| Search this site |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Click Here to receive all the latest news from Christendom via email. Read the College's Instaurare Magazine online. News
Archives
Christendom Creates Fr. McGivney Scholarship Christendom recently established a new scholarship, the Michael J. McGivney Annual Scholarship, which will be restricted to qualified Christendom students who are children of members of the Knights of Columbus. In response to Pope Benedict’s decree last March 16, which recognizes formally the heroic virtue of the “Venerable Servant of God” Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, “We were looking for ways both to honor Fr. McGivney and to build up the popular relationship between Christendom and the Knights of Columbus,” said President Timothy O’Donnell. “Based upon the existing tradition of support from individual K of C councils, this was an easy decision. Beginning this fiscal year, gifts from individual councils will be pooled and designated for this new scholarship purpose,” explained Vice President for Advancement, John Ciskanik, “and used to support K of C families.” Christendom plans to award its first McGivney Scholarship in the Fall term of 2009. Questions about how your council may support the Michael J. McGivney Annual Scholarship may be directed to VP Ciskanik at 800.877.5456, ext.1250. Christendom Joins the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Mourning
Click HERE for the full story. "This is a tragic event," says Tom McFadden, Christendom's Director of Admissions. "Although she didn't choose Christendom for college, she spent two weeks on our campus during the summer of 2006 and she was an absolute delight to be around. Her smile and outgoing personality were infectious. In fact, we had made her one of our ‘poster’ girls for promoting the summer program to future students. She and her family will be in our prayers." Christendom College will offer Mass on August 21 at 7:30 a.m. for the repose of the soul of Kelly and for the consolation of her family and friends, and everyone at Steubenville. Eternal rest grant unto Kelly, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen. ISI College Guide Lists Christendom College as One of the Nation’s Best
“The guide has become the most valuable and trusted college guide on the market for students seeking a genuine liberal education,” ISI’s website states. According to the guide, Christendom College is “flourishing, having gained a reputation for academic excellence, doctrinal fidelity, and a wholesome atmosphere where students cheerfully embrace the ancient traditions of Catholicism.” The guide speaks highly of Christendom’s strong core curriculum and fidelity to the Catholic Church and the Pope. “Don’t expect to find The Vagina Monologues on campus,” the guide states. “The unfortunate fact is that many college classes today consist of little more than indoctrination in leftist propaganda,” Walter E. Williams says in the guide’s introduction. “Yet, despite the fact that the vast majority of colleges are pervaded by leftist ideology, it is still possible to get a good, nonideological liberal arts education.” “It’s great to be included in Choosing the Right College once again,” College President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell said. “Inclusion in such prestigious guides not only gives witness to the great work we are doing at Christendom, but also helps us connect with future students who think that Christendom is the right college for them.” For more information about the guide click HERE. Students Grow in Faith at “Experience Christendom” Summer Program
“Dead fish go with the flow,” Akers continued. “Living fish swim against the current.” The program not only gave students an opportunity to meet fellow young Catholics who desire to grow in their faith and go against the current, but also gave them a taste of life at Christendom College. Akers, an alumnus who is also Director of Christendom’s Rome campus, taught a class in History. “A particular theme we explore in the history class is the difference between gifts and character,” Akers said. “We look at historical examples of people who changed history in some way.
Taught by Christendom’s own faculty, students also take classes in philosophy with Dr. John Cuddeback, literature with Dr. Patrick Keats, and theology with both Dr. Timothy O’Donnell and Arlington Priest Fr. Tom Vander Woude, a Christendom alumnus himself.
“I loved how happy and fun it was yet with a serious and wonderful focus on classes,” Lucy Salazar of Wheat Ridge, Colo., said. “More importantly, God was the center of all activities. This program has changed my life forever—for the better.” Tommy Salmon of Galway, Ireland, agreed. He found the camp to be not only packed with fun activities but also learning. “You truly learn to understand your faith and meet the most fantastic people that have the same beliefs as you do. I feel like I’ve learned more in these two weeks than I have my whole life.”
“The program is an opportunity for students to get to know the college, but, as we have seen year after year, it is also an experience that changes these students for the better. Sometimes two weeks of Christendom-living is enough to change hearts—change lives.” Anastacio Hinojosa of San Antonio, Texas, who was attending for the second time said that the program still taught him new things and brought him closer to God. “It’s not only an opportunity to discover a school, but also an opportunity to discover yourself,” he said. One of the most intriguing aspects of the program, according to Admissions Director Tom McFadden, is the fact that many of the rising high school seniors come to the camp expecting it to be a dull and boring time, with too much emphasis being placed on Catholicism.
One of these was Bernadette Brock, from Virginia. “I had a very bad prejudice against Christendom College and did not want to attend the Summer Program that much. I had a stereotype of everyone being homeschooled nerds, but everyone was totally awesome. I had the best time of my life.” Due to increased interest in the program, tentative plans are currently being made to have three different Experience Christendom Summer Program sessions in 2009. To read more comments or quotes from participants, of to learn more about the program, please click HERE.
Student Recognized as a Marion G. Wells Honors Fellow
Tillman recently, along with fellow classmate John Jalsevac, won ISI’s annual international essay contest. Tillman placed first, while Jalsevac took third. In addition, as part of ISI’s Honors Program throughout the next academic year, Tillman will receive continuing direction from his faculty mentors through participation in small seminars and online discussions about both permanent questions and contemporary concerns. The ISI faculty mentors and staff will provide one-on-one professional assistance to the each of the Honors Fellows, including information about internships, job opportunities, graduate and professional programs, and related concerns. Tillman will also attend an ISI Career Development Seminar, designed to help prepare him for future positions of leadership. In addition, he will receive a large collection of free books and journals. “We are very proud of James and John,” Christendom President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell said. “They are both extremely talented men who are a testament to the power of our Catholic liberal arts education. No doubt, they will be leaders in fulfilling Christendom’s mission—to restore all things in Christ.” Founded in 1953, ISI works “to educate for liberty”—to identify the best and the brightest college students and to nurture in these future leaders the American ideal of ordered liberty. Archbishop Burke Appointed Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura
On June 27, the pope made the announcement that His Excellency would be replacing Cardinal Agostino Vallini. Last September, Archbishop Burke visited Christendom College for an academic convocation celebrating the college’s 30th anniversary where he was awarded a Doctorate in Humane Letters. Following the conferral of the degree, His Excellency told the college community that he could not think of any university from which he would be more pleased to receive an honorary doctorate than from Christendom College. “Although this is my first visit to the campus I have followed the life of Christendom College for many years. I’m very well acquainted with the writings of Dr. Warren Carroll, and I have also long admired the work of Dr. O’Donnell, and am a faithful reader of the newsletter of the College. I have known a number of the alumni, and of course, I always think that the ultimate test of the excellence of a Catholic college is the quality of faith in Christ and in His Church of the alumni, and Christendom certainly stands out in that regard,” he said. As prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, Archbishop Burke will hear appeals of decisions issued by lower church courts. Laity Called to Change the World at Christendom College’s Summer Institute “Now is the time for a dramatic infusion of strategically placed competent pro-life people of faith in government,” said Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) at Christendom College’s 19th annual Summer Institute held July 12 at the college’s Front Royal, Va., campus.
In his talk entitled Bearing Witness to the Truth in the Political Sphere, Smith spoke of the human rights that governments and international organizations attempt to enumerate and declare. “Such fundamental rights do not come from the U.N. or from sovereign governments,” he said. “If they did then governments and international organizations would not only have the power but the legitimate authority to rescind what had previously been conferred. If our fundamental rights are truly rights and not mere privileges, then they must be derived from a source that precedes and transcends any earthly political power, indeed they must come from God.” The congressman declared that what the U.S. government needs is “an army of Thomas Mores.” Now is the time for a dramatic infusion of strategically placed competent pro-life people of faith in government, he said. He believes that congress has a duty to protect everyone at risk not just the planned, the privileged, and the perfect. Unborn children have inherent worth, value, and dignity, given to them by God, not by politicians. The unborn are not disposable commodities or junk, they are children, he said. “I believe that anyone who is willing to learn with due diligence can master the art of policy making. It’s not rocket science. The ministry of politics begs and it beckons. And if enough people answer the call, the world will be made much safer for the family, including its smallest and most vulnerable members unborn children,” he said. “This [Christendom College] is truly a remarkable place that is having such an impact on so many lives—men and women who will then go out into the world and bring the great news of Christ and His justice to the world,” he concluded.
“The devil masqueraded himself quite well for me in my life, always with beauty and good things—like he usually tempts you—but that wasn’t working on this,” McEveety said. “So strange things would happen, which I won’t get into, but I’ll tell you a few great things that counteracted those strange things that happened.” He shared one remarkable story of a crewmember that was struck by lightening twice and survived unscathed. This crewmember, which McEveety referred to as “lightening boy,” was the first child baptized by John Paul II. It was also this crewmember that eventually led to their ability to screen the film for John Paul II, who famously said that the film “is as it was.” McEveety closed his address by announcing that he has begun pre-production work on a film based on the book Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness by Christendom College’s Founding President Dr. Warren Carroll. Presidential speechwriter and journalist Colleen Carroll Campbell filled the attendees with hope with her talk Catholic Journalism and the New Faithful. Campbell presented many statistics and personal testimonies, revealing that the new faithful of this generation have the potential to reshape American Christianity in the next century.
This lack of formation, according to Campbell, left many young adults adrift confused and estranged from the Church, but this childhood without God has often lead these young adults to an intense spiritual search that culminated in conversion. “This generation is turning back to traditional sacramental forms of worship. Eucharistic devotion, praying of the rosary, the liturgy of the hours, and the Latin Mass have become more popular. There is a counter-sexual revolution going on as well in the world of fashion and courtship mores,” she said. “As one seminarian put it,” she said, “‘we’re rebelling against the rebellion. We want tradition.’” Campbell noted that despite the fact that the new faithful are a minority in their generation, their zeal for cultural engagement and their commitment to proclaiming the faith suggests that their impact may far exceed their numbers. “These young believers may be the early adopters of a larger trend with the potential to renew the Church and transform the culture in the years to come,” she concluded.
In his talk Bruchalski read a letter he had been given from a father to a son that demanded that he abort his third child for financial reasons. The letter was harsh and cruel and revealed the would-be-grandfather’s blindness to the life of the unborn child. He also related a recent story of the illegally signing of a waiver for a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl to have an abortion by the Richmond Diocese Catholic Charities. “This is my life as an OB/GYN in America today,” Bruchalski said. “I don’t really have a funny story to tell because it is indeed not very funny.” He described the confusion that he experienced as a layman before he had a re-conversion. He would distribute Communion at Mass and then distribute the contraceptives at work. His education had told him that this was the right thing to do. He thought he could change the Church. He said that the current moral confusion has resulted in a crisis in medicine today. “Medicine has done tremendously good things,” he said, “but science can only bring progress – it cannot bring redemption. And yet, in our life we are faced with this paradox, great health care, but God forbid we take the holistic approach—addressing the body, soul, and spirit of the patient.” In closing, Brulchalski admonished the audience to do three things: to trust in Jesus, to acknowledge the fact that we are the Body of Christ, and to be ready to suffer.
“There can be no intelligent understanding of the role of the laity in the Church’s apostolate without a precise understanding of the Church herself,” he began. “All members are called to contribute to Her growth. The laity is called to exercise their apostolate as a leaven in the world.” O’Donnell reminded listeners that they are involved in a war. The Church on earth is the Church Militant or the Church Fighting against what he called “the grand alliance”: the world, the flesh, and the devil. He expressed the need for laity to not be fearless in the witnessing of the Faith, even though it seems like the battle against the culture of death is being lost on all fronts. “The world has always awaited and proclaimed the death of the Church, but death could not hold Christ our Divine Head and it certainty will not be able to hold the divinized members working in the world as lay members of the Church Militant. For certainly, if we apply the words of that great soldier, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and pray as if everything depended on God and act as if everything depended on ourselves, the Divine Mercy will certainly not be found wanting,” he concluded.
“Each one of us is called to a profound intimacy with the Trinity,” he said. “If these men, in their circumstances, which are very painful, even in a modern prison, can get to heroic virtue and a profound intimacy with the Trinity, you and I have no excuse whatsoever of failing to reach heroic virtue and deep intimacy with the Trinity.” All of the above talks can be ordered by contacting National Media Services at 540-635-4181. Next summer’s institute is planned for June 26-27, 2009, and will focus on St. Paul: His Spiritual and Scriptural Contributions to the Church. Invited speakers include Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. Tim Gray, and Archbishop Charles Chaput. Look to this website for more information in the future. Students Immersed in Living Latin at Christendom College
Free Congress Foundation Praises Christendom as Excellent American College |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Seven student-athletes on Franciscan University of Steubenville’s cross-country team were involved in a car accident on August 19. Kelly Roggensack, a sophomore from Tennessee, was pronounced dead at the scene. The six other students suffered injuries.
Christendom College is once again included in the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America's Top Schools. This sixth edition of the guide provides an independent, truthful assessment of what is really happening at the top 134 colleges in the nation and also provides specific advice on which professors to seek out. 
“It’s easy to do what is comfortable and to crumble under peer pressure than to go against the flow,” Prof. Benjamin Akers told the high school students of Christendom College’s “Experience Christendom” Summer Program. The program, which brought 108 students from across the United States and Europe to the Shenandoah Valley, held two different sessions, one from June 22 to 29 and the other from July 6 to July 19.
“There is a sharp divide in history between people who have natural talents and gifts, but lack the virtue necessary to use their gifts well, and those who, in the eyes of the world, lack gifts but have a strong character. It is the latter who often make a lasting impact on history. This is an important idea to introduce to high school students because they are at a time in their life when they are beginning to make serious decisions about what kind of person they want to be,” he said. 
The students’ schedule is busy. Packed full with daily Mass, rosary, classes in the morning, and a wide array of activities in the afternoon and evening, including swing dancing, contra dancing, canoeing, touring Washington D.C., miniature golfing, hiking, bowling, cheering at a Nationals baseball game, and playing many sports. 
College President O’Donnell believes the program is an important part of Christendom’s mission “To restore all things in Christ.”
“At the beginning of the program, I tell the students that this program will be one of the best times of their lives and that it will have a deep impact on them forever,” says McFadden. “They look at me like I’m a little crazy. But following the program, I receive so many letters of thanks and emails telling me the changes the program has made in their lives. It’s actually quite funny, in a way.”
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), a national educational organization headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, recently selected James Tillman, studying Philosophy at Christendom College, as a Marion G. Wells Honors Fellow, one of 50 Honors Fellows selected for the 2008-2009 academic year. Each year, ISI’s prestigious Honors Program selects the nation’s most talented undergraduates to participate in a yearlong program of educational enrichment. 
The Vatican announced last week that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome. 
Focusing on the role of the laity in the Catholic Church the institute welcomed attendees from across the country to hear not only from Smith, but film producer Steve McEveety, medical doctor John Bruchalski, Rev. Thomas Dubay, journalist Colleen Carroll Campbell, and Christendom College president Dr. Timothy O’Donnell.
Steve McEveety, executive producer of films such as We Were Soldiers and Braveheart, spoke candidly about his work on The Passion of the Christ in an address entitled Faith in Film.
“The new faithful,” Campbell said, “belong to the new generation raised in the wake of the sexual revolution and no-fault divorce. While this generation was never urged to seek Jesus or avoid sin or carry the cross, they were simply told to be nice to each other, believe what suited them, and never commit the cardinal sin of intolerance.”
“I thank you so much for this invitation,” Dr. John Bruchalski said at the beginning of his talk, The Healing Presence of Christ in the Practice of Medicine. “I congratulate [Christendom College] on 30 years here. Dr. Carroll—I can’t thank him enough for what he has done to start this place.”
Christendom College president Dr. Timothy O’Donnell spoke of the lay charism and Catholic education. 
Mass was concelebrated by renowned theologian Rev. Thomas Dubay who delivered a homily on man’s universal call to holiness. Dubay told a story of a group of prisoners who began a prayer group that sought to live as contemplatives amongst prison life. 
Christendom College held its inaugural Latin Immersion Program for twenty-six high school aged students on its Front Royal, Virginia, campus from June 8-14. 
“It was great to see the students speaking Latin outside the classroom as well,” Clark said.
Christendom College is “a conservative thorn in the side of our nation’s capital and nestled in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley” according to the Free Congress Foundation’s (FCF) report What Makes an Excellent American College: “Liberal” Ideas Every Conservative Should Love, released July 3.
