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Mount St. Mary’s Seminary • Lay Pastoral Ministry Program • Special Studies

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Remembering Vatican II

THEYEAROF

FAITH

2 The Athenaeum Magazine

ContentsOUR MISSIONThe Athenaeum of Ohio, the graduate school of theology sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, prepares people to serve the Church effectively as priests, deacons and lay ministers.

FROM THE DESK OF FATHER BENEDICT O’CINNSEALAIGH

In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI declared his intention to institute a Year of Faith for the whole Church. Two fundamental goals are being embraced by the Holy Father concerning a rekindling of faith: 1) The renewal of

our personal faith in God and Christ, and; 2) The renewal of ecclesial faith in Christ, leading to a new evangelization. The Pope wants more than great events and celebrations. He is encouraging the growth of a new epoch of faith, one which begins in the heart of the believer and from there renews the world – a new evangelization. In his declaration Porta Fidei (Door of Faith) Pope Benedict assures that “the ‘door of faith’ (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God.” And, “To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It is possible to cross that threshold when the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace.” A personal encounter with Christ is at the very heart of this renewal of faith and the new evangelization. Faith is a gift from God that allows us to see beyond the obvious, to realize the impossible, to live outside the ordinary — the here and the now, the merely material. Faith opens up a world that is above beautiful. It offers a deeper life, gives meaning, adds joy, provides a vision, and generates a hope that the world itself cannot give. Faith offers a beauty beyond our imaging and dreaming; it gives an understanding of humanity and creation; and a sense of being that is tre-mendous in its scope and depth. Faith offers an invitation to think and see great things, provides a creative and expansive vision of what is and who made it. Faith beckons us to look further, to step through the shadows and darkness, to see the One who is our Father, our God. Pope Benedict affirms that as Christians we “cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf. Mt 5:13-16).” He says: “Caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Cor 5:14); it is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evangelize. The Year of Faith is about renewal, personal and ecclesial. It asks that we once again find our center, our meaning for being, and to recapture confidence in the Gospel and in the message and person of Jesus Christ, to believe that the Gospel really brings life, joy, and salvation. It offers a vision for the human person and society that faith is not a burden, but a grace; not a lie but a truth; and it is in a way — life itself. This year is an invitation to step out beyond the darkness into the light and life of God. This is first and foremost a call to a personal renewal of faith and communion with God from which a new joy and hope will spring forth. From personal renewal comes forth a new evangelization.

PublisherThe Rev. Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh,president and rector

EditorMr. Walt Schaefer,communications director

Graphic design/layoutJune Pfaff Daley

ProductionArnold Printing

Copy EditorsDr. Terrance D. CallanThe Rev. Earl FernandesMr. Michael E. SweeneyMr. Dennis K. Eagan

Contributors: Mrs. Marge Stowe (photography); Mr. Luke Gronneberg (photography); Mr. E. L. Hubbard (photography); Ms. Kathy Kaelin-Symons (news); Mr. Jim Jackson (news); Mr. Jeremy Miller (seminarian); Mr. Eric Wood, (seminarian).

Advisers: The Rev. Anthony R. Brausch (vice rector), Dr. Terrance D. Callan (dean of special studies); Mr. Anthony DiCello (music director); Mr. Dennis K. Eagan (vice presi-dent for finance and administra-tion); the Rev. Earl K. Fernandes, (dean of the Athenaeum); Mr. Jim Jackson, (advancement director); Mrs. Connie Song (library direc-tor); Dr. Susan McGurgan (director, Lay Pastoral Ministry); Mr. Kevin Prendergast (director, pastoral counseling), the Rev. Paul Ruwe (dean of students); Mr. Eric M. Wood (seminarian).

The Athenaeum Magazine is published three times a year for alumni, patrons and friends of The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West. Comments or requests to be added to the mailing list should be directed to Mr. Walt Schaefer, communications director, The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, 6616 Beechmont Ave., Cincinnati, 45230; e-mail wschaefer@athenaeum.edu

COVER STORY .....................................................................................................3Reflecting .............................................................................................................9Responding to the Call ........................................................................................10Happenings: Current news around the Athenaeum .....................................................12Leaving a Legacy ................................................................................................17Remembering ....................................................................................................19

On the cover: Father Gerald E. Bensman at the typewriter he used as a stenographer at Vatican II. Photo by Luke Gronneberg.

In the 1960s, the Rev. Gerald E. Bensman of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was completing his formation for the priesthood at

the Pontifical Urban University of the Propagation of the Faith in Rome where he earned a licentiate in philosophy in 1961 and a licentiate in sacred theology in 1965.

Fortuitously, his time in Rome coincided with the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and he was chosen to serve, along with about 40 others priests and seminarians, as a stenographer – recording some of the most historically important modern documents of the Roman Catholic Church (see Father Bensman’s Reflection on Page 9).

Original copies of those documents, made available at the Council, along with the manual typewriter Father Bensman used, are being donated by him to the Athenaeum’s Eugene H. Maly Memorial Library.

Vatican II addressed relations between the Church and the modern world. Among the key liturgical changes affecting Catholics in the pews were the changes from Latin to English and the priest facing the congregation. A reading from the Old Testament and the responsorial psalm were added; the sign of peace was introduced as were many other changes.

“As you may know, Pope John Paul XXIII had a lot of experi-ence in different countries and he was very much aware of the rapid cultural changes in the world – old and new scientific dis-coveries and so forth,” said Father Bensman, now retired and living in West Milton, Ohio in Miami County, not far from his roots in Shelby County.

“While the doctrine of the Church cannot change, doctrine can continue to develop and it is necessary sometimes for the Church to study its doctrine to better present it to the world around us,” Father Bensman said. A primary reason for Vatican II was “that the Church needs to adapt and develop its teachings to meet the needs of its audience. I would say this Year of Faith we

are about to embark on is a continuation of that,” he said.Father Bensman noted that about 3,000 bishops, abbots and

prelates from around the world attended the three sessions of Vatican II. “They were from different parts of the world, different cultures and all were concerned about presenting the Catholic faith to their respective parts of the world… That was one of the great accomplishments of Vatican II.

“There are people who think society is becoming very polar-ized. However, I like to think that the Vatican Council was a great success for the Church because of the 3,000 present from all parts of the globe. They were able to produce documents that achieved a very high consensus. What other Church would be able to meet for such a lengthy Council without splintering into numerous factions, churches or even schisms?”

Shortly after the Council closed, Father Bensman returned home to accept his first assignment as an associate pastor at St. Catharine Parish in Westwood. He said he found a congregation eager to embrace the changes if Vatican II. Of all, “the document on the sacred liturgy affected their everyday lives ... but they were open to it – especially having Mass and sacraments in the vernacu-lar.”

Local Catholics showed interest in establishing pastoral coun-cils allowing the laity more involvement. “They were interested in what the Council had been meeting about.”

It has been 50 years since Vatican II, an appropriate occasion to look back at the Council, particularly since Pope Benedict XVI has declared this the Year of Faith.

In this issue you will find essays from Athenaeum Church historians the Rev. Theodore C. Ross, S.J.; the Rev. David Endres, and Dr. Kevin Schmiesing with Athenaeum Spiritual Director Monsignor Frank Lane as The Athenaeum Magazine turns its focus to…

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The Year of Faith: Remembering Vatican II

4 T H E A T H E N A E U M M A G A Z I N E

Looking Back at Vatican II

At center are pictured three influential figures at Vatican II (l to r): Augustin Cardinal Bea, S.J.; Father Josef A. Jungmann, S.J.; and Father Emerich Coreth, S.J. Historic photo courtesy of Monsignor Frank Lane

Father Bensman displays medallions given each year to Vatican II attendees. Photo by Luke Gronneberg

Personal Reflections on the Councilby Monsignor Frank Lane

Early October, 1963, a fledgling crew of young men from Boston, Columbus, Buffalo, Brooklyn and Evansville arrived

in a dark and rainy Innsbruck, Austria to begin their studies in theology at the University of Innsbruck.

We were headed for the Canisianum, named after St. Peter Canisius the founder of the Innsbruck Theology Faculty in the 16th Century. We had travelled by ship from New York, arrived in Naples and gone on to Rome for a few days before the 12 hour train trip over the Alps. In Rome the Second Vatican Council was in full swing and the city was alive with famous theologians, bishops, and cardinals with the new pope, Paul VI, as a true mystery figure. St. Peter’s was filled with bleachers and the piazza with buses, lim-ousines and all forms of transportation as some 2,500 prelates and Periti (experts) moved to and from St. Peter’s from scattered areas all over the city. It was an electric atmosphere and an overwhelming welcome to the heart of the Church Universal.

Leaving the excitement of Rome behind, we travelled upward into the Austrian Alps before descending about 5,000 feet into the Inn Valley, the place where we were to live for the next four years. A place with no TV, limited access to radio, no home visits and phone service which most of us used only once in those four years when we talked to our families in the States on our ordination day.

When we went to the university, there was a great deal of reshuffling of courses and

professors as many of them were at the Council as Periti, Father Josef

Jungmann S.J. and Father Karl Rahner S.J., most notable

among them. Others such as the lay scholar

Heinrich Schlier and the Louvain

visiting professor Father Piet Fransen S.J. were some of the occasional conciliar experts who were called away during many of the sessions.

Despite all of this, classes were held and the routine of life went on. Austria was a very orderly world. We studied, climbed moun-tains and went to Gast Houses on the way home from class, ate very sparse meals as Austria was very poor and still struggling to recover from the devastation of World War II. Each day we arose at 5:30 a.m. for prayer and Mass and studied in unheated rooms, prayed in an unheated chapel and ate in an unheated refectory. We gathered anxiously in that refectory after the major sessions of Vatican II to hear Father Rahner or Father Jungmann give us reports from the latest session of the Council. Many Bishops - German, American and French - came as well to share with us their perceptions – some charmingly naïve and others hard-hitting and revolutionary. Augustin Cardinal Bea, S.J., was among the visitors. We were always anxious to know what was happening.

What were we to do with all of this? We were led by the example of our professors and religious superiors. The lesson we learned was to try and think great thoughts but not to disrupt our orderly life. When Father Rahner was in Innsbruck, he rose at 5 a.m. each day and prepared breakfast for the other Jesuits in their residence on the Sillgasse. He said private Mass at a side altar in the University Church of the Holy Trinity, was punctual for his lectures and serious about his work. European professors did not really engage in conver-sation with their students, did not entertain questions in class and did not socialize much with students. There were occasional conver-sations but they were rare.

As the Council went on, we noticed very little change in Innsbruck. Visiting professors came and went and the Periti returned home and took up their usual routine. Father Rahner moved on to Muenster and then to Munich; Father Jungmann stayed home and continued his research, teaching and writing. The decree on the Sacred Liturgy was approved in 1964 and Father Jungmann was one of its main architects. However, by 1967, he still said the old Mass early in the morning at a side altar in the university church and still recited the Leonine prayers after low Mass. After our ordination, we invited him to have the community Mass at the Canisianum in the new order. He seemed very bewildered and it took two masters of ceremony to get him through it.

Can we find a meaning in this story for our time? I think maybe it can help us understand that the teaching and image of the Council created in our country, especially by the rather pedestrian National Catholic Reporter, was not a universal image at all. For the German speaking Periti there was an ethos of tradition that ran deeper than the changes they envisioned. Their great adventure was of the mind and not of practice. They were enthralled with the pos-sible, but content with the practice of the Faith as they had always known it. Father Jungmann at his side altar saying the Mass set at Trent was an enduring image of the chasm between thought and reality that moved much of the Council forward into a new age, an age that, after all the Fathers, Periti and observers had gone back to their homes, their dreams and their expectations, erupted in ways, that at that time, they never could or would have imagined. �

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Monsingor Frank Lane Photo by E.L. Hubbard

The Reception of the by Rev. David J. Endres

The first document to be approved by the bishops at the Second Vatican Council was the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.”

By a vote of 2,147 to 4 the document won sweeping approval by the world’s bishops on December 4, 1963, paving the way for signif-icant changes to the Mass. One of the least contentious documents at its final vote, the implementation of the document on the liturgy proved to be a touchstone for evaluating the legacy of the Council.

The changes to the Mass, especially the introduction of the vernacular in worship, were from the perspective of the people in the pews among the most obvious changes to come from Vatican II. Yet, not all agreed with what, how, and when liturgical changes should be implemented. Upon his return to the United States, Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York was said to have quipped: “No change will make it past the Statue of Liberty.” Others, like Archbishop Paul Hallinan of Atlanta, were more enthusiastic to implement change, saying: “Gradually we will all come to wonder how we really worshipped God in any other way.” Most would place Cincinnati’s Archbishop Karl J. Alter somewhere in between – cautious, but progressive. In allowing for use of the vernacular and for communion under both species, Alter reminded the people of the archdiocese that “customs can change, but the substance of faith, never.”

by Rev. Theodore C. Ross, S.J.

The place was the Benedictine Monastery adjacent to the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome. The date was January

25, 1959.After Mass for Church Unity, our Holy Father, John XXIII,

Pope for less than three months, stunned the 18 cardinals present and the 900 million Catholics who were not present with the words: “I want to call an Ecumenical Council.”

In the 2,000-year life of the Roman Catholic Church there had been only 19 Ecumenical Councils — many of them in the first seven centuries of the Church’s existence. The most recent council had been the First Vatican Council in 1870.

Most Catholics in 1959 could not see a need for an Ecumenical Council. The most superficial bird’s eye view would show that our Church was, “riding high!” At least in America, our churches were packed and paid for. More than half of all Catholic children were in Catholic schools, paying very little, if any, tuition. Young people were entering seminaries and religious houses faster than we could build them. The media were extremely respectful and sensitive to all things Catholic.

We had a very strong symbol-system: Catholic children grimaced and finished their spinach to get Aunt Constance out of purgatory; devotion to the saints; May Altars; fish on Friday; a strong, almost pugnacious, loyalty to Notre Dame football – just a few of the items that made up American Catholic identity. Things were going well for us. And so, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

But, the prophetic element in the Church saw other signs, some of which could be very troublesome: Archbishop Patrick Boyle said it well: “Religion seems to be a benign sedative to settle our nerves.”

Many wanted our Church to validate our goals instead of ques-tioning them. Many wanted something to enhance our self-regard instead of challenging it. Many wanted something to offer us salva-tion on easy terms instead of demanding repentance and a contrite heart. The easy terms would be fish on Friday and Mass on Sunday.

In addition to all of them, there was a new age on the hori-zon. Catholics had to be challenged to respond to the age with-out joining it. Every age has to live with change. Cardinal John Henry Newman’s famous quotation when he was about to leave Anglicanism and embrace Roman Catholicism: “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below, to live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

Change is part of history. What was special about the 20th Century was the dizzy pace of the change. Father Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poetic observation was prophetic: “Christ truly plays in 10,000 places” — computer technology, medical miracles, space, to name just a few; and some places where Christ was not playing – the sexual revolution, the breakdown of the family, new and more ter-rifying instruments for war and killing, total disregard for secular authority and especially religious guidance.

There was a man sent by God whose name was John – John XXIII. His Council updated the Church to respond to the chal-lenges and crises of a new age. With the Council came a whole new attitude to those who were not Catholic: Protestants, Orthodox,

6 Th e At h e na e u m M aga z i n e

A Council! A Council!

Father David J. EndresPhoto by E.L. Hubbard

Liturgy of Vatican II

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and every variety of non-Christian: Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Islam. Vatican II emphasized collegiality or shared responsibility. Our lit-urgy was renewed and made more meaningful. Scripture was given the prominence it deserved. The Church examined its very nature as well as its relationship to the world. Unlike Vatican I, condemna-tions were at a minimum. A whole new spirit pervaded the Catholic community: encouragement for science and art and family and every human endeavor. In all of this the laity took their place in the life of the Church and its ministry.

Before Vatican II, Catholicism was almost identified with its European-American roots. Vatican I had 800 bishops in attendance. More than three-fifths were European. More than a third came from Italy alone. There were no native Asians or Africans. Language was used in some of the proceedings that would be considered politically incorrect today. In contrast, Vatican II had 2,500 bishops in atten-dance. Fewer than 40 percent were European. There were 126 native Asians and 118 Africans. The Council was truly Catholic.

When the Council ended in 1965 after four years, there was such an element of optimism. All the world, Catholic and non-Catholic, had such great expectations. This did not hap-pen. Discussing the issues and implementing the issues is not the same thing. We should have heeded the advice given by Cardinal Newman in 1870 after the First Vatican Council: “After every ecumenical council there is confusion.” Vatican II was no exception. Disagreements bred blame and arguments. At the heart of the blame was the Council.

The best defense for Vatican II came from Monsignor George Higgins, a Chicago priest and theological expert who attended Vatican II. In an address at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. on April 16, 1981, Higgins said:

The first Sunday of Advent in 1964 marked the first attempt in the U.S. at implementing the renewal of the liturgy that had been promoted by the Council. That Sunday, Archbishop Alter preached the sermon at a specially-televised English-language Mass held at the Cathedral. While the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” did not outlaw Latin, it allowed for use of the vernacular. Hallinan, in favor-ing the use of English wrote, “The liturgy of the Church . . . can have real meaning for our people only if they understand enough of it to be part of it.” Spellman, conversely, worried that loss of Latin in worship would be a “scandal” because it was a sign of the universal-ity of the Church.

Other changes accompanied the use of the vernacular. Though not called for in the Vatican II documents themselves, a variety of changes to worship and worship space began to be implemented in the name of the Council: the removal of statues and art from church interiors, the elimination of altar rails, the discarding of chapel veils, the priest’s about-face in celebrating Mass facing the people, and the acceptance of communion in the hand. The move to the vernacular fostered new forms of contemporary musical accompaniment, espe-cially the “Folk Mass.”

Even with starts and stops and a haphazard implementation of the document on the liturgy, by 1968, 85 percent of American Catholics said they were pleased with the “new Mass.” A minority,

however, lamented the reforms. Some went so far as to leave the Church formally, forming breakaway communities that have per-sisted to this day, or simply stopped attending Mass. Even for those who remained, there were lamentations. Some were even comical:

Latin’s gone/ Peace is too/ Singin’ and shoutin’/ From every pew.Communion Rail’s goin’/ Stand up straight/ Kneelin’ suddenly/

Went outta date.Rosary’s out/ Psalms are in/ Hardly ever hear/ A word against

sin.I hope all the changes/ Are just about done/ That they don’t

drop Bingo/ Before I’ve won.In many cases, however, the Council’s reform of the liturgy was

received enthusiastically. The emphasis on “full, active, and con-scious” participation in the Mass as well as the opening of ministries such as lector and minister of communion to the laity led to excite-ment for the liturgical reforms.

Now 50 years after the Council’s opening, the reception of the liturgical reforms remains disputed in some camps, but the discord has lessened. In a given week, the liturgies at Mount St. Mary’s can include English, Spanish, and Latin. The seminary offers liturgical practicums in the ordinary and extraordinary form of the Mass and is beginning a program to train all seminarians to celebrate Mass and the sacramental rites in Spanish. Far from negating the intentions of the Council, this diversity shows a commitment to the ongoing implementation of the conciliar and post-conciliar liturgical documents. �

“The Council did not generate the phenomenon of rapid change in the Church, but merely coincided with it, validated it, and gave it a certain theological and pastoral respectability. Rapid change would have come into the Church with or without a Council, but with this all important difference: In the absence of a Council, it probably would have come largely in protest against the real inadequacies of Catholic thought and pastoral practice and not in response to an orderly study of theological and biblical sources and a systematic reappraisal of the Church’s needs and opportune. The Council, in other words, was the providential safety valve that made it possible, or so it seemed to many observers, to forestall a disastrous explosion in the life of the Church.” �

Father Theodore C. Ross, S. J.Photo by E.L. Hubbard

by Dr. Kevin Schmiesing

“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

Blessed John Henry Newman wrote these words more than 150 years ago, but they certainly apply to the life of the Church in

the last half-century. Not that the Church in its human dimension — that is, those of us who have been baptized into the community of believers — is perfect or even close to it. Yet Catholics who lived through the Second Vatican Council or grew up in its aftermath are well aware of the reality and the necessity of change, including change within the Church. That is one of the legacies of Vatican II.

Once we’ve admitted that change is necessary, however, the hard part remains. How do we determine what kind of change is both valid and beneficial? John Newman gave us guidance here, too. Legitimate change is that which makes the Church more fully what it is supposed to be. It would be presumptuous to believe that we can or should transform the Body of Christ into something other than what Jesus established. Still, in its human dimension the Church is in constant need of reform.

Such reform was the task laid before the Council Fathers in 1962. Our own job as Catholics today is to assess how well we have appreciated the work in which the Holy Spirit guided them. How has the Second Vatican Council affected who we are as followers of Christ and how do we ensure that its unfulfilled potential becomes realized in the years ahead?

Digesting the teachings generated by Vatican II has naturally been a long, slow process. God’s ways are not ours, and sometimes

His wisdom becomes apparent only with the passage of time. The pastoral implications of Vatican II were not exhausted in 1965; they are still being worked out.

One obvious example is liturgy. Every Catholic in the pew noticed when Father turned around to face the congregation and when the prayers of the Mass were said in English rather than Latin. Liturgists rightly paid attention to passages in the Constitution on the Liturgy that called for active participation of the laity. Catholics’ spiritual lives have been enhanced by engaging in dialogue with the celebrant and by raising their voices in congregational song.

Yet the effort to implement Vatican II’s reflections on worship continues, as evidenced in the new English translation of the Mass. Heartening, too, is the uncovering of neglected areas of liturgical reform. Take, for example, Gregorian chant, which the Constitution said should retain “pride of place” and whose rejuvenation had been one of the goals of the Benedictine monks around the world whose liturgical renewal movement laid the groundwork for Vatican II. Now, 50 years later, resurgent interest in the Church’s early liturgical music such as chant is a late flowering of the Council’s intentions.

Observers of all religious stripes noticed the Council’s state-ments on ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue. Cooperation and conversation across faith traditions represent one of the great accom-plishments of the post-Vatican II world. Less widely publicized were the Council’s reassertions of the uniqueness of Christ as the source of salvation and warnings against indifference in religion. In an age of aggressive secularism, the widespread embrace of moral relativ-ism, and the retreat of religious belief in many formerly Christian regions, the Council’s insistence that all people are “bound by moral obligation” to “seek the truth, especially religious truth” and to “adhere to the truth, once it is known,” is a welcome and timely reminder of the purpose of true ecumenism.

Much discussed was the Council’s call for the empowerment of the laity, revolving primarily around their role within the Church. Millions of Catholics experienced deepening of faith as they became involved in the Church as lectors, visitors of the homebound and hospitalized, and parish council members. Important as the laity is to the internal life of the Church, we have only gradually come to recognize that the Council’s vision for lay action was more about our duties as Christians in the world. Society desperately needs faith-filled Catholic witness in business, medicine, education, agriculture, technology, politics and every other sphere of human activity. Priests and other consecrated religious are unable to reach some of these places as effectively as Catholic laity might. Laypeople are called into the world by God, as the Constitution on the Church put it, “that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven.”

Change is indeed part of life, be that our own or that of the Church. Discerning when and how to change is the ongoing, chal-lenging — and privileged — responsibility that faces us as Catholics striving to bring the theological truths of Vatican II to bear on our Church and our world in the 21st Century. �

8 Th e At h e na e u m M aga z i n e

Vatican II 50 Years Later

Dr. Kevin SchmiesingPhoto by Luke Gronneberg

by Rev. Gerald E. Bensman

Editor’s note: Rev. Gerald E. Bensman served as one of the stenog-raphers for the Second Vatican Council. The main task of the stenog-raphers was to transcribe the talks given by the Council Fathers and to keep the official record of the 168 General Congregations of the Council. In that capacity, Father Bensman obtained much of the doc-umentation distributed to the Council Fathers in St. Peter’s Basilica during the first three Sessions (1962, 1963 and 1964). He carefully maintained the documents, and recently arranged to transfer them to the Eugene H. Maly Memorial Library at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary of the West. We asked Father Bensman to describe his experiences and recollections of the Council.

My first recollections of the Second Vatican Council begin on January 25, 1959, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the

Apostle. A few days earlier, Pope John XXIII had asked the priests and seminarians in Rome to convene in St. Paul’s Basilica just outside the walls of Rome. Pope John XXIII had been elected Pope just three months earlier, and many of us thought he was merely looking for an occasion to pray with priests and seminarians. After Vespers, however, he announced his intention to convene an Ecumenical Council. Everyone in attendance was stunned. There was a short period of silence, and then thunderous applause.

The opening of the Council did not take place until October 11, 1962. In the intervening three and a half years, much work had to be done preparing for the Council. Among other things, a Central Preparatory Commission was appointed to prepare the documents (“schemata”) for discussion. Cincinnati Archbishop Karl J. Alter was a member of one of the committees. Father Eugene Maly accompanied him to the four Sessions of the Council as his “peritus” (theological expert).

Cardinal Tisserant, dean of the College of Cardinals, was celebrant of the opening Mass, with nearly 3,000 Patriarchs, Cardinals, Bishops and Abbots in attendance. What a glorious time for the Church! Pope John XXIII presided and preached the sermon in which he outlined his hopes for the Council. After his address, Pope John did not enter the Council hall again until the second to the last day of the First Session. He watched and heard the daily proceedings on closed-circuit TV in his private apart-ments. Pope Paul VI followed the same practice in subsequent Sessions of the Council.

All 168 General Congregations of the Council began

with Mass. One could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. The majority of the Masses were celebrated in the Latin Rite in Latin. Approximately 30 were celebrated in Oriental Rites in their respec-tive languages. Mass in the vernacular was a new experience for many of the Council Fathers.

The Masses began promptly at 9:00 a.m. and were followed by announcements and other procedural matters that took about ten minutes. Then selected Council Fathers addressed the assembly. Each address was to be no longer than ten minutes. If a Council Father spoke longer than that, he first received a verbal reminder, and then his microphone was turned off. On a normal day, there were between ten and thirteen addresses, depending on whether or not votes were taken between speakers. Morning sessions ended about 12:30 p.m.

During the 1961-62 school year, the Secretariat of the Council asked rectors of seminaries and houses of graduate study to nomi-nate priests and seminarians to study Latin shorthand and to become stenographers for the Council. Initially, there were 42 ste-nographers whose principal responsibility was keeping the official record of the General Congregations of the Council. The training we received for taking Latin shorthand did not work out very well. As a result, during the summer of 1963, the stenographers were asked to go to the Secretariat Office to listen to the tape record-ings of the First Session of the Council, to verify and correct the written record, and to complete what was missing. Only 15 of us accepted the invitation, and we were the only stenographers per-mitted to work in subsequent Sessions of the Council. Our work was incorporated into the official record of Vatican Council II which was published by the Vatican Press in 1970 under the title: “Acta Synodalia Sacrosancti Concilii Oecumenici Vaticani II”. I recently learned that a copy of these 26 volumes is available in the “rare books” section of the Eugene H. Maly Memorial Library.

In August 1963, the administrative board of the NCWC (remote predecessor to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) decided that it would be helpful to have “Council Digests” available for the Council Fathers of the U.S.A. These “sub secreto” digests, written in English, consist of brief summaries of the addresses given by the Council Fathers. They were prepared daily by Rev. (now Cardinal) William Keeler of Baltimore, Rev. William K. Leahy of Philadelphia and me. I recently gave an origi-nal copy of the 101 “Council Digests” for the Second and Third Sessions (1963 and 1964) to the Maly Library, along with much other Council documentation. �

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Recollections of Vatican Council II

Refl ecting

Photo by Luke Gronneberg

10 Th e At h e na e u m M aga z i n e

Happenings

Four men were ordained Roman Catholic priests for the Archdiocese

of Cincinnati by Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr at the Cathedral of St Peter in Chains on Saturday, May 19.

The ordinands have earned Master of Divinity degrees from The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West. Rev. Soellner also earned a Master of Arts degree in biblical studies. The new priests will serve the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. The degrees will be presented at Athenaeum graduation ceremonies in October.

The newly ordained priests are:

• THE REV. JONPAUL BEVAK, 28, son of Paul and Mari Ellen Bevak of Campbell, Ohio. His home parish is St. Joseph the Provider, Campbell. Father Bevak holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and history from the Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

• THE REV. DANIEL P. HUNT, 55, is the son of the late William T. Hunt and Margaret M. Hunt of Parma, Ohio.

His home parish is Old St. Mary’s, Cincinnati. Father Hunt is a graduate of Lakewood St. Edward High School, Lakewood, Ohio and holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Cincinnati. He is a supporter of the St. Peter Claver Latin School for Boys and Presentation Ministries.

• THE REV. MATTHEW J. ROBBEN, 40, is the son of Anthony and Anna Mary Florence Robben, of Harrison, Ohio. His home parish is St. Joseph, North Bend, Ohio. Father Robben is a graduate of Elder High School and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Cincinnati. He was formerly employed at Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, Ky. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

• THE REV. MARC D. SOELLNER, 30, is the son of Shirley Soellner of Milford and the late John Soellner. His home parish is St. Andrew, Milford. Father Soellner is a graduate of Summit Country Day School, Cincinnati, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Cincinnati. �

Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr Ordains Four New Priests

Youngstown Bishop George V. Murry, S.J. on June 9 ordained

the Rev. Robert M. Lanterman, who this year completed his formation for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West.

Father Lanterman was ordained at St. Columba Cathedral. The Rev. Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary rector and Athenaeum president, attended with Athenaeum faculty member, the Rev. Michael Seger. Also present were Cincinnati classmates and seminarians.

Father Lanterman’s home parish is St. Joan of Arc, Streetsboro. He is a graduate of Youngstown State University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in painting and was employed as a graphic designer prior to entering the seminary.

Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Graduate Ordained in Youngstown

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Cincinnati’s newly ordained priests (l to r): Father Kyle Schnippel, vocation director, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati; Father John-Paul Bevak; Father Matthew J. Robben; Cincinnati Auxiliary Bishop Joseph R. Binzer; Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr; Father Marc D. Soellner; Father Daniel P. Hunt; Father Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh, president/rector The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West.

Photo below: Newly ordained Father Robert M. Lanterman (left) with Youngstown Bishop George V. Murry, S.J.

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Four seminarians studying for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West — two from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and two from the

Diocese of Toledo — have been ordained transitional deacons. The new deacons from Cincinnati are: The Reverend Mr. Jerome R. Bishop,

of St. Teresa Parish, Springfield, and the Reverend Mr. James S. Romanello, of Holy Trinity Parish, Norwood. They were ordained by Cincinnati Auxiliary Bishop Joseph R. Binzer April 28 in the Chapel of St. Gregory Great at the Athenaeum and seminary.

They join two classmates from the Diocese of Toledo who were ordained transi-tional deacons by Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair: the Reverend Mr. Nathan Bockrath, of St. John Parish, Glandorf, and the Reverend Mr. Jeremy P. Miller of St. Joseph Parish, Marblehead.

A transitional deacon is a man ordained a deacon and continuing on the path to priesthood. A man must be a deacon before he can be a priest or bishop. All four new transitional deacons are on schedule to complete their seminary formation in 2013 and be ordained priests next spring. �

Four Transitional Deacons Ordained

Transitional diaconate ordination of the Reverend Mr. James S. Romanello and the Reverend Mr. Jerome R. Bishop (top and side).

Toledo transitional deacon ordination (l to r): Toledo Bishop Leonard P. Blair; Reverend Mr. Nathan Bockrath; Reverend Mr. Jeremy P. Miller; Toledo Retired Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. Donnelly; Monsignor Charles Singler, Toledo vocation director.

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Happenings

Archbishop’s Dinner Draws More than 400 Bishop Fenwick Society Members

Photos by E. L. Hubbard

The annual Archbishop’s Dinner recognizing members of the Bishop Fenwick Society (BFS), the institution’s core group of benefactors,

drew more than 400 members to the Athenaeum campus in May. The society now has a record 688 members and is poised for

significant growth in years to come.Membership in the BFS requires an annual contribution

of $1,000 or more in unrestricted funds. Membership also is available in the Generations Circle representing younger BFS contributors under 50 years of age. The Generations Circle offers opportunities for membership at a lower cost through the sponsorship of existing members.

The BFS also offers parish, organizational and business memberships.For information about participation in the BFS, please contact Dianne Carlson

in the Athenaeum advancement department at 513-233-6159. �

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Judy Tensing, who for 45 years has served The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s

Seminary of the West and for the past 30 years as assistant to Dennis Eagan, Athenaeum vice-president for finance and administration, was presented the papal honor of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (For the Church and the Pope) for her service and care for the People of God.

The award was given May 4 to Ms. Tensing at the annual Archbishop’s Dinner recognizing the institution’s key benefactors – the Bishop Fenwick Society. The award was presented by Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr, the Rev. Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh, president/rector of the Athenaeum and seminary, and Mr. Eagan.

The award, also known as the “Cross of Honour”, was established by Pope Leo XIII in 1888 to commemorate his golden jubilee and originally was bestowed on men and women who aided and promoted the jubilee, Mr. Eagan explained.

It currently is given for distinguished service to the Church by lay people and clergy and is the highest medal that may be awarded to the laity by the Papacy, he noted.

“At the recommendation of Father Benedict and through the dili-gence and request of Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, Pope Benedict XVI is showing his appreciation and the gratitude of the entire Church,” by bestowing the award, Mr. Eagan said.

“While we are all honored by (Ms. Tensing’s) receiving the award, we are most grateful for the opportunity of knowing her and working with her. She has made me a better person, and I believe she has made The Athenaeum of Ohio and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary a better place for her service here,” Mr. Eagan said. “She is a true friend, who not only makes much of our work possible, but she makes us be our best: courageous and daring, generous and forgiving, determined and faithful.”

Ms. Tensing began her career at the Athenaeum and seminary when she was 19 and was invited by her uncle, then seminary rector and Athenaeum president, Monsignor Robert Tensing, to come and work with him. She has served with eight president/rectors. She also has served several parishes in the archdiocese and has worked with the archdiocese as chair of the Lay Employees Pension Fund. �

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Judy Tensing receives Papal award from Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr. The award (above) reads: The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI has deigned to decree and bestow the insignia of the exalted cross instituted for those especially remarkable for extraordinary deeds and zeal. On behalf of Church and Pontiff, to Miss Julia A. Tensing; granting to her at the same time the faculty of adorning herself with this ornament. From the Vatican Palace, the 23rd day of the month of February, year 2012. — Peter Welk, Assessor

Veteran Employee Judy Tensing Receives Highest Papal Award for Laity

Portrait of Archbishop Pilarczyk CompletedAmong the artistic treasures of The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West is the gallery of portraits of Cincinnati’s archbishops. The Rev. Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh, president/rector wanted to have an official portrait made of Archbishop Emeritus Daniel E. Pilarczyk to recognize his 27-year tenure as Archbishop of Cincinnati. Father O’Cinnsealaigh and Dennis Eagan, vice president for finance and administration, commissioned Tim Langenderfer, of Langenderfer Studio, Dayton, Ohio, to complete the portrait.

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Monsignor Kenneth Morman, a member of the faculty at The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West

since 2005, has returned to his home diocese of Toledo at the behest of Toledo Bishop Leonard P. Blair.

“You have been so gracious to me and treated me so well over the last seven years; I’m very grateful to you all,” Monsignor Morman told fellow faculty, along with staff and friends of the Athenaeum as he announced his reassignment in April. “I have come to make treasured friends here and I have deeply admired and been edified by and learned so much from so many of you over these years.”

Monsignor Morman assumed duties as senior associate pastor at St. Paul’s Parish, Newark, Ohio, on July 1.

“I am gratified to tell you that Bishop Blair and the personnel board are being super kind to me once again ... St. Paul’s has about 1,550 families, a high school, grade school, and early childhood learning center. There are five Masses every Sunday, one of them in Spanish, plus all the ordinary parish ministries, so I assume I won’t have any trouble keeping busy,” Monsignor Morman said.

“Best of all,” he said, “the pastor of St. Paul’s is Father Frank Kehres, a good friend of mine since our own seminary days many years ago. When I myself was on the per-sonnel board we often placed newly ordained priests with Father Frank because he was such a good first pas-tor for new priests.

Monsignor Morman served the Athenaeum as an instructor of theology, dean of students, and co-director of field education. He was honored as Athenaeum Teacher of the Year in 2009. �

Happenings

Jim Jackson, advancement director of The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West for more than seven years left the position in early August to lead the advancement department at Summit Country Day School in Hyde Park. Mr. Jackson, 58, former development director at Xavier University, held a key leadership role during the Athenaeum’s most recent capital campaign — Investing in Our Future … Preserving Our Legacy – which raised more than $19 million in 2010-11 in the midst of a deep nationwide economic recession – 21 percent above the $15.75 million goal.

“Jim has done an outstanding job as advancement director,” said the Rev. Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh, president/rector of the Athenaeum and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. “He has been a dedicated member of our staff ... (and) is well respected in his fi eld and very popular with our benefactors. We wish Jim and his wife, Mary, all the best as they begin this new assignment. May the Lord watch over them always and reward them for their service to the Kingdom.”

Mr. Jackson said that while he will greatly miss the Athenaeum, the opportunity at Summit Country Day School is one that complements his talents in leading advancement

efforts in academia and fulfi lls his desire to move into a more traditional school setting.

“God has been present in my life and at times when I wasn’t even aware. Recently I was offered

an opportunity to serve at an outstanding school with a rich 120-year heritage,” Mr. Jackson said. “One of the things that excited me most was that it places me in a well-rounded program of academics, athletics, visual and performing arts, community service and religious studies and has a reputation as one of the nation’s

premier Catholic institutions. “It is hard to express in words the many

things I will miss about the Athenaeum,” he said. “Certainly I am most grateful and humbled to have

worked with so many tremendous people and leaders in our faith community. I also will miss the daily contact with seminarians and students who are a constant reminder to me of God’s goodness and of the mission in preparing future priests, deacons, and lay ministers for the Church. I certainly know I have been blessed in many ways by the grace of the dedicated priests, faculty, staff and administrative leadership and especially for the professional talents, support and fellowship of my colleagues. In my position, you rely heavily on volunteer leadership and benefactors and I am most grateful to each Ph

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Advancement Director Jim Jackson Departs the Athenaeum; Will Direct Advancement Efforts at Summit Country Day School

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Popular Athenaeum Faculty Member Returns to Toledo Diocese

LPMP Holds Recruiting Volunteers for Ministry WorkshopThe Lay Pastoral Ministry Program (LPMP) held a day- long workshop June 23 entitled: Filling the Nets:

Recruiting Volunteers for Ministry. The day, facilitated by Dr. John Gutting, associate professor of pastoral studies, Dr. Tom Giordano, associate director of the LPMP and Dr. Susan McGurgan, direc-tor of the LPMP, was designed for clergy, staff members, volunteer coordinators, committee heads and all who recruit and work with volunteers. Approximately 25 participants spent the day learning about the recruitment cycle, recruiting approaches, volunteer recruitment design, developing a prospect list and writing volunteer job descrip-tions. The day included prayer, input from the presenters, small group discussions and questions for the presenters. The workshop was designed to serve two purposes: as a stand-alone event and as the first unit of a 3 credit online graduate elective, Recruiting, Motivating and Sustaining Parish Volunteers. Six participants will continue to work on an online platform between July 1 and September 1 with instructor and course designer, Dr. Gutting.

New Online Orientation Course for Lay Pastoral Ministry Program StudentsTh e Lay Pastoral Ministry Program (LPMP) staff and Dr. John Gutting, assisted by Eric and Linda Wolf, collaborated over the past year to design an online orientation to ministry course for newly admitted LPMP students. This non-graded course will introduce parish staff members, volunteers and lay ministry students to the institutions, resources and leadership of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Athenaeum of Ohio. The online orientation, nicknamed, Archdiocese 101, consists of four units: I: An Archdiocese of Cincinnati Overview; II: Governance and Structure; III: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; and, IV: The Athenaeum of Ohio/Lay Pastoral Ministry Program. The units encourage students to explore the history, leader-ship, administrative offices and resources of each organization. In addition, they are introduced to the Ohio Catholic Conference, the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains and some of the canons that govern parish life. Each unit includes an assignment that fosters a deeper knowledge of the resources available to pastoral ministers. A pre-test and post-test will help the students and the LPMP staff assess learning and effectiveness. AD101 will be facilitated online by the LPMP staff and will debut with the newly admitted LPMP students this summer.

LPMP Offers August RetreatThe Lay Pastoral Ministry Program (LPMP) will offer an opportu-nity for Catholics to prepare for the Year of Faith during the LPMP Annual August Retreat on August 25, 2012. Held each year in honor of the late Rev. Stanley Bir, OFM, the LPMP retreat offers Catholic men and women the opportunity to grow in faith and knowledge. This year, the Rev. Earl K. Fernandes, Athenaeum dean, will be keynote speaker. He will discuss the Holy Father’s call to celebrate a Year of Faith and will introduce some of the key themes we are encouraged to explore in the upcoming year. Break out sessions, facilitated by Athenaeum faculty members, will allow participants to explore two of those topics in greater depth. The LPMP August Retreat is open to all, and will be held in the Bartlett Pastoral Center from 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.. The cost for the day is $50 and will include a continental breakfast, lunch and all materials. Call the LPMP office at 513-231-1200 for more information or to register. �

one for their personal friendship and sacrifi cial giving to the Athenaeum’s mission. Lastly, I will always remember the pride I felt when walking across the 76-acre campus — truly a Cincinnati landmark and living reminder of faith in action.”

As a member of the leadership team at Summit, Mr. Jackson said he looks forward to “working closely with key administrators, board members, faculty, staff, students and all alumni and friends and to keep challenging myself to live by the ideals expressed in the mission statement for the benefi t of the students.”

Mr. Jackson, of Mason, assumed leadership of the Athenaeum’s advancement department on April 25, 2005 replacing Kathy Kaelin-Symons who stepped down to assume the position of director of estate and trust services, a position she still holds.

Prior to his 13 years at Xavier University, Mr. Jackson spent 13 years with Dayton Ohio-based Van Dyne-Crotty, Inc., suppliers of uniforms, cleanliness, fi rst aid and safety products to industry. He served as general manager of Cincinnati operations for the company.

Mr. Jackson, a native Cincinnatian, is a graduate of Moeller High School and Xavier University (Edgecliff College) and holds bachelor’s degrees in English and history. �

LPMP Events

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Happenings

16 Th e At h e na e u m M aga z i n e

Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP, vice president of the Pontifical

Commission “Ecclesia Dei” who recently held the position of secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship, will give the annual Le Blond Lecture at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 12 in the Bartlett Pastoral Center on the Athenaeum cam-pus. His topic will be: “What is the New Evangelization?”

Just two years ago on September 21, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI established a new Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, and on October 7, 2012, the Ordinary Session of the Synod of Bishops will convene to take up the topic

of “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.” But what is the “new evangelization” and why do we need it? Archbishop Di Noia will answer these questions.

The new evangelization is nothing more — and nothing less — than the renewal of the mission that the Church received from Christ Himself to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19) in the new circumstances of social change that have had an impact not only on the surrounding culture but even on many local communities within the Church.

The Holy Father has called on all bishops, priests, religious and faithful to take up this challenge to discover “appropriate respons-es” to the new situation “so that the entire Church, allowing her-self to be regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, may present herself to the contemporary world with a missionary impulse to promote the new evangelization.”

Archbishop Di Noia also is a Dominican theologian who served as under-secretary at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and before that he was director of the Intercultural Forum for Studies in Faith and Culture at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, and executive director of the secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Archbishop Di Noia earned a doctorate in theology from Yale University in 1980 and received a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Faculty of Theology at the Dominican House of Studies in 1971. He was awarded the honorary degree of Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) by the Dominican Order in 1998.

Archbishop Di Noia is the author of The Diversity of Religions: A Christian Perspective (Catholic University of America Press, 1992) and the co-author of The Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Our Sunday Visitor Press, 1996). He has written many articles and reviews. He taught systematic theology at the Dominican House of Studies for 20 years and was an adjunct professor at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies. He served as editor-in-chief of The Thomist and has been a frequent presenter at conferences, workshops, symposia, and other educational meetings.

The Athenaeum is honored to have a speaker of Archbishop Di Noia’s stature and gifts give the Le Blond Lecture, which this year will be a prelude to the upcoming Year of Faith. The day follow-ing the Le Blond Lecture, Archbishop Di Noia will present a day of recollection for seminarians from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West, Bishop Simon Bruté Seminary, Indianapolis and the Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus and for seminarians from the Diocese of Covington. �

Prominent Archbishop to Launch Year of Faith with Annual Le Blond Lecture

Masters Program in Pastoral Counseling Being Discontinued

The Athenaeum has recently decided it must discontinue its Master of Arts in pastoral counseling (MAPC) degree program, but intends to continue providing programs that will address the integration of psychology and spirituality.

During the 2012-13 academic year, there are plans to offer at least two continuing education workshops during autumn and winter on the following topics: “Clinical Applications of Mindfulness Meditation” (Jennifer Bradley, PhD) and “Ethical Principles and Strategies for Addressing Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counseling” (Kevin Prendergast, LPCC-S). Exact dates and times are not yet final. Other such programs will be offered in coming years.

The Athenaeum regrets having to bring the MAPC program to an end. Since its creation in 1986, the MAPC has been an excel-lent program and has had outstanding success in preparing students for licensure as counselors and for the ministry of counseling. Nevertheless, accepting the recommendation of the Athenaeum Senate, on February 16, 2012, the Athenaeum Board of Trustees voted to cease admitting students to the MAPC immediately and to bring the program to a close by May, 2014.

The principal reason is that the State of Ohio is changing its requirements for counseling licensure. Since its inception, the Athenaeum MAPC program has been structured to meet state requirements so that graduates can be licensed. The requirements now being instituted call for programs to have three full-time faculty members who have doctoral degrees in counseling. The Athenaeum program has always been too small to need a faculty of that size, and there seemed to be little likelihood that this situation would change. �

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Michael and Joan Dempsey, financial supporters of the Athenaeum and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary since 1993, were the 2012 St. Gregory Society Honorees as they received the Voices of

Giving Award during ceremonies June 13 at WCET Studios, West End. “During our last capital campaign — Preserving Our Legacy, Investing in Our Future — Mike

and Joan decided to reach beyond their leadership, multi-year annual fund commitment and to also remember the Athenaeum with a significant legacy planned gift of life insurance,” said Kathy Symons, Athenaeum director for estate and trust services. “In remembrance of and appreciation for the education Mike received at the Athenaeum, Mike and Joan decided to establish a scholarship burse for seminarian education.”

Mr. Dempsey, a vice president at Cincinnati Financial Corporation, attended St. Gregory High School Seminary in the mid-1960s and subsequently Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West where he earned a bachelor’s degree.

The Rev. Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh, president/rector of The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and Jim Jackson, advancement director attended with Mrs. Symons.

Presently, Mr. Dempsey is active in volunteer fund raising efforts for the Athenaeum and serves on the Athenaeum Alumni Association’s executive committee. He is a member of the institution’s advisory council and has served as a cabinet member of the capital campaign.

“Joan and I were honored by the Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council and by The Athenaeum of Ohio with the ‘Voices of Giving Award’. Father Benedict and Kathy Symons presented us with a beautiful plaque depicting the mosaic of the Blessed Mother and the Child Jesus from the Marian Chapel within the Saint Gregory Chapel at the seminary. It is a beautiful reminder of a lovely evening with our family and friends at that ceremony,” Mr. Dempsey said.

“Prior to the awards ceremony, associates from WCET and the Planned Giving Council asked me why Joan and I have been supportive of the Athenaeum for a number of years. I suppose I could have responded with a canned answer that we are very interested in the instruction and training of future priests, deacons, and lay pastoral ministers, but the commitment I have to the seminary is more deeply personal than that.

“Although, as a student at the seminary, I never completed my training to actually become a priest, the eight years I spent at St. Gregory’s and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary are among the most happy and memorable of my life. I went from being a young kid there to being a Christian adult. The religious and moral foundations instilled in us as students at the Athenaeum have been with me from those years until now; and similar to any education, those foundations can never be taken away from me,’ Mr. Dempsey said.

The ‘Voices of Giving Award,’ brings home to interested individuals how much a person working with someone like Kathy Symons and her associates can actually accomplish and benefit the seminary even if he or she has relatively limited resources. I am fortunate also that my employer, the Cincinnati Companies, encourages employees to take active leadership roles to help religious and philanthropic organizations which are important to us and to our communities.”

Following the award presentation, Mrs. Symons noted: “The Dempseys’ generous gift will greatly impact the Athenaeum by directly benefiting a student’s funding for his formation and education,” Mrs. Symons said. “This is significant in that when a young man within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is interested in the priesthood and is accepted as a seminarian, his graduate degree is provided at no cost upon ordination.

“The true cost of a seminarian’s formation and education for the required six years approaches $300,000,” she said. “Therefore, burses are established as endowment funds from which interest revenue is drawn to help cover educational costs, and in fact have a huge impact on allowing us to provide an excellent education to seminarians in perpetuity.

The Voices of Giving Honors Program was created in 1998 to support the planned giving efforts of local charitable organizations. �

Michael and Joan Dempsey (r) with Father Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh

C A L E N D A R

Saturday, August 18Lay Pastoral Ministry Program student orientation

Saturday, August 25Lay Pastoral Ministry Program retreat

Monday, September 3Autumn quarter day classes begin

Tuesday, September 4Autumn quarter evening classes begin

Wednesday, September 127:30 p.m., LeBlond Lecture, Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, OP, Bartlett Pastoral Center

Sunday, October 77 p.m., Sunday Vespers, Athenaeum Chorale, Chapel of St. Gregory the Great

Sunday, October 213 p.m., Athenaeum graduation, Chapel of St. Gregory the Great

Sunday, November 47 p.m., Sunday Vespers, Athenaeum Chorale, Chapel of St. Gregory the Great

Mike & Joan Dempsey: 2012 St. Gregory Legacy Society Honorees

Photo by Kathy Symons

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18 Th e At h e na e u m M aga z i n e

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For detailed information about the following items, please access the news section of the Athenaeum Website, www.athenaeum.edu

Bishop Binzer Institutes 13 as Acolytes/ReadersCincinnati Auxiliary Bishop Joseph R. Binzer instituted five Mount St. Mary’s of the West seminarians as acolytes and nine other seminarians as readers on March 24 in the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great at The Athenaeum of Ohio.

Toledo Reunion a Rousing Success The Athenaeum Alumni Association reunion in Toledo, the first in many years, brought 53 priest alumni from Toledo and Michigan to Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral in Toledo April 16.

A Time to Plant Over the past 25 years, more than 50 trees have been removed from the Athenaeum grounds, victims of storm dam-age, disease, age, and the emerald ash borer. A concerted effort to replace the lost trees began recently when 42 new trees — elm, maple and red oak — were planted on the grounds.

Deacon Class Plants Vineyard on Seminary GroundsPermanent deacon candidates from the Athenaeum of Ohio have taken on a class project that involved sweat equity. It will take some time to see the fruits of their labor. Armed with shovels, posthole diggers and an array of other tools, the future deacons, under the watchful eye of Father Anthony Brausch, director of the deacon formation pro-gram, went to work planting a vineyard on the seminary grounds.

Annual Seminarian Visit to the Holy LandThe annual seminarian pilgrimage trip to the Holy Land, made possible through the gener-osity of Athenaeum benefactors, occurred in late May this year with eight seminarians led by the Rev. Paul Ruwe, Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary dean of students.

Seven of the eight seminarians will enter their fourth year of theology this fall and are

scheduled to be ordained transitional deacons in the spring and priests in 2014. Joining them was Deacon Jerome Bishop, who will be ordained next May.

Joliet Bishop R. Daniel Conlon Receives 2012 Distinguished Alumnus AwardDuring ceremonies in March, Most Reverend R. Daniel Conlon, recently appointed bishop of the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., and former bishop of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, received the 2012 Athenaeum of Ohio Distinguished Alumnus award from Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr, president of the Athenaeum Board of Trustees.

AOrate

Faculty

The Rev. David Endres, assistant professor of church history and historical theology and director of fi eld education, published “‘Take the Word of God to the Heart of the City’: Cincinnati’s Catholic Bible Center Apostolate, 1964-1971,” U.S. Catholic Historian 30, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 15-34. He also gave several talks. In March he spoke about “The Bookends of the Modern Church: The Councils of Trent and Vatican II,” at St. Peter Parish, Huber Heights; and in April spoke about: “The Popes, What Are They Good For? What the Bible, Theology, and History Tell Us about the Papacy,” at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Cincinnati.

Dr. Susan McGurgan, director of the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program (LPMP), was a presenter at the Notre Dame Conference on Catholic Preaching in June. She was one of four panelists from the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics who explored the topic, “Issues in Preaching Today”.

The Rev. Theodore C. Ross, S.J., assistant professor of Church history and historical theology, gave a four-week course for the Adult Spirituality Institute at the Athenaeum on “There’s Nothing Like a Jesuit”, a presentation centered on Jesuit history and power. Father Ross also lectured at St. Michael’s Parish, Sharonville and Holy Angels Parish, Sidney on the topic: “Do I Still Love the Church” putting in context the problems of the Church and Catholic bashing by the media. He spoke at St. Charles Borromeo Parish, Kettering on “The Life and Times of St. Charles Borromeo”, and gave a two-day workshop on “Vatican II, the 50th Anniversary” to the Franciscan Brothers of the Poor, in Indianapolis.

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Accrediting Groups to Visit in October

The Athenaeum has completed its self-study to prepare for renewal of its accreditation. It has written self-study reports

for the two agencies that accredit the Athenaeum, and these reports have been approved by the Athenaeum Senate and board of trustees.

The Athenaeum has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC) since 1959 and by the Association of Theological Schools of the United States and Canada (ATS) since 1972. Teams representing these organizations will visit the Athenaeum October 8 through 10, 2012. Although these visits will occur at the same time, they will, in effect, be two separate visits.

In preparation for these visits, team members will receive copies of the appropriate self-study report along with additional materials, including copies of the Athenaeum catalog, handbooks and audited financial statements.

At the end of the visits, the teams will orally report the recommendations they will make to the organizations they represent. Soon after their visits, they will incorporate the recommendations into written reports on their visits. Copies of the reports will be given to the Athenaeum and to the organizations they represent. These reports on their visits will serve as the basis for re-accreditation of the Athenaeum. �

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P A S S I N G S

Please remember these deceased alumni in our prayers. Ordained alumni who are constitutive members of the Athenaeum Alumni Association, are reminded to celebrate a Mass, or have a Mass celebrated, for deceased constitutive members (identified with ).

— Full obituaries of Father Muller, Father Rohrkemper, Monsignor Vater and Sister Zich appear on the Athenaeum website www.athenaeum.edu

R E S T I N P E A C EFriends of the Athenaeum

Joseph Benedict Seifert, Sr., father of the Rev. Michael Seifert of the Diocese of Youngstown, a Mount St. Mary’s Seminary alumnus and Bishop Fenwick Society member, died February 15.

Fay E. Brinck, a member of the Bishop Fenwick Society, died March 10.

Mary P. Callan, mother of Dr. Terrance D. Callan, the Athenaeum’s dean of the special studies division, former dean of the Athenaeum, professor of biblical studies and Bishop Fenwick Society member, died March 15.

Margaret “Peg” Weber, grandmother of Claire Ballinger, public services librarian at the Athenaeum’s Eugene H. Maly Memorial Library, died March 20.

Polly DeCourcy, mother of Connie Cussen, Bishop Fenwick Society member and former member of the Athenaeum Advisory Council, died April 2.

Thomas Sheeran, husband of Marilyn Sheeran, Bishop Fenwick Society member, died April 3 Robert J. Driehaus, Bishop Fenwick Society member, died April 4.

Dennis P. O’Connor, executive director of Christians for Peace in El Salvador, former managing editor of The Catholic Telegraph, and long time friend of the Athenaeum, died April 8.

Patricia Loftus, mother-in-law of Mike Wulker, Athenaeum food services manager, and mother of Marianne Wulker, died April 24.

Rita Ann Kahmann, mother of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West alumnus the Rev. Kevin Kahmann, Diocese of Covington, died April 26.

Michael Vincent Miller, son of Gerald W. and Thomasine B. Miller, Cornerstone Circle members of the Bishop Fenwick Society, died May 10.

Frederick P. “Fred” Murdock, long-time member of the Bishop Fenwick Society, died May 12.

Helen Mills, mother of Denny Mills, retired head of maintenance at the Athenaeum, and grandmother of Athenaeum maintenance employee Dennis Mills, died May 26.

Margaret L. Ehrenfels, wife if Jim Ehrenfels, 1976 graduate of Mount St Mary’s Seminary of the West, died June 21.

Loretta Bolte, mother of the Rev. Tom Bolte, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West alumnus, died June 22. �

Deacon David Shea, associate professor of homiletics, will conduct a workshop: “Preaching as a Tool to Revitalize the Domestic Church,” at The Summit 2012, a major event in the archdiocese to be held October 1 and 2 at the Dayton Convention Center. The workshop will explore how the Sunday homily directly infl uences how families experience the Eucharist. Parents are concerned about the impact poor homilies and ineffective preaching have on children – particularly teens. Fewer people fi nd meaning and value in Sunday Mass and preaching is a contributing factor. How can Catholic homilists engage and support teens and their families? Also, Deacon Shea recently became a member and seminary representative of the newly-formed Sacramental Ministry Sub-Committee focusing efforts on sacramental ministry in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. This is a broad-based committee that will work in a number of areas – family life, catechetical ministry, worship, youth. He will teach a daylong course and workshop

on “The Basics of the Pastoral Encounter—The Do’s and Don’ts of Active Listening and the Pastoral Encounter,” on December 8 for the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, as part of the permanent diaconate formation program there. He will conduct a workshop for St. Columban Parish in Loveland on January 12, 2013, as part of the Marriage Matters program there.

Students

Scott Perry, who will begin his second year in the seminary this fall, was featured in the Catholic Chronicle of the Diocese of Toledo in January. The story focused on life in the seminary. Mr. Perry is from Tiffi n, Ohio and is one of eight Toledo seminarians attending Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West.

The Rev. Charles B. Rohrkemper, former pastor at St. John Fisher Parish, Newtown; St. Francis de Sales Parish, Lebanon; St. Boniface Parish, Piqua; St. Mary Parish, Greenville and Sacred Heart Parish, McCartyville, died May 3. He was 95.

The Rev. Anthony J. Muller, former member of the Elder High School faculty who completed his formation for the priesthood at St. Gregory Seminary and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West, died May 3. He was 69.

Monsignor Robert Vater, a priest for the Diocese of Coving-ton, Ky., for 67 years, former pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Bellevue until his retirement in 1994, died March 6 at Carmel Manor Home, Fort Thomas. He was 89.

Deacon Jerry Schneider, served at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish, Cincinnati, from 1999 to present and at St. Martin of Tours Parish, Cheviot, from 1983 to 1991. Deacon Herschel Steward, who had served at St. Francis de Sales Parish, Lebanon, since 1986, died March 17.

Deacon William Aufderheide, who served at St. Margaret of Cortona Parish, Cincinnati from 1987 to June 2005, died June 8. Sister Agnes Zich, Sister of Mercy of the Holy Cross, an alumna of The Athenaeum of Ohio, died April 22 at Bell Tower Residence, Merrill, Wis. She was 94.

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• “PORTA FIDEI: PREPARING FOR THE YEAR OF FAITH” – Annual LPMP Day of Formation August 25, 2012Athenaeum faculty will help LPMP students, alumni, and pastoral ministers prepare for the Year of Faith through a series of workshops on key topics, including the Eucharist, Vatican II, Faith and Reason, and the Catechism.

• LE BLOND LECTURE – Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, OP - “What is the New Evangelization?” September 12, 2012 Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, OP, who recently held the post of secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, will deliver the annual Le Blond Lecture at 7:30 p.m., September 12, 2012 in the Bartlett Pastoral Center of the Athenaeum campus. The theme will be: “What is the New Evangelization?”

• DR. RAY GUARENDI – “Family and Evangelization” – Nov. 10, 2012 Ray Guarendi, a clinical psychologist, author, whose nationally-syndicated radio program “The Doctor Is In” can be heard weekdays, is an expert on family and parenting. He will speak on the role of the family in the mission of Evangelization.

• DR. THOMAS LICKONA – “Faith, Ethics and Character Formation” February 8-9, 2013Thomas Lickona, a world-renowned developmental psychologist and profes-sor of education at SUNY and director of the Center for the Fourth and Fifth Rs, has authored Character Matters: How to Help Our Children Develop Good Judgment, Integrity, and Other Essential Virtues. On February 8, he will offer an in-service day for teachers -“Faith and Character Education in Schools”- and on February 9, he will address parents on the “Faith and Character Education of Children.”

• INSTITUTE FOR PRIESTLY FORMATIONFeb. 28- March 2, 2013The Institute for Priestly Formation, located on the campus of Creighton University in Omaha, holds annual sym-posia for priests. The 2013 symposium will be held at the Athenaeum. The topic will be “The Beloved Son: Living Christ’s Own Filial Obedience.”

• DR. MARY HEALY – “Women and Evangelization” – April 6, 2013The Athenaeum will host a day for women of faith. Dr. Mary Healy, STD, who teaches sacred scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, will give two talks: “Women of Holiness in Scripture”, and “Women of Holiness Today”- and Monsignor Frank Lane, PhD, will give a talk on “Women and the Crisis of Modern Society.” Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr will celebrate Mass that evening.

• GARDNER LECTURE IN MORAL THEOLOGY: CARDINAL FRANCIS GEORGE – April 24, 2013 – “Faith in the Public Square” Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, will address the role of “Faith in the Public Square” and in contemporary culture. �

Special Events for A Year of Faith

With his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI has called for a

Year of Faith, which begins October 11, 2012 and continues through November 24, 2013. The Athenaeum is planning a series of events throughout this special year.