Pages in this Section:
Other Institute Activities
New Foods/New Friends Student Dinner Club Series
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20171215001259im_/https://stanselminstitute.org/images/tapas.png)
Tapas! and St. Teresa of Avila!!
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20171215001259im_/https://stanselminstitute.org/images/OurLadyOfAngels7_17_02157.jpg)
Is a local entrepreneurial startup compatible with a prayer-filled life? We”ll see for ourselves when we visit the cheesemaking Trappist nuns of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Crozet. Before then, check out this video. Transportation and dinner provided. Email Jocelyn for details: jrr2zx@virginia.edu.
40-hour Lenten Retreat
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20171215001259im_/https://stanselminstitute.org/images/Retreat_center1(1).jpg)
In this fifteenth year of serving the University community, the St. Anselm Institute will host a special Lenten retreat for all interested faculty on the weekend of February 26-28, 2016. Our last retreat was five years ago, so all available faculty members–especially those who are new to the University or Institute-sponsored programs–are invited and encouraged to participate as their schedules permit. For those unfamiliar with the ancient practice of momentarily retreating from one’s personal and work responsibilities, the general outline of this 40-hour retreat is described below.
Group I: Flannery O’Connor Short Stories![](https://web.archive.org/web/20171215001259im_/https://stanselminstitute.org/images/stories/oconnor_2.jpg)
A bit pressed for time? Then this is your group. We’ll will meet two Friday afternoons in April to enjoy several Flannery O’Connor short stories. Not familiar with Ms. O’Connor? Don’t worry about it: we promise a wonderful and twisted adventure! Not prone to risk-taking? We’ll have the experienced and ethereal Religious Studies professor emeritus Bill Wilson on hand to share his helpful insights into the wonderful world of Flannery. Heck, were so convinced that you’ll enjoy this group and Flannery O’Connor that we’ll buy The Collected Works of Flannery O’Connor for you!
April 1: “Judgment Day” and “Displaced Person”
April 15: “Parker’s Back” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find“
UVA Monroe Hall, Room 134, 2:00-3:00pm.
Group II: St. Augustine, City of God
Group III: Laudato Si!
The St. Anselm Institute will host a special faculty & friends of the Institute dinner colloquium on Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’! We’ll meet at 5:30pm, with a simple Lenten dinner served around 6:15pm. Discussion of the encyclical will follow dinner. Interested attendees are expected to have read Laudato Si’, but we’ve also invited several faculty, including Kevin Hart, Gerry Fogarty SJ, Catholic University of America theology professor Paul Scherz and Fr. Thomas Petri, O.P. of the St..Thomas Institute, to offer initial comments on various parts of the text. After their preliminary comments, we’ll open up the discussion to the full group. Given space limitations and as an aid for our dinner preparations, please let us know if you’ll be able to join us. Sorry, but limited seats available for this event. RSPVP: info@stanselminstitute.org.
UVA Family Weekend Events
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20171215001259im_/https://stanselminstitute.org/images/stories/fruit/E2_Garden_Room.jpg)
The St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought is celebrating its 18th year of service to the University of Virginia community and we’d like to treat visiting parents to a free lunch with a few of our faculty. No lectures, quizzes or homework, just lunch and informal discussion in a private, on-Grounds Jeffersonian room. Space is very limited, so we’re requesting reservations for either a 12:00pm or a 1:15pm lunch. Students welcomed to attend, too. RSVP your name and time preference to: info@stanselminstitute.org. For more information or questions, contact Prof. Charles Kromkowski (cak5u@virginia.edu).
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Minor Hall Auditorium
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20171215001259im_/https://stanselminstitute.org/images/Three-Notchd-Road-3.jpg)
Minor Hall Lobby
Before dashing off for dinner, stop by for refreshments and good cheer with UVA Catholic Hoos, University faculty associated with the St. Anselm Institute, and of course our local favorites, the Dominican Friars of St. Thomas University Parish!
Students, Faculty and Institute Friends:
You’re Invited!
“Secularlism and Law: What Really Causes Secularization?”
Keynote Lecture (2 PM), Mary Eberstadt
“Fatherhood and Forgiveness: For the Good of Society”
St. Thomas Aquinas Prayer & Study Day
Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013 (10am-3pm)
The Second Vatican Council teaches us that the development of Tradition, guided by the Holy Spirit, takes place through the “contemplation and study made by believers” (Dei Verbum). Such “contemplation and study” is characteristic of Dominican spirituality, which the University Parish of St. Thomas Aquinas seeks to prosper through its new Prayer and Study Days. The day consists of the following: Spiritual Conference (10:30 AM), Mass (12:30 PM), Luncheon (1:30 PM), Keynote Lecture (3 PM).
On Saturday, November 23, this St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Prayer and Study Day will honor the exemplary life of St. Martin de Porres by focusing on the topic: “Fatherhood and Forgiveness: For the Good of Society.”
Fr. Andrew Hofer, OP will deliver the spiritual conference. He is Master of Students of the Dominicans of the Eastern Province and Assistant Professor of Patristics and Ancient Languages at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, DC). He is the author of Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Dr. Paul C. Vitz will deliver the keynote lecture. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New York University and Senionr Scholar/Professor of Psychology at the Institute for Psychological Sciences (Arlington, VA). His many publications include Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism (Ignatius, 1999, 2013), Freud’s Christian Unconscious (1993), and Psychology as Religion: The cult of self worship (2nd ed. 1994).
Please RSVP (prayerandstudydays@gmail.com) to assist in planning for the luncheon. Childcare will be provided. The entire day is free of charge, and all are welcomed to attend.
“Glorious things are spoken of you, O City of God” (Ps 87:3)
Since Pope John Paul II”s 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) taught that societies”ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society,” there’s been a healthy discussion on the meaning of these words and the moral status of the death penalty. This St. Anselm Institute Colloquium will continue this discussion with Justice Antonin Scalia by focusing on several interrelated questions:
Students & Faculty (and Friends of the Institute):
Divine Comedy Reading Group!
![alt](https://web.archive.org/web/20171215001259im_/https://stanselminstitute.org/images/stories/Michelino_DanteAndHisPoem.jpg)
When?: 2 Fridays per month, 1:30-2:30pm
First Meeting?: Friday, Feb. 1, 2013; but if you can’t attend this day, then attend all or some of the other meetings.
Feb. 15: Cantos 4-8 (pp. 70-139)
March 1: Cantos 9-13 (pp. 140-217)
March 22: Cantos 14-18 (pp. 218-287)
April 5: Cantos 19-23 (pp.288-361)
Where?: UVA Central Grounds location (Monroe Hall 116)
What else?: Free copies of the Inferno will be provided. We’ll read approximately 20-pages per meeting.
Interested?: Contact the St. Anselm Institute (info@stanselminstitute.org) to express your interest in joining this reading group.
The Second Vatican Council and Communism Symposium
Melissa Wilde (9:15am)
Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
“The Major Debates at Vatican II”
Gerald Fogarty, S.J. (10:45am)
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the History of Christianity, University of Virginia
“Vatican II and the Cold War”
–Lunch–
James Ramon Felak (1:00pm)
Professor of History, University of Washington
“Communist Czechoslovakia and Vatican II”
Árpád von Klimó (2:15pm)
Associate Professor of History, Catholic University of America
“Communist Hungary and Vatican II”
Piotr H. Kosicki (3:45pm)
ACLS New Faculty Fellow and Lecturer in History, University of Virginia
“Communist Poland and Vatican II”
Organized by the UVA Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies as part of the UVa Polish Lecture Series. Made possible by the Rosenstiel Foundation and the American Institute of Polish Culture. Co-sponsors: Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures; St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought; Virginia Center for the Study of Religion; Department of History; Slavic Department.
“Catholic Activism Behind the Iron Curtain”
Garrett Hall Commons / UVA
The Catholic Church is often identified by its cautious, tradition-preserving characteristics, but highly sophisticated forms of religious activism–especially by Catholic lay and clerical ctivists–are widely recognized for their central role in resisting and successfully undermining Communist rule in Eastern Europe. How was this activism manifested, and why and in what ways did it succeed? What, more specifically, were the theological responses to Stalinism and to de-Stalinization? What role did religious organizations in the West play in this activism? And how did these various forms of resistance aid the transformation of Catholic-Jewish relations? Four leading historians take up these questions in a series of public lectures and discussions that will occur on-Grounds at UVA on Friday, October 26, 2012. For directions to Garrett Hall, click here.
The St. Anselm Institute is pleased to cosponsor this all-day public symposium with the UVA Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies.
FACULTY & STUDENT INVITATION
Fr. Joseph Barranger, O.P., the St. Anselm Institute, and Catholic Student Ministry invite all active and retired faculty to join all graduating students and their families at the 2015 Baccalaureate Mass on Saturday, May 15 at 7:00pm at St. Thomas University Parish.
This Mass has grown into a great University tradition over the years as faculty wear their academic regalia, process in together, and sit as a grand faculty enclave. Students are encouraged to wear their graduation gowns and process in as a group, too. Please arrive by 6:40pm to assemble in St. Thomas Hall. A light reception and photo opportunities follow the Mass. For more details, faculty can contact Keith Kozminski (kgk8d@virginia.edu); graduate and undergraduate students can contact the CSM or St. Thomas Parish.
2011 Faculty & Friends of the Institute Lenten Retreat
Benedictine Abbey Retreat Center
Richmond, Virginia
March 18-20, 2011