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STMThe Magazine of The Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University SPRING 2020 SPECIAL EDITION: Amidst a Pandemic, Love Survives at STMSTM MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS Design: Cadwell Art Direction Primary Photography: Robert A. Lisak Mission Statement Saint Thomas More Chapel & Center serves the Catholic community at Yale by: · Creating a vibrant and welcoming community through worship and service · Cultivating informed faith and spirituality · Engaging in reflective discourse on faith and culture · Advancing the Church’s mission of promoting social justice · Participating in the global Church’s life and witness About the Cover During the pandemic people decorated their windows with hearts and messages of hope. Father Ryan posted hearts in the windows and signs in front of the Chapel and Golden Center along Park Street as a way of thanking New Haven’s essential workers. STAY IN TOUCH WITH STM Download the STM Yale App. Editors: Robin McShane is the Director of Communications at STM. Sarah Woodford '10 M.Div. is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and STM’s Library Director. Writers: Cathy Amaya '18 M.Phil. GRD '22 is working toward her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochem. She is a member of STM’s Graduate Council. June Criscione GRD '21 is a graduate student at Yale Medical School. She is a member of STM’s Graduate Council. Joshua Garcia '20 M.A.R. is a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School. He was a member of STM’s Graduate Council. Isabel Kazan GRD '21 is a graduate student at Yale Divinity School. She is working towards her M.A.R. Michael Libuano-Macalintal '20 M. Div. is a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School. He was a member of STM’s ESTEEM program. Paul Meosky GRD '22 is a graduate student at Yale Law School. Jacqui Oesterblad GRD '22 is a graduate student at Yale Law School. She is an active volunteer of STM’s Wednesday Soup Kitchen. Katie Rich GRD '22 is a graduate student at Yale Divinity School. She is working towards her M. Div. Julian Sieber GRD '22 is a graduate student at Yale Divinity School. He is working towards his M. Div.STM MAGAZINE SPRING 2020 In This Issue 268 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06511-4714 Phone: 203-777-5537 Fax: 203-777-0144 stmchapel@yale.edu Follow us online: stm.yale.edu STM Magazine is published twice a year for our alumni, parents and friends. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the entire STM community. 1 FROM THE EDITORS 3 THE UNIQUE POSSIBILITIES OF ASIAN AND ASIAN AMERICAN THEOLOGY 7 THE COURAGE TO BE TRANSFORMED 10 AMIDST A PANDEMIC 11 THE ANSWER TO A LAW STUDENT’S PRAYERS 13 A PHOTO ESSAY 21 MEDITATIONS IN SELF-ISOLATION 25 STM 2020 GRADUATES Features 5 THREE QUESTIONS 19 POP! CULTURE 27 OPEN BOOK 28 SNAP SHOT Due to the pandemic, STM expanded its Wednesday Soup Kitchen into May. Assistant Chaplain, Allan Esteron, slides a warm meal and a mask through the Golden Center's doorway to a “socially distanced” guest. Photograph by Joe ConnollyDear Readers, Our focus as editors of STM Magazine is to bring you a slice of life from STM’s campus ministry twice a year. Spring 2020 is no exception. What started out as a typical second semester of lectures, Masses and programming quickly became a-typical when our March Alternative Spring Break trips were cancelled, due to the threat of a global health crisis. Days later, as one of our colleagues fell ill with COVID-19, the STM staff and Chaplains were all sent home for a period of quarantine from which we have yet to return. As COVID-19 cases continued to rise in Connecticut, Yale University first informed students, then on Spring Break, that they would not return to campus until April 1. That return was delayed over and over until the university finally announced there would be no in-person Commencement in May. The STM community reached out to each other in moving and creative ways during these past months of lockdown and self-isolation: flowers drawn in chalk appeared in front of the Chapel on Good Friday; red paper hearts were placed in the Chapel and Center’s windows in honor of all essential workers; Chaplains checked-in with students over email and text; and students took breaks from their online studies to watch shows and movies together over Zoom. Our students may have lost much of what matters to them: being physically close to their friends, professors, coaches, mentors and STM Chaplains—and yet, as you will see from the articles in this issue, our students are still finding ways to help others, lift spirits and persevere. They have been an inspiration to us, especially our graduates, and we proudly dedicate this issue to them. As Father Ryan said in his Easter Vigil homily: “Love survives.” Love, and STM’s ministry that accompanies it, has survived—even in this a-typical semester. Wishing you all health and safety for the months to come, Robin & Sarah “...our students are still finding ways to help others, lift spirits and persevere.” 1. Photograph by Fr. Ryan Lerner2. #MyCatholicYale The STM Undergraduate Council attended Mass at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA, after having stayed in the John Paul II guest house overnight during their annual winter retreat. Photograph by Carlene Demiany3. Photo caption The Reverend Richard R. Russell Lecture: The Unique Possibilities of Asian and Asian American Theology Michael Libuano-Macalintal '20 M.Div. In the midst of a packed dining room this past January, many gathered to hear the lecture of Dr. Peter Phan, “Asian Americans: A Blessing to American Christianity?” Dr. Phan, Professor and Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University, emigrated to the United States as a Vietnamese refugee in 1975. Since then, Dr. Phan has risen through the ranks as a reputable theologian, not only as the first non-Anglo to hold the Presidency of Catholic Theological Society in America, but for studying and bringing attention to the unique possibilities and perspectives found in both Asian and Asian American theology. Dr. Phan’s lecture asked: Do Asian American Christians bring any blessing, anything that can renovate, renew and enrich the American Catholic Church? Often misunderstood and overgeneralized, articulating Asian Americans’ contributions to Christianity is a hefty task. Dr. Phan understood the delicate nature of Asian experiences as it related to Christianity, because the kind of Christianity amongst Asian countries was not homogenous, but rather one that holds a multiplicity of expressions, “even within the country itself.”“Dr. Phan’s lecture asked: Do Asian American Christians bring any blessing, anything that can renovate, renew and enrich the American Catholic Church?” 4. Dr. Phan argued that Asian Christianity became even more nuanced as it wrestled with Christianity and Catholicism in the United States. Asian immigrants and refugees brought their cuisines, family rituals, traditions, familial relations—and yes—their devotional practices and piety to the United States. This new Asian American Christianity incorporated all of these elements together, producing both a faith and a theological discourse rooted in food, family and tradition. However, Dr. Phan emphasized that Asian American Christianity was not divorced from the colonial and imperial legacy of Christianity. These new ways of practicing Christianity serve as a response and resistance to the “strange” nature of colonial Christianity—one that reflects the ideals of the colonialists rather than those who have been colonized. But, Dr. Phan noted that such Christianity is renewed when it is rewritten “from the perspective of the people who have been dominated [and] colonized.” A point that is echoed by Eleazar S. Fernandez, a Filipino theologian, who writes that “Against the Christ of the conquerors, the Filipinos…had evolved a Jesus distinct from the Jesus Christ propagated by the patrons of Christianity, an indication that the control of the foreigners and their God was not total.” 1 For many Asian Americans, including Dr. Phan, the goal is to find new ways of understanding and re-expressing Christianity “in terms of [our own] culture.” Our faith is rooted in our own stories, built on our ancestors’ lives and experiences. Among Dr. Phan and other Asian American theologians, the task now is maintaining that sense of identity as well as reclaiming it in an increasingly pluralistic world. 1 Fernandez, Eleazar S., Toward a Theology of Struggle, Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009, p.100.THREE QUESTIONS ? ?? Dr. Leo M. Cooney Jr. June Criscione GRD '21 In this feature, medical student, June Criscione GRD '21, interviews Dr. Leo Cooney, the Humana Foundation Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. She asks him three questions: one about scholarship, one about faith and one about leisure. ? JC: As a medical student trying to decide on a specialty area, I am always curious about physicians’ career paths. How did you end up working in Geriatrics? LC: During my Internal Medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, I cared for many elderly patients and participated in a unique program in which nurses followed patients of the hospital’s outpatient clinic, all who lived in nursing homes. These experiences sparked my interest in geriatrics and I later jumped at the opportunity to lead a new “Continuing Care Unit” for elderly patients at Yale. In recognizing the paucity of geriatric medical education in the U.S., I made teaching a key part of this unit, which now serves as a rotation site for both medical students and residents. I got involved in teaching because I saw a problem. I was fortunate to recruit great people to the Yale Geriatrics program. 5.? Dr. Leo M. Cooney Jr., the Humana Foundation Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, is a long-time member of STM and an influential figure in the field of geriatrics for over forty years. Among many accomplishments, he established the Yale Geriatrics program at Yale and previously served as the President of the American Geriatrics Society. JC: Working in medicine can be emotionally and physically challenging. What things have helped you avoid burn-out? LC: Family is the first thing that comes to mind. I’m very lucky: I have two sons and four grandchildren and will celebrate my fiftieth wedding anniversary this year. I also have a strong network of friends in New Haven, since my family first came to Connecticut forty-three years ago. My friend network extends to STM where I have been part of the same Small Church Community for over ten years. STM has been a wonderful source of spiritual guidance and friendship. I couldn’t imagine any place as good. JC: How has your faith impacted your career and day-to-day work? LC: I often participate in goals of care discussions with aging patients and their families. Although I do not let my personal beliefs influence these conversations, I find that having a moral compass makes it easier to talk about values with patients, and, provides fortitude for what are often difficult discussions. My faith is the core of who I am— what I find important in my life. Father Bob used to talk all the time about life outside the church, not just on Sunday. I have always thought of medicine as a vocation not an occupation. I do find spiritual moments in my work, though. Caring for patients and their family members can be “prayer time.” ? 6.Next >