May 12, 2024
/As Pentecost Sunday and the end of another academic year fast approach, Easter Vigil memories remain vivid and Spring Retreat (most thoughtfully arranged by Fr. Bob and lovingly led by Fr. Xavier and Sr. Gloria) reflections shared by undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs, and year-rounders continue to reverberate. It is such an immense joy and blessing to witness in deep gratitude and profound hope the dynamic movement of the Spirit within and around us.
~Oriana Li Halevy, on behalf of the Intra-Community Council’s 2023-24 RCIA and CATH-Links team
If you are interested in submitting reflections, meditations, articles, book reviews, etc., see Submit Resources for Publication for submission guidelines. We look forward to your participation!
RECENT NEWS
Cardinal Gregory sees ‘Dignitas infinita’ as balanced, challenging document [vaticannews.va] The Vatican’s new Declaration on Human dignity, Dignitas Infinita (DI) [vatican.va], is “probably the most comprehensive summary” of Church teaching on the topic “that could be issued at this time . . . if you take the document as a whole . . . it’s not a document about one specific issue beyond the fact that it treats human individuals, human people, as dignified in a way that is irreplaceable, that we never lose the dignity that God entrusts to us as He creates us.” The Cardinal further notes that DI is “humble in its context, but also very, very deeply rooted in Catholic moral and anthropological teachings.”
Eucharist, unity, clarity: What attracts converts to the Catholic Church? [catholicnewsagency.com] This past Easter appears to have been a bountiful harvest for the Church with certain dioceses reporting 30%, 40%, 50%, and even more than 70% increases in the number of converts . . . Non-Catholic students join the program because Catholic students invite them . . . along the lines of Jesus’ words in John 1:39: ‘Come and see’ . . . It’s all through our students. They’re the ones bringing them to Mass, doing the evangelization, bringing them in the door.” What drew the new converts to faith? “Some cite the Eucharist, others the teaching authority of the Church, the papacy, unity, clarity, liturgy, community, the communion of saints, and strength to live a better life.”
Priest prepares for ‘crazy’ 1,500-mile Eucharistic pilgrimage [catholicnewsagency.com] Fr. Roger Landry (Harvard, ’92), the Catholic chaplain at Columbia University, is currently the only priest committed to walking the entirety of one of the four routes of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage [catholicnewsagency.com], “the biggest Eucharistic Pilgrimage in the history of the Church . . . Coming off of a seven-year stint working with the Holy See at the United Nations and now ministering to college students . . . Landry’s unwavering faith in the Eucharist as the real presence of Jesus drives his commitment to this pilgrimage, viewing it as a powerful expression of love and devotion to Christ, who ‘walked with people’ during his earthly life. ‘We [as pilgrims] hope to be able to draw a lot of attention to this dynamic aspect of our Catholic, Eucharistic faith.’”
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
‘Harvard Thinking’: Forgiving what you can’t forget. Wronged and can’t move on? [news.harvard.edu] In this podcast, Tyler VanderWeele, professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the director of the Human Flourishing Program; Matthew Ichihashi Potts, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church; and Laura Thompson, clinical and consulting psychologist discuss why and how to heal.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The Defrocking of Father AI [firstthings.com] by Leah Libresco Sargeant (Yale, ’11). “Father Justin,” the AI-powered chatbot recently launched by Catholic Answers, was defrocked within two days of his public debut. “The struggles of much bigger tech companies to make their AI corrigible suggest Catholic Answers won’t have a reliably orthodox chatbot any time soon . . . A chatbot cannot be reliably trained to speak the truth. More importantly, a chatbot demeans the seeker by feigning a personal connection. Someone approaching the Church is always asking a double question—what does the Church say about this topic and does Jesus love me? The second question is usually asked and answered implicitly. It can’t be built into a prompt—it requires the personal witness and presence of another human being.”
Missional AI: Several Key Takeaways [aiandfaith.org] by Marcus Schwarting (UChicago, ’25). Missional AI (MAI), an annual conference held at Wycliffe World Headquarters in Orlando, Florida, is “a space for Christian scholars, pastors, entrepreneurs, and developers to consider how to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to further the kingdom of God . . . The 2024 MAI conference was a time to connect with like-minded Christian innovators and developers to see where and how AI should be used to serve God.”
MOVIE OF INTEREST
Angel Studios Presents SIGHT [angel.com] Coming to theaters May 24, 2024! The film is based on the inspiring true story of Dr. Ming Wang, MD, PhD [youtube.com], a Chinese immigrant who defies all odds to become a world-renowned eye surgeon (and embraced Christianity in the process). Drawing upon the grit and determination he gained from a turbulent uprising in his upbringing, Dr. Wang sets out to restore the sight of a blind orphan. SIGHT received the 50th International Christian Visual Media “Best Picture Award.”
BOOK OF INTEREST
In the Courts of Three Popes: An American Lawyer and Diplomat in the Last Absolute Monarchy of the West [amazon.com] by Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law (emerita) at Harvard University and a former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.
Professor Glendon “recounts her experiences in the Vatican across the past three pontificates, as a diplomat, adviser, and consultant. She writes, with intelligence and grace, from the perspective of an American Catholic laywoman in a “culture dominated by clergy” and as a “citizen of a constitutional republic” in a “court.” A quotation from the English theologian Ronald Knox serves as a well-chosen epigraph for one of her chapters: “He who travels in the Barque of Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room.” Glendon has braved the engine room, and she is clear-eyed about the crises facing the church from within (abuse and corruption) and without (huge cultural shifts). But she cautions readers against cynicism: “A few ordinary people willing to live in truth and to call good and evil by name can help to shift probabilities in a better direction.”~Katherine Howell, National Review
