At World Youth Day

Ashley, Mollie, and Gary from SMU are at WYD SYD 2008 as we speak. Best wishes and Godspeed, folks! We look forward to reports when you get back.

(Anyone else from our Friends of Theology there? Let me know!)

Missing Saint Mary's this summer?

Here's a lovely picture of St. Yon's from Sharon, a visitor on campus for the regional Communion and Liberation spiritual exercises.

Our 2008 retrospective

And thanks to John Becker for permission to use the song!

There are also new pictures of all of us (and a lot of the campus) here.

"A Preferential Option for Youth"

Youth ministry folks--what do you think?
Find it over here at Topics of Note....

Want to have your "Catholic Faith" story on Public Radio?

Speaking of Faith is a very interesting and smart radio program on religious issues, put out by American Public Media (it feeds to National Public Radio). And they are asking right now for your thoughts on what it is like to be Catholic, in preparation for covering Pope Benedict's April visit to the USA. Please consider going here and putting in your two cents! Here's the pitch from the website:

Share your personal reflections on the Catholic Church

Pope Benedict XVI will be making his first papal visit to the U.S. in April, to help revitalize and strengthen the U.S. church. He will be stopping in Washington D.C. and New York City to offer mass at Nationals Park and Yankee Stadium, visit the White House, and address the United Nations.

We're using the occasion as an opportunity to start a broad-ranging conversation about the rich tradition of Roman Catholicism -- its history, trajectory, and the contemporary issues Catholics are wrestling with. Although we often hear news stories about the Catholic Church, diverse practitioners of the faith have had little voice in telling their stories.

If you are or were Catholic, we'd like to hear your perspectives on what anchors and unsettles you in this vast tradition. We're also interested in the hopes and concerns you have for the church, now and into the future.

Continuing the trend of our own being in the news...

I thought some of you might enjoy reading this article I found in The Catholic Spirit (the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis) the other day. It's about eight camp counselors who all met at Catholic Youth Camp in McGregor, MN, paired off into couples, and eventually got married. The first couple mentioned is none other than Paul and Taryn Yantes, whom most of you probably remember; they graduated from SMU in 2006, got married in September of that year, and had a baby boy this past Christmas.

It's a cute article; enjoy!

http://thecatholicspirit.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=1476&SectionID=37&SubSectionID=&S=1

Viva Roma

Alright, this is my first attempt at blogging - but inspired by Dr. SWD, I thought I would offer a link to a blog that might be of interest.

As many of you know, Dr. Sobolewski and I are members of the University Council on Lasallian Mission and Formation. As members of the Council, we are going with the other university representatives to Rome this week. We are meeting at the Christian Brothers headquarters and will meet the Superior General, Br. Alvaro, and spend the week studying and praying about our Lasallian mission.

A blogspot (is that the right word, Dr. SWD?) has been created by one of our colleagues in the Twin Cities at: http://smucfm.blogspot.com/ Every day, someone from the group will post a report about the day and what we did. Check it out and see what we are up to!

Have a good break (oh, yea, who's going to check a blogspot during break??)! I miss you all this semester. S.J.

Save The Date: Commonweal Lecture

Saint Mary's University in Winona is hosting the Commonweal lecture on April 10, 2008. The speaker will be one of Commonweal's editors, Dennis O'Brien, a philosopher and president emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont. His latest book is Finding the Voice of the Church by University of Notre Dame Press. The working title of his 7pm lecture is "Can The University Be Catholic?"

Student discussion session in the later afternoon as well, on why the popular atheists (think Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, etc....) get it wrong.

Put it on your calendar now!

Dr. Sobolewski and SMU's graduate theology program in the New York Times

Once again, I'm touting the accomplishments of my more humble colleagues.

A New Emphasis for Schools of Ministry: Management Skills

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — For the last four years, Wendy Samuels has worked in a remote village in Jamaica for Mustard Seed Communities, a Roman Catholic nonprofit group that helps disabled children.

The work is both rewarding and heartbreaking. But some of the most difficult moments came as she managed well-meaning staff members who did not always do their jobs properly.

“If someone is not performing their job, how do you deal with it when there is still so much to be done?” Ms. Samuels said. “I kept wondering, How do you manage persons in a third-world country who work for a charitable organization?”...

The full article is worth reading in whole and can be found here. (Dr. Sobolewski is on the second page.)

Catholics on Call conference, Summer 2008

Please see the the post here about the "Catholics on Call" conference in Chicago and consider applying! If you get accepted, it's free....

More Pictures of Theology Sites, Scenes, and Students at SMU

We have some more Theology pictures added to our Flickr site from Fall 2007 (click here for the mosaic above, and click here to see the whole set). I intended to get mostly outside pictures, which I did, but not that many--if you recall, it rained nearly all Fall.

The above picture is a fun mosaic of some of the pictures (mostly new but three from last academic year). Enjoy!