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A GR A DUAT E SCHOOL OF T H EOL OGY A N D M I N IST RY
SPRING 2019
Dialogue is the Key: Bernardin Center Continues to Bring Cardinal’s Ministry to the World “There’s a great hunger in the world for two things,” says Dr. Steve Millies, director of The Bernardin Center at CTU. They are “an ability to overcome divisions, and an understanding of what human life is really about.” Now in his second year as director, Millies believes The Bernardin Center can help feed these hungers. Inspired by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the late Archbishop of Chicago, and the Center focuses on four of his ministerial priorities: the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, interreligious dialogue (especially among Christians, Jews, and Muslims), reconciliation and peacemaking, and the promotion of a consistent ethic of life. For Millies, dialogue is the thread that runs through each of these priorities that best captures Bernardin’s legacy.
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Lifelong Brothers: With Christ, With Each Other, With the Encountered World For three days in October, more than forty Franciscan brothers gathered at CTU for a symposium on lifelong formation for Franciscan men. Participants included Friars of the Atonement, Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, TORs, OFM, OFM Conventual and OFM Capuchin friars from across the U.S. and some brothers from Europe. The gathering was sponsored by the Duns Scotus Chair in Spirituality, which for two decades has initiated scholarship and education in support of the Franciscan charism, and included two public lectures along with internal presentations, processes and discussions. Rev. Ed Foley, OFM Cap, holder of the Duns Scotus Chair for the past ten years, conceived of bringing together Franciscan brothers on this occasion, coordinated the symposium and is currently editing a book based on the papers and presentations.
“For Cardinal Bernardin,” he says, “dialogue — among different faiths, within the church, about all the issues affecting human life — was the key to living
Rev. Michael Perry, OFM, the current minister general of the Order of Friars Minor, opened the conference with a public lecture, exploring the Gospel of Mark as a text that contains accessible wisdom about the lifelong journey of religious life and discipleship. He declared, “In order to be passionate and faithful missionary disciples, we must embrace a way of living the Gospel that can actually render our hearts malleable, revitalize the quality of interpersonal relationships — a quality fraternal experience of life that is life-giving,
S BERNARDIN continued on page 4
S FRANCISCAN continued on page 3
Rev. Richard Rohr, OFM, gives the keynote of a Bernardin Center co-sponsored symposium on Thomas Merton at CTU in December.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
6
Interreligious programs at the heart of The Bernardin Center for half a century
8
Forward in Faith: the Founding of CTU celebrated at a special anniversary Sunday at CTU
10
Fifty at 50 Inspiring CTU Alumni and their stories