Benedict XVI reaffirms interreligious “pilgrimage toward peace” in letter to Sant’Egidio meeting in September

“Peace needs to be supported by hearts and minds that seek truth”

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 11, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the message that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope’s secretary of state, sent in the name of the Holy Father to the archbishop of Vrhbosna-Sarajevo, on the occasion of the 26th International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, organized by Sant’Egidio Community. Continue reading “Benedict XVI reaffirms interreligious “pilgrimage toward peace” in letter to Sant’Egidio meeting in September” →

Catholic youth conflicted about war, reports US Catholic magazine

Conflicted generation: Millennials and the war on terror
by Ruth Graham
US Catholic, August 21, 2012

Caleb is a 22-year-old Navy veteran who headed to boot camp as soon as he graduated from high school and quickly found himself in Iraq, where he spent most of his time patrolling rivers. He’s also a devout Catholic; he and his wife attend Mass every week and serve as lectors at their parish. Caleb is a confident, experienced man, but when asked to speak about both of these things at once—his support for the war and his faith—he wavers.  Read more.

 

Mennonite Church USA reports on 2012 Bridgefolk conference

Mennonite Church USA has published the following report on the 2012 Bridgefolk conference:

Roughly forty people, Mennonites and Catholics, gathered for three days of fellowship, study and worship in July, hosted by the sisters of St. Benedict Monastery in Minnesota. The group explored the formative practice of studying and praying with scripture in the two traditions. The group also engaged in ongoing discernment around Eucharist. As is the pattern at each gathering, the group participated in an agape meal, which included footwashing. The group also celebrated a “Double Eucharist.” A presider from each tradition gave a homily and then led in the ritual. Each group prayerfully observed but did not partake in the other’s ritual. The group spent several hours reflecting and sharing together about this experience. To learn more about the Bridgefolk movement visit www.bridgefolk.net.

Fall semester marks beginning of two new Catholic-Mennonite collaborations

EMU and Catholic Do Joint Engineering Program

Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) has partnered with Catholic University of America (CUA) for a new dual degree program that will prepare students to pursue peacebuilding and sustainability through engineering.  Read more.

Mennonite, Catholic high schools to merge some music activities

Come September, Lancaster Mennonite High School students will be high-stepping across the football field alongside their Lancaster Catholic High School Crusaders marching band peers.  Read more.

Margaret O’Gara, R.I.P.

Margaret O’Gara, Professor of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College, entered the realm of eternal life on Thursday, August 16, at age 65, after suffering from cancer for two years.

The characteristic aim of Margaret’s 37 years of work as a theologian was to foster dialogue among Christians for the sake of overcoming divisions between the churches. Besides her teaching, research, writing, and extensive public lecturing, she was a member of official ecumenical dialogues in Canada, the United States, and at the international level. She also served as president of the North American Academy of Ecumenists and the Catholic Theological Society of America.  From 2009 to 2012 she served on the board of Bridgefolk.

Margaret’s unusual effectiveness in these professional arenas came from a combination of her scholarly rigor, her exceptional ability to listen sympathetically, her uncommon energy, and her contagious delight at the growth of mutual understanding and friendship. The same traits marked her strong personal relationships with her students and colleagues, the members of her extended family, and her many longstanding friends. Beneath everything else, the fundamental driving force of her life was her deep and abiding Christian faith.

Visitation at Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home, 467 Sherbourne Street in Toronto, on Wednesday, August 22, from 2:00 to 9:00pm, with a prayer service at 7:30pm. Funeral mass at St. Basil’s Church on Thursday, August 23, at 10:30am. Burial in Breckenridge, Minnesota.

Salvation and peace: bridging another divide

An artificial divide

by Darrin Snyder Belousek

[The following article by Bridgefolk’s Executive Director appeared recently in PeaceSigns, the online magazine of the Mennonite Church USA Peace and Justice Support Network]

 

There were several things that attracted me to the Mennonite-Christian tradition-discipleship, community, simplicity, service, and, of course, peace. In my fifteen years among the Mennonites, however, I have observed two disconcerting tendencies in the Mennonite peace ethic.

First, too often we practice peacemaking as if peace were the fruit of our good intentions and hard work. We thus neglect two things: the reality of the persistence of sin in ourselves and our world despite our best intentions, and the need for divine grace to sustain the spiritual fertility of human effort. Consequently, Mennonite peace activism can often be a cause of frustration (when our intentions falter) or an occasion for pride (when our efforts “succeed”).

Second, too often we think and talk about peace in ways that reflect our national contexts and reveal our political commitments. We thus forget two things: that our hope for peace is to be set on God’s purposes for the world, and that our commitment to peace is to be aligned with the priorities of God’s kingdom. Consequently, Mennonite peace rhetoric can often be hardly distinguishable from a national “peacekeeper” identity (Canada) or a left-wing partisan agenda (United States).

Please join in prayer for Margaret O’Gara

Margaret O'GaraWe are sad to have to share news of the declining health of Margaret O’Gara.  Bridgefolk has been exceptionally blessed to benefit from Margaret’s friendship and wisdom as one of the leading Catholic ecumenical thinkers on the scene today.  Margaret is a theologian at the University of Toronto, a member of the Collegeville Institute Board of Directors, and a recent president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, as well as a member of the Bridgefolk Board.  A private person, Margaret has not wished to call attention to her cancer.  But a letter from Donald Ottenhoff, executive director of the Collegeville Institute, updating colleagues on Margaret’s condition, has begun to circulate widely among theologian friends.  So it seems appropriate to share excerpts with Margaret’s friends in Bridgefolk as well:

I write to inform you that our friend and colleague Margaret O’Gara has entered hospice care during this past week.  As many of you know, Margaret has undergone treatment for cancer over the past two years, even as she has continued to pursue her teaching schedule as her medical regime has allowed.  Margaret’s husband Michael reports that Margaret is still functioning pretty well, but that it became clear to them that the time had come for Margaret to benefit from professional care. …

Michael tells me that he and Margaret are of course sad about this turn in Margaret’s condition, but that they are “feeling calm and collected at the most fundamental level,” and that they find themselves “greatly consoled by our Christian hope in the resurrection, and by support from family and friends.”

Please keep Margaret and Michael in your prayers.

Let us join with others in this prayer and concern.

Gerald W. Schlabach

Ivan Kauffman surveys 50 years of Mennonite-Catholic dialogue

Earlier this month Bridgefolk co-founder Ivan Kauffman spoke at Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana.  His talk offers a succinct overview of how Mennonite-Catholic dialogue has unfolded in the last 50 years. 

Called Together to Be Peacemakers
Mennonite Catholic Dialogue 1962-2012

Ivan J. Kauffman
Assembly Mennonite Church
Goshen, Indiana
July 8, 2012

It has been said we over-estimate what can be changed in one year, and under-estimate what can be changed in ten years. My life experience confirms that. But I would add that we can not even imagine the change that can take place in 50 years.

When the Second Vatican Council opened 50 years ago this October I was a student at Goshen College, at a time when Carl Kreider was still wearing a plain coat, and Mary Oyer was still wearing a covering. None of us then had any idea this event would affect us—that it would permanently change relationships between Mennonites and Catholics and launch us into a new era in the Church’s peace witness—but that is what has happened.

I could keep us here for hours telling stories about how this happened but I will briefly mention only a few. Continue reading “Ivan Kauffman surveys 50 years of Mennonite-Catholic dialogue” →

The anguish of imperfect communion

by Julia Smucker

(Our friends at the Ekklesia Project recently posted the following reflection by Julia Smucker on Bridgefolk experiences with the challenge of sharing communion.) 

For about the past five years, I have been a participant in the Mennonite/Catholic ecumenical movement known as Bridgefolk – first as a Mennonite drawn toward communion with the Catholic Church but also strongly connected to my ecclesial heritage, and now as a Catholic seeking to maintain that connection with the church that formed me.  I had agonized over the choice I was presented with in the unavoidable reality that joining with one communion would mean breaking with another, and wondered whether I could do so without it being tantamount to a rejection, a cutting off of my roots.  And then I discovered a group of people who had been agonizing over this division for years before me.  Continue reading “The anguish of imperfect communion” →