Made with FlowPaper - Flipbook Maker
STM The Magazine of The Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University Fall 2018 p 16 Theology of Hilkert & Schneiders p 12 Four Things To Know About Fr. Gerry p 2 Tribute to Fr. BobSTAY IN TOUCH WITH STM STM 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 According to the artist, Sonia Ruiz '19, she created the cover’s watercolor scene during Fr. Bob’s wake. While she sketched in the Chapel choir loft, the pianist was preparing music for Father Bob’s funeral—which would occur the following day. Some of the sheet music was laid upon the loft’s banister as the pianist practiced. Learn more about Sonia and her work on page 1. 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: Britton O’Daly '20 is a junior at Branford College and has participated in STM’s Alternative Spring Break trips. He is the Editor-in-Chief & President of the Yale Daily News. Jan Fournier '06 M.A.R. is a member of STM’s community. She will soon be writing the introduction to a Stations of the Cross guide, published by STM and available for the 2019 Lenten season. Attilio V. Granata '74 '77 M.D. is a member of STM’s Board of Trustees. He is a retired physician who lives in Connecticut and works with, and for, the underserved in Connecticut’s Medicaid program. Annie Killian GRD '19 is a former member of STM’s graduate council. She is a Ph.D. student in the English Department. Her research interests include lyric poetry, textual production and religious reform in late medieval England. Margaret Lukaszyk is a twenty-year development professional finishing her first year at STM as Development Director. Zach Ludwig GRD '20 is STM’s Communications intern. He is in his first year of studies at Yale Divinity School. Hannah Manz '21 is a sophomore at Trumbull College and a participant in STM’s Summer Ambassador program. Nicole Perone '16 M.Div. lives in Connecticut and is the Archdiocesan Director of Adult Faith Formation for the Archdiocese of Hartford. She was a delegate to the to Pre-Synodal meeting, which proceeded the 15th Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. Sonia Ruiz '19 is a senior at Grace Hopper College and is a confirmation candidate in the STM RCIA program. Her senior art exhibition, “Sonia Ruiz: Studies in Color,” was recently shown in Maya’s Room (Silliman College).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 Chaplains Msgr. Gerard Schmitz, Interim Chaplain Sr. Jennifer Schaaf, O.P., Assistant Chaplain Rev. Karl Davis, O.M.I., Assistant Chaplain Carlene Demiany ' 12 M.Div. '14 S.T.M., Assistant Chaplain Allan Esteron, Assistant Chaplain 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. Lauren LoCoco '21 seals a meal packet during STM's 80th Anniversary celebration. 1 LOOKING FOR COLOR 2 AN INSPIRATION FOR CATHOLICISM AT YALE 5 HUNT PRIZE LECTURE 8 POPE FRANCIS'S PRE-SYNODAL MEETING 12 FOUR THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT FR. GERRY 13 TALKING PSALMS 16 FINDING HOPE IN WOE 21 SHARING GOD'S LOVE AT DOWN HOME Features STM MAGAZINE FALL 2018 6 FAITH IN THE REAL WORLD 7 THREE QUESTIONS 10 FROM THE ARCHIVES 18 DONOR RECOGNITION 22 OPEN BOOK 23 SNAP SHOTFROM THE Chaplain’s Desk Dear Friends: I am pleased to share with you the Fall 2018 issue of STM Magazine. I know that you will find in these pages a snapshot of the dynamic Catholic life that is lived daily at STM. The fall semester was marked with joy and sadness. On Labor Day weekend, we welcomed our first-year and returning students at the Mass of the Holy Spirit as well as at various activities throughout the weekend. The excitement surrounding the beginning of a new academic year was soon tempered on September 23rd by the death of Father Bob, our beloved Chaplain of twenty-five years. Hundreds of alumni, faculty, students, community members and friends honored his memory by attending the viewing hours in the Golden Center Courtyard and the Mass of Christian Burial in STM’s Chapel and Lecture Hall, while hundreds more watched via livestream. Archbishop Leonard P. Blair was the principal celebrant for the Mass which was marked with outstanding liturgical music; a beautiful eulogy given by Kerry Robinson '94 M.A.R., former director of devel- opment at STM and friend; and a moving homily delivered by Fr. Bob’s long-time friend, Father Joseph Donnelly. As the interim Chaplain, I am most grateful for the outstanding cooperation given by our assistant chaplains and entire STM staff during the time of Fr. Bob’s illness, his passing and the days surrounding his Rites of Christian Burial — all in the midst of their own personal sorrow. A week after the death of Fr. Bob, the STM Community was brought together again to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the Saint Thomas More Chapel. The weekend focused on the growth of Catholic life at Yale in the past eighty years, particularly the twenty-five years under the leadership of Fr. Bob. His untiring efforts for the development of the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Center; the expansion of the organization’s staff and programs; his outreach to Yale, the Archdiocese of Hartford and the worldwide Church, made for a memorable celebration. We are currently in the process of finalizing what we believe will be a permanent tribute to a man who’s life and ministry meant so much to so many. In the meantime, I ask for your continued generous support to STM and its mission. Fr. Bob was aware that he could not do this work alone and was always profoundly grateful to all who partnered with him to make a difference in Catholic life at Yale. Please consider his legacy by making your annual contribution in the envelope in this issue. Thank you for your continuous prayers, support and encouragement for all that we accomplish at STM. Please be assured of our prayers for you and your loved ones as well as our best wishes for a joyful Christmas Season and countless blessings in the New Year. Monsignor Gerard G. Schmitz Interim Chaplain One way to pray in a fear-filled world is to choose love over anxiety, to open the door of the heart to dwell in the intimate presence of the one who loves us. – Henri Nouwen Please be assured of our prayers for you and your loved ones as well as our best wishes for a joyful Christmas Season and countless blessings in the New Year.1. Looking for Color: Reflections of a Watercolorist Sonia Ruiz '19 ’m interested in light and its relation to color - how it makes the towers and brick walls on campus glow golden at sunset and turns the clouds above Old Campus pastel pink if you walk across the Green at sunrise; how it falls through windows, illuminating the walls of the Chapel. Because a camera can produce far more detailed observational images, I try to draw moments that strike me: the curve of the back on one of the Stations of the Cross sculptures, the brow furrowed in pain, the light from the other side of the Chapel bouncing off the shoulders. The shadow the crucifix casts, the flying dove and the hand, as the wall behind changes color throughout the year. Often I draw and paint from memory because what I wish to catch is a moment that lasts maybe a second or two. I think that creates a sort of experiential aspect, because I’m showing you what I noticed, not necessarily the whole picture. My watercolor professor once told our class to avoid using black and brown for shadows. Black is, after all, made of all the colors. He said that everything is a color— the challenge is to find that color. To look for the vibrant colors around me is one of the most important lessons I have learned from my time at Yale, and, from STM: to look for them in the mundane, in the darkness, in people of all kinds and backgrounds. The colors are always there. You just have to look. Sonia Ruiz '19, the artist of the Fall 2018 cover, is often seen sketching in the quiet of STM’s Chapel. Here, she discusses her work in watercolor and how both STM and Yale inspire her creativity.An Inspiration for Catholicism at Yale: A Tribute to Fr. Bob Britton O’Daly '20 hen I first visited Yale after being accepted to the college, I heard about Father Robert Beloin — or, as everybody here knows him, Fr. Bob — long before anyone had even thought to mention something about academics or extracurriculars to me. A Yale student who I knew from my high school, a Jesuit school in New York City, had met me on Old Campus after I first stumbled onto Yale for “Bulldog Days,” the University’s orientation program for accepted students. I asked him this question, the only question I really cared about, almost right away: “What was it like to be at Yale as a Catholic, after spending four years in a high school like ours, where the Catholic faith defined the very fiber of our education?” “Oh,” he chuckled. “You don’t need to worry about that — We have Fr. Bob.” 2. “The most privileged aspect of my priesthood over forty-five years has been the invitation to be present to people in times of great joy and great sorrow.” – Father Robert Beloin3. This year, we lost Fr. Bob to brain cancer eight months after he announced his illness to the STM community. Fr. Bob, I quickly learned at Bulldog Days and then as an enrolled student, was not just the Chaplain of STM but a living inspiration for Catholicism at Yale in his twenty-five years on the job. With Fr. Bob, wise sermons went hand in hand with warm jokes; good advice in tandem with loving dialogue; compassionate leadership always alongside friendship. As Chaplain, he excelled as an administrator, not only by bringing our community a bounty of new programs, like the Small Church Community Bible study sessions, but fundraising the money that provided the Yale-New Haven community with the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Center. This was the same person who would captivate me with stories about his youth as a priest studying in Belgium, where he spent weeks praying at holy sites, like Taizé, or discovering classical music in Paris — memories that he would share with students over late-night food served after the 10 p.m. Sunday Mass, a popular event for busy Yale students desperate to end their weekends on a thoughtful, comforting note. (The 10 p.m. Mass was another one of Fr. Bob’s creations).4. That’s who Fr. Bob was to his colleagues, friends and congregation: someone who was infinitely genuine and brought the experience of life and Christianity into every encounter he had on this Earth. When it was time for the Yale-Harvard game, Fr. Bob was right there getting chili prepared in the football stadium’s parking lot, beckoning for the entire community to participate in one of his famous tailgates. A little over a year ago, when a student came to Fr. Bob with concerns about an undocumented immigrant couple about to be deported in Hartford, he went, as Pope Francis says, right to the margins: police arrested Fr. Bob, along with assistant chaplain Father Karl Davis and a score of activists, for obstructing the entrance to the courthouse that would order the deportation. He was fond of referring to young Catholics as “the hope of the church.” Two weeks before he passed away, Fr. Bob wrote to me that “the most privileged aspect of my priesthood over forty-five years has been the invitation to be present to people in times of great joy and great sorrow.” To have been near Fr. Bob in life was an inestimable joy. But we should reflect carefully on his words, because even the act of mourning Fr. Bob is a privilege. He gave our community memories and experiences of love that go beyond measure. We will never forget Fr. Bob, or his legacy, that still lives before us in the STM community with each celebration of the Mass, every moment of compassion—and the continued, daily witness to the loving faith that we share. "Father Bob was not just the Chaplain of STM but a living inspiration for Catholicism at Yale." Photos courtesy of STM Archives.5. “Violent Uncertainty: Finding Faith in War and Chaos” An Excerpt from the Hunt Prize Lecture On a Thursday in September, Philip Klay, delivered his lecture at STM entitled “Violent Uncertainty: Finding Faith in War and Chaos.” Klay—author of Redeployment, winner of the 2014 National Book Award in fiction—is the 2018 recipient of the George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize for Journalism, Arts & Letters. The Hunt Prize, a joint venture between STM and America Media, seeks to recognize the finest literary work of Roman Catholic intelligence and imagination; and this year, was awarded to an outstanding work in the category of Cultural & Historical Criticism. Klay is a fellow at the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq with the 2nd Marine Logistics Unit (Forward) as a public affairs officer. “In high school the Jesuits had taught me to be a man for others, the Marine Corps had promised me a way to do that—and so here I was [in Iraq]. And yet as a staff officer, especially as a staff officer with a job related to media, it was difficult to square my day-to-day activities with the life and death stakes all around me. I didn't even know if I was helping or hurting the cause, most of the outside journalists that I brought into Anbar Province tended to report only bad news. All I knew was that I had a safe job in a dangerous place, the sort of place where moral heroism was definitely needed, but where I didn't have the slightest clue as to what that moral heroism would even look like. Faith for me has always been a place to register a sense of doubt, of powerlessness, of inadequacy and uncertainty about my place in the world and how I'm supposed to live. You kneel before a cross, before a broken, tortured and humiliated human body. You face human frailty and human cruelty. You call to mind your sins, all that you've done and all that you've failed to do, in a place where you know that—nevertheless—you are accepted and forgiven. Those early days in Iraq were so busy, it was easy to get lost in the constant flow of work, but my time at Mass, particularly my time in confession, [was where] time stopped and I tried to imagine ways of reordering myself in relation to this very disordered, broken world. Then I poured out my doubts, received reconciliation and went back to my confusing day job.” Pictured above, L to R: Fr. Matt Malone, S.J., President and Editor-in-Chief of America Media; Phillip Klay and Sr. Jenn Schaff, Assistant Chaplain at STM. View a video of Klay’s Hunt Prize Lecture at stm.yale.edu/media. View an essay adapted from Klay’s lecture at America Magazine online at http://bit.ly/HuntPrize_KlayNext >