News and Updates

A Message from Dean Anderson, "10 Difficult Teachings from St. John of the Cross"

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 21:25:00 +0000

Here is a list of sayings from one of the Doctors of the Catholic Church that contemporary culture seems to reject. Each statement was meant for deep reflection. If one of these bothers you, take some time to meditate on it and let us know if you come to accept it or reject it and why. How can we present these ideas in a way that makes sense to contemporary Christians? Should we even try? My hope is that we can generate some reflection and respectful dialogue. This list does not begin to exhaust this saint’s difficult teachings, but it does cover one page of his writings pretty well.

1. Whoever knows how to die in all will have life in all.

2. Anyone who complains or grumbles is not perfect, nor even a good Christian.

3. The humble are those who hide in their own nothingness and know how to abandon themselves to God.

4. The meek are those who know how to suffer their neighbor and themselves.

5. If you desire to be perfect, sell your will, give it to the poor in spirit, come to Christ in meekness and humility, and follow him to Calvary and the sepulcher.

6. Those who trust in themselves are worse than the Devil.

7. Those who do not love their neighbor abhor God.

8. Suffering for God is better than working miracles.

9. Do not be suspicious of your brother or sister, for you will lose purity of heart.

10. As for trials, the more the better.

These are drawn from The Sayings of Light and Love 160-174 from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Institute for Carmelite Studies: Washington, 1991).

A Message From the Dean, "Who is to Blameful? St. Augustine on God's Justice and Judgement

Mon, 07 Dec 2015 14:24:00 +0000

The first Sunday of Advent calls to mind God’s justice and judgment. The second reading (I Thessalonians 3:12-4:2) exhorts us to be blameless in holiness before God at the Second Coming of the Lord. What does it mean to be blameless in holiness? For that matter, what does culpability or being liable to judgment look like? Though we will not exhaust the subject, St. Augustine offers a way to answer these questions in his sermon on the Lord’s Prayer.

Augustine preached that there is a group of people who we can feel confident will not be forgiven, namely, those who do not practice mercy by forgiving others. He wrote:

For by reason of the fact that this mortal and frail life, which is passed amid so many earthly temptations and which prays that it may not be overwhelmed by them, cannot be lived even by a just person without some sins, we have a remedy by which we can live because our Teacher, God, taught us to say in His prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” We have done what was stipulated and what was pleasing in the eyes of God, and we have signed the agreement for cancelling our debt. If we ourselves forgive, we seek to be forgiven with the utmost confidence; but if we do not forgive, let us not think that our sins are forgiven. Let us not deceive ourselves. Let no one fall into self-deception. God deceives no one.

Augustine distinguishes between being angry and succumbing to hatred, which is characterized by unwillingness to forgive. It is human, he said, to become angry. While anger is natural, it needs to be tempered by love so that it does not become destructive.

By itself, anger is problem. Angry people believe that they are doing something good, when in fact they are doing evil. Domestic abuse provides many examples of this perverted thinking, but it plays out whenever we seek vengeance. If anger is a problem, Augustine said it is a mere twig compared to hatred; but if you cultivate the twig, it will grow into the tree of hatred. Augustine warned those who are unwilling to forgive, those who hate, to pay attention to I John 2:9-11:

Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

The author of I John goes on to explain the consequences: “All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them (I John 3:15).” Even forgiveness is not enough, I John 3:16-17 says we must be willing to lay down our lives for those who trespass against us.

Augustine warns that each time we say the Lord’s Prayer and fail to reconcile with those that have sinned against us, we speak falsely. If we fail to extend mercy to those that we find offensive, we become liars by our participation in the Mass. By doing so we fail to discern the true meaning of the Eucharist and eat unworthily, which is why Augustine provides this pointed warning:

Do you hate your brother or sister and walk about free from care? Are you unwilling to be reconciled, although God is giving you an opportunity for that purpose? Behold, you are a murderer and yet you live. If you had an angry Master, you would be taken off suddenly in the midst of your hatred (see Matthew 18:23-35). God is sparing you; spare yourself! Make peace!

While there is a great deal of mystery as to who stands liable in the Final Judgment, it is clear that those who fail to forgive others for their faults will not be forgiven. James says so explicitly, “No mercy will be shown to those who show no mercy to others (James 2:13). Explaining the significance of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus Christ plainly said: “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:15).” Since we have all sinned and fallen short, we all must be merciful to receive mercy, which is the nature of God’s justice. Being blameless in holiness is achieved by holding others blameless for their offences against us.

The source for this reflection is Augustine’s Sermon 211 for Lent. The entire sermon is contained in my book, Christian Eloquence(Hillenbrand Press, 2005), but it is from the translation by Mary Sarah Muldowney, RSM in St. Augustine’s Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons (Catholic University of America Press, 1959). Hillenbrand Press is a subsidiary of Liturgical Training Publications.

Dean Anderson writes, "St. Bonaventure on the Purpose of Scripture: A Reflection for National Bible Week"

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 17:14:00 +0000

The purpose of Scripture, according to St. Bonaventure, is to return to humanity its original ability to read the book of nature and to restore in humanity its own significance to the praise, worship, and love of God. After the fall, the book of the world became dead and deleted to us. So it was necessary that we be given another book through which the meaning of book of the world would be revealed. Our formerly natural capacity to see the hidden meaning of things is restored by seeing the spiritual senses in a book. Scripture, by reducing all things back to God, restores creatures to their original state in the minds of the reader or hearer.

Bonaventure maintained that the study of Scripture is essentially the study of God’s voice. Since God’s voice must be expressed in a manner that is most sublime, he concluded it must have many meanings. The study of Scripture is special because both the language and the things themselves have significance. Other sciences use language in ways that restrict its meaning, so that words are proportioned and delimited. Once a noun has been given a specific sense in astronomy, for example, it is not to be used in another way. Bonaventure argued that this cannot be the case with the study of Scripture because God is the cause of the soul, of the language that is formed in the soul, and of the things indicated by language. This way of understanding Scripture was related to the development of the four senses of Scripture.

The four senses that had been approved for use by the medieval Church were the literal, the allegorical, the anagogical, and tropological. According to Bonaventure, these senses reflect the Trinity. The three spiritual meanings or senses under the single literal sense reflect the three persons within a single essence. Because the way to God is itself threefold in terms of faith, hope and love, all creatures suggest what we should believe (allegory), hope for (anagogy), and do (tropology).

Such an approach to interpreting Scripture may seem fanciful, but the tradition of the four senses is grounded in the way that the New Testament authors interpreted the Old Testament. This approach to reading is also embedded in the liturgy. Dei verbum, recognizing the importance of the spiritual senses in tradition, encourages Catholics to continue to study how the Eastern and Western Fathers interpreted Scripture as well as how Scripture is related to liturgy (#23).

The Patristic way of reading Scripture was to see it as a place of encounter with the living Word. It was seen as a form of prayer where the Holy Spirit moves through the text to bring its meaning to light for the reader. The literal sense provides objective elements that construct the intellectual space for the subjective or personal appropriation of the faith. The Spirit actualizes the text, allowing the reader to see the biblical narrative as his or her own story, through the gifts of faith, hope, and love. As we think about Holy Scripture next week, we should remember this tradition. After all, Dei verbum provides us with this exhortation: “Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that it becomes a dialogue between God and the reader (25).”

Where GRE Led Me: "An Additional Ministry: Spiritual Direction" by Joe Walters

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 14:58:00 +0000

I left institutional church as a college freshman in 1968. Thirty or so years later, a young couple asked me to be their daughter’s godparent. I went to a class for godparents, and learned that I had to be a practicing Catholic to be a godparent. I returned to my local parish. Later, I became a member of the RCIA team. I felt inadequate as a facilitator. In 2008, I saw an ad in America magazine for on-line learning opportunities at the GSRRE. Initially, I enrolled in the Certificate in Faith Formation program. With Dr. Cataldo’s encouragement. I switched to the MA in Pastoral Care after taking her Psychology and Religion class. Fordham awarded me the MA in 2012. I concurrently completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education, which Dr. Cataldo also introduced to me. I became a certified Catholic chaplain in 2013, and work part time at the University of Oklahoma medical center in the Pastoral Care department. I am now living near the Fordham campus and finishing class work towards a DMin. in Christian Spirituality. I have the blessed opportunity to participate in a Practicum in Spiritual Direction this year. This ministry is a natural outgrowth of my experience and training as a chaplain: to explore deeply with another person the way that God loves them and is working in their lives. It is very gratifying and rewarding to apply the substantive knowledge of scripture, ecclesiology, history of Christian spirituality and reflective methodologies and techniques that I learned in my courses at Fordham in my chaplain work and in my new ministry as a spiritual director. I have the capacity to work with a few new directees and welcome inquiries from members of our community.

Divinely Inspired by Diocesan Pilgrimage: GRE Student Joyce Mennona Reflects

Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:30:00 +0000

Last Month, I was among a group of pilgrims attending the Passion Play in Sordevolo, Italy, with the Diocese of Brooklyn. We were blessed to have as our spiritual leaders: Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto, Msgr. Steven Aguggia, pastor of St. Margaret Church, Middle Village, and Father Gerard Sauer, diocesan pilgrimage director.

There were 24 of us from various parts of the diocese who came together as a small community, yet part of a larger, universal Church. It was uplifting to travel through Italy and be reminded of the history, saints and traditions of the Catholic Church. Churches were filled with tourists, there were murals of the Blessed Mother randomly displayed through the streets and during lunch, waiters would ask our priests for blessings.

Upon arrival, we began our journey together with Mass at the Church of St. Peter’s in Chains, Rome, where Bishop Chappetto was the main celebrant. The Gospel reading was the parable of the old and new wineskins from St. Luke. Bishop Chappetto shared the importance of this passage, inviting us to be open to God’s will. He prompted us to consider in what way the pilgrimage would change us.

It was a gift to be in such a holy place, where the busyness of day-to-day life is suspended and time can be better spent in prayer.

In fact, it is important that time is suspended because once jet lag sets in, you’re exhausted. Exhausted as I was, I knelt at the Scala Sancta, or Holy Stairs, imagining Jesus’ exhaustion on His Way to the Cross. The steps, believed to be purchased by St. Helen and brought to Rome, are said to be the steps that led to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate, the steps Jesus walked during His Passion. Needless to say, at the thought of Jesus standing there, exhausted from the agony, scourging and weight of our sins, I was overwhelmed by what He has done, and continues to do for me – for us.

Another stop on the pilgrimage was Assisi, where the physical terrain of hills and valleys reminded me so much of life and Sacred Scripture – how sometimes we are in a valley, but many times we are on top of the mountain. This pilgrimage was certainly time spent on top of the mountain.

Deeply moved before the tomb of St. Francis, my mind was flooded with faces of people who have helped me in my life. How many of them were people from church! Yes, this was a personal experience; nevertheless it happened because I was able to take part in this event and was reminded at the onset to be open to conversion.

At the culmination of our 11 days together, we were each given a San Damiano pendant. We also received a book about the San Damiano Cross. Divinely inspired, it is actions such as these that remind me how much love our Heavenly Father has for us and that what we experience here on earth is just a glimpse of what is to come.

Although we don’t always have the opportunity to physically visit a place, we do have the opportunity to spend time in prayer, to actively seek out people who will nourish us spiritually and to be open to God’s will.

The author, Joyce Mennona is a current GRE student and is the religious education director at Resurrection-Ascension parish, Rego Park.

This article was originally published by The Tablet on October 8, 2015.

Classroom Conversation: Fr. Obiezu visits GRE class "Evangelization: Faith and Culture"

Wed, 07 Oct 2015 16:36:00 +0000

In late September, our “Evangelization: Faith and Culture” class was honored to host Rev. Dr. Emeka Obiezu, OSA, as guest speaker. Fr. Obiezu, an Augustinian priest, is the author of Towards a Politics of Compassion: Socio-Political Dimensions of Christian Responses to Suffering, and the vice-chair of the NGO Committee on Migration at the United Nations. An experienced theologian and advocate for the wellbeing of migrants globally, he led the class in discussion of Pope Francis’ recent visit to the United States, and in particular his address to the General Assembly of the United Nations. Fr. Obiezu suggested that Pope Francis’ approach to his pontificate was well-exemplified at the UN as the long-awaited enactment of the promise of the Second Vatican Council in the Catholic Church’s engagement with contemporary society, and as grounded theologically in Pope Francis’ “cosmic theological anthropology,” his understanding of humans as part of a network of life far beyond human and even planetary existence. From this vantage, the Christian sensitivity to incarnation, Fr. Obiezu emphasized, gains a profoundly relational, environmentally-aware, and cosmologically-aware feeling for reality and how to live in it. This discussion was a natural bridge to a class conversation about Fr. Obiezu’s book, which students had read in preparation for his visit. In Towards a Politics of Compassion, Fr. Obiezu argues from his Nigerian cultural perspective that compassion can be an effective vehicle for Christians to make the necessary changes in everyday life and social structures that are needed in Nigeria today. Compassion is grounded in human experience of sharing suffering with the other in a way that is also always caught up in a “politics” of response--such that real-world choices must be made about the effectiveness of expressing that compassion. Resources from the Catholic teaching tradition and from Nigerian religion and culture point to wise ways of being compassionate in a way that are true to human experience and effective for the social changes Nigeria needs. We were grateful for Fr. Obiezu so generously sharing his experience and work with us.

Dean Anderson Reflects: Who Am I to Judge? Pope Francis and the New Evangelization

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:13:00 +0000

Pope Francis showed he truly understands evangelization when he famously asked, “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord and is of good will, who am I to judge?” While this has alarmed some Catholics, his question reflects a deep understanding of Catholic doctrine. Evangelization does not tell people what they ought to regret, instead it offers the promise that what they actually regret can be forgiven.

More importantly, you cannot charge someone with sin, because sin is a subjective reality. It is radically subjective because it is about the relationship between God, who is not an object, and a person, who is not an object. Whereas Catholic doctrine identifies certain actions as objectively immoral, it does not equate what is immoral with sin. A person has to believe that an action is sinful for it to be so. If a person willfully did something that he or she believed was sinful, even if it was morally good, then it would be sinful for that person. So it is not our task or our place to charge people with sin, especially if the goal is evangelization. We should keep in mind the fact that contrition over sin is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not the result of browbeating.

St. Catherine of Siena perceived that the desire to punish is simply inconsistent with the Christian mission to save souls. When a person believes that he or she has the standing to act as the judge of another, St. Catherine said that the person had forgotten the infinite nature of his or her sins. Catherine wrote: “In this way [leaving judgment to Christ] you will come to me [God] in truth, and you will show that you have remembered and observed the teaching given you by my Truth, that is, to discern my will rather than to judge other people’s intentions.” (Dialogue #103) Since judgmental people can no longer look at the sins of others with sympathy, they also lose their ability to discern the will of Christ. They forget that Christ gave humanity the Church for the mission of salvation.

The question of whether or not a living person is justified – which is the question of whether or not he or she is part of the Church – cannot be answered by us. The Council of Trent taught that the formal cause of our justification is the justness of God. This justness is real; and, it is a gift given to us through the action of the Holy Spirit. So no one is justified for following the rules, for being right, for helping the poor, for personal virtue, or for meritorious conduct. The Holy Spirit apportions justification to each individual as the Holy Spirit wills in view of each person’s disposition and cooperation.

To judge, we would need to know a person’s disposition, which is a way of speaking about everything that we can attribute to genetics as well as environmental factors. Of course, none of us knows this perfectly about ourselves. Moreover, we would need to know is how much grace the Holy Spirit has given. Finally, we would need to know how much people actually cooperated with the grace that was given to judge them. Is the person who had a bad start in life, who received less grace, but who cooperated fully with the grace received, better or worse, than the person who had every advantage, who was showered with grace, but who only cooperated minimally?

Pope Francis pointed the way to becoming a more evangelical Church with his simple and humble question: “Who am I to judge?” He has not denied that there is sin, or that there is a judge, or that people need to embrace a life of ongoing conversion. All he has denied is that it is our role to judge people, which liberates us to discern the will of Christ and to love one another.

Claudio M. Burgaleta, SJ discusses the hope for a more welcoming Catholic Church in Pope's NYC visit

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 16:29:00 +0000

Pope Francis visits the United States and Cuba this week after having helped the two re-establish diplomatic relations after a rupture of more than five decades.

As a brother Jesuit and Cuban-born fellow Latino, I await his arrival in New York with great excitement and anticipation.

I look forward to hearing his Argentinian Spanish and his uncanny ability to surprise with tender gestures and imaginative turns of phrase.

And then I wonder if he will drop in to one of our New York Jesuit communities, as he has done on some of his other international trips.

He is the first pope to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi, the first Latin American and the first member of the Jesuit order in history to serve as pope.

Since his election, his simplicity of life, humility, fluid rhetoric and gestures of joy and compassion have infused the papacy with incredible popularity and affection.

This has generated what some have called the “Francis effect,” or a sense of interest and hope in a more welcoming Catholic Church.

What can we expect from him as he comes to New York City?

His roots as an Argentinian Jesuit offer us some important insights.

Greater Buenos Aires, Francis’ beloved birthplace and site of most of his life’s ministry, is a cosmopolitan, world-class metropolis.

It is home to sizable Jewish and Muslim communities. Two porteños, as those from Buenos Aires are called, Rabbi Avraham Skorka and Sheik Omar Abboud, are great friends of the pope and accompanied him to the Holy Land last May.

And similar to New York, Buenos Aires is a city of immigrants, hundreds of thousands from Europe and more recently from poorer parts of Latin America. The Holy Father himself is the son of an Italian-immigrant family from near Turin in northwestern Italy.

It is understandable, then, that Francis is visiting an East Harlem Catholic elementary school, Our Lady Queen of Angels, that serves the sons and daughters of Latino immigrants.

As a Latin American Jesuit, Francis has been influenced by what’s called “the preferential option for the poor.”

As the pope himself wrote last year, urging us not to ignore or forget the less fortunate among us:

“Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.

“The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime, all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

In 1968, Latin American bishops at Medellín, Colombia, placed themselves at the side of those seeking social justice. They saw the fight against social and economic structures of sin as an essential part of the prophetic ministry of Jesus, who came to bring the fullness of life, not only in the afterlife but in the here and now.

Buenos Aires is a city that experienced state-sponsored terrorism during the “Dirty War” of the 1970s, and the bombing of a Jewish cultural center in 1994, where 85 perished.

Sensibly then, his schedule includes an address at the General Assembly of the United Nations about world peace, economic justice and the migration crisis, and an interreligious prayer service at Ground Zero for an end to violence — in the name of God.

The Rev. Claudio M. Burgaleta, SJ is a native of Cuba and a professor at the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University.

Teaching Children How to Pray: May 2015 GRE PhD graduate Mary Ellen Durante

Thu, 14 May 2015 20:36:00 +0000

Mary Ellen Durante, Ph.D. is a May 2015 graduate who wrote her dissertation on: “Teaching Children How to Pray: An Essential Dimension of Religious Education in a Postmodern Age,” Mary Ellen plans to develop religious educational programs to offer as a consultant for religious educators, parents, and children. This ministry will also include a community outreach platform for interreligious dialogue.

Born in Rochester, New York, Mary Ellen chose a career in music performance that included her husband and children. In 2009 Mary Ellen began her studies at Fordham University with a concentration in family, church and community.

With an extensive background in curriculum development, music, and the arts Mary Ellen excels in integrating faith with creative educational programs that focus on performance, artistic production and assisting children and young people to realize their own creativity and potential. The underlining theme of her work is to show how quality religious educational programs and activities can provoke thoughtfulness, reflection, and spiritual awareness in serving others.

Watch Commencement live on Saturday

Thu, 14 May 2015 20:32:00 +0000

For our graduates and friends who cannot be in the Bronx on Saturday, you can watch a live stream of all the festivities here.

Imelda Lam, May 2015 graduate, discusses her dissertation on Confucianism and Catholic Religious Education

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 16:02:00 +0000

I am Imelda Lam. I am a curriculum officer working at the Ministry of Education of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. I work with a team that writes teaching and learning materials on religious education for teachers and students of Catholic schools in Hong Kong.

The topic of my dissertation is Catholic Religious Education and Confucianism: Some Implications for Interreligious Education in Hong Kong. This research highlighted the complementarity of Catholic Religious Education and Confucianism. It led me to explore the culture and the belief of people in the West and in the East, and took me to examine this complementary notion with an example found and implications inspired from a new curriculum that undertaking in Catholic schools in Hong Kong.

PhD Graduate - May 2015 William Mascitello - Theotic Religious Education

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 16:04:00 +0000

As Graduation approaches we want to introduce you to some of our recent doctoral graduates and their research. Congratulations to the 14 new Doctor of Ministry and Doctor of Philosophy students who have graduated this year!

William Joseph Mascitello

My B.A. is in Management and Industrial Relations is from Seton Hall University. My M.A. in Systematic Theology is from Notre Dame. I have been a religious educator in various parishes and institutions in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey for the past twenty-five years. Currently, I am in my fourteenth year as Pastoral Associate at St. Mary’s in Dumont and I am an adjunct at Felician College in Lodi.

My Dissertation: Theotic Religious Education

In the fifty years since the Second Vatican Council, Roman Catholic catechetical efforts have tended to move from emphasis on linear-rational approaches. I advocate for the re-emphasis of relational dimensions and other preter-rational elements which come together toward a more holistic approach to religious education. Renewed efforts would have theosis or divinization as orienting principle, a theme espoused by the Byzantine Christian East which is lifelong and centers on the transformation of individuals as they strive for the restoration of all the relationships in which they find themselves— those with self, others, the whole created order, and ultimately with the triune God.

Robert Wicks at GRE - When the helpers need help

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 18:43:00 +0000

School of Religion Conference Addresses Secondary Stress: When the Helpers Need Help

By Joanna Mercuri on March 9, 2015 Faith and Service, Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, Lectures and Events

People who become doctors, nurses, social workers, ministers, and other “helpers” typically enter their fields because they want to improve others’ lives. Often, though, these professionals serve at the expense of their own health and wellbeing.

Taking time to deal with the stress and anxiety that accompany helping professions is imperative, said Robert J. Wicks, PsyD, at the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) on March 6.

“Severe secondary stress is dangerous,” said Wicks, a professor of pastoral counseling at Loyola University Maryland and an expert on secondary stress and trauma in caregivers.

“For every case of someone who is experiencing severe secondary stress, there are a least a dozen others on the edge of some form of secondary stress.”

Photo by Dana Maxson

Wicks told an audience of chaplains, therapists, and students of pastoral care and counseling that secondary stress is a reality they must face within their chosen careers. Also called vicarious trauma, this stress is a kind of “emotional residue” that comes from constantly witnessing pain and suffering.

“We run the risk of catching others’ sense of despair,” he said.

Wicks headlined a GRE conference that borrowed its name from his bestselling book, Riding the Dragon: 10 Lessons for Inner Strength in Challenging Times (Sorin, 2003). He discussed five red flags that portend burnout and secondary stress:

1. Becoming over-involved in others’ emotions: Empathy is vital to establishing rapport with patients or parishioners, said Wicks. However, mental health professionals and ministers must avoid becoming emotionally entangled in patients’ distress. Otherwise, counselors and clients alike will be incapacitated by their pain.
“The seeds of caring and the seeds of burnout are the same seeds,” Wicks said.
2. Acute secondary stress: No matter how much care one takes to maintain an appropriate emotional distance, this isn’t possible 100 percent of the time, he said.
He recalled a recent session when a patient was recounting the horrors of war she endured. Before he knew it, Wicks found himself gripping the arms of his chair.
“I do darkness for a living, yet I find that if I let my guard down, I’m in trouble,” he said.
3. Chronic secondary stress: Wicks said that communications theorist Marshall McLuhan once posed the question, “If the temperature of the bath rises one degree every ten minutes, how will the bather know when to scream?”
“Many of us don’t know when to scream,” Wicks said.
Members of helping professions hold themselves to high standards, expecting to care for all people all the time, he said, while also balancing a heavy workload.
It is imperative to practice self-care as a means to deal with the stress, anxiety, and even trauma that one inevitably experiences in this profession.
4. Getting caught up in colleagues’ anger, hurt, and fragility: Every parish or clinical setting has jaded employees, said Wicks. These people deserve compassion, because their anger is often a cover for deeper pain. However, he cautioned that helping professionals should not “give your joy away” to them, or else they risk contracting their negativity.

Robert Wicks with GRE faculty.
Photo by Dana Maxson

5. Confusing the “five levels of critical”: A surefire route to burnout is mismanaging priorities, Wicks said. He advised organizing work and life according to five levels:

Critical now: urgent tasks and situations
Critical in the long-run: self-care, maintaining friendships, etc.
Critical for others: tasks and favors others ask of you, which you must triage according to your availability and limitations
Not critical: the overflowing email inbox, the pile of papers on your desk—these must be done, but they can be “zipped through” to get them out of the way
Critical not to do: tasks you decide ahead of time you will not do—in other words, boundaries. “Be aware of [your boundaries],” Wicks said. “If you give in when you’re exhausted, feeling unappreciated, or experiencing stress… you’re going to hurt yourself and someone else.”

Share.

Pastoral Counseling Video at Fordham GRE with Dr. Lisa Cataldo

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:21:00 +0000

Dr. Cataldo introduces our MA in Pastoral Care and our MA in Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Care in this short video. Find out more about what makes Fordham's programs unique in the field.

Elizabeth Johnson to speak at GRE - "Tell us, Mary, What you saw on the way" April 14th at Noon

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:46:00 +0000

GRE Presents: Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Theology | Fordham University

Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at 12:00 PM

Driving Directions >>

Map Data

Report a map error

Lincoln Center
113 W 60th St Fl Lounge # 12
New York, NY 10023
United States

Fordham University | Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education

"TELL US, MARY, WHAT YOU SAW ON THE WAY (EASTER LITURGY):
Stories of origin & the question before the Church today

After centuries of being depicted as a repentant prostitute, Mary Magdalene is acknowledged today as a leading disciple of Jesus, faithful to the bitter end at the cross, the first person to encounter the risen Christ (John’s gospel), and commissioned by him to preach the good news. This lecture places the recovery of her true gospel story in the wider context of women’s key actions during Jesus’ ministry and the years of the founding of the church. Far from ancient history, these memories offer glimpses of new ways of being church in the 21st century.

Click here to register to attend this lecture.

GRE to host the Archdiocese of New York's Men's Conference

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 21:48:00 +0000

The GRE is proud to host his Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan and the Archdiocese of New York's Men's Conference on Saturday March 21st. Joe Klecko and Damon Owens will provide keynote addresses. You can register today for this event.

Robert Wicks to speak at GRE/Fordham on Friday March 6th - register today

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 21:43:00 +0000

Riding the Dragon: Strengthening Your Inner Life in Challenging Times

Friday, March 6, 2015 at 9:00 AM

Fordham University
O'Keefe Commons (located at O'Hare Hall)
441 E Fordham Rd
Bronx, NY 10458
United States

RIDING THE DRAGON

Strengthening Your Inner Life in Challenging Times
March 6th 2015 | Fordham University | Rose Hill O'Keefe Commons

presented by Robert J. Wicks, Psy.D.

One of the greatest gifts we can share with others is a sense of our own peace. However, we can’t share what we don’t have. By discussing spiritual and psychological approaches to maintaining perspective and inner strength in challenging times, Dr. Wicks, an expert on the prevention of secondary stress (the pressures experienced in reaching out to others), offers insights into how we can live in peace and, in turn, extend our warmth to others without losing our own inner fire in the process. Topics will include: “unlearning,” maintaining a sense of perspective, ordinariness, chronic and acute secondary stress, developing a self-care protocol, knowing the “voices” we need in our circle of friends to have balance and courage in life, depth self-awareness, inner darkness, and improving mindfulness. Practical, illustrative, lively, this rich presentation will provide essential information on professional resilience and personal well-being.

Fordham Writing Center gets state of the art new home

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 21:42:00 +0000

GRE students will be happy to see that the Writing center has a state of the art new home in the Walsh library. The Writing center provides free writing assistance to our online and on campus graduate students. Here is the full story.

Serving the Church on the Margins - the Catholic Extension Society and the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education - Fordham University

Wed, 07 Jan 2015 15:52:00 +0000

In October 2014, GRE and the Catholic Extension Society presented a lecture by three prominent GRE alumni who had been assisted with funding by the Extension Society. They spoke of serving mission dioceses in Georgia, Texas and Virginia. The video of the event is available here.

Serving the Church on the Margins - October 2014 - GRE and Catholic Extension Society video

Fr. Ed Foley interview - Music and Evangelization to the Nones

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:28:00 +0000

In the Fall of 2014, Father Edward Foley lectured on campus on evangelization and the Nones, the increasing number of Americans who describe themselves as religiously non-affiliated. Click here to see the interview.

Dean Anderson speaks at forum: Do Pope Francis’ Economic Views Matter?

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:44:00 +0000

GRE's Dean, C. Colt Anderson, was one of the speakers at a recent forum on the impact of Pope Francis' Economic views. Please click here for the full story on the event.

New article from Helen Wolf, PH.D. - The Transformative Nature of Peer Ministry Programs at Catholic Colleges and Universities: Present Realities

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:53:00 +0000

Dr. Helen Wolf, a recent Ph.D. in Religious Education graduate at GRE has recently published an article entitled "The Transformative Nature of Peer Ministry Programs at Catholic Colleges and Universities: Present Realities" in teh Journal of Catholic Higher Education, 33:2(2014). Dr. Wolf is the director of Campus Ministry at the College of New Rochelle.

Fordham GRE and Catholic Extension Reach Out to Marginalized Church Members

Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:18:00 +0000

Contact: Joanna Mercuri
(212) 636-7175
jklimaski@fordham.edu

(Above) Father Shay Auerbach, who works with indigenous people in the Diocese of Richmond, talks about helping parishes in need. To his left are John Kevin Boland, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Savannah, and Veronica Rayas, director of the Office of Religious Formation for the Diocese of El Paso.
Photo by Dana Maxson
(Below) A map showing the dioceses supported by Catholic Extension.
Photo courtesy of Catholic Extension

Shortly after John Kevin Boland was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Savannah, he established a new parish deep in the rural south of Georgia. The new parish, which became known as Sandhill, comprised roughly 100 families living in a cluster of trailers, at the center of which three trailers stood side by side to serve as a church.

A month later, the Diocese of Savannah held a statewide day of fellowship in the town of Perry. Each parish brought a colorful banner to display its name. The one that stood out to Bishop Boland, however, was the white sheet tied to a tree branch with the name “Sandhill” handwritten on it.

The display was humble, but the message was clear, Bishop Boland said. Regardless of its size or the structure of its church, Sandhill parish was a proud part of the Catholic family.

Bishop Emeritus Boland was one of three alumni from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) who gathered at Rose Hill on Oct. 22 to share their experiences of working with the poorest of America’s Catholics. Bishop Boland, GRE ’91, was joined by Shay Auerbach, S.J., GRE ’92, of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, and Veronica Rayas, Ph.D., GRE ’07, of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas.

The event, “Fordham Serving the Church on the Margins in America,” was a joint effort between Fordham and Catholic Extension, a papal society that supports dioceses in need, including those in which the three Fordham alumni serve.

Founded in 1905, Catholic Extension serves 13 million Catholics in 94 dioceses around the United States and has provided more than $1.2 billion in grants. The organization also awards scholarships for diocesan workers to attend schools such as Fordham for training in religious education and leadership. Fordham alone has received $5.5 million in scholarships from the organization to educate lay ministers and clergy working in Catholic Extension dioceses.

This educational component is critical to the Catholic Extension mission because most poor, rural dioceses lack access to religious leadership, said Father Jack Wall, president of Catholic Extension.

“Sometimes it’s hard for those of us from New York, Chicago, and Boston, where the church is so well established, to conceive of the experience of Catholicism in places where there’s not an abundance of parishes, schools, clergy, and diocesan instructors,” Father Wall said.

“These are places where there’s a great distance between neighboring parishes, where Catholic worship on Sundays often takes place in double-wide trailers, and where there’s one priest for every 7,000 Catholics.”

Bishop Boland said that this has been his experience serving in the Diocese of Savannah, which covers 90 counties in southern Georgia. The diocese extends more than 37,000 square miles, all the way to the borders of Alabama to the west and Florida to the south.

“The diocese is bigger than the entire country from which I came,” said Bishop Boland, a native of Ireland.

Distance and limited resources are not the only challenges at hand, the panelists said. Forty percent of the families in Catholic Extension dioceses live below the poverty level. Many are migrants who have fled violence in Mexico and Central America. Because the majority of these migrants are Catholic, they find refuge in the parish communities.

“In El Paso, the parishes pulled together to receive the migrant families who were released from [U.S.] detention centers,” Rayas said. “People came forward to give these families a place to sleep and to take a shower, to help connect them with family members, help get them plane or bus tickets, and to just listen to their stories.”

C. Colt Anderson, Ph.D., dean of GRE — who himself grew up in Savannah and attended a parish supported by Catholic Extension — emphasized the impact of the organization’s work and the importance of its relationship with Fordham.

“The educational resources I had access to were because of Catholic Extension,” Anderson said. “The resources it provides strengthen the whole church and open up opportunities to people everywhere.”

“Our graduates are out there with Catholic Extension and they’re turning faith into action. It’s a powerful story, and it’s a story that we need to tell and to spread.”

The event was co-sponsored by GRE and Catholic Extension with support from the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies.

Click here: The three panelists discuss their experiences with Catholic Extension and how Fordham has prepared them for their work. Video courtesy of Catholic Extension.

Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 15,100 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in West Harrison, N.Y., the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., and the London Centre in the United Kingdom.
10/14

Rewiring the Brain: A new book from Dr. Kirk Bingaman, GSRRE

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:49:00 +0000

Pastoral Counseling and Neuroplasticity:

Rewiring the Brain to Lower Stress and Anxiety

Kirk Bingaman’s new book explores how recent findings in neuroscience can help in pastoral and spiritual care.Photo by Janet Sassi

By Joanna K. Mercuri

If Jesus were a neuroscientist, talk of “plasticity” might have made the final cut of his Sermon on the Mount.
It turns out that when he counseled his disciples, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself,” Jesus was tapping into a concept that neuroscientists say could reduce stress for our hyperanxious society.

At Fordham, Kirk Bingaman, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, is taking his lead from these neuroscientists and arguing that those who find solace in the sermon would also benefit from what science has to say. In his latest book, The Power of Neuroplasticity for Pastoral and Spiritual Care (Lexington Books, 2014), Bingaman suggests ways pastoral and spiritual caregivers can draw on contemporary neuroscience to help their clients and congregants relieve undue anxiety.

“We hear it in the Sermon on the Mount and we hear it in our churches today—don’t worry about tomorrow, stay centered in today. We grasp it intellectually, but how, practically, do we not worry?” said Bingaman, who is also a pastoral counselor.

In the book, Bingaman explores the impact that an adaptive mechanism known as the negativity bias has on our well-being. An evolutionary cousin of the “fight or flight” phenomenon, this bias describes the brain’s propensity to experience negative events more intensely in order to alert us to potential danger.

A built-in negativity bias was vital when humans lived as hunter-gatherers ever at the ready to flee from a hungry lion. In the modern world, however, this bias tends to cause excessive negativity and anxiety.

“[This] anxiety spills over into our relationships with others and with ourselves,” Bingaman said. “It causes us to assume the worst, to overreact to situations in ways such as, ‘Why did you look at me this way? Why did you use that tone?’”

Fortunately, he says, we are not condemned to primal negativity, thanks to the human brain’s capacity to change across the lifespan. With every new experience—creating a memory, learning new information, or adapting to a new situation—the brain undergoes structural changes, generating new neural pathways and reshaping existing ones. This ability, known as neuroplasticity, forms the crux of Bingaman’s book.

He argues that the most effective way to harness the power of neuroplasticity is through mindfulness meditation and contemplative spiritual practice. Through these therapeutic and spiritual techniques, clients learn to become aware of their thoughts and feelings. Rather than reacting to or trying to eliminate them, clients learn to simply observe them as they come and go, without getting “hooked.”

“Thoughts and feelings have a 90-second shelf-life biochemically. So when we experience an anxious thought or feeling, [the reaction] will dissipate from the blood in 90 seconds—unless we feed the thought or judge ourselves for feeling that way,” he said. “The key to mindfulness-based therapy is to let thoughts and feelings come and go without fighting them. This then reduces the limbic activity in our brains and calms the amygdala.”

These practices—which are so well-regarded that they are central to the “third wave” of classical cognitive behavioral therapy—can take a variety of forms and be applied in both religious and nonreligious settings. For example, one might spend 15 minutes each day sitting quietly and focusing on the ebb and flow of his or her breath. Alternatively, one might practice something like the Christian centering prayer, in which the practitioner meditates on a “sacred word” (such as “Jesus,” “God,” or “love”) while learning to modulate the many other chaotic thoughts that crowd the mind.

Bingaman says that these practices, informed by the science of neuroplasticity, will “necessitate a paradigm shift” in the way pastoral and spiritual caregivers approach their work with clients, especially clients whose anxiety may have been exacerbated by their own religious beliefs.

“When a theology views the spiritual quest as a matter of warfare—as a battle within the person, or as a matter of good versus evil and flesh versus spirit—that activates neural circuitry that causes stress,” he said. “If we overdo that construct, the person in our care might see himself as flawed and defective, and that could end up reinforcing the negativity bias.

“Whether it’s therapy or theology, we need to look at the frames of reference we are using to help the person in our care to calm their anxious brain. Some of our approaches are going to fire up the limbic region, and others will do the reverse,” he said. “So we have to make more use of contemplative practices in religious and spiritual circles… They’re not just for the mystics off in the desert. They’re for you and me and everyone else.”

Dr. Kirk Bingaman has published his third book

Thu, 02 Oct 2014 17:04:00 +0000

The Power of Neuroplasticity for Pastoral and Spiritual Care (Lexington, 2014). The book focuses on neuroscientific findings, which reveal that through regular contemplative-meditational practice we can learn how to calm the fear and stress regions of the brain. It provides practitioners and clinicians with an understanding of how the findings can be applied to the work of pastoral and spiritual care, as we go about helping clients and congregants to cultivate less anxious and more positive perspectives on life.