Fwd: Pastoral Renewal Retreat for Priests--Combating Secularism---May 20-24, 2012
Colvert, Gavin (Philosophy)
From: "John C. Cahalan \(Jack\)" <caha...@comcast.net>Date: September 12, 2011 3:24:03 PM EDTSubject: Pastoral Renewal Retreat for Priests--Combating Secularism---May 20-24, 2012Dear AMA Colleagues,If you or anyone you know feels that combating secularism calls for pastoral renewal in the Church, please read this. Thanks. (I apologize if this is a duplicate.)In 2010, I notified most of you about the inaugural Joyful Shepherd Retreat, a retreat for priests seeking renewal in our spirits and our struggle with secularism through the clarity of Vatican II’s underappreciated “Hierarchy of Christian Truths.” By seeing how some truths depend on illumination by others, we can strengthen the foundations of Catholic spirituality that have been weakened in practice (though not necessarily at the level of doctrine).The first retreat, in the Archdiocese of Boston, was so successful that two priests attending from Pittsburgh recommended it to their chancery. Now the Diocese of Pittsburgh is offering the retreat to their priests, on May 20-24, 2012, as fulfilling a priest’s canonical requirement for a yearly retreat.The Pittsburgh diocese is kindly allowing us to invite up to 12 priests from elsewhere. We are hoping to attract priests who agree that we need pastoral renewal and will attend for the sake of discerning whether this retreat is worth taking back to their dioceses and/or communities. The retreat is designed to be portable. Attending priests will each be offered a manual explaining how to give the retreat, as well as offered help by a present team member, who will come to the priests’ locations at no expense.No priest should consider finances an obstacle to attending the retreat. If a priest cannot afford the expense, including travel, we can help.The two short attachments to this email will give you brief summaries of the retreat’s background, viewpoint and content. Though the order of topics in the attached schedule of talks will not change, the exact wording of the titles can. For more information on the retreat, you can go toThere, you can read the short blurb on the homepage, and get further information by clicking on “Theological Background. andthen clicking on “Introduction.”This year’s team includes a retired presiding bishop, two priests, two permanent deacons, and two lay persons. Biographies of the team will be posted on the web site shortly.References from priests who attended the first presentation of this retreat are available upon request.Please feel free to forward this email to bishops, superiors, chanceries, priests and any other parties who may be interested.Thanks very much for your prayers and any help you can give us spreading the word about this retreat.Sincerely,Jack CahalanJohn C. Cahalan, Ph.D.23 Pilgrim Circle, #EMethuen, MA 01844
John C. Cahalan (Jack)
---------APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING---------
Dear Colleague in the American Maritain Association:
(This email amends a previously sent one, because some people deleted the original mistakenly thinking it was an invitation to a retreat they couldn’t attend, rather than a request to please spread the word, if you can.)
If you or anyone you know is concerned about the Church’s struggle with secularism please read this and spread the word, e.g., by forwarding this email, if you can. Thanks.
In 2010, I notified most of you about the Joyful Shepherd Retreat. This preached retreat has helped priests find new power and joy in their ministry to a post-Christian world. The retreat’s premise is that, for understandable historical reasons, seminaries have emphasized theological more than spiritual/pastoral training. That training used to succeed pastorally because it was designed for a world that no longer exist: a society where we didn’t have to emphasize the basics of Christianity because most people accepted them to one degree or another.
So seminaries could emphasize the correct interpretation of Christianity, which meant focusing on distinctively Catholic theology rather than the spiritual basics of a personal relation to Jesus of Nazareth and a personal appropriation of what he did for us. Spiritually, the fruitfulness of the distinctively Catholic relies on the basics that both John XXIII and John Paul II repeatedly said were greater than what divides Christians.
But technology caused secularism to dominate western society so rapidly that, through no one’s fault, seminary training has been unable to keep up. In particular, the family can no longer do the prior evangelizing that the effectiveness of pastoring presupposes. Technology now sabotages that foundation of Catholic spirituality by bringing anti-Christian beliefs and values into the home.
The first Joyful Shepherd Retreat, in the Archdiocese of Boston, was so successful that two priests who attended from Pittsburgh recommended it to their chancery. Now the Diocese of Pittsburgh is offering the retreat to their priests, on May 20-24, 2012, as fulfilling a priest’s canonical requirement for a yearly retreat.
The Pittsburgh diocese is kindly allowing us to invite up to 12 priests from elsewhere. We are hoping to attract priests who agree that we need pastoral renewal and will attend for the sake of discerning whether this retreat is worth taking back to their dioceses and/or communities. No priest should consider finances an obstacle to attending the retreat. If a priest cannot afford the expense, including travel, we can help. References from priests who have attended this retreat are available upon request.
The retreat is designed to be portable. Attending priests will each be offered a manual explaining how to give the retreat, as well as offered help by a present team member, who will come to the priests’ locations at no expense.
The three short attachments to this email will give you brief summaries of the retreat’s background, viewpoint and content. Though the order of topics in the attached schedule of talks will not change, the exact wording of the titles can. For more information on the retreat, you can go to
Biographies of the retreat team will be posted on the web site shortly.
John C. Cahalan (Jack)
---------APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING---------
Dear Colleague in the American Maritain Association:
Historian Florian Michel has published a magisterial account of the work and influence of French Thomists in the United States and Canada. Attached are the front and back covers, the Table of Contents, and selected index pages.
Sincerely,
Jack
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Deely, John N.
Jack, thanks for this. Hope our paths will cross in 2012?
Attachment for your interest; see also this:
http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Philosophy-Redefined-Development-Cenoscopic/dp/1589662164
John C. Cahalan (Jack)
John,
Good hearing from you. At age 72 and working 24/7 on pastoral reform, I rarely get to conferences outside of the New England area. I got to St. Louis to advertise the priest’s retreat and visit family.
I hope to get back to philosophy one of these days.
I hope your work is still going so successfully and that all else is well. Give my best to Brooke.
All best,
Jack
John C. Cahalan (Jack)
Dear Friends of Resources for Modern Aristotelian Philosophy (www.foraristotelians.info):
Please let me call your attention to three recently published books.
Thought and World: The Hidden Necessities, James F. Ross (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008). Our distinguished colleague has written a major work addressing key issues in contemporary analytic philosophy from a perspective of moderate realism.
Ultimate Normative Foundations: The Case for Aquinas's Personalist Natural Law, Rose Mary Hayden Lemmons (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011). A much needed "personalist" revolution is going on in Thomistic ethics. This most comprehensive contribution to that revolution yet will go far to solidify it.
Words of Wisdom: A Philosophical Dictionary for the Perennial Tradition, John W. Carlson (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012). 1,173 entries. This thorough reference work admirably fills a long-standing void.
Unfortunately, the constraints of time prevent me from offering to publicize future books. If someone has enough time (LOL?), it would be doing us a great service if he or she established a web site for Aristotelian books, especially the philosophically, rather than historically and textually, oriented books we so badly need.
Sorry if this is a duplicate.
Respectfully,
Jack
John C. Cahalan, Ph.D.
23 Pilgrim Circle, #E
Methuen, MA 01844
John C. Cahalan (Jack)
Dear Colleagues:
With deep sadness, I report the passing of our friend and colleague Anthony O. Simon. Tony died yesterday of congestive heart failure. He is survived by his loving wife, Judy, at two adult children. Judy's address, phone number and email are
3921 Glenview Dr.
South Bend, IN 46628
For years, Tony worked tirelessly to do philosophers and social scientists the great service of making the work of his distinguished father, Yves R. Simon, available and better known. (I will not attempt to list Tony's significant accomplishments.) He was a founding member of the American Jacques Maritain Association, and as its Secretary/Treasurer was probably the person most responsible for its success in its first twenty years. His many friends knew him as someone always ready to help.
The South Bend Tribune's web site should have an obituary this Sunday that should have more biography and information about where to express condolences. Judy told me tax-deductible donations can be made to the Yves Simon Institute, which she plans to keep in existence at least while decisions are made about the future disposition of its valuable scholarly materials.
May Tony rest in peace.
Jack
John C. Cahalan, Ph.D.
23 Pilgrim Circle, #E
Methuen, MA 01844