an energy and vibrancy here that I haven’t seen any other place. The students and faculty here embody an understanding that all theology is pastoral theology. They understand that truth—trustworthy knowledge about God and the universe—must be communicated through a meaningful presence. So when the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and directed me here to serve as Dean, I eagerly said yes. P

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“The need for strong leaders in the Catholic Church is greater now than ever before, and it’s clear to me that CTU is the kind of organization that is grooming and teaching leaders with the strength that is needed.”

— K AREN WALKER

APPOINTED BY THE BOARD IN JUNE, MS. KAREN WALKER IS CTU’S NEW VICE PRESIDENT FOR FINANCE AND OPERATIONS. HIGHLY REGARDED IN THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY, MS. WALKER HAS SERVED IN SENIOR-LEVEL FINANCE AND OPERATIONS ROLES AT SIEBERT CISNEROS SHANK & CO. AND THE CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY. MS. WALKER IS A MEMBER OF LEADERSHIP GREATER CHICAGO, A BOARD MEMBER OF THE CHICAGO METROPOLITAN HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, AND A MEMBER OF THE COOK COUNTY INDEPENDENT REVENUE FORECASTING COMMISSION. A LIFELONG CATHOLIC, MS. WALKER BRINGS TO CTU A PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF IMPROVING THE FINANCING PROFILE OF ORGANIZATIONS AND LAYING A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH.

On Using Your Gifts: Thoughts from Karen Walker I STARTED MY CAREER AS AN AUDITOR and served as Assistant Chief Accountant for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These roles instilled in me a deep appreciation for compliance with rules, procedures and policies. When I transitioned into banking, I helped structure bond financings on behalf of organizations like CTU and other nonprofit and public agencies. I’ve always had a passion for serving educational institutions. As a banker, my clients included the University of Illinois, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, Chicago City Colleges and other colleges and universities.

Currently, we are seeing nationwide declines in enrollment at the higher education level. This is true also for graduate schools of theology. Solidifying the financial profile of CTU must involve growing enrollment, and in order to grow enrollment, you have to grow demand. In order to grow demand, you have to inspire people to want what CTU offers, to be a part of the mission here. So the finance and operations side of the institution connects with the spiritual side.

The work of inspiring and growing enrollment may be a bigger challenge than in the past. The need for strong leaders in the Catholic Church is great and it’s clear to me that CTU is the kind of organization that is grooming and teaching leaders with the strength that is needed.

As an active member of St. Ambrose Catholic Church, I have had the pleasure of interacting with CTU students and alumni. We have an opportunity to leverage our alumni to help promote CTU and the lifelong commitment to service. We have some alumni out there doing great and wonderful things and I always find it really powerful to learn how CTU inspired them and helped prepare them for their career. I look forward to seeing the new ways we are finding to share these alumni stories even more broadly.

Maintaining CTU’s mission is critical to maintaining strong Catholic churches, and my role in that work is to help CTU solidify not just its financial position but the underpinnings of its financial profile. I’m here to roll up my sleeves and get involved, not just at the cloud level as an administrator, but really digging down into the controller and staff accountant roles, event and facilities management, IT and, importantly, student services.

I’m happy to be undertaking this work in such a welcoming environment. It’s friendly here, it’s open—and you can sense right away that people want to be here; they want to be committed. Throughout my life and my journey—from Chicago to New York and LA and back—the big question for me is always, How do you use your gifts? It’s wonderful to have joined a community where I sense everyone is living out that question too. P

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HAPPENINGS

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A The annual Augustus Tolton Lecture “I, too, am America? Race, Religion, and Politics in the Age of Trump” was given by Dr. Stacy Davis of Saint Mary’s College, pictured with Dr. Kimberly Lymore, Director of CTU’s Tolton Program.

B CTU Professors Sr. Laurie Brink, OP and Rev. Daniel P. Horan, OFM led a retreat of CTU students and friends through the Holy Land in late May 2019. The group gathers outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem.

C As part of the 50th Anniversary, Rev. Don Senior, CP, Chancellor, and Colleen Kennedy, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, hosted three special tours of the Bible Lands. Fr. Senior instructs participants on the site of Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scroll excavation.

D Panelists share stories of their personal call to ministry at the annual Catholics on Call conference. From left, Tom Cook, Dannis Matteson, Rev. Adam MacDonald, SVD, and Carolina Perez, Catholics on Call Alumni.

E CTU alumna Dr. Susan Abraham, MA ’95, of Pacific Theological Seminary, gave the Historical and Doctrinal Studies Lecture in March on “Pedagogies of Religion and Nation, Formation and the Postmodern Seminary.”

F Students and faculty gathered for the annual Taste of CTU to celebrate the many cultures of CTU students and faculty through the universal language of food, dance, and music.

G The National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue featured Cardinal Blase J. Cupich and Shaykh Abdur Rahman Khan sharing reflections on the document signed by Pope Francis and Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.”

H Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz of Fordham University gave the Winter Shapiro Lecture on “The Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, and Debates Among Ancient Jews and Christians about the Nature of Time.”

I The February 2019 Sundays at CTU featured the lecture “What is Truth (John 18:38)? Reflections from Biblical and Dominican Perspectives on Seeking Truth” by Sr. Barbara Reid, OP. J The Annual Hayim Perelmuter Conference on Jewish-Christian Dialogue “Many Rooms: Space and Sanctity in Judaism and Christianity” was held in April 2019. Pictured are Dr. Steven Fine of Yeshiva University, guest lecturer for the Spring Shapiro Lecture and Dr. Tzvi Novick of the University of Notre Dame, together with CTU’s Dr. Malka Simkovich and Dr. Steve Millies.

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KUDOS CATHOLIC MEDIA CONTRIBUTORS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

PUBLICATIONS The following list includes a representative sample of some of the amazing scholarly work that CTU’s faculty is doing: Michel Andraos, PhD, published, The Church and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas: In Between Reconciliation and Decolonization, vol. 7, Studies in World Catholicism (Cascade Books, 2019).

Br. John R. Barker, OFM, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Old Testament Studies. He is serving as the Interim MDiv Director for the 2019-20 school year. John’s main areas of biblical research relate to the formation and function of biblical texts, particularly the prophetic literature, and biblical theology. This includes such approaches as rhetorical criticism, the history of the interpretation and reception of biblical texts, and the Bible in the Church and culture.

BOOK AWARDS Congratulations to CTU faculty on their awards from the Catholic Press Association and the Association of Catholic Publishers. CTU faculty members, known as “those who write the books,” are prolific authors whose works are frequently incorporated in the curriculums of other seminaries and schools of theology.

First Place: Liturgy The Pilgrimage of Egeria by Anne McGowan and Paul F. Bradshaw, which also received honorable mention in the History category.

Third Place: Catholic Social Teaching Good Intentions by Steven P. Millies.

Third Place: Sacraments Priesthood in Religious Life edited by Stephen Bevans, SVD, and Robin Ryan, CP.

CATHOLIC PUBLISHERS AWARDS First Place: Biography Raymond E. Brown and the Catholic Biblical Renewal by Donald Senior, CP. Second Place: Scripture O Lord, Open My Lips, The Psalms in the Liturgy by Dianne Bergant, CSA.

Regina (Gina) Wentzel Wolfe, PhD, has retired from her position as Professor of Catholic Theological Ethics, and has recently been named Professor Emerita. She served as the Interim Vice President and Academic Dean in the 2018-19 academic year and is currently writing a book on the topic of poverty alleviation.

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IN LOVING MEMORY

Sr. Laurie Brink, OP, published, What Does the Bible Say About Friendship? (New City Press, 2019).

CATHOLIC PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARDS

Sr. Maria Cimperman, RSCJ, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Catholic Theological Ethics. Sr. Maria continues as Director for the Center for the Study of Consecrated Life at CTU. She brings a post-Vatican II generational lens to the wider theological, pastoral and global concerns of religious life and a desire to respond to the future God is creating as we respond to God’s people and all creation.

Br. Antonio D. Sison, CPPS, has been a film critic for the print and online editions of National Catholic Reporter since 2014 and is now a certified critic for the popular film review website Rotten Tomatoes!

Book of the Year Proverbs by Alice Ogden Bellis, which is a volume in the Wisdom Commentary Series; Barbara Reid, OP, is the General Editor of the series.

Very Reverend Myron Panchuk, MDiv, ’80, died on March 9, 2019. Myron was a Ukrainian Catholic priest and was among the first group of Ukrainian Catholic students to come to CTU in the late 1970s. He received an MDiv from CTU, an MA in counseling from the Adler School of Professional Psychology, and an MA in psychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Rev. John Kilcrann CSSp, MDiv ’00, died on June 11, 2019, in Dublin, Ireland. He attended the University College Dublin studying geography and archaeology then received an MA from Fordham University, and a DMin from CTU.

ALUMNI NEWS

CTU ALUMNUS PUT FORTH AS HOLY PATRON Rev. Ezechiele Ramin, MCCJ, put forth as a Patron Saint of the Amazon Synod.

Rev. Albert Haase, OFM, MDiv ’82, published Becoming an Ordinary Mystic: Spirituality for the Rest of Us (Intervarsity Press, 2019).

Thomas M. Howard, DMin ’16, has contributed to Pope Francis’ book, Sharing the Wisdom of Time (Loyola Press). He has also composed study guide questions for Augustus Tolton: The Church is the True Liberator by Joyce Duriga available through the Chicago Archdiocese.

Rev. Byron Macias, CMF, MA ’15, won an Emmy Award Student Chapter for a broadcasting news video on poverty, “Just a Shower.”

Bernadette Raspante MA ’17, co-lead a two day Lenten Parish Mission at St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago with Dr. Steven Millies. “A Wounded Church Can Heal,” brought together voices speaking to various ‘wounds’ the church is facing. Bernadette addressed a new vision of ecclesiology in the wake of the abuse crisis, as well as a talk on the church’s lack of women in leadership.

200 Brazilian bishops collaborated on a letter to Pope Francis asking him to recognize Comboni missionary and CTU alumnus Ezechiele Ramin, MCCJ, as a patron Saint for the upcoming Synod, Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology. Fr. Ezechiele is in the final stages of the beatification process for Sainthood. Fr. Ezechiele was assassinated in 1985 while defending the rights of landless farmers in Brazil. The bishops acknowledge that the process for Sainthood is not complete, but that the local indigenous peoples cherish the vivid memory of Fr. Ezechiele, and he is called on as an intercessor and protector of the poorest and most persecuted people in the Amazon region. The Synod will take place in October 2019.

Fr. Ezechiele was featured in the 50@50 Inspiring Alumni earlier this year and an Icon bearing his likeness hangs in the first floor of the CTU academic building.

Christine Riley, MDiv ’08, became a Mercy Associate of the Sisters of Mercy of the America’s West Midwest Community Chicago and promised a covenant of service, justice, community and prayer.

Rev. Ed Shea, OFM, MDiv ’87, received the Strangers No Longer Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago for his work in immigration reform.

Sr. Mila Diaz Solano, OP, MA ’09, was elected to congregational leadership with the Dominican Sisters of Springfield. Mila currently resides in Lima where she teaches scripture at ISET, a graduate school of theology, while ministering at Instituto Bartolomé de las Casas, a Christian human development organization founded by Dominican theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez.

Glenda R. Spearman, MDiv ’04, was selected to present her workshop, Her Smile Is Enough For Me: Critical Care Pediatric Chaplaincy at the 2019 National Association of Catholic Chaplains’ Conference, in May at St. Mary’s of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois.

Kate Williams, MA ’16, has published as editor, Of Womb and Tomb: Prayer in Time of Infertility, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth (GIA Publications, 2019).

Joy Ziemke, MDiv ’14, was a keynote speaker at the 2019 World Mission Institute held at the Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago.

ALUMNI GATHER AT ANNUAL RETREAT On June 15, we welcomed forty alumni back to CTU for a day filled with reconnecting and renewal. Rev. Anthony Gittins, CSSp, Professor Emeritus of Theology and Culture, facilitated the retreat which brought together alumni from sixteen cities, four states and two continents to reflect together on the call to “Missionary Discipleship”. CTU alumnus Rev. Ferdinand Okorie, CMF, presided at a closing liturgy before a celebratory dinner.

SAVE THE DATE Join us next year on June 13, 2020 for the annual Alumni Reunion and Retreat at CTU!

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Nonprofit Org. U.S. POSTAGE At the Blessed are the Peacemakers Trustee Dinner in April 2019, CTU students Erika Tello and Br. Maxwell Klug, OFM, offer a special anniversary benediction written by Chancellor, Rev. Don Senior, CP.

A Prayer at 50 Years Dearest God, beautiful and awe-inspiring beyond our imagination, we bless you and we thank you.

You are before all time and beyond all calculation.

Yet you care for us with tender and abiding love.

The prophets and saints of every sacred tradition reflect your beauty and goodness. And yet we believe that Jesus, your incarnate Son, uniquely embodies the entirety of your loving presence with us.

We at CTU mark 50 years of striving to serve you and your people. For us, an anniversary of some endurance; for you, dearest Lord, not even a full day in your courts.

We give thanks for the generous spirit of our founders who dared to create something new. We thank you for our students, past and present.

For their teachers and guides and mentors over the years.

We ask that your loving hand rest on the shoulders of our graduates who serve around the globe.

We thank you for the often-unheralded women and men who toil every day to surround us with light and warmth and order.

We thank you for those who trust we are doing something pleasing to you, Blessed Lord, and for that reason have been generous to us.

And we ask your blessing on all of us gathered here tonight.

Keep our loved ones safe. Keep our hope strong. Heal our world.

When all is said and done, in your loving providence, bring us home to you, rejoicing. Amen.

Logos is published twice a year with information for alumni, donors, and friends of Catholic Theological Union.

PUBLISHER Rev. Mark R. Francis, CSV

EDITORS Colleen Kennedy Kellene Urbaniak