Bishop Robert F. Morneau, Auxiliary Bishop, author and pastor of Resurrection Parish, Green Bay, as well as a former SLC professor, was the first speaker in this new book series at 12:15 p.m. selecting Michael Paul Gallagher’s Faith Maps and presented his own comments entitled Faith Maps: Spiritual Cartographies. As always, wisdom was shared in true liberal arts fashion with sensitive poetic charm.
Bishop identified two great needs: mentors-those who point the way and models-those who go the way (walk the talk). This was an important introduction to Gallagher’s 10 religious explorers: John Henry Newman, Maurice Blondel, Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Bernard Lanergan, Flannery O’Conner, Dorothee Soelle, Charles Taylor, Pierangelo Sequeri and Benedict XVI. Bishop Bob shared that “we have in this collection theologians and philosophers, artists and novelists, pilgrims all. They have struggled with the large questions of identity, ethics, and destiny. Using different epistemologies and metaphysical perspectives, they share a vision of our relationship with God. They offer us a mooring and a rudder as we sail the open sea of existence…what is desperately needed is a vision that confronts the atheism and nihilism of our times. Faith Maps provides alternative ways of seeing, knowing and acting. A unique feature of this work is an imaginary monologue from the 10 explorers.”
Other future speakers and authors featured include: Father Bill Swichtenberg, What Happened at Vatican II by John W. O’Malley(Oct. 11); Paul Wadell, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies by Rebeca De Young (Nov. 8); David Gilboa, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Dec. 13); Brian Shaw, Hoops and Homilies by Brian Shaw (Feb. 14) ; Julianne Donlon-Stanz, How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Kahill (Mar. 13); Bishop Jim Justman, Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer(Apr. 10); and TBA student presentation (May 8).
