IN THE HISTORY of U.S. Catholic higher education since World War II, three seminal moments stand out: Msgr. John Tracy Ellis’ 1955 article, “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life;” the 1967 Land O’Lakes statement, “The Idea of a Catholic University;” and the day Don J. Briel began the Catholic Studies Program, and the Catholic Studies movement, at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities.
by Sean M. Suckiel
Promoting vocations to the priesthood, religious life, diaconate and married life must penetrate the life of the Church in the Diocese of Brooklyn at all levels. It is one of the most urgent tasks that the Church is facing today.
IN OUR FAMILY, we never had any priests or nuns. As a boy, my brother and I were altar boys in Middletown, N.Y., but we never became close friends to any priests because when I was 11, my family moved back to Brooklyn.
THIS PAST DEC. 18, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the department of external relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, received an honorary degree from the Faculty of Theology of Apulia in Bari, on Italy’s Adriatic coast. During his remarks on that occasion, Metropolitan Hilarion thanked the Holy See “per la sua posizione di equilibrio riguardo al conflitto in corso in Ucraina [for its balanced position regarding the conflict underway in Ukraine].” Did anyone in the Vatican blush in shame at that compliment? A lot of high-ranking Roman churchmen should have.
“WHAT DO YOU want to be when you grow up?” In grammar school, that was always one of my favorite questions to answer. I would love to say that when I grow up, I want to be a professional baseball player – and play for the New York Yankees!
I WON’T VENTURE into classical Roman literature, which is not my forte, but I will say with assurance that the greatest modern Latin pun was the result of a schoolgirl prank. In 1844, General Charles James Napier, commanding a British army during the heydays of imperialism in South Asia, was ordered to subdue the province of Sindh (now in Pakistan).
IN OUR FAMILY, we leave the Christmas tree and decorations up until the Epiphany, the feast day celebrating the visitation of the Wise Men to the Christ Child. The irony isn’t wasted on me, that on the day Christ received gifts from the Magi, I decide to close up shop and end Christmas.
When Isaiah speaks of a bear and cow being neighbors and a baby sitting aside a viper (Is 11:1-9), what message is he sending for us in 2018?
At first look, his examples symbolize peaceful coexistence. That which seems unlikely is now likely; direct opposites uniting as one.
IN THE 1920S, when the United States had a quasi-Stalinist regime on its southern border, “Viva Cristo Rey!” was the defiant battle cry of Cristeros who fought the radically secular Mexican government’s persecution of the Church. “Viva Cristo Rey!” were likely the last words spoken by Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., whose martyrdom in 1927 may have been the first in history in which the martyr was photographed at the moment of death. Today, in the U.S., “Cristo Rey” has a different, although not wholly unrelated, meaning – for it’s the name of an important experiment in Catholic education for poor children.
I ENTERED SEMINARY at age 36, quite honestly so that I could save myself from the misery of not being a priest.
