Over this next year (May 2022 – May 2023), friar Joseph Krondon, OFM Conv., a simply professed student friar of our province, will be spending his Fraternal-Apostolic Year of Formation, at our pastoral ministry ~ Assumption Church, in Syracuse, NY. During his time at the parish, he will be living with our friars of St. Francis Friary, while interning as a pastoral minister at the parish’s Food Pantry & Soup Kitchen, and Franciscan Northside Ministries. He will also serve the parish as sacristan, altar server coordinator, and hospitality minister. Keep friar Joe and all of our friars in formation, in your continued prayers. For more information on life as a Franciscan Friar Conventual, email our Province Vocation Directors, Br. Nick Romeo, OFM Conv. & Fr. Manny Vasconcelos, OFM Conv., at vocations@olaprovince.org.
The June 5, 2022 Launch Celebration for 11:11 at The Grotto; a place for people of all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, cultures and lifestyles to come together, build community and journey through life, as they gather to worship, pray, grow and serve. They meet in the lower grotto church of historic Assumption Church, Syracuse, NY. The Grotto is a ministry of Assumption Church & pictured here are team members – Adam Eichelberger (Teaching) and Friar Rick Riccioli, OFM Conv. (Pastor), along with friar Joe Krondon, OFM Conv.
During the Summer Break from studies, the student friars of our province spend time in our varied ministries. In late May, friar Raad Eshoo, OFM Conv. was welcomed by our friars residing in St. Philip Benizi Friary, in Jonesboro, GA, where he will spend time assisting at the parish, until he returns to his studies. This morning, friar Raad joined Fr. John Koziol, OFM Conv. (Pastor – St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church & 2022-2026 Province Definitor) and the parishioners present, in Morning Prayers before Mass. He then presented a reflection on prayer, during Morning Mass.
“Keep listening to God’s Voice in your life.”
In 2020, friar Raad spent the Summer Break with our friars in Syracuse, NY.
Learn more about friar Raad’s life and vocation story in Friar Rick’s interview with him featured on a July 2020 “Tau Talks.”
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Friar Raad is one of eight currently simply professed student friars of our province. If you would like more information on life as a Franciscan Friar Conventual of Our Lady of the Angels Province, email our Province Vocation Directors, Br. Nick Romeo, OFM Conv. & Fr. Manny Vasconcelos, OFM Conv., at vocations@olaprovince.org. More information can also be found at FranciscanVoice.org.
Fr. Nicholas Spano, OFM Conv. (Pastoral Associate – Assumption Church, Syracuse, NY & Mall Ministry Chaplain – Franciscan Place Chapel & Gift Shop at Destiny USA) and Friar Rick Riccioli, OFM Conv. (Pastor – Assumption Church) touring the Hancock Field Air National Guard Base facilities.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022: Hosted by the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing, Friar Nick and Friar Rick joined 65 other Syracuse, NY area clergy, to take part in “Clergy Day,” an informational event, including a tour of Hancock Field Air National Guard Base facilities, to learn more about their own military chaplains and about what Air National Guard Airmen assigned to the unit do, led by the wing commander, Col. William McCrink. Chaplain (Major) Matthew Hallenbeck, the wing’s chaplain, hoped to provide participants with a briefing about what military chaplains do and the opportunities for the clergy in attendance, who serve the members of The Wing, to participate as part -time Air or Army National Guard chaplains.
Excerpt from the 174th Attach Wing Facebook Page: “Clergy members from the local community attended Hancock Field Air National Guard Clergy Day. Clergy members from the local community received a welcome briefing and a tour of the base. The purpose of the event was to continue to nurture our base’s partnership with the local Syracuse community and to express our appreciation to civilian clergy members who have shared ministry with our chapel staff in providing spiritual care to our military members and their families.”
From Pentecost 2021 to Pentecost 2022, I have undertaken a Franciscan tour of reactions to secular modernity. Beginning with the feast of the Mother of the Church I am offering a Tribute to Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, OFM Conv. by carrying forward what he opened up and had not yet fully articulated…
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Mother of God – Mother of the Church A Tribute to Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, OFM Conv. 20 July 1931 – 8 May 2018
In the third century we find references to Theotokos, Mother of God in prayer, but it took until 431 at the Council of Ephesus to define irrevocably Theotokos, Mother of God. In November 1964, as the history-making teaching on the mystery of the Church, Lumen Gentium,[1]was being approved by the Council Fathers, Pope Saint Paul VI solemnly proclaimed Mary as Mother of the Church. On 11 February 2018, Pope Francis issued a decree for the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, to be celebrated each year on the day after Pentecost. This reflection is on Mary’s Motherhood in a Scotistic key. First, I honor my teacher, Fr. Fehlner, by carrying forward what he opened up and had not yet fully articulated. Fr. Fehlner taught the language of the Scotistic tradition as a gift and handed it on with the Franciscan tradition that the friars have for developing and elucidating what Bl. John Duns Scotus intended as we take stock of who we are as Church in modernity. Second, in the exchange of gifts between Jesus and Mary, logically, that one who gives is active and one who receives is passive. “Jesus is active in giving divine grace to his Mother, and is passive in receiving human nature from her; Mary is passive in receiving grace from Jesus (that makes her full of grace), she is active in giving him (perfect) human nature.”[2] Mary as predestined with Christ is a grace conferred on her by her Son, not independently of Him. Third, according to Duns Scotus, Mary’s maternity, her activity in her Son’s conception, is active, not just a passive principle in the conception and formation of Jesus’ body. Mary is an active principle! Duns Scotus’ thesis of Mary’s natural fecundity was absolutely new and drawn from Galen, a physician. The other theologians of his day aligned with Aristotle, who taught that the father alone was the active principle, while the mother had a purely passive role, offering the material for the formation of a body. The father’s seed alone possessed active power.[3]
Duns Scotus’ firm defense of the woman’s active role in the procreation of offspring is more important than ever in the debate over the sacredness of life and, to many, the overreach of the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. If the Court’s decision is to return jurisdiction to individual states, Duns Scotus’ defense of woman as an active principle remains. The Court makes civil law; the Church, the law of God. “The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power.”[4] Duns Scotus thought as taught by Fr. Fehlner builds upon St. Francis of Assisi and St. Bonaventure. Historically, they are in pre-modernity, and Fr. Fehlner recognized why retrieval of their thought was necessary for modernity. Friars and laity who studied with him witnessed a critical and analytical sense that may not have been appreciated at the time, but has everything to do with the evacuation of doctrines and practices effected by our secular modern age and the drift of the Church towards the secular. Retrieval of the thought of the Franciscan masters is necessary. Vatican II paused to ponder: Who are we? What are we about?
Hitting the pause button is often necessary because the Church, historically, is always in crisis. Candor about the impact of evacuation of doctrines and practices in secular modernity and the drift of the Church towards the secular are needed more than ever. Since he died on 8 May 2018, I realize my duty to cultivate the gifts Fr. Fehlner has left, to plumb deeper, to lead others to critically engage, and to go beyond our discoveries and contributions. In line with the subtle thought of Duns Scotus, Fr. Fehlner discovered Duns Scotus and Newman in Dialogue.[5] Fr. Fehlner claims Duns Scotus’ Prologue to his Ordinatio to be the most subtle and systematic introduction to dogmatic-systematic theology ever written. The issues for that period of theology have been clearly identified and magisterially expounded. Fr. Fehlner lamented that our times fail to cultivate dogmatic theology, allowing instead for the substitutions of ways of thought other than the metaphysical as the primary instrument of the revelation and study of salvation history. He observed that thinking dogmatically and systematically in theology has seriously decayed. How many view Duns Scotus as one who prophetically anticipated and resolved decisive questions of a “critical” theology that emerged after he died? Duns Scotus anticipated the solution, not the errors of a Franciscan, William of Ockham, and their progression in Luther and Hegel.[6] With the dawn of modernity, Ockham’s errors began to replace and become the fashionable mode of thinking about the divine and about history. First, Duns Scotus identified the Ockhamist problem of substituting nominalism as a metaphysician logician before it burst on the theological scene. Second, Fr. Fehlner discovered commonalities between Duns Scotus and John Henry Newman. Third, Fr. Fehlner’s genealogical thinking passes through the Greek and Latin Fathers, Augustine and his interpretation as it passes through Anselm, the Victorines, Bonaventure to Duns Scotus and Maximilian Kolbe. He lauds and retrieves the definitive form of the insights in theology and philosophy, East and West, into the structure and content of the term used by Duns Scotus, “our theology,” associated with the work and spirituality of the Poverello of Assisi.
Fr. Fehlner retrieves this “Franciscan thesis,” or opinio minorum, which revolves about the absolute primacy of Jesus Christ or the question of the primary motive of the Incarnation, and about the mystery of the Immaculate Conception or the question of the preservative redemption of Mary and of her joint predestination with Jesus. Duns Scotus does not speak of Mary’s predestination, but his immediate disciples[7] and other friars taught the uniqueness of Mary’s predestination with Christ. To have been so predestined is a grace conferred on her by her Son, not independently of him. The question still debated is: Did Duns Scotus actually teach this? Did Bl. Pius IX and his successors refer directly to the scotistic school or to what Duns Scotus expressly taught? Fr. Fehlner is clear that Duns Scotus taught the predestination of the elect, including Mary, in Christ antecedently to any prevision of sin.
Fr. Fehlner defends the vocabulary of Duns Scotus as vivifying for its exactness i.e. that all of creation is good. Fr. Fehlner sets the right tonality about Duns Scotus: the Franciscan motive of creation aligns with the original plan for Christ to be born even before the fall of Adam. He and the friars who understand the Scotistic motive of the Incarnation prefer the Franciscan School while being open to all Christian and Non-Christian religions. In future entries I will bring forth insights that unlock Duns Scotus when theologizing and Fr. Fehlner for secular modernity.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conv., Tribute to Fr. P. D. Fehlner, eondrako@alumni.nd.edu
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[1] At Vatican II, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. [2] R. Rosini, trans. P.D. Fehlner, Mariology of John Duns Scotus (New Bedford,MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2008), 26. [3] Rosini, 26-27. See fn. 48 re Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Richard of Middleton, and Giles of Rome. [4]Dignitatis Humanae, The Declaration on Religious Freedom, 7 December 1965, no. 1. The best way to understand this is via Newman on development of doctrine. In 1973 I was with the New York State Catholic Conference where the senior attorney opined that Roe would be overturned within 10 years. [5] P. D. Fehlner, “Scotus and Newman in Dialogue,” in The Newman-Scotus Reader, ed. E. Ondrako (New Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2015, rpt. Canonization issue, 2019), chapter 7. [6] I will return to Duns Scotus anticipating the solution, not the errors of Ockham, Luther and Hegel. [7] Beginning with Bartholomew of Pisa, St. Bernardine of Siena, and later Vulpes and Moral.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
June 6, 2022
Pentecost (1615-1620) Oil on canvas, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, by Juan Bautista Mayno
The Scattering of Stars: From Francis of Assisi to Newman, Kolbe, and the Church of Vatican II
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
… heirs of God and heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him
so that we may be glorified with him.(Rom 8:17)
Secular modernity as dis-aster is the emergent mentality which finds baffling the aggregate of Christian beliefs and its practices arcane. On Pentecost, the birth of the Church, the metaphor of the scattering of stars as dis-aster[1] is remindful of the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. In the etymological sense of stars (aster) scattering and going from one alignment to another, ponder the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. …Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast….”[2] In pre-modernity, Francis of Assisi refers to the Mother of God as “Spouse of the Holy Spirit.” The nature of the collaboration between Mary and the Holy Spirit is in the subtle logic of Bl. John Duns Scotus. In modernity, a constant prayer of John Henry Newman was: come Holy Spirit! Maximilian Kolbe’s theology of the Holy Spirit[3] is part of a treatise on the Trinity and study of mariology. At Vatican II, the Blessed Virgin was predestined from eternity to be the Mother of God and our mother in the order of grace.[4] Vatican II “paused” to take time to be introspective in the crucial definition of Church as mystery. Together with Gaudium et Spes, the Church engages the World in dialogue and encounters everyone.
St. Paul’s full sense of theology of the heart or charity of Jesus which surpasses all understanding (Eph 3:19) inspires the contemplative theology of the saints from the less academic as Francis of Assisi to the more academic as John Henry Newman. Paul’s spiritualia spiritualibus comparantes (1 Cor 2:12,13), “we impart this [not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God] in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit,” play a crucial role in the development of doctrine from antiquity, theology in the fullest sense of the word. Newman’s masterful historical study is a crowning tribute to the Holy Spirit.
Since Pentecost 2021, my golden jubilee year of Franciscan priesthood, I have “paused” to reflect on a lived theology of the heart that is the gift of grace of “the Spirit who comes to the aid of our weakness … and who searches hearts” (Rom. 8). Secular modernity as dis-aster, stars (aster) scattering and going from one alignment to another, describes accurately: the immoral invasion of Ukraine; the wanton slaughter of innocent civilians; the charged division and ignorance about the sacredness of life; and, most sadly, the meaning of awe and respect due for worthy reception of the Eucharist. Prophets of lamentation offer more than a critique of the past, and prophets of jubilation offer more than a ray predicting the future.
Newman as a prophet of lamentation and jubilation aligns with Fr. Kolbe as a prophet of lamentation in the death camp to prophet of jubilation who altered the bitter sufferings of prisoners in a death camp to hope by his love. The writings of the Franciscan ‘martyr of charity,’ Kolbe, reveal that theologians have barely begun to probe the mystery of the Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit.[5] An example is Kolbe’s conference just before his final arrest:[6] The third Person of the Most Holy Trinity did not become incarnate. Yet the expression: “Spouse of the Holy Spirit” is far profounder than this title bears in earthly affairs. We may also affirm the Immaculate in a certain way [“quasi”] is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit [as the personification]. In her we love the Holy Spirit, through her we love the Son. How little the Holy Spirit is known!
Another is a prisoner’s notes on Kolbe’s final sermon in the Auschwitz concentration camp, inspired by the Marian antiphon of Francis of Assisi:[7] “Holy Virgin Mary, among women, there is no one like you born into the world: you are the daughter and the servant of the most high and supreme King, and Father of heaven, you are the Mother of the most holy Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.” Kolbe’s pulpit, the prisoner recalled, was a pile of stones; his alb and stole, a prisoner’s uniform full of lice; his words a sword opening the prisoners’ hearts about the Immaculate in relation to the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.
In reply to the commandant: who are you? “I am a Catholic priest,” is prophetic and apocalyptic. In 47 years Fr. Kolbe remade himself in the image of God without lifting up his heart to himself rather than to God in sacrifice for others. To Augustine, mercy is the true worship of God. Compare to Adam, whose heart had already begun to be evil even before accepting the fruit from Eve. Adam is a self-pleaser, lacks imagination, is careless, complacent and proud. He could have sacrificed himself to save Eve from the lie of the devil and her own pride. He sacrificed their companionship due to his own pride.[8] In contrast, Kolbe’s prophetic and apocalyptic emphasis is guided by Christian faith and principles, not measurement for utility.
On Pentecost, Newman’s all-abiding concern and defense against liberal or rational religion in his pre-conversion period was the defining feature of his work. Kierkegaard, a Lutheran contemporary, confronted the break in Lutheran continuity in Denmark about engaging the current worldly state of human beings, their rebellion and alienation from God. Catholics and Lutherans overlap on sin and sinfulness, which is prophetic in substance and in tone.
On Pentecost, let us pray with Fr. Kolbe and his lodestar, Francis of Assisi: “Mother of God, Mother of our Advocate before the Father, and Spouse of the ‘other Paraclete’ or Advocate sent to the Church on Pentecost, pray for us!”
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conv., Remembering Forward # 10 eondrako@alumni.nd.edu
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[1] C. O’Regan defines dis-aster as the scattering of stars (aster) from one alignment to another. [2] Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur.” [3] P. D. Fehlner, Kolbe, Pneumatologist, His Theology of the Holy Spirit (New Bedford, MA: 2004). [4]Lumen Gentium no. 61, repeats Ineffabilis Deus, 1854. [5] Maximilian M. Kolbe, Writings in English (Rome, Lugano: Nerbini Int’l, 2016), KW 647, 1305, 1306.9, [6] Kolbe Conference, 5 Feb. 1941; KW 1318 and Conference, 26 November 1938. [7] Marian Antiphon in St. Francis Office of the Passion. [8] Augustine, City of God, Bk 10:4-6. See J.C.Cavadini, Visioning Augustine (Oxford: Wiley, 2019), ch 10.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
June 5, 2022
In the last month alone, Little Portion Farm planted nearly 3,000 plants by hand, not including the many beds directly sown with seeds. This total includes many warm-weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes, as well as 1500 native wildflower plants put in the ground earlier this week
One June 2, 2022, a ceremony took please in the Chapel of Cauquigny (Normandy) in honor of +Friar Ignatius. In attendance were three of our province friars: Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (former Minister Provincial), Fr. Martin Kobos, OFM Conv. (Pastor of Mother Cabrini Catholic Church, Shamokin, PA) and Br. Michael Duffy, OFM Conv. (Principal of St. Francis High School, Athol Springs, NY)
The stained glass window in the chapelle des Parachutés (aka La Petite Chapelle de Cauquigny ~ Église Saint-Ferréol), in honor of +Fr. Ignatius Maternowski, OFM Conv. was dedicated on November 12, 2021, during a Mass celebrated by the (now former Minister Provincial of our province, Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (link to 11-12-2021 article)
Ceremonial Unveiling of the +Fr. Ignatius vitrail (stained glass window), in La Petite Chapelle de Cauquigny, on June 2, 2022. Friar Martin and Friar James are pictured below the window. One hour prior to the ceremony, the parachute, on loan from Bertrand de la petite musette [Bertrand of the Little Seagull], was hung for the unveiling during the June 2, 2022 ceremony.
June 2, 2022: Friar Martin and Friar Michael greeting those in attendance.
Remarks by Friar James
Friar James gifts an artist rendering of the +Fr. Ignatius vitrail to the Parish Priest of Picauville and Sainte-Mère-Église, le père Marie Bernard Seigneur.
Artist renderings of the +Fr. Ignatius vitrail were distributed by our friars to many of the dignitaries present.
Adapted from the June 3, 2022 post on the St. Francis High School Facebook Page:
Three of our the recent graduates from our Athol Springs, NY high school ministry ~ St. Francis High School (SFHS) – pictured below, joined our friars in Normandy to present the American Flag, which flew over our school all year, at the gravesite of +Friar Ignatius, who was a member of the SFHS Class of 1931. +Friar Ignatius was the only US chaplain to be killed on D-Day at the age of 32. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and his name is commemorated on many memorials around the world, including one in Athol Springs. Our friars, as well as the staff & families of SFHS are proud of these graduates for making this journey. We all continue to pray for +Friar Maternowski, all the heroes of D-Day, and for those who faithfully serve our country.
This morning the President of the “US-Normandy Association: Remembrance and Gratitude,” Mr. Eric Labourdette, send me this great article (above) from a French newspaper with a thorough report about the dedication ceremony for the new stained-glass window of Fr. Ignatius Maternowski in the Cauquigny Chapel, Normandy, which took place on the 2nd of June. Take note that in the article, there are five references which I suggest be given special attention: 1) the title identifies Fr. Maternowski as “the first priest to be killed in the Battle of Normandy.” 2) The chaplain from Fort Bragg, Rev. Michael Krog, described the name of Fr. Maternowski as a “name forged in the legacy of the 82nd Airborne Division – forged by the fire of D-Day. 3) The parish priest of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Pere Seigneur, said that “In France we know two churches, Notre Dame and Sainte-Mere-Eglise; now it is necessary to add the Cauquigny Chapel!” 4) The article notes the presence of artist who created the window, Joe Beyer of Philadelphia, who assisted in its unveiling during the ceremony. 5) At the end, the article describes the three Franciscan friars and the students from the same school as Fr. Maternowski attended in New York laying a wreath at the exact spot where he died. The rest of the article quotes from the text of my speech, including my acknowledging the presence of the artist Joseph Beyer. The article also references the exquisite and inspiring hymn sung by the Fort Bragg choir, “Requiem for a Soldier.”
Normandy Parachute Team, comprised of French civilians, which has adopted our +Fr. Ignatius Maternowski as their patron. Eric Labourdette jumped with this flag (drapeau) of “Pere Maternowski.”
Representing the over 170 friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province, sixty Ordinary Provincial Chapter Friar Delegates joined our the 120th Minister General of The Order of Friars Minor Conventual [OFM Conv], the Most Reverend Fr. Carlos Trovarelli, OFM Conv., the Assistant General of the CFF [Conventual Franciscan Federation] ~ Fr. Jude Winkler, OFM Conv., our Minister Provincial Emeritus ~ the Very Rev. Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv., Our Lady of the Angels Province Minister Provincial ~ Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv., Custos of our Immaculate Conception Custody (Brazil) ~ Frei Ronaldo Gomes da Silva, OFM Conv., Custos of our Blessed Agnellus of Pisa Custody (Great Britain/Ireland) ~ Friar Ciprian Budău, OFM Conv., and the friars of the outgoing 2018-2022 Province Definitory.
The 120th Minister General of The Order of Friars Minor Conventual [OFM Conv], the Most Reverend Fr. Carlos Trovarelli, OFM Conv. and the Assistant General of the CFF [Conventual Franciscan Federation] ~ Fr. Jude Winkler, OFM Conv. have been traveling from their home friary in Rome to visit Franciscan Friars Conventual around the world. They came to the USA, these past few months, to facilitate the 2022 Chapters of the four North American Provinces. From May 23-27, 2022 they joined our friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province for our Ordinary Provincial Chapter 2022. Friar Carlos and Friar Jude said it was a productive week filled with peace, cooperation and fraternal joy. MORE ON THE GENERAL CURIA SITE
The Evening Prayer after the Wednesday, May 25th Session included the Installation of our new Minister Provincial ~ Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv., at the hands of the Minister General.
Oath of Office as Vicar Provincial ~ Fr. Gary Johnson, OFM Conv.: Witnessed by the Minister General and Assistant General, at the hands of our Minister Provincial ~ Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv.
Newly Elected 2022-2026 Province Definitory: Fr. Emanuel Vasconcelos, OFM Conv. (Definitor & Vocation Director), Fr. John Koziol, OFM Conv. (Definitor), Fr. Christopher Dudek, OFM Conv. (Definitor), Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv. (Minister Provincial), Fr. Gary Johnson, OFM Conv. (Vicar Provincial), Br. Tom Purcell, OFM Conv. (Definitor), Fr. Jude DeAngelo, OFM Conv. (Definitor), Br. Nick Romeo, OFM Conv. (Province Secretary & Vocation Director)
Br. Jim Moore, OFM Conv. with Friar Carlos. Friar Jim and Br. Michael Duffy, OFM Conv. were elected as the new Our Lady of the Angels Province Delegates to the General Chapter.
One of the many moments of fraternal joy, as the outgoing Minister Provincial ~ Friar James greets the new Minister Provincial ~ Friar Michael.
From Newman as a Critic of Modernity To Vatican II as Newman’s Council
I have nothing of that high perfection, which belongs to the writings of saints,
…I trust that I may claim …[in] what I have written, … an honest intention, absence of private ends, temper of obedience, willingness to be corrected, dread of error,
desire to serve Holy Church, and, through Divine Mercy, a fair measure of success.[1]
Since 1969,[2] I’ve been privileged to study John Henry Newman.[3] Imagine my joy on Sunday morning, 19 October 2019, at St. Peter’s, Rome, when Pope Francis canonized Newman. I cannot emphasize enough why Newman was prophetic in his denunciation of modern rationalist forms of Christianity which, in his view, has capitulated to secular reason fully established in the 19th century as both the default intellectual position as well as the[4] new social imaginary. Using Newman’s Idea of a University as a standard, I intend to hand on why Newman as prophet of lamentation and as prophet of jubilation helps to “Rebuild the Church.”
To plumb deeper into lamentation and jubilation as Newman’s critique of secular forms of Christianity he regarded as counterfeit, is to shout out Newman’s prophetic voice in defense of the picture of God as totally Other. To appropriate human response rests on religious fear and awe. It is an honest view of human beings as sinners that are capable through grace of becoming saints (jubilation) or scoundrels (lamentation). It means conviction that faith has prerogatives over instrumental or moral reason, that what matters is making judgments about behavior that pertain to one’s salvation. It means recognizing Newman’s prudent resistance to and refutation of highly processed forms of Christianity in modernity. It means recognizing how secular Christianity disguises itself as genuine and immunizes itself. A more recent and pernicious phenomenon is “weaponized incomprehensibility”[5] that is besieging our values.
As a standard, was Newman’s Idea of a University a success or failure? A dismal failure for it never became a reality. TheIdea of a University was based on the Oxford model with its roots in Aristotle’s system of broad cultural education, paideia, and linked to the origin of the modern university as founded by the Catholic Church in the 13th century at Paris, Padua, Bologna, and Oxford. A university is not a seminary, and that misunderstanding with the Irish Bishops was not bridged. Yet Newman wrote a classic, a coherent and powerful vision of the concept of university that has a signified, adequate, expressed, enormous influence as synthesis with all its details to this day. Shortly before he died, Fr. Hesburgh, C.S.C said to me: Newman’s Idea of a University was just that, a powerful synthesis whose principles helped him to lead the University of Notre Dame for thirty-five years as its president.
Newman’s quote upon acceptance of the cardinalate encapsulates his debt to the ancient classical system proximate to his Oxford classical studies. He embraces his limits as a creature and sinner with freedom and self-transcendence. His understanding and commitment to Church AND World reflect an inheritor of that line from the great saints as Francis of Assisi, and a precursor of Vatican II’s emphasis on reform, renewal, and updating. Understanding Aristotle’s paideia, the Medieval universities, the Oxford model as a youth, contributed to the university curriculum he created for Dublin. Negotiation between Church AND World is constitutive of the Roman Catholic Church.[6] Fr. Hesburgh saw his work at Notre Dame as a progression of Newman, with philosophy as a synthetic state of mind providing integration.
Pope St. John XXIII’s call for Aggiornamento did not equate with thinking that updating for the whole Church meant only when the Church was fully egalitarian. Second, there was never a break with the past at Vatican II, for it would not be the Catholic way. The Church negotiates because it is “in” AND “for” the World, but the Church is not the World. The Church has a supernatural end. TheDocuments of Vatican II give expression to the balance of two lines of interpretation which are ongoing. Lumen Gentium, on the mystery of the Church, and Gaudium et Spes, on the Church AND World, are a balance between the two lines of interpretation. The dominant interpretation after Vatican II, which is the wrong interpretive strategy to Pope Benedict XVI, is the lens of social justice as the only interpretation of the purpose of the Catholic Church.[7]
In The Idea of a University, Newman avoids being clever or appearing to win. To be clever gets old and, ironically, never grows. To be clever is to be permanently frozen. The beauty of argument is towards development of a bridge between views. Second level order of reflection on the data of Christian faith in history and interpreting the development of the Church’s institutions assists theology as a form of knowledge that is public, one that is able to draw conclusions that verify its intuitions, and enable a person to intervene in public space.
Newman’s gentleman[8] in TheIdea of a University describes a “gentleman” not of Christianity, but of civilization, a good citizen. St. Paul’s Christian character in its most graceful form and with its most beautiful hues depends on lifelong formation and cultivation of virtue that is more than ornamental. The Idea of a University lists the Church’s duties: to cure and keep its members from sin by teaching justice and chastity, the judgment to come, faith, hope, devotion and honesty, with elements of charity that puts souls on the way of salvation, aspiring to be heroic, attaining to various degrees of what is beautiful.[9] In the 21st century information explosion we gasp for air trying to answer what constitutes a university education. I read Newman’s Idea of a University as a serene text that is more and more relevant today.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conv., Univ. of Notre Dame, Easter Reflection 4 eondrako@alumni.nd.edu
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[1] J. H. Newman, Biglietto Speech, 12 May 1879. Given upon acceptance of the cardinalate. [2] P. D. Fehlner, OFM Conv. was the first to teach Newman a Franciscan systematic approach. [3] A. J. Boekraad, MHM in 1973-1974; John Ford, C.S.C at CUA in 2006; Oxford Conf. with I. Ker et. al, @ Nat Inst of Newman Studies; SJHNA Conferences; C. O’Regan at Notre Dame since 2010; Dissert. at Syracuse University on Newman and Gladstone,1994; Ed., Newman Scotus Reader, 2015, rpt canoniz. issue, 2019; Dissert. at Notre Dame, Rebuild My Church, 2021. [4]The Documents of Vatican II with Notes and Index (Vatican Trans: 2009, rpt. 2020). [5] Weaponized incomprehensibility implies: “if I do not understand something, you are the fool.” [6] The difficulty was compounded by the refusal of the Catholic Church to negotiate with modernity. [7] Responsible complaints from the faithful most often are in this register, i.e., too social justice oriented. [8]Idea, 208-210. [9]Idea, 203.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
May 30, 2022
Mother of God – Mother of the Church
