Contemporary Ireland and the Northern Ireland Peace Process
H.E. Michael Collins, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States
Monday, May 21, 2012, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Room AB
RSVPs preferred at www.sandiego.kintera.org/irishambassador
Sponsored by The Irish Network of San Diego, Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture,
Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.
June 11-18, 2012, Ireland
Each year the Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture takes a small group of inter-disciplinary USD Faculty to a place connected in a broad sense with the Catholic intellectual and/or cultural and social traditions. The program is set around a specific theme each year which brings past, present and future discourse into relation. The theme can embrace a wide variety of foci, such as historical, ethical, social, theological, cultural and aesthetic.
The theme for the 2012 seminar will be Celtic Christianity and the location will be Ireland, which, from the time of St Patrick’s mission and the country’s embracing of Christianity in the 5th Century, soon came to be known a land of ‘saints and scholars’. Christianity in medieval Ireland blended with the unique cultural and social traditions of that land and developed into a very distinctive and progressively inculturated form of the Christian faith, indeed into something quite distinctive from the character of ‘Roman Christianity’ of the era.
Events of Interest in 2012
Poetry Conference June 9, 2012
Downtown San Diego
Do you write poetry? St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown San Diego is hosting a conference, Poetry in the Cathedral , for Christian poets (age 18 and up,) to be held on Saturday, June 9, 2012. The conference will feature workshops combining writing and Christian Spirituality for beginning and advanced poets, as well as an evening reading featuring locally and nationally known Christian poets. Well known poet, Paul Willis, will be a workshop leader and featured poet at the evening reading. Other session leaders include prominent San Diego poets and writing teachers. $25 fee covers workshops, and a simple lunch and dinner. Complete information is at www.poetryinthecathedral.com.
Recent Events Spring 2012
Assisi 2012
Where We Dwell in Common: Pathways for Dialogue in the 21st Century
April 17 – 20, 2012 in Assisi, Italy
In April 2012, the CCTC is playing a lead role in the organization of an international and ecumenical gathering exploring the theme of dialogue from the perspectives of the past, present and future. The overall aim is to discern new ways, means and methods of advancing the ecumenical cause in the wake of the ‘ecumenical winter’ and with renewed energy for a new century. It is intended to be not so much a conference, as the beginning of a process or series of ongoing processes. This gathering will seek to identify, share and shape, as well as to put into practice, productive pathways for dialogue in these times. It wishes to encourage ecumenical ‘thinking outside the box’ and to gather together a richly diverse array of voices from around the globe in order to help make this happen. CCTC Director, Gerard Mannion is chair of the Assisi 2012 Organizing Committee and a delegation of USD Faculty will be present and participating throughout.
The venue of Assisi has been chosen because of its long and instinctive association with openness, charity, dialogue, peace, harmony and communion – with the particular charisms of the orders founded by Francis and Clare alike having helped inspire countless ventures in promoting dialogue and openness amongst peoples.
In all, we hope to discuss, to enhance and to promote the ‘science of bridge-building’ for our contemporary communities and for their shared tomorrows. Naturally the challenge of dialogue today spreads far beyond the intra-Christian world and so inter-faith and still wider dialogue amongst faith communities and the wider ‘world’ will naturally also feature at our gathering as important themes. We will also seek to learn from those with experience in peace-building and conflict resolution and to discern how the methods, strategies and sheer resilience of such initiatives might be adaptable to the ecumenical and inter-faith situations we seek to address.
The venue of Assisi has been chosen because of its long and instinctive association with openness, charity, dialogue, peace, harmony and communion – with the particular charisms of the orders founded by Francis and Clare alike having helped inspire countless ventures in promoting dialogue and openness amongst peoples.
Please visit www.assisi2012.com for further information and to register.
Blessed and Beautiful: Picturing the Saints in Italian Renaissance Art
Robert Kiely, PhD, Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English, Emeritus at Harvard University
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 from 6:00-7:45 p.m.
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Theatre
With a reception to follow KIPJ Room D
Robert Kiely, a distinguished scholar of modernist literature and a historian and critic of exceptional sensibility, discussed his latest book, Blessed and Beautiful: Picturing the Saints. This book offers a powerful and searching meditation on the lives of the saints and the images of them painted by Renaissance artists in Italy. Through word and image, Professor Kiely shared with us his researches into how renaissance artists in Italy went about reflecting in and refracting through their works the lives, legends and meaning drawn from traditions surrounding Saints Francis of Assisi, Mary Magdalene, the lesser known Louis of Toulouse and Mary the Mother of Jesus. Professor Kiely then unpacked the theological meaning behind these great works and spoke of their enormous and enduring impact and significance.
The talk was an aesthetic experience in multiple ways, featuring images of the amazing works of art in question.
"Is there such a thing as a Catholic Imagination? Asking Augustine, Francis, and Hopkins"
Robert Kiely, PhD, Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English, Emeritus at Harvard University
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 from 12:15-1:45 p.m.
Solomon Lecture Hall
This lecture is part of the "Explorations in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition" lecture series. These are intended to be at an accessible and introductory level and designed for students, staff, faculty and guests who are not experts in the field. Classes are always most welcome.
Professor Kiely discussed some of what he has learned teaching courses on Christian literature at Harvard. He explored some of the ways in which the work of the imagination— especially in literature— addresses scripture and theology; and bears witness to the experience of God.
Co-Sponsored Events
Becoming Who You Are: Wisdom from African American Catholicism
Fr. Freddy Washington, CSSp
Monday, March 26, 2012
Institute for Peace & Justice, Room C
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
A native of Charleston, South Carolina, and a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit , Fr. Freddy Washington, CSSp, is pastor of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Ambrose Parishes in Chicago. Prior to his work in Chicago, Fr. Freddy was a Hospital Chaplain at Harlem Hospital in New York City, a high school religion teacher, a director of Religious Education, an associate professor of Pastoral Theology at Xavier University in New Orleans and an adjunct instructor of Pastoral Theology at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles. His many years of working in multicultural settings has offered him unique insight into the opportunities and challenges of discovering our true selves, drawing on all of our cultural gifts, to become who we most authentically are.
Cost: free. Coffee and dessert will be provided.
For more information, please call (619) 260‐4735 or visit www.sandiego.edu/um.
In collaboration with University Ministry, the Center for Educational Excellence and the Center for Inclusion and Diversity.
