The founder of the Province of St. Joseph, Father (later Bishop) Edward Dominic Fenwick, O.P. spent much of his time on horseback travelling through Ohio and Kentucky and ministering to the local Catholic communitites.  In 1812, he reached Dungannon, Ohio and celebrated the first Mass in Northern Ohio in the log cabin of Daniel McCallister.  This log cabin has been moved onto the grounds of St. Philip Neri parish in Dungannon, and enclosed for the purposes of historical preservation.  Recently, the student brothers who are stationed in Youngstown, Ohio for the summer, Br. Bruno Shah, O.P, Br. Austin Litke, O.P., and Br. Peter Totleben, O.P., together with the prior of St. Dominic Priory in Youngstown, Fr. James Sullivan, O.P.  paid a visit.  The friars, some St. Dominic parishoners, and some local residents celebrated Mass in the log cabin at the altar that Fr. Fenwick used.  Here are pictures from this event.

During yesterday’s Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Pope Benedict XVI offered seminarians and religious in formation several words of paternal encouragement and support.  Below are the relevant paragraphs, which can also benefit those still pondering their call from God.

I wish now to turn to the seminarians and young religious in our midst, with a special word of affection and encouragement.  Dear friends: with great generosity you have set out on a particular path of consecration, grounded in your Baptism and undertaken in response to the Lord’s personal call.  You have committed yourselves, in different ways, to accepting Christ’s invitation to follow him, to leave all behind, and to devote your lives to the pursuit of holiness and the service of his people.

In today’s Gospel, the Lord calls us to “believe in the light” (Jn 12:36).  These words have a special meaning for you, dear young seminarians and religious.  They are a summons to trust in the truth of God’s word and to hope firmly in his promises.  They invite us to see, with the eyes of faith, the infallible working of his grace all around us, even in those dark times when all our efforts seem to be in vain.  Let this altar, with its powerful image of Christ the Suffering Servant, be a constant inspiration to you.  Certainly there are times when every faithful disciple will feel the heat and the burden of the day (cf. Mt 20:12), and the struggle of bearing prophetic witness before a world which can appear deaf to the demands of God’s word.  Do not be afraid!  Believe in the light!  Take to heart the truth which we have heard in today’s second reading: “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and for ever” (Heb 13:8).  The light of Easter continues to dispel the darkness!

The Lord also calls us to walk in the light (cf. Jn 12:35).  Each of you has embarked on the greatest and the most glorious of all struggles, to be consecrated in truth, to grow in virtue, to achieve harmony between your thoughts and ideals, and your words and actions.  Enter sincerely and deeply into the discipline and spirit of your programmes of formation.  Walk in Christ’s light daily through fidelity to personal and liturgical prayer, nourished by meditation on the inspired word of God.  The Fathers of the Church loved to see the Scriptures as a spiritual Eden, a garden where we can walk freely with God, admiring the beauty and harmony of his saving plan as it bears fruit in our own lives, in the life of the Church and in all of history.  Let prayer, then, and meditation on God’s word, be the lamp which illumines, purifies and guides your steps along the path which the Lord has marked out for you.  Make the daily celebration of the Eucharist the centre of your life.  At each Mass, when the Lord’s Body and Blood are lifted up at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, lift up your own hearts and lives, through Christ, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, as a loving sacrifice to God our Father.

In this way, dear young seminarians and religious, you yourselves will become living altars, where Christ’s sacrificial love is made present as an inspiration and a source of spiritual nourishment to everyone you meet.  By embracing the Lord’s call to follow him in chastity, poverty and obedience, you have begun a journey of radical discipleship which will make you “signs of contradiction” (cf. Lk 2:34) to many of your contemporaries.  Model your lives daily on the Lord’s own loving self-oblation in obedience to the will of the Father.  You will then discover the freedom and joy which can draw others to the Love which lies beyond all other loves as their source and their ultimate fulfilment.  Never forget that celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom means embracing a life completely devoted to love, a love that enables you to commit yourselves fully to God’s service and to be totally present to your brothers and sisters, especially those in need.  The greatest treasures that you share with other young people – your idealism, your generosity, your time and energy – these are the very sacrifices which you are placing upon the Lord’s altar.  May you always cherish this beautiful charism which God has given you for his glory and the building up of the Church!

At the closing Mass earlier today, the Holy Father reiterated his encouragement to those considering God’s call to the priesthood or religious life:

The Church especially needs the gifts of young people, all young people.  She needs to grow in the power of the Spirit who even now gives joy to your youth and inspires you to serve the Lord with gladness.  Open your hearts to that power!  I address this plea in a special way to those of you whom the Lord is calling to the priesthood and the consecrated life.  Do not be afraid to say “yes” to Jesus, to find your joy in doing his will, giving yourself completely to the pursuit of holiness, and using all your talents in the service of others! 

We have recently made a major update to the official website of our Province of Dominican friars, the Province of St. Joseph (Eastern Province).  There you will find a wealth of information about our Province, our history, ministry, and life.  You can find a collection of audio, video, and pictures from around the Province.  The web site also gives information about how you can assist us in carrying out our mission, especially as we work to complete the expansion of our school of theology, the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception.  To see some of the ministries of the friars of the Eastern Province, visit the new Provincial website is:  www.op-stjoseph.org. If you have not visited the Provincial page in a while (or if you’ve never visited it), click over now and have a look.

The new website is designed to allow us to update it regularly, so make sure to bookmark the homepage and check it often: www.op-stjoseph.org.

Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, OP, discusses the readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time with Fr. John Martin Ruiz-Mayorga, OP, and Fr. James Cuddy, OP.

The First Annual Meeting of the Society for Spirituality, Theology, and Health, Fr. Chris Saliga, OP, was invited to present a paper on a topic concerning the intersection of theology and health. The Society is affiliated with the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health.  This first meeting brought together more than 400 scholars from a wide-range of academic fields.

During the conference, Fr. Saliga presented a paper entitled: “Promotion of Holistic Health via Excellent Family Planning: A Catholic Perspective”.  In the paper he gave, Fr. Saliga discussed the following:

This paper explains why the Catholic Church endorses only non-contraceptive sexual intercourse between spouses, even in cases in which there is “excellent medical rationale” for practicing contraceptive sexual intercourse. At its core, it demonstrates that spouses who freely engage in non-contraceptive sexual intercourse strengthen their communion with each other and with God while those who engage in contraceptive sexual intercourse contravene both.
First, key anthropological and aretaic presuppositions are explicated to help readers clearly grasp Thomistic anthropological holism and integrated/virtuous spousal sexual activity.

Second, the one bi-partite object of non-contraceptive spousal union is fleshed out in order to demonstrate that, because every contraceptive sexual act violates the one bi-partite object of every virtuous sexual act, contraceptive sexual activity, regardless of circumstance and intention, is never good for spousal and family holistic health. Finally, practical and ethical implications that follow upon the fact that “catholic health institutions may not promote or condone contraceptive practices but should provide, for married couples and the medical staff who counsel them, instruction both about the Church’s teaching on responsible parenthood and in the methods of natural family planning” are considered.

In the end, readers come to a fuller appreciation of why the Catholic Church refuses to endorse contraceptive practices within Catholic health care organizations.

A number of the documents used by Fr. Saliga during his talk are available at the Society’s website, including his abstract, a handout, and the informational poster.

Fr. Saliga’s article begins with this introduction:

Arguments for or against voluntary suicide and/or voluntary euthanasia (hereafter referred to as voluntary death) usually presuppose reductionist understandings of human attributes such as freedom.  For example, folks sometimes ask: what is so terribly wrong with a person coming to a substantially-autonomous decision to die?  In more personal terms, why should “you” be able to tell “me” that “I” should not voluntarily choose death on “my own” terms?

How, one might wonder, can I respond to such a line of thought in cogent and convincing fashion?  One can do so by accounting for freedom more completely.  For example, more than simply asking yourself what you are free from, have you ever asked yourself what you are free for?  Does a sufficient lack of coercion account for the totality of your freedom?  In other words, have you ever voluntarily chosen a course of action that has left you less free at the end of the day?  Bearing such questions in mind, does it not seem reasonable to hold that although voluntary choice is a part of personal freedom, it is not the whole of personal freedom?

And yet, how can one prudently consider voluntary death vis-à-vis more fulsome freedom? …

[The article can be read in its entirety here:  "Freedom and Voluntary Death".]

Fr. Saliga is currently the full-time chaplain at Walsh University and is assigned to our priory of St. Dominic in Youngstown, OH.  Fr. Saliga has his nursing degree from Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH and most recently was assigned to hospital ministry from our priory of St. Catherine in New York city.

Strictly speaking, there is no such science as “Catholic Bioethics” just as there is no such thing as “Catholic Baseball,” “Catholic Dentistry,” “Catholic Garbage Collection,” or “Catholic Plumbing.” Catholics do these activities, but they are not based upon divine revelation. Bioethics is a species of the science of ethics concerned especially about the beginning and ending of bodily life as well as the morality of certain medical procedures during a person’s life. It uses reason to understand what kinds of activity done by doctors are in accord with human dignity and flourishing, and what kinds are only apparently so and actually undermine, mutilate or destroy the goods of human beings.

Now there are many issues which human reason unaided by divine revelation cannot know that should be part of the underlying principles of bioethics. Pure reason does not know that the human person’s soul is immediately created by God nor does it know that human beings are meant to become completely fulfilled in a next life by the beatific vision. Again, reason does not understand why human beings do not achieve happiness in this life and why it is next to impossible to grow and develop in a life of virtue. Reason would seem to prefer as its prime principle that virtue has its own punishment and feelings should often trump what is reasonable and proportionate, notwithstanding the objections of Aristotelian or Thomistic philosophers. …

[The entire article can be read at the Catholic Exchange website by clicking here.]

Fr. Basil Cole, OP, teaches moral, spiritual, and dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception.  His new book, The Hidden Enemies of the Priesthood, is now available.

Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, OP, discusses the readings for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time with Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP, and Fr. Bryce Sibley.

Fr. Hugh Vincent Dyer, O.P., has a new article on the GodSpy website.  A newly ordained priest, Fr. Hugh Vincent reflects on the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the Church and the importance of our belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament:

I was ordained a priest on May 23rd. My life now is now bound more intensely than ever to the central Mystery of our faith, the Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. I never imagined that so soon in my priestly life would I see the Eucharist attacked so publicly.

You may have seen these stories in the press. On June 29th, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Webster Cook, a student and member of the student government at the University of Central Florida, took the Eucharist “hostage” in order to protest the use of University money to support religious organizations….

[The rest of his article can be read on the Godspy website.]

Fr. Hugh Vincent Dyer, O.P., was ordained a priest on May 23, 2008.  He is currently assigned as a parochial vicar at the Church of St. Mary in New Haven, CT.