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STM The Magazine of The Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University Fall 2019 p 2 Mapping the Roman Catholic Church p 21 Faith In The Real World p 1 Meet Joe ConnollySTM 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 The Terza Loggia (Third Loggia) is located in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, Rome. On its walls are maps of the world, frescoes designed by Ignazio Danti (1536 – 1586). When Molly Burhans, cartographer and Executive Director of GoodLands, went to Rome she was led through the space by the Swiss Guard. She asked a priest “Where are your maps?” He indicated to the walls. She then asked if the Church had a cartography department at the Vatican. The priest said, “No, and it’s fine if you make them [for us].” 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: Teresa Berger '07 M.A.H. is Professor of Liturgical Studies and Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology at Yale University. She is also a member of the STM community. Matthew Blake GRD '21 is a graduate student at Yale Divinity School and a member of STM’s Graduate Council. Mary Callanan '22 is a sophomore at Saybrook College and a member of STM’s Undergraduate Council. Carlene Demiany '12 M.Div. '14 S.T.M is one of STM’s Assistant Chaplains and leads STM’s Undergraduate ministry. Ellen Jewett '16 lives in California and is working on a theology degree at Santa Clara University: Jesuit School of Theology. Eric Kim '02 is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital (Burlingame, CA) and a member of STM’s Board of Trustees. Frank Lukens '22 is a sophomore at Ezra Stiles College and a member of STM’s Undergraduate Council. Cristina Otero '21 is a junior at Jonathan Edwards College and is a member of STM’s Undergraduate Council. Elizabeth White GRD '22 is a graduate student at Yale School of Public Health and a 2019 STM Summer Ambassador. STM MAGAZINE FALL 2019 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 MEET JOE CONNOLLY 2 MAPPING THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 8 STM SUMMER AMBASSADOR EXPERIENCE 10 INTERFAITH JERSALEM PANEL 12 PRAYING WITH THE TAIZÉ BROTHERS 16 THE INAUGURAL REVEREND ROBERT L. BELOIN LECTURE IN CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY 18 DONOR RECOGNITION Features 5 POP! CULTURE 6 THREE QUESTIONS 21 FAITH IN THE REAL WORLD 22 OPEN BOOK 23 SNAP SHOT Hannah Steffke '20 and Abigail Long '22, both members of the Cathletes student group, make mac and cheese for the Amistad Catholic Worker House.FROM THE Chaplain’s Desk Dear Friends, This fall semester, I have had the privilege to witness the vibrant and courageous faith of our students, and have had the opportunity to meet and get to know a number of our alumni, among them Eric Kim '02. Eric writes this issue’s “Faith in the Real World.” In his article, he reflects on his time at STM and how it has deeply shaped his life spiritually and professionally. His experience reflects STM’s mission. At STM, we’re grounded in the mission of Jesus Christ so that those who come here experience, and are nurtured in, the abundant life they receive in their relationship with God; and, in turn, become abundant life for others — by directing their gifts and talents toward transforming the world from their respective fields. Our students sharing their gifts and faith with others is a recurrent theme throughout this issue. You will learn about Elizabeth White’s GRD '22 STM Summer Ambassador experience at Kangole Girls Senior Secondary School (Uganda) in “Spending Time with my ‘Sacred Heart Sisters’” and Frank Lukens '22 discusses the importance of interfaith dialogue in his article about the Interfaith Jerusalem Panel that took place at STM this past October, a first in STM’s history. This fall semester also brings a new face to our team. I am excited to introduce our new Executive Director, Joe Connolly. Joe has served fifteen years in the Catholic Healthcare system and, with me, will lead STM into the future. You can learn more about him in the interview on the facing page. And, I could not forget to mention our donors, whose names are listed in this issue. It is through your generosity that we can nurture and support our students as we do. Thank you for sharing your abundance with us. Finally, on behalf of our students and the team here at STM, I ask for your prayers and promise to pray for you, your families and your loved ones. Gratefully Yours in Christ, Fr. Ryan M. Lerner Chaplain At STM, we’re grounded in the mission of Jesus Christ so that those who come here experience, and are nurtured in, the abundant life they receive in their relationship with God. Jesus Prayer Dear Jesus Help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others; The light, O Jesus will be all from You; none of it will be mine; It will be you shining on others through me. St. John Henry Newman (February 21, 1801 – August 11, 1890), canonized by Pope Francis on October 13, 2019.1. Meet Joe Connolly The Editors Tell us about your family: My wife Paula and I just celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary. Paula is from Dublin, and we experienced a fairy-tale, long distance romance long before there was any such thing as e-mail or Face-Time. We have been business partners as well as life partners, but most of all, still love being together after all these years. Together we have three amazing daughters — Aisling, Ciara and Fiona. All three are currently in college. Each has her own unique skills and interests, but our favorite thing to do together is to go skiing. Some of my happiest memories as a dad are from our ski days. When I talk about my daughters, I always say that I hit the trifecta! I have been richly blessed. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Naugatuck, CT, a blue-collar town just a few miles up the road but worlds apart from New Haven. As a kid, life revolved around school, sports and church. We played football under the lights on Friday nights, had paper routes and an epic Memorial Day parade. When I think back to my youth and my town, what strikes me is a sense of connection. Everyone knew everyone, and the same people you saw in church on the weekend were your friends from school, your coaches and teachers. Who is your favorite saint and why? I’d have to go with Saint Ignatius. I think of him as a kind of spiritual warrior, and imagine if he was around today he’d be a Navy SEAL. I remember reading Father James Martin’s The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything and feeling that the pillars of Ignatian spirituality — finding God in all things, becoming contemplatives in action, looking at the world in an incarnational way and seeking freedom and detachment — really resonated with me. The fact that Pope Francis is a Jesuit has also piqued my curiosity about Ignatius, as I (like so many others around the world) have had my faith and commitment reignited by our Pope. Contemplating this question also made me think about more contemporary Catholic heroes, people like Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Mother Theresa, Father James Martin and the many, many priests and nuns who have impacted me throughout the years. I think it is easier to relate to people like this because they are so real, so tangible. We can see pictures and videos, hear interviews, read their writings and understand the context so readily. For me it was a lot easier to come up with a list of living people who have impacted my life as opposed to a favorite saint. I guess I think of them as “saints-in-the-making.” Tell us something about you people don’t know: Something people don’t know about me is that I am an aspiring novelist. I’ve kept that mostly to myself but I figured making a public statement might help motivate me to get it done. It’s been said that most people have a good book in them — I think I have at least two! The Editors of STM Magazine sat down with Joe Connolly, STM’s new Executive Director, to ask a few questions and learn more about him. This is what they learned: Pictured left to right are: Joe Connolly and his daughters, Fiona, Aisling and Ciara. Photograph courtesy of Joe Connolly.Molly Burhans: Mapping the Roman Catholic Church Teresa Berger '07 M.A.H. connected with Molly Burhans for the first time right on Park Street, in front of Saint Thomas More Chapel. It was shortly before a Sunday afternoon Mass, and we were both locking our “mules” (I, my bike and Molly, her scooter) to the parking meter in front of the Chapel. It struck me that since we both seemed dedicated to sustainable ways of transportation as well as to Mass attendance, our lives must be sharing some core commitments. So, I introduced myself, and thus began my friendship with Molly. In what follows, I highlight some of what I learned about her and her incredible work, as she shared this with me in an hour-long conversation. 2. Molly shares one of her maps with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Servizio Fotografico Vatican.3. is the Founder and Executive Director of GoodLands, a nonprofit organization that maps the landholding of the Roman Catholic Church globally. More specifically, GoodLands contracts with Catholic communities to help them map and create land records for their property portfolios. They then use that understanding to analyze and optimize their property’s use and management for environmental and social impact as well as financial management. Molly’s journey into this work—and by extension to the community that is STM—is remarkable, not least in the way in which her different skills and passions came together. For starters, there is Molly’s faith, which she (re-)turned to in college. This faith takes inspiration, in part, from the Catholic Worker Movement, and in another part from a contemporary community of women religious. Add to this her immersion, since childhood, in science and research generally (her father Bill, was a cancer researcher), and in computer science, coding and data gathering (Molly’s mother Deb is a computer scientist). Last but not least, there is Molly’s love for nature, for the land and for ecology, a love that was nurtured professionally at The Conway School of Landscape Design where she received a Master’s Degree in Ecological Design. These diverse skills and passions converged brilliantly when Molly discovered that the Catholic Church was not only one of the biggest land-owners globally, but had never really done any land inventories to date, certainly not on a global scale. Molly set out to prepare the first ever global data-based map of the Catholic Church’s presence, with support from a cartography team at Esri (the world’s leading company in geographic information systems [GIS] technology). She premiered her map in Rome in December 2016 at the Vatican Arts and Technology Council. Since then, she has had several audiences with Pope Francis and has personally presented him with maps. In the summer of 2018, the Holy See offered her an office in the Vatican, and she is currently renegotiating the terms for establishing a Cartography Institute. This institute would make maps for various Vatican departments and convene working groups for security and policy, definitions and ontologies and establishing the workflows for authoritative ecclesiastical boundary data sets several times per year. Molly combines her cartographic expertise with a love of the land and a commitment to ecological planning. To put it succinctly, Molly wants the Catholic Church’s vast land-holdings to work “for good.”4. Since 2015, Molly’s initial vision and her sense of urgency have only grown. In the process, she has moved her organization and herself to New Haven, CT, not least because she had already been working with students at the Yale School of Forestry and Environment. GoodLands has an office on Front Street in Fair Haven and has completed a global mapping of the Catholic Church’s jurisdictions as well as created a vast database that includes statistics about the world’s Catholic populations, buildings and property-scale data for the United States Council of Catholic Bishops. Recognition of Molly’s work has been fast and wide-spread: she was a 2018 Ashoka Fellow and has been featured in, among others, the Boston Globe, and America magazine. And this fall, Molly was recognized as a Young Champion of the Earth by the United Nations’ Environment Program. Her organization GoodLands is the first faith-based organization to receive this recognition. Yet there is more than a passion for mapping behind GoodLands. Molly combines her cartographic expertise with a love of the land and a commitment to ecological planning. To put it succinctly, Molly wants the Catholic Church’s vast land-holdings to work “for good.” Molly is inspired by the environmental work of Pope Francis. Laudato Si’ is a text that continues to inform her faith and provide a vision for GoodLands for many years to come. Check out GoodLands website for more information: https://good-lands.org/ And, Molly’s Young Champion of the Earth video: https://www.unenvironment.org/youngchampions/news/video/young-champion-earth-2019-molly-burhans Molly was recognized as a Young Champion of the Earth by the United Nations’ Environment Program. Her organization GoodLands is the first faith-based organization to receive this recognition. Photograph courtesy of Molly Burhans.5. @catholicnewsagency Catholic News Agency An integral part of Catholicism is being aware of the community that we are a part of as members of the Church. This account keeps its followers aware of various new stories occurring around the globe, so we can consistently keep those who live beyond the borders of New Haven, who we would have not otherwise encountered, in our prayers. Four Catholic Instagrams to Integrate Prayer into Your Daily Routine Mary Callanan '22 POP! CULTURE @coffeewithsaints COFFEE W/ SAINTS If you’re ever wondering what your morning coffee would be like with St. Therese of Lisieux, then this is the account for you! Whether grabbing a quick cup before work, or sipping a latte on an early Saturday morning, this account is sure to enhance your early waking hours. Posting daily quotes from various Catholic saints, COFFEE W/ SAINTS turns a morning routine into a meaningful and educational interaction with God. @franciscus Pope Francis No Catholic Instagram list can be complete without Pope Francis, who in his message entitled Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter said that “social networks can promote the good of society.” Straight from the Vatican, his posts include videos of his inspirational speeches, pictures of him encountering influential people in the Church and reflections from his Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. @jamesmartinsj Father James Martin, S.J. Fr. Martin is a Jesuit priest and author who travels around the world and shares his journey online. He posts a wide variety of photos — beautiful cathedrals, daily reflections and inspirational quotes from fellow Church leaders and saints. It is an excellent account to follow in order to stay updated on Catholic news, and see the world through a priest’s eyes!Next >