Lectures
Archived Posts from this Category
Parish Wills Seminar
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 24 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
“THE IMPORTANCE OF A WILL”
On Sunday, February 28, the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer will host a free wills seminar for interested parishioners. Co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York, the seminar will feature Joan Palumbo, a New York lawyer, who will address a variety of topics concerning the legal side of estate planning and end of life issues, such as the reasons for having a will, why young parents need a will, saving on estate and death taxes, designating health care proxies, the pros and cons of living trusts, and designating durable powers of attorney.
The seminar will begin at 1:30 PM in the Priory Parlor. All are invited.
Afternoon of Monastic Reflection – February 27
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 19 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
On Saturday, February 27, the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer will host an Afternoon of Monastic Reflection led by Fr. Christian Leisy, OSB, a monk of Christ in the Desert Monastery in Abiquiu, New Mexico. He will be assisted by Sharon Colby, an oblate of the monastery. Together they will introduce participants to the rich spiritual tradition of Benedictine monasticism, and explain how the lessons of this centuries-old tradition of prayer and study can benefit the busy lives of lay Christians in the world. There is no cost for the afternoon, though a free will offering will be taken.
The afternoon’s presentations will begin at 1:30 PM in the St. Vincent Ferrer Church Hall (869 Lexington Avenue @ 66th Street). Registration is not required, but please call the Parish Office (212-744-2080) to reserve your seat.
Theology in the City – February 15
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 13 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
St. Thomas Day Lecture 2010
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 31 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
Click below for audio of this year’s St. Thomas Day Lecture, delivered last Thursday evening by Rev. Brian Davies, OP, a Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. The topic of Fr. Davies’ address was “The New Atheism: Its Virtues and Its Vices.”
Over the course of his remarks, Fr. Davies argued several important points. First, he chronicled the development of the movement popularly called the “New Atheism,” distinguishing it from what he called the “Old Atheism” of previous centuries. Then, he listed certain strengths of the New Atheism, and several points of agreement it shares with the classical Christian tradition, especially in the articulation given it by St. Thomas Aquinas. Finally, Fr. Davies challenged the claim of the New Atheism to have scientifically disproved God’s existence. The Dominican philosopher explained that these scientific arguments do not actually touch the question of God’s existence as understood by classical theists. In other words, classical Christianity has never held the existence of God to be a scientific thesis, provable or unprovable through scientific experimentation. Rather, the Christian tradition has always explained the rationality of belief in God’s existence through philosophical investigation, a reality which, according to Fr. Davies, key authors of the New Atheism—Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett—inexplicably ignore.
Parish Bible Study
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 31 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
The winter-spring session of the parish’s Bible study will focus on the Acts of the Apostles.
The session will run for 7 weeks on Wednesdays, beginning February 17th, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. Meetings are held in St. Vincent Ferrer High School (151 E. 65th Street). To register, please call the Parish Office at 212-744-2080.
Call now! Space is limited.
St. Thomas Day Lecture 2010 – January 28
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 03 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Dominicans, Lectures, Parish Events
Theology in the City – January 4
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 31 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
Theology in the City – December 21
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 21 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
Does Heaven Make Any Earthly Difference? – December 16
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 15 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures
This Wednesday evening, Dr. Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College and world-renowned speaker and author of over 50 books, will be giving a lecture on “Does Heaven Make Any Earthly Difference?” at Columbia University.
It will begin at 6:30pm and is taking place inside the Church of Notre Dame (405 West 114th st). It will also include a Q&A session after the talk – anyone who’s listened to Peter Kreeft before can tell you how entertaining this part always is.
The event is hosted by Rodzinka (“little family” in Polish), a student-run organization at Columbia University that takes its name and inspiration from Pope John Paul II’s (then Karol Wojtyla’s) original group of youth in Krakow, Poland.
Theology in the City – December 7
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 07 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish News
Theology in the City – November 23
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 22 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
St. Albert’s Day Lecture 2009
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 16 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
On November 12, Professor Helen Alvaré delivered the parish’s annual St. Albert’s Day Lecture. Before an eager and enthusiastic audience, she addressed the topic, “The Catholic Voice in the Public Square: Sectarian or Civic?” Over the course of her remarks, Professor Alvaré shared the wisdom she has gained as a Catholic lawyer and lobbyist regarding how believers ought to engage public debate on difficult moral questions. She focused specifically on the debates surrounding abortion, health care, and marriage, and the recommendations she gave for approaching each were both insightful and encouraging.
Below you’ll find both audio and video of Professor Alvaré’s lecture, as well as audio of the Q & A session that followed her presentation.
Click here for the video report covering the lecture that aired on NET NY‘s “Currents.”
Public Forum Videos
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 04 Sep 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
Below you’ll find video of the three presentations given at last week’s forum on Caritas in Veritate. Enjoy!
Introductions
Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P. — “Building a ‘Human Ecology’ on Truth and Love”
Fr. Allen Moran, O.P. — “Caritas in Veritate and the American Economy”
Archbishop Timothy Dolan — “The ‘Hermeneutic of Continuity’ and the Church’s Social Doctrine”
Public Forum a Great Success
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 02 Sep 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
On the evening of August 26th, a crowd of 350 gathered at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer for a public forum on Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. The panel of speakers included: Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., the editor-in-chief of Magnificat; Fr. Allen Moran, O.P., a professor of economics at Providence College; and the Most Reverend Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York. Each speaker highlighted a certain aspect of the Holy Father’s wise and in some ways innovative treatment of the Church’s social doctrine. After the presentations, members of the audience addressed questions to the panel.
In the first presentation of the evening, Fr. Cameron reflected on Pope Benedict’s concept of “human ecology.” Employing numerous quotations from the encyclical itself, Fr. Cameron made clear the Pope’s concern that the contemporary interest in conservation and ecology be shaped by an overarching concern for the conservation of human dignity. From the Christian point of view, the Pope argues, a proper and just concern for the environment can only be exercised from within a prior and larger concern for the human person and his flourishing. Through several poignant real-life illustrations, Fr. Cameron demonstrated the Holy Father’s point. He explained that once a person discovers his inherent human dignity, which for many occurs through adversity and suffering, that dignity becomes something he naturally begins to protect not only in himself but also in others. This spontaneous drive to protect others’ dignity, Fr. Cameron explained, points to the reality of “human ecology.”
Fr. Allen then addressed the more practical aspects of Caritas in Veritate, particularly Pope Benedict’s assessment of the economic crisis that currently grips a large portion of the world. After first distinguishing positive and normative economics, Fr. Moran demonstrated why this distinction is important. Positive economics, he explained, seeks simply to describe what is happening in the financial world. It reports on the ups and downs of financial activity and tries to uncover their causes. Not completely detached from positive economics, normative economics has a different goal. While it also tracks movements in the world’s economies, at the same time it makes certain judgments about them against a measure that it considers normative. For example, whereas a positive economist might say that unemployment in America is at 9.5%, a normative economist would argue that the rate is too high (or too low, depending on his measure). From this basic distinction between positive and normative economics, Fr. Moran explained how Pope Benedict calls economists to work more within the normative realm, where they should feel obliged to make real judgments about economic activity against the norm of human dignity and the justice human nature requires for its full flourishing.
Finally, Archbishop Dolan described how in the encyclical Pope Benedict applies his famous “hermeneutic of continuity” to the Church’s social tradition. In so doing, the Holy Father stresses that the social teaching of the Church stretching back to the late nineteenth century should be read as a whole, as one long normative commentary on the social implications of the Gospel, and not as divided moments in the tradition where certain teachings can be favored and others jettisoned. For example, there has recently opened up within the Church a contentious relationship between what Archbishop Dolan described as “economic and social justice” Catholics and “life justice” Catholics. Such a rift should not exist, he lamented. Instead, to wave the social justice banner of the Church is to concern oneself necessarily with poverty, education, health care, immigration, the environment, marriage and family, and first and foremost the promotion and protection of human life, from conception to natural death. Archbishop Dolan explained that reading Church’s social doctrine, as Pope Benedict does, with a proper “hermeneutic of continuity” reveals the evangelical concern for human life and human dignity as the common thread that unites all of the Church’s social teachings.
After a brief Q & A session, those attending the forum enjoyed a light reception prepared by the Frassati Fellowship.
CSVF in The Daily News
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 02 Sep 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
This morning’s Daily News carries the following op-ed piece by Kathryn Jean Lopez, the editor of National Review Online. In it, Lopez mentions the public forum held here last week on Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, and she explains its importance to contemporary political debates.
Click here to read the article on the Daily News website.
THE ISSUE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IS FAR BIGGER THAN THE ABORTION DEBATE
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
Wednesday, September 2nd 2009
On Saturday, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who supported legal abortion, was hailed as “a beacon for social justice” at a Catholic church in Boston. On Friday, The New York Times reported on Catholic bishops speaking out against anti-life provisions in various versions of the proposed health care reform in Washington: “The bishops’ backlash reflects a struggle within the church over how heavily to weigh opposition to abortion against concerns about social justice.”
An expert confirmed: “It is the great tension in Catholic thought right now,” said Cathleen Kaveny, a professor of law and theology at Notre Dame.
The fights exist. But reports of a “great tension” are exaggerated. Fundamentally, what is social justice if it does not include the very right to life?
The New York Times and every Catholic politician who follows the Ted Kennedy beacon missed a primer on just this issue. Manhattan’s St. Vincent Ferrer Church recently hosted a workshop headlined by Archbishop Timothy Dolan on Pope Benedict’s third encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate,” or “Love in Truth.”
The event stood in contrast to much of the media coverage following the encyclical’s release. Many conservatives immediately groaned about its expressed need for “a true world political authority.” Liberals celebrated the same. Many are missing the soul of it. The Pope described “charity in truth” as the “principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and all humanity” and the “heart of the church’s social doctrine.”
“Social justice doctrine” doesn’t belong to any one political party or ideology. Rather, it poses challenges to all of us.
Lack of harmony, Dolan argued, is not in the social doctrine of the church, but in “somewhat of a rift that has taken place in the social justice activity of the church throughout the world.” He pointed to a “cleavage” between “the economic social justice people and the pro-life social justice people,” who are at an unnecessary “loggerheads.”
Dolan presented the continuum with a fourfold focus on the innate dignity of the human person (“every man and woman is made in the image and likeness of God”), the common good (“everything we do has a social implication”; “an economic decision is also a moral decision), solidarity (“we’re in this together”; “we are social beings . . . brothers and sisters of a common Father”; “always be aware of the implications”), and subsidiarity (“apprehension of big, huge, massive bureaucracy, especially when it comes to the protection of the basic unit of human life, the family”).
The integrated message of focusing on these fundamentals is: Be not confused. In this way, though, the forum was very different from most of the media coverage immediately following the release of the Holy See’s latest contribution to the church’s social justice canon and some of the misleading messages stemming from Kennedy’s Catholic sendoff.
The encyclical states, unsurprisingly: “When a society moves toward the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good.” This underscores a great shame of our current political discussions involving Catholicism: They’re always focused on abortion because of the endless game we’re subjected to by Catholic politicians pretending that they can advocate for legal abortion with right reason and clear conscience.
While we listen to the Gospel According to Nancy Pelosi and ignore the Kennedy contributions to cementing a culture of death, we are deprived of an even deeper conversation about just what social justice is, how exactly to best serve the common good. It doesn’t necessarily mean “government gives.” It’s a lot more complicated. And the political conversation could benefit from some shepherding from a position of love and truth. Unfortunately, at the moment we’re still focused on just trying to stay alive.
Public Forum on “Caritas in Veritate” – August 26
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 06 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
The parish is honored that Archbishop Dolan has agreed to participate in the forum. This will be his first visit to St. Vincent’s.
The evening will include a Q & A session with the speakers. Light refreshments will be served.
For more information, call the Parish Office.
For an English translation of Caritas in Veritate, click here.
“Pope Benedict XVI, the Bible and the Synod of Bishops” – July 28
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 24 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures
“Whose Bible Is It Anyway?”
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 18 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures
Click below to view video of a lecture given recently by Fr. Anthony Giambrone, OP, on how to develop a properly Christian understanding of the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament. Over the course of his talk, Fr. Giambrone suggests that we use the New Testament as the hermeneutical key to unlock the full meaning of the Old Testament. This lecture was part of the 2009 Summer Lecture Series currently being offered at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Zanesville, OH.
Many of you may remember that Fr. Giambrone was assigned to St. Vincent’s last summer as a deacon. He was ordained a priest this past May. This fall, Fr. Giambrone will begin graduate studies in Scripture at the Dominican-run École Biblique in Jerusalem.
Theology in the City – June 22
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 21 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
Theology in the City – June 1
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 31 May 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
St. Thomas Day Lecture 2009
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 31 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
This past January 28th, nearly 150 people gathered at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer to celebrate the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas and to hear Professor Robert Louis Wilken deliver the parish’s second annual St. Thomas Day Lecture. One couple shared that they traveled from Colorado and made the lecture part of their anniversary getaway to New York.
A scholar of early Christian history at the University of Virginia, Professor Wilken chose as his topic “Aquinas on Romans.” His purpose was to highlight Aquinas’s conformity to the patristic tradition in his study and exposition of the sacred text. This conformity stands in contrast to the great novelty St. Thomas pursued in his theological writings. In reading scripture, Wilken explained, Aquinas followed the Fathers in reverencing not only the Word but also the words written on the page, sacred words whose meaning runs across the books of the bible and links together disparate texts to reveal the singular truths of God’s salvific work. For example, Wilken demonstrated how the word “sorrow” led St. Thomas all over scripture to develop a deep and biblical understanding of contrition. Wilken closed his lecture by challenging preachers to follow St. Thomas more closely, to read the bible as he did, and to use more scripture in their preaching.
The evening concluded with a light reception in the priory parlors.
Click below for either video or audio of Prof. Wilken’s lecture. The second audio file contains the Q & A session that followed.
St. Thomas Day Lecture – January 28
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 26 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
On Wednesday, January 28, the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer will hold its second annual St. Thomas Day Lecture. This year’s featured speaker will be Dr. Robert Louis Wilken, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. An expert in early Christian history and the patristic exegesis of Scripture, Professor Wilken will reflect on Aquinas’s interpretation of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans—a fitting topic during this Year of St. Paul.
The lecture will begin at 7:00 PM, and a light reception will follow. This event is free and open to the public.
St. Albert’s Day Lecture a Great Success
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 15 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
On 
Thursday, November 13, over 100 people gathered at St. Vincent Ferrer to hear Professor Stephen Barr deliver the parish’s second annual St. Albert’s Day Lecture. His topic was “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith.” The lecture was excellent in both content and delivery. Prof. Barr argued, among other things, that 20th-century discoveries in physics have overturned, seemingly definitively, the materialist assumptions that shaped scientific thinking throughout the bulk of the modern period. It is this materialist understanding of science, and not science itself, that is often at odds with religion. In his talk, Prof. Barr identified the figures and topics instrumental to this recent change of fortune for materialism.
Prof. Barr’s conclusions suggest that the 20th century has actually opened the door, not closed it, to a more sympathetic reading among scientists of the medieval claim made famous by St. Albert and his student St. Thomas, that there can exist no contradiction between the truth of science and the truth of revelation. To be sure, at any given time it may not be clear as to how all of the points of faith and science intersect, but both the scientist and the theologian can proceed with confidence knowing that what is genuinely true in one realm of study is equally true for the other.
Copies of Prof. Barr’s book, Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, may be purchased here. It’s an excellent read.
In addition to his book, Prof. Barr has written numerous articles on faith and science, many of which have been published in First Things. Click here for a listing of these articles.
Below you can listen to Prof. Barr’s address in full. The first clip contains the audio of the lecture itself, and the second includes the Q & A session held afterwards.
St. Albert’s Day Lecture – November 13
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 12 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish News
St. Albert’s Day Lecture – November 13
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 04 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer is happy to announce that its second annual St. Albert’s Day Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Stephen Barr, a professor of physics at the University of Delaware. Dr. Barr will deliver an address entitled “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith.” He has published a book by the same title.
The lecture will be held on Thursday, November 13, at 7:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public.
The publisher’s synopsis of Dr. Barr’s book offers us glimpse of his thesis:
A considerable amount of public debate and media print has been devoted to the “war between science and religion.” In his accessible and eminently readable new book, Stephen M. Barr demonstrates that what is really at war with religion is not science itself, but a philosophy called scientific materialism. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith argues that the great discoveries of modern physics are more compatible with the central teachings of Christianity and Judaism about God, the cosmos, and the human soul than with the atheistic viewpoint of scientific materialism. Scientific discoveries from the time of Copernicus to the beginning of the twentieth century have led many thoughtful people to the conclusion that the universe has no cause or purpose, that the human race is an accidental by-product of blind material forces, and that the ultimate reality is matter itself. Barr contends that the revolutionary discoveries of the twentieth century run counter to this line of thought. He uses five of these discoveries — the Big Bang theory, unified field theories, anthropic coincidences, Godel’s Theorem in mathematics, and quantum theory — to cast serious doubt on the materialist’s view of the world and to give greater credence to Judeo-Christian claims about God and the universe. Barr’s clear and elegant writing is in the best tradition of science for the non-physicist or non-mathematician and will appeal to anyone interested in science and religion.
In addition to his book, Dr. Barr has written numerous articles on faith and science, many of which have been published in First Things. Click here for a listing of these articles.
Theology in the City – October 20
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 19 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events
Dominican Lectures – October 20
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 15 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: Lectures, Parish Events, Parish News
So many talks, so little time . . .
Yesterday I posted the announcement for next Monday’s health care lecture at St. Catherine’s. It begins at 1:30.
As it turns out, two other Dominican events will take place later in the day. First, at 7:00 here at St. Vincent’s, we’ll have the second lecture of our new “Theology in the City” series. The topic will be “The Meaning of Creation.”
And later in the evening up at Columbia University, the Columbia Catholic Ministry (run by Dominican friars from Poland) will hold its annual Merton Lecture. This year’s speaker will be Dr. Eleonore Stump, an analytic Thomist philospher who teaches at St. Louis University. Professor Stump will address “The Problem of Evil in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.” The lecture will begin at 8:30.
Let’s see . . . 1:30, 7:00, and 8:30. Will anyone attend all three talks?
Health Care Ethics Lecture – October 20
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 14 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: Lectures
The Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York of Saint Catherine of Siena Church and Priory
in celebration of
Pastoral Care Week 2008
cordially invite you to participate in the
Annual Mass for Health Care Professions
Monday, October 20 – 12:00 Noon
and the
Third Annual Lecture in Health Care Ethics
“HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA: WHO DO WE REALLY CARE ABOUT?”
presented by
Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, RN, MS
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States
1:30 PM – Church of St. Catherine of Siena
411 East 68th Street (between First and York Avenues)
Life of St. Paul
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 19 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: Dominicans, Lectures
A parishioner alerted me to this video of Fr. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP, a professor of the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, giving a lecture on the life of St. Paul. About an hour in length, the lecture unfolds the biography of St. Paul, highlighting the key dates and events of the Apostle’s extraordinary life.
Fr. Murphy-O’Connor is a Pauline expert, as the titles of his many books reveal: Paul: His Story; Paul: A Critical Life; Jesus and Paul: Parallel Lives; and Paul the Letter Writer: His World, His Options, His Skills.
Opening of the Year of St. Paul
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 30 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Homilies, Lectures, Liturgical Feasts, Music, Parish Events
Over 100 people attended yesterday’s opening of the Year of St. Paul here at St. Vincent Ferrer. Fr. Peter John Cameron, OP, editor-in-chief of Magnificat, began our afternoon program with an excellent lecture entitled “How St. Paul Prayed the Our Father.” For those of you who missed it . . . stay tuned. Fr. Cameron promises that his talk will appear in an upcoming edition of Magnificat.
After the lecture, Dr. Mark Bani, the parish music director and organist, along with Elizabeth Sniffen, one of the parish’s cantors, offered a short concert of sacred music inspired by the Scriptural texts of St. Paul. As always, the music was beautiful and much appreciated.
Fr. Cameron then celebrated and preached the parish’s evening Mass. Click below to hear Fr. Cameron’s homily for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.