With One Accord - Education

With One Accord

Education Volume Two, Issue 1

Winter 2021

CONTENTS EDITORIAL Lucinda M. Vardey WOMEN AND THE CHURCH Marta Rodriguez EDUCATING YOUNG WOMEN TODAY The Magdala Interview: Emily VanBerkum with Sr. Mary Madeline Todd O.P. TWO PIONEERS Kathleen MacInnis Kichline/Lucinda M. Vardey EDUCATING YOUNG MEN TODAY John Connelly LEARNING IN BETWEEN Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten TOMATO MASTERS Maria Leda Nania BOOKS OF INTEREST Gregory Rupik

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Editorial Latin and Greek etymologic sources for the word Education reveal two roots. Educatum has embedded in its meaning a three-fold process involving learning, knowledge and the drawing out of what is hidden in others. The Greek offers more of a practical application—a system of learning with specific subjects.

Either way, equal education for girls and women is a recent phenomenon. Baltimore’s Archbishop Fenelon’s statement in 1865 “Nothing is more neglected than the education of girls” could be considered just as pertinent today. Only recently have we begun to accept what St. Teresa of Avila claimed, that learning from experience (rather than rote) is a far more valuable and reliable way for attaining truth and wisdom.

Consequently, the question that begs answering is why are women’s studies very rarely mainstream curriculum particularly in theology schools?

In the past, monks and nuns provided girls’ and boys’ education. The Middle Ages, and beyond, saw not only the privileged but also children of labourers and artisans given opportunities to attend convent schools. There they learned the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, along with catechism, prayer, the expressive and applied arts, moral conduct and employment skills. Over time, partly due to the decline of religious vocations in the field, we’ve adopted the more Greek model of specialization.

course on Women and the Church, Emily VanBerkum’s enlightening interview with Sr. Mary Madeline Todd on her views and experiences teaching young women, and Kathleen MacInnis Kichline and myself honour two significant women pioneers.

John Connelly recounts what’s unfolding in Catholic education for young men, What we do now understand is that especially regards the overcoming of people learn differently. In this issue stereotyping and an embrace of a more we’ve attempted to present a spectrum Christ-like mien of relating. of that look of learning as it reflects the Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten shares feminine dimension. Marta Rodriquez’ overview of the successful post-graduate how a more experimental, heart-centred

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cognition in, and beyond, the classroom setting arouses a sense of authenticity. And, as foundational as it is to introduce very young children to a more balanced way of learning, Maria Leda Nania and her colleagues awakened their little ones’ consciousness to the wonders of working with the earth.

Finally, Greg Rupik steers us to a wider direction with his review of Donna Haraway’s work, and its invitation to broaden our sense of what is ordinarily unacknowledged or dismissed.

In conclusion, we hope that the pieces in this issue reveal some concrete ways of fusing the Latin and Greek interpretations of Education. It is also comforting to recognize that what we’ve clarified as essential aids—beauty, narrative and relationship—were employed

by Jesus in his teaching. Timeless as they are, these three features continue to provide the most humanizing, as well as inspiring, methods of learning.

Lucinda M. Vardey Editor With One Accord: Learning and Living the Feminine Dimension as Church

We must never forget that, above all, the primary and most essential Educator is not the human being but God. Edith Stein (Essays on Woman)

Marta Rodriguez is a consecrated member of Regnum Christi.

Born in Madrid, she is a founding member of the Institute of Superior Studies on Women at the Regina Apostolorum in Rome where she directs its research and academic area. She is completing her doctoral thesis on the philosophical roots of gender theory at Rome’s Gregorian University. From 2017 to 2019 she was responsible for the women’s section of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. She is a part of the editorial advisory committee for Donna Chiesa Mondo, the monthly magazine of the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and a founding member of The Round Table on the Feminine Dimension.

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Women and the Church: Processes of Participation and Effective Collaboration Marta Rodriguez

While reflecting on the many contributions Pope Francis has made on the subject of women and the Church, two fundamental trajectories emerge. The first is the need to give space within ecclesial structures for roles of responsibility for women, and the other is to use female categories in the way we think of the Church.

The first trajectory certainly has a long history. The Second Vatican Council had already welcomed the more visible inclusion of women in the life of the Church,1 and Paul VI hoped that the hour would come when women would acquire “an influence, an effect, and a power never before attained.”2 He himself created a Study Commission on the situation of women in the Church and society, its conclusions bearing strong resemblance to Pope Francis’ proclamations. The Commission claimed the fundamental common dignity of every baptized person, suggested opening spaces for women in every level of responsibility, and invited the Episcopal Conferences to study which ministries could also be conferred on women. John Paul II also insisted on the importance of recognizing women’s leading role in the Church calling for them to be ‘on the front line.’3 With such provocations having been consistently held over the last fifty years, begs for two contrasting reactions. There’s peace on the one hand, because the path along which the Spirit is leading the Church seems clear. But there’s perplexity on the other, which questions why the Church is consistently clear in theory and yet has difficulty in making the real changes required.

We can find the answer in Pope Francis’ intuitive prophecy about using female categories in the way we think of the Church. From the first year of his pontificate in 2013 he has encouraged and invited the development of a feminine theology. One thing is clear: women are called today to awaken the feminine face of the Church. So how is this to be done? www.magdalacolloquy.org 4

FORMING AGENTS FOR CHANGE When the Holy Father speaks of women and the Church, he repeatedly explains that it is a matter of ‘initiating processes.’ As the Institute for Advanced Studies on Women at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome, we have asked ourselves how to initiate such processes. And we have come to understand that to do so forms the necessary conditions for being agents for change. If, for instance, it is so difficult to overcome cultural conditioning—and accept the perspective of women in the way we think and speak of the Church—perhaps the first task is formation.

With this in mind, we proposed an initial diploma course in 2019-2021 entitled “Women and the Church.”

The success of this first course opened the possibility for a second in June and July of this year, where we collaborated with the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, the Pontifical Salesian University, the Pontifical Urbanian University, the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium and the Pontifical Institute of the Theology of Consecrated Life Claretianum. The initiative also included a collaboration with the Academy of Catholic Leaders of Latin America. Entitled “Women and the Church: how to activate processes and promote effective collaboration between men and women in the Church” this course was aimed at men and women, lay and clergy, who wanted to become agents of change in their own area, be it on the local, diocesan, episcopal or at the Vatican level. The diploma was held online, so that it could also be followed simultaneously in North America and Asia.

The lessons were offered in Spanish, Italian and English with simultaneous translation in all three languages.

The programme was divided into three thematic modules, plus workshops. The first module is the socio-historical module. It offers

the fundamental coordinates of the historical evolution in which the different cultural issues are introduced: drawing attention to strengths and weaknesses, to acquired convictions and problematic nodes of the inculturation of the Catholic faith, especially in its social dialogue.

This module helps to look ahead with a proactive spirit. The anthropology module (including philosophical and theological anthropology) explores the meaning of sexual difference in the human person and the elemental complexities at play in the formation of sexual identity. The purpose of this model is to illuminate how sexual difference can be expressed in collaboration and reciprocity between men and women in ecclesial contexts.

The ecclesiological and mariology module takes up the salient points of the conciliar and post-conciliar Magisterium with regard to the laity and women, in order to open up avenues for creative, faithful and prophetic application.

It develops how the figure of Mary can speak to the identity and mission of women in the Church, presenting the question of status within some critical points and ways forward.

The workshops, held at the beginning, middle and end of the course, aim to assimilate and put into practice the contents of the lessons. The teaching group consisted of 25 lecturers from 16 universities (Italian, Spanish, Mexican, Colombian and Chilean), and another 15 special guests, who gave their more experiential contribution in the round tables at the end of some of the days.

The summer course was attended by people from 15 countries: the United States, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Italy, Spain, Malta, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Togo, Sudan, and the Philippines. There were lay people (men and women), consecrated men and women, and priests, all involved in different roles within the Church.

At the end of the course, some students

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described it as “essential for those who want to promote the contribution of women in the Church.” Others emphasized that the course was “transformative, not only in ideas, but also preconceptions and attitudes.” In the final workshop, the whole group drew up a manifesto of ideas on the collaboration of men and women they desired to communicate to the universal Church.

The whole course has a practical approach: the final work that the students have to hand in to receive their diploma, is a concrete proposal for a process to be activated in a specific ecclesial context.

The course does not claim to provide all the answers.

Rather, it has been conceived as a laboratory of ideas, which can open up perspectives and create synergies, all in fidelity to the movements of the Holy Spirit.

The next course of the diploma will be held in JuneJuly 2022, with the purpose of forming people who wish to begin the processes Pope Francis calls for.

As a scientific committee we have always said that our hope for the diploma is not to be successful, but to be fruitful: to bear abundant fruit for the renewal of the Church. We entrust the whole journey to Mary, Mother and Image of our Church.

Works cited 1 Apostolicam actuositatem, 9 2 Address of Holy Father Paul VI to women 8 December 1965 3 Christifidelis Laici 49

For more information: https://www.upra.org/en/offerta-formativa/istituti/istituto-di-studi-superiori-sulla-donna/ joint-diploma-in-donne-e-chiesa

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Sister Mary Madeline Todd O.P. is a Dominican Sister of the

Congregation of Saint Cecilia, serves as Chair of the Philosophy Department at Mount de Sales Academy and is Adjunct Professor of Theology at Aquinas College in Nashville. She writes on spiritual and moral theology, including contributions to the books “Promise and Challenge,” “Beautiful Mercy,” and “Pope Francis and the Event of Encounter.” Her articles have been published in L’Osservatore Romano, The Catechetical Review, and the National Catholic Register.

She has spoken on both theological and literary topics internationally, including Towards an Intrinsic Feminine Theology seminars (20162018) in Rome, presenting for the Thomistic Institute at Harvard and Vanderbilt Universities and the St. Clement Center for Ecumenical Dialogue in Kiev. Sister currently serves on the Boards of Directors for the GIVEN Institute and St. Agnes Catholic School. https://www.nashvilledominican.org/ https://www.mountdesalesacademy.org/ https://giveninstitute.com/

Educating Young Women Today Interview with Emily VanBerkum and Sr. Mary Madeline Todd O.P.

Emily VanBerkum is the Dean of Student Residence of Loretto College, affiliated with the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. She holds a B.A. (Hons) with a specialist in Christianity and Culture and an M. Div degree from the St. Michael’s College Faculty of Theology in the Toronto School of Theology. She has volunteered widely in campus ministry settings and as a student intern in Ecumenical Chaplaincy. Her scholastic interests include the historical development of the liturgy, theology of ministry, Catholic social teaching, as well as inter-religious dialogue and practice. A past Director of pastoral ministries at St. Basil’s Parish, she is a founding member of the Magdala Conciliary. She also collaborated with her husband, Dr. John Paul Farahat, organist and choirmaster, to compose and perform the introductory theme to the Magdala interviews in the With One Accord journal. www.magdalacolloquy.org

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TWO PIONEERS

Kathleen MacInnis Kichline holds a Masters of Divinity from Seattle University

where she currently serves as adjunct faculty, teaching a course on spiritual retreats.

She is the author of several scripture studies, the first being Sisters in Scripture: Exploring the Relationships of Biblical Women, (Paulist Press, 2009). This was followed

by Never on Sunday: A Look at the Women NOT in the Lectionary, and Elders of the Bible: God’s Invitation Late in Life. As our Church is inspired by both scripture and tradition, Kathleen followed these scripture studies with the course taught in parishes, Sisters in Tradition, which traced the stories of women from Mary Magdalene through contemporary times. Thoroughly grounded in pastoral ministry, she served many years within the Archdiocese of Seattle as Pastoral Associate and Pastoral Assistant.

Currently, she creates and leads retreats both in person and online, teaches and offers workshops. http://www.sistersinscripture.com

Elizabeth Ann Seton Kathleen MacInnis Kichline For five generations my family has attended Catholic schools. I still wear my mother’s high school ring as she did every day of her life. The worn-smooth engraving once read Cathedral High School, Sioux City, Iowa, Class of ’42. On my father’s side of the family, Catholic school roots go back to when my grandparents met as children in grade school at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea, New London, Connecticut.

My youngest grandchild graduated this past June from St. Catherine of Siena grade school in Seattle, WA. We are all inheritors and participants in a long and blessed tradition that has moulded countless minds and souls and left an indelible mark on American education and culture. That tradition can be traced back to a widowed mother of five in the early 19th century called Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton.

A life-long Episcopalian, Elizabeth converted to Catholicism after travelling to Italy where

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her husband died, and where she was introduced to Catholicism and influenced by her newfound Italian friends. Upon returning to New York, she made the radical decision to become a Catholic and sought out a way to live her new commitment. The then Bishop of Baltimore, John Carroll, invited her to come with her five children to Maryland where he wanted to set up a Catholic school for girls.

St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School was established by her in Emmitsburg in 1810, a companion to the boy’s school, Mount St. Mary’s College. Elizabeth also founded the Sisters and the Daughters of Charity, the first American congregation of religious sisters.

They “became the framework for the growth of Catholic schooling during the formative years and the decades that followed,”1 the first of many “sister-teachers (who) were the single most important element in the Catholic Education establishment.” 2 Before she left for Baltimore, Elizabeth confided in her sister-in-law, Cecelia, “It is expected that I shall be the mother of many daughters.”6 It may well have been her mother-

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heart that most advised Elizabeth by the wisdom brought to her students and later to her community of sisters. Says Catherine O’Donnell, author of Elizabeth Seton: An American Saint3, “She was tuned to each individual student rather than to an abstract methodology, wanting each girl to become the best version of herself.” In a time when education was largely the province of males, “Elizabeth took seriously the need to cultivate the minds of girls. Not only were they well-spoken, literate, devout in their prayers, and proficient in domestic skills, Elizabeth presented a rigorous curriculum of arithmetic, geometry, French, Italian and Spanish.”4 Elizabeth was also proficient at carefully navigating the place of Catholic education in a pluralistic, dominantly Protestant society.

“She adamantly insisted on accepting Protestant students as well as Catholic, not for the purpose of conversion, but to live together in such a way as to attract with the example of kindness, serenity, and faith.”5 In the past 200+ years, millions of students have been educated and formed in an educational system consistent with Mother Seton’s vision and values of the Catholic faith. Thanks to the leadership of many women religious and the service of countless sister-teachers, that system still thrives today in the competent hands of both lay and religious.

Lucinda M. Vardey is the editor of With One Accord. For more on her background please visit our website.

Armida Barelli Lucinda M. Vardey This year marks the centenary of the founding of the largest Catholic university in the world, Italy’s University of the Sacred Heart. Its beginning dates back to the year 1921 and the tireless efforts and leadership of a lay consecrated woman by the name of Armida Barelli (1882-1952).

Called Ida by her friends and family, she was the second of six children. Her father was a wealthy industrialist, and her mother had studied at the Institute Superiore di Magistero in Florence—a rare feat for a woman in the 19th century. After attending an Ursuline school in Milan, Ida continued her education with nuns in Switzerland where she studied French, German and music. A vivacious young woman she made many friends, some of whom were called to religious life, to which she was also attracted. However, her parents were not supportive of this direction and preferred her to marry. After an unsuccessful engagement, she took St. Elizabeth of Hungary as her patron saint and began to meet with the Archbishop of Milan desiring to do something for the poor, prisoners and orphans. He introduced her to a Franciscan priest, Fr. Agostino Gemelli, with whom she worked alongside the rest of her life.

Ida dedicated herself to helping young One young mother’s conversion, vision Catholic women during the period of growing and response to the educational needs of her emancipation in World War I (1914-1918). She time has given us all a direct link to her heart, organized a school by enlisting people from the first American-born saint of the Catholic the university to teach on the social issues of Church, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (1774-1821). the day, as well as help inspire conversions.

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suggested to Cardinal Ferrari in Milan that a feminine wing of the all-male Association of Catholic Action be established. He directed her to recruit young women from local parishes. A subsequent audience with Pope Benedict XV in Rome expanded the opportunities for growth at the national level, with him encouraging Ida to head the initiative.

She took to travelling the whole of Italy to promote membership in the association of Young Women of Catholic Action, becoming a familiar figure on the trains. With prayer and persistence, she overcame the diverse cultural resistances around the country and helped women to do the same.

In that same year (1918) she met the famous economist and socialist Giuseppe Toniolo, who had not only inspired Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (of Revolutionary Change) but helped him write it in 1891. Now on his deathbed, Toniolo voiced regret at not founding a Catholic University, to which Ida replied that his seeds were sure to come to fruition. Toniolo exclaimed that if she and Fr. Agostino Gemelli were involved in guiding the project to completion, he’d die a happy man.

How were they to take on such a project that would cost millions? Their subsequent attempts yielded far less than required. But a businessman—who had initially turned Ida’s project down as being too utopian and illusionary—changed his mind after she assured him that he’d give glory to the Sacred Heart.

The building began in Milan but the Mussolini regime (with its anti-Catholic sentiments) dried up the funding. Ida approached Cardinal Achille Ratti in Milan who suggested establishing a “friends of the university” to facilitate financial support. She circulated 50,000 letters to priests, bishops and religious all over the country. Unfortunately her efforts did not produce what she needed, so she asked Pope Benedict XV if she could use his name as an imprimatur for the cause. The Pope was not keen, so she returned from Rome empty handed. But, as grace would have it, Cardinal Ratti himself, became subsequent pope (Pius XI) who eventually blessed the initiative and extended his blessings to all who would participate.

After focussing her attention on the human and Christian formation of thousands of young women around the country—and tirelessly visiting them to help fundraise in their local areas— ample funds poured in. At the 1928 Congress of the Young Women of Catholic Action 10,000 members showed up at St. Peter’s to meet with the Pope.

During World War II, much of what was built got destroyed. But Ida continued in her role as the “Big Sister” of the Young Women of Catholic Action. On 1st February 1945, women suffrage was granted in Italy for the first time, and Ida summoned her Catholic women to become politically involved. In the l946 election to establish Italy as a Republic, their votes helped the fledgling Christian Democrat party gain victory.

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Soon thereafter, Ida was diagnosed with sclerosis of the larynx, an illness that impeded her ability to speak.

Grateful to God for keeping her mind clear, she continued her work, with Fr. Gemelli as her spokesperson. She died on the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August l952, with Fr. Gemelli by her side. She’d written “I’ve lived guided by the constant dream of the coming of the Kingdom of Christ on earth. I accept death in full adherence to the divine will, as the last supreme proof of the love for the Sacred Heart, to which I have entrusted my life and now my death.”

Venerable Armida Barelli is buried in the crypt of the Catholic University in Milan. Her beatification is scheduled for April 2022.

For more on the university visit unicatt.eu Works cited 1 Walch, Timothy, Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present, (Leesburg, National Catholic Education Association, 2016), p. 20.

2 Ibid., p. 154.

3 O’Donnell, Catherine, Elizabeth Seton: American Saint, (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2018), p. 229.

4 O’Donnell, Catherine, phone interview, March 26, 2021.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

Reference Armida Barelli (Modena, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, 2021) English translation John Dalla Costa

Where there’s a need, there’s an obligation.

Simone Weil

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John Connelly is the Director of Student Affairs at St. Michael’s College

School in Toronto, Canada, where he has also served as a Guidance Counsellor and English teacher. Before joining the St. Michael’s faculty nine years ago, he taught for five years with the Durham Catholic District School Board. His teaching subjects are English, Religion, History, and Dramatic Arts. For the past ten years, John has volunteered as a catechist in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program (RCIA) in his home parish. He is married and the father of three children.

Educating Young Men Today John Connelly Although the Catholic Church has long acknowledged the primacy of parents in their children’s spiritual and moral education, many Catholic (and non-Catholic) families are drawn into the beautiful symbiosis of parochial, religious, and independent Catholic schools in the mission of educating their young. Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church counsels parents to humbly approach their responsibilities in the service of Christ: “By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct [their children]” (CCC 2223). But with the complex challenges of a postmodern world how much grace, then, does it require for teachers to guide young men to healthy relationships with God, neighbour, and self? In a world that thirsts for equity, justice, and healthier expressions of masculinity, this is the task entrusted to all-boys Catholic schools.

St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, Canada, was founded in 1852 by the Basilian Fathers.

It has always prided itself as an institution for the formation of the whole person, whether cultivating vocations to the priesthood and religious life (as in its early days) or simply graduating global citizens of good character and strong moral fibre.

Part of the project of educating young men at St. Michael’s, is to disrupt the cultural trends that have inured them to a history of rewarding the relentless pursuit of power and influence through domination. Instead, we invite young men to grow in empathy, charity, and joy by imitating the compassion and mercy of Christ.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux cited humility and gentleness as among the greatest strengths of men with spiritual and ecclesial influence. In one of her letters to Fr. Maurice Bellière, she expounds on her own frailty and the merciful love of Jesus, that remind her, “never to rely upon my own strength [...] but this reminder speaks to me constantly of mercy and love.”

As a school community, St. Michael’s is in the second year of its nascent Teacher Advisory Group (TAG) program. The program connects small groups of adolescent students with an

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educator, in a non-academic setting, to inspire discussion on spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional and social questions. The aim of this program is to encourage personal introspection and growth, but it is also designed to combine students at different grade levels. This provides the senior students an opportunity to play a role in the spiritual development of their younger peers. Our experience has shown that inviting young men to be honest and vulnerable in acknowledging their own pain and confusion in response to the trials and challenges of the world, provides teachers the opportunity to model masculine virtue. They exemplify how to be patient, empathetic and active listeners; and how to employ a lexicon that inspires equity, diversity and a shared commitment to changing the world through the living of faith, character, and service. Creating this kind of space of trust and mutual respect takes months and even years, which is the reason we encourage maintaining and developing the ongoing relationship between TAG teachers and students beyond the classroom.

Our TAG program follows on the heels of our Modern Man Movement (M3), which has been growing since its inception in 2015. Its roots are in educating our students on issues involving violence against women. It involves teaching them the importance of bringing men on board for projects that end gender-based violence and encourage active allyship in projects of equity.

It became clear, in the early days, that we needed a space to begin conversation about sexual consent, and digital citizenship, that could be examined through the lens of Catholic doctrine and moral teachings. M3 has been made all the more pertinent by the cacophony of aggression, violence, and exploitation so readily available through entertainment and social media.

Where do we direct young men with their many questions about the world around them and their place in it? We have found it fruitful to ask students to share their joys and sorrows in their relationships with God, self, and neighbour. We also ask them to identify their experiences of radical grace that helped their empathy and understanding. By guiding them in this way, young men are more readily poised to take their place as servants of humanity and leaders in their communities.

EMPATHY THROUGH SERVICE One of the pillars of our school’s implementation plan is creating empathy through service.

We have always believed that Christian service, when undertaken by young men with open minds and gladdened hearts, is the essential component to spiritual and moral development.

All students at St. Michael’s are required to complete Christian service connected to the Corporal Works of Mercy. We continue in this vein, with the hope that our young men may journey with the poor and vulnerable, and recognize service to the community as a most joyful expression of empathy and gratitude.

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Perhaps the greatest challenge facing educators of young men in the Catholic tradition is being able to bring their disparate parts together. We do grave disservice to the development of the whole person if we treat spiritual growth, and the healthy expression of empathetic, equitable masculinity, as somehow separate and apart from intellectual and academic pursuits. Pope Francis recently called for a countering of globalization by “the globalization of empathy,” underscoring the need to witness scientific advancement within a framework of human connectedness and compassion.

Such is the vocation of the Catholic teacher: to invite their students to grow in the love of God, and to better understand their roles within the broader human family. For those who teach boys and young men, the thrust must always be towards forming servant-leaders to bring about the much-needed change in our world.

Works cited 1 St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Letters to her Spiritual Brothers, (Kansas City, Angelus Press, 2017).

2 Catholic News Agency https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-advocates-for-globalization-ofempathy-in-curing-rare-diseases-61970

Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten is a professor of Philosophy and

Theory of the Sacred and the Spirituality of Art at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. She specializes in Romano Guardini’s Weltanschauung in the context of the religious epistemology of art.

Together with other scholars she is building a field in which “The Story and Theory of the threefold Gaze of Christ” is investigated as the origin of the process of comprehension (Erkenntnis). She is a member of the editorial committee of the magazine ‘Donne, Chiesa, Mondo” of L’Osservatore Romano, a founding member of the Round Table on the Feminine Dimension in Rome and part of the research group ‘Women read Pope Francis’. During the last five years she has been an educator at the Centro della Meditazione Cristiana with the responsibility of teaching the “Spiritual Seeing from T. of Aquinas to U.v. Balthasar” in exercising “Lauterkeit des Blicks—Purity of Vision (metanoia). Her books include “The Mirror of Faith: The Representation of the Divine in the Art of Raphael and Michelangelo” (Accademia Raffaello 2013); “Jacob’s Struggle: Paradigm of Artistic Creation. A community experience of integral formation, on Church, aesthetics and contemporary art, inspired by Romano Guardini”. (Cittadella, 2020); “Pope Art. The theory of the sacred in the contemporary art of the popes. Cultural Heritage in the horizon of aesthetic theological education” (2021, GB Press); “Divine and Profane Love. A different look at Raphael.”

(Schnell & Steiner 2021); “Alex Stock: Poetic Dogmatics. The Doctrine of God (2021, GB Press) and “Guardini and Michelangelo: The Origin of Theological Thinking” (GB Press 2021).

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Learning In Between: Towards a Liminal Pedagogy Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten It was in Heidelberg, while completing a degree in law, that I happened upon a lecture on “Nietzsche and Expressionism,” where philosophical ideas were being taught visually, via a painting. I was so touched by the fact that abstract ideas could be “seen” that I felt a vocation to pursue this phenomenon, and began a second degree in philosophy and art history. When I came to Rome, I founded the School of Seeing which is still run today by a colleague. “Seeing” then became central to my work as a teacher, and continues to form a part of my ongoing scientific studies.

The greatest challenge for me in teaching at the Gregorian University, is that of introducing a different methodological way for encountering truth. Other challenges have included persuading theological faculty, and students, to accept that the epistemology of seeing can also provide opportunities for understanding. Even though students themselves were moved to tears, or had conversions in front of paintings, most resisted this experiential and contemplative teaching. Instead, they resorted to the more traditional way of studying theology—through the mind. They wanted what was experienced in spiritual exercises to be kept separate from intellectual research, as if they had nothing do with the other.

The struggle continues to this day. But a kind of pedagogy has been formed in which students combine the seeing of the creative process in a work of art, as a way of recognizing their “integrity” and “holiness” through their own process of comprehension. To be able to see

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is a skill that combines not only the rational but the senses and the heart. We need to converse with students, that learning is not just about information, but allowing ourselves to be led in a process, opening up to more of a mystical space in which truth can happen.

This space reaches far beyond specific scientific understanding. And, in my opinion, this process of identification and experience is only possible if one is open to liminal learning through trans-disciplinary means.

NOT JUST A NEW DISCIPLINE According to Romanian education scholar, Basarab Nicolescu, we are to assume that the concept of transdisciplinarity is about something more than just a new discipline or method. It is, in fact, a different way of being. Theologian Romano Guardini’s crossdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to understanding, requires a triple encounter combining the experience of thinking, theoretical thinking and contemplation of the world. The encounter of these three he called the Weltanschauung katholicos. In short, it means not only a different way of being, but a different way of seeing, a conversion to the possibility of an “opening” to the “not yet known,” or what has not been seen or discovered before. It’s more approaching a whole way to learning and teaching.

We are not called to be experts in areas of science, but “a living work of art,” such as Jesus was creating in being simultaneously human and divine. We are all called to an awareness of this opposition within us, to be able to stand in the tension of an “in-between becoming” to truly who we are, in the image and likeness of God.

TEACHING THE WHOLE AND THE HOLY Over the course of my years as a professor, I’ve learned to teach differently. I’ve come to

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the conclusion that understanding is loving.

When I am truly encountering my students, love happens (with all its consequences).

From there we begin a relational journey in which we are able to learn from one another.

This, for me, is the way to teach in the feminine dimension; not just through the mind in the arena of logic, order and reasoning, but also in relationship, in the heart, allowing for fluidity in the moment. This way doesn’t mean that there isn’t a form and an intelligence! It is just that the form cannot be encased, or boxed, or packaged, in the way education is traditionally approached.

The liminal space in-between the more traditional ways of learning, and the crossdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach, require us to be open and willing to risk crossing a threshold. There we can begin to reconfigure our prior understandings and perspectives, and become involved in the process of that threefold encounter, which Guardini calls The Threefold Seeing. (Lauterkeit des Blicks)

An international university post graduate initiative called Threefold Seeing and Understanding will be piloted early 2022 to research and explore cross-disciplinary and crosscultural understanding and action through the Epistemology and experience of Seeing.

For more information contact: Prof. Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten dohna@unigre.it

(Self) knowledge must precede love, and only when she has attained love, can she strive to follow and clothe herself with the truth.

St. Catherine of Siena (The Dialogue)

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Maria Leda Nania is a mother of two young girls and a kindergarten

school teacher. Born into an Umbrian artistic family where art, faith, love of education and beauty were always present, she obtained degrees in Music, Literature and Performing Arts. In her early career as a teacher— thanks to the testimony of some colleagues and the observation of, and service to, the children—her faith was reawakened by a living and concrete encounter with Christ. From that moment on, children have been, and continue to be, her teachers of life and spirituality. She is also actively involved in her parish in Sansepolcro, Tuscany, first as a catechist, then as a participant in the parish evangelization programme, and finally contributing to its family ministry.

Tomato Masters Maria Leda Nania There’s a famous quote that says “I admire those who know that between sowing and reaping there needs to be watering and waiting.”

Society values speed, where we are expected to be rushing, hurrying and pushing time along, so how, in educating children can we help them rediscover the importance of slowing down, waiting, relishing and contemplating? How can children be taught the essentiality of slowness? How can we help them understand that we need to ‘lose’ time in order to gain it?

We teachers asked ourselves these questions a couple of years ago at the nursery school where I work. Our aim was to teach slowness as a value in respecting everyone’s time. We came to the realization that to do that, we would first have to work on ourselves, in order to be coherent and credible to our young pupils. So we devised an educational project that could exteriorly guide us, and would prevent us from being tempted to speed up the processes of the path we planned to propose to the children. We therefore turned to Nature to dictate the timing of our pedagogy.

We had also taken inspiration from the so-called ‘snail pedagogy’ introduced by school principal Gianfranco Zavalloni. He had dreamed of a school that slows the pace of learning; a slow school that utilizes a methodology of going everywhere by foot and working with one’s hands. Students would explore, construct and help each other by learning from their mistakes.

Zavalloni had stated that if “learning is to be meaningful, it must be experienced….including manual labour which educates the body and its senses, and teaches one to live responsibly in the world.”

“Dear children,” we announced at the end of February, “We’re going to start to make a delicious tomato pasta that we’ll all eat together this summer!” With the help of an organic farmer who works with our school, we began the process of planting and growing the tomatoes that would give our year-end luncheon a special flavour. The farmer had prepared a seed tray for each child with little holes in which to put soil and some tomato seeds.

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“No, dear children, it’s not yet harvest time.

We have to be patient. Our plants only have leaves, they still need lots of care to grow, flower and bear fruit. In fact, the farmer has invited us to go to his place in a month’s time to transfer your seedlings from their shelter in the greenhouse, to the large field where they’ll be exposed to the sun and rain. How joyful to have this to look forward to!”

The seed trays were then entrusted to farmer Luca and placed in his large greenhouse. “I will take care of your little seeds,” he told the children, “They now have to rest under the soil for a while. It will seem as if they’re asleep, but I’ll continue to water them and as soon as shoots appear, I’ll let you know and send some photos.”

In the days that followed, the children asked if Luca had sent news of the plants, but we teachers responded that it was still too early, and good things need time to come to fruition.

“Don’t be in a hurry, children, trust our farmer friend and give the seeds time to transform and grow.”

Once enthusiasm over the sowing had passed, and no updates had been received, the children stopped asking about the tomatoes.

One fine day in April, an email arrived from Luca with photos of tiny, green plants! It was a wonderful surprise for the children and their eyes shone with hope.

Teacher, can we now eat the tomatoes?

In May we visited the field where Luca had prepared the furrows. Everyone looked for their own seed trays but they were now difficult to distinguish. Not all the seeds had sprouted, but the plants that had grown filled the children with wonder and pride.

Bending to the ground, their hands dirty from hoeing, digging and watering, the children readied the soil for their growing plants.

Teacher, can we now pick the tomatoes?

“Not yet, dear little farmers! The tomatoes won’t ripen until summertime when they become big, red and juicy.”

At the end of June, we harvested the fruits sown in winter. They gave grand flavour to our meal, having been planted with care, waited for and finally shared.

What did the children learn from this drawn out, slow experience?

— Maybe they understood that good things can be had without hurrying. That going slow—even stopping to observe—allows for the time to attend to the signs, to

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recognize when it’s appropriate to wait, and when it’s right to act.

— Maybe they’ve learned that in order to reap the fruit of our labours, ‘our’ labour is not what’s only needed. Even when asked to do our part, all cannot be kept in our hands; our contribution is necessary, but it must then be entrusted. There is a Nature greater than us, who, like a mother, not only cares for that seed and fruit, but also for the work of harvesting.

— Maybe the children have also learned that it’s not only a joy to taste good fruit but also to experience the whole process that went into making it delicious. That by working together, and sharing in the anticipation—and finally the joys—will make for a richer taste and a fuller heart.

The children would not have consciously learned these lessons. The experiences of children between the ages of 3 and 5, will more likely be remembered by sensation—the warmth of the earth in their hands, the smell of a ripe tomato, the memory of a friend’s smile smeared with red sauce. Yet, in a small way, these experiences will surely contribute to the forming of their identity and personality. In any case, the secret embedded in the teachings of the master tomatoes will undoubtedly be preserved.

AND FOR US? The tomato experience profoundly challenged our teaching methods. As mentioned before, we were made aware of how much we are constantly tempted to accelerate children’s learning processes. We goad them to produce work that bears witness to our being “good productive educators,” anxiously hoping that the end result will be ideal enough for us to add our signatures.

The tomatoes prevented us from going this route. Instead, they forced us to slow down and humbly stand aside, to witness and respect the educational process that was taking place. They invited us to accompany and channel the children’s expectations, questions and discoveries, and give them body and value. And so, by going slowly, and offering the children time for each stage of this little journey, many new and creative ideas have germinated on how to educate.

The children themselves are like seeds entrusted to our care. We also know that they are cared for and nurtured by Someone greater than us, who watches over them and also watches over “our work” as educators. So, like true masters, the tomatoes have taught us that to educate is definitely to prepare the soil, to sow, to water—perhaps even to prune and transplant in the great field of the world. They’ve also taught us not to lose the pleasure of humbly contemplating such growth, learning from it in turn, and entrusting it to Providence, with the knowledge that it will not be up to us to reap the fruits when ripe.

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Books of Interest Gregory Rupik

begin to appreciate the many threads in the knots of our present, and how tied we are to the fate of one another. Haraway calls this practice staying with the trouble.

Her 2016 book Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene is an opportunity to see the world from Haraway’s perspective, to experience the rich stories of the creatures, systems, or context we often find easier to dismiss. In her telling, pigeons, lichens, and urine (among other things) all reframe human beings’ relationship to the Donna Haraway is not a professional world, and begin to demonstrate how we theologian or even Catholic. But her can respond and live better when we realize catholic curiosity about complex earthly that we are part of their stories, as much as relationships has empowered her to weave they are part of ours. together threads from multiple cultures, disciplines, species, and time-scales into Haraway’s language is difficult to digest her provocative writings. Her texts have at first, as she not only draws on jargon from become foundational to contemporary many fields of study, but enjoys playing with Science and Technology Studies (STS), words and creating words of her own. The and continue to impact fields as varied as book benefits from a clear introduction, but philosophy, pedagogy, feminism, politics, investing patience and charity while staying architecture, biology, and ecology. What with the unfolding text will, in the end, pay unites and animates her diverse body of dividends. work is a profound conviction that stories are transformative, and it is precisely how For me, Haraway’s work strongly resonates Haraway understands, listens to, crafts, and with the integrative ecology called for by tells stories (and which stories she tells!) that Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ and the global could be of interest to readers of With One kinship exemplified in Fratelli Tutti. Not only Accord. are humans brothers and sisters all, we are also connected to brother sun, sister moon, The pandemic, societal injustice, and and the web of life. We are called to respond the hastening environmental crisis are all to both “the cry of the earth and the cry of profoundly troubling. They demonstrate the poor.” Staying with the trouble can help how unclear, cloudy and mixed-up our us be touched by, formed by, and made current times are, how tangled earthlings capable of responding to those in need on are with one another. When faced with the side of our road, on our journey of life. trouble, the temptation for many of us is to escape it. But Haraway insists that our I have found Haraway’s ideas to have been present, the thick material here-and-now, incredibly helpful while working on With where we and our fellow earthlings live, is— One Accord and in the Magdala Conciliary. and has always been—troubled, knotted, Staying with the trouble has enabled me and turbid. It is only by first acknowledging, to listen to the stories of women, their and embracing the trouble, that we can experience of the Church, and their own

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encounters with Christ. These stories are complex, sometimes at odds with my own, sometimes difficult to understand for me as a white man—they are troubling.

But, within this complexity, the aim is to accompany my friends and learn how we can make the situation better. Haraway writes that it “is to become capable, with each other in all of our bumptious kinds, of response”—to become response-able. By bringing women’s stories to the fore, With One Accord highlights a tangled, beautiful bramble of experiences with which the Church must stay and learn. As Haraway says, “it matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.”

Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene

by Donna J. Haraway 312 pages Available in paperback Published Sept 2016 by Duke University Press.

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With One Accord O God, our Creator, You, who made us in Your image, give us the grace of inclusion in the heart of Your Church.

R: With one accord, we pray.

Jesus, our Saviour, You, who received the love of women and men, heal what divides us, and bless what unites us.

R: With one accord, we pray.

Holy Spirit, our Comforter, You, who guides this work, provide for us as we hold in hope Your will for the good of all.

R: With one accord, we pray.

Mary, mother of God, pray for us.

St. Joseph, stay close to us.

Divine Wisdom, enlighten us.

R: With one accord, we pray.

Amen.

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With One Accord signature music for the Magdala interview composed by Dr. John Paul Farahat and performed by Emily VanBerkum and John Paul Farahat.

Images used in this edition: Cover: “Colegiata Santillana” photo Wiki Commons.

Page 2 Detail from “Portrait of a Girl” by Thomas Couture (1815-1879).

Page 4 “Female Saints” mosaic from the Church of Saint Apollinaris in Ravenna, Italy.

Page 6 “Mary Enthroned with the Child, Saints Nicholas of Bari, Catherine of Alexandria and a Donor” by Gentile da Fabriano (1370-1427).

Page 13 SMCS students, used with permission of St. Michael’s College School, Toronto.

Page 15 “Arcades by Troika” (photo Belgium 2012).

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This edition Copyright © 2021 Saint Basil’s Catholic Parish, Toronto, Canada For editorial enquiries, please contact editor@magdalacolloquy.org ISSN 2563-7924 PUBLISHER Morgan V. Rice, CSB EDITOR Lucinda M. Vardey ASSOCIATE EDITOR Emily VanBerkum CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Gregory Rupik PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Michael Pirri VIDEO EDITOR Eric Patrick Hong CONSULTANT John Dalla Costa TRANSLATORS Diana Isacchi (Italian) Patricia O’Grady (French) ADMINISTRATOR Nancy Nobrega

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