October 29, 2015

Faith and Film: ‘The Martian’

Movie review by Fr. Tom Condon, OP

“The Martian” is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last few years. It’s engrossing, smart, funny, and, especially at the end, very suspenseful. I think we will hear a lot from this movie during the upcoming award season.

“The Martian” tells the story of a manned mission to Mars forced to leave the planet during a storm. While preparing to board the spacecraft during a ferocious, blinding storm, a projectile hits astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon). The accident occurs with great force, propelling Mark a great distance. In the midst of the swirling dust storm the crew frantically searches for Mark. Fearing for their safety, the crew lifts off from the planet, presuming Mark to be dead. The crew begins their long trip back to Earth.
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October 29, 2015

‘A nun engaged with the world: Heroin abuse is her next cause’

“She hasn’t had a husband, a heroin problem or nowhere to call home. But for 23 years, big-hearted Sister Dolores Gartanutti of Parksville has single-parented hundreds of young people at her Noah’s Ark shelter for homeless and runaway teens in New York City, introducing them on weekends to the hills and lakes of Sullivan County.” Read article by Kathy Daley in Sullivan County Democrat

October 28, 2015

Oblate School of Theology course earns Templeton Award

Dr. Linda Gibler, OP, PhD, associate academic dean at Oblate School of Theology, and Dr. Scott Woodward, D. Min., academic dean.

In September, the Planning Team of the Science in Seminaries initiative at John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio announced a $10,000 grant to the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas, for a course titled “Catholicism in an Evolving World” to be taught by Dr. Linda Gibler, OP, PhD and Dr. Scott Woodward, D. Min. The grant is made possible through the Templeton Foundation. In response to papal and other Church documents to include scientific literacy in the formation of seminarians, Gibler and Woodward developed a course that would increase students’ scientific literacy, particularly in the area of cosmology and evolution.

The course is described as a “science and religion course that continues the conversation between Big Bang cosmology, evolutionary science, and Catholic thought. Since most of our Catholic theology and spirituality was formulated without knowledge of recent cosmology or evolution, this course highlights the change required by moving from a static worldview to an ever-emerging one. Throughout the course, students discuss how this new information about the creation and on-going emergence of the Universe, Earth, and themselves upholds, challenges, or changes their previous worldview and understanding of theology. The conversational tone of the course is designed to help students work through any cognitive dissonance they encounter and bring them to a deeper appreciation of the significance of integrating a dynamic worldview into their theology and pastoral practice.”

Dr. Gibler is a Dominican Sister of Houston and serves as the associate academic dean at Oblate School of Theology. She received her doctorate with a specialization in philosophy, cosmology, and consciousness in 2007 from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Dr. Woodward is the academic dean at Oblate School of Theology and received his Doctor of Ministry with a specialization in Supervision in Ministry from Oblate in 2004.

October 16, 2015

DSC Convocation strengthens relationships, commitments

Blessing the emissaries to the climate summit in Paris

By Patricia Farrell, OP
Executive Director, Dominican Sisters Conference

The Dominican Sisters Conference (DSC) held its second convocation at the Westin Hotel in Wheeling, IIllinois, Oct. 1–4. The gathering of more than 400 Dominican sisters and associates from all over the country generated great energy and enthusiasm for the mission of the DSC and for the 17 congregations represented there.

The theme of the convocation, “Preaching the Word—The Dominican Imperative—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” was celebrated by exceptional preaching from Patricia Bruno, OP, Maureen Geary, OP, and Elise Garcia, OP. The DSC celebrated 800 years of our charism of preaching by remembering the stories of the first Dominican women who were invited by Dominic in 1206 to be part of the “Holy Preaching” even before the foundation of the Dominican Friars in 1216. All those gathered were happy to welcome our brother James Marchionda, OP, provincial of the Central Province of Friars, as he celebrated Eucharist with us.

On Saturday evening, in a stirring ceremony, the sisters and associates signed letters encouraging our civil representatives to support substantive and binding agreements on climate change at the upcoming climate summit in Paris. Those gathered offered these documents to four sisters, Margaret Mayce, OP, Patricia Siemen, OP, Patricia Daly, OP, and Elise Garcia, OP, along with a blessing. The sisters will be going to the Climate Summit in Paris at the end of November and will carry our name with them as part of Civil Society gathered there. The ceremony marked a culmination of a year of study entitled, Paris 2015 and Counting – which is available online.

Whenever Dominicans gather, one can expect study, prayer, and preaching. Those are three of our four pillars of Dominican life. And it is the time spent together as community (the fourth pillar) at meals and in conversation that binds us closer together. And so it is that we Dominican women who gathered those days in Wheeling strengthened our relationships in those very things—in celebration—in conversation—in prayer—and in fun. And in this case, fun meant dancing! Rick Storto, brother to one of the sisters, was our disc jockey on Friday evening. What a great selection of music that could satisfy any age. Fortunately he remembered how the sisters enjoy the Electric Slide!

It is safe to say that that all who gathered left the convocation on Sunday with the commitment to the preaching imperative for another 800 years!

More photos and presentations from the event are posted on the DSC web site.

October 16, 2015

Mount Saint Mary College celebrates founders Day

Students and faculty enjoy Mount Saint Mary College’s Founders Day reception on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. Photo by Lee Ferris.

Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, New York, celebrated the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman and the Dominican Sisters who founded the college with the annual Founders Day reception on Oct. 7.

“We remember with gratefulness the founding of the college by the Dominican Sisters of Hope, formerly known as the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh,” said Fr. Francis Amodio, O.Carm, campus chaplain and director of Campus Ministry.

The college’s Guzman Hall, a freshman residence, is named after St. Dominic de Guzman. Before it was sold to the college in the late 1980s, Guzman Hall was a convent for the sisters as they studied before they were sent to various missions to serve the Church.

In 2016, the Dominican Order throughout the world will celebrate their 800 year Jubilee.

The reception was sponsored by the Mount’s Catholic and Dominican Institute. Directed by Charles Zola, assistant professor of philosophy, the institute promotes the college’s heritage of St. Dominic; advances the Dominican charism of study and service; provides a forum for discussion of contemporary ethical issues; and enhances Catholic and Jewish dialogue. Guided by the Mount’s vision and mission statement, the institute welcomes persons of varied faiths and acknowledges different religious traditions as essential to the college’s intellectual and spiritual life.

Monthly Archives: October 2015

Faith and Film: ‘The Martian’

‘A nun engaged with the world: Heroin abuse is her next cause’

Oblate School of Theology course earns Templeton Award

DSC Convocation strengthens relationships, commitments

Mount Saint Mary College celebrates founders Day