In Recognition
Catholic Studies in Rome
Bishop Kennedy Honored as Priest, Scholar, Friend
The Rome Factor
By DR. LIZ LEV
The following is an excerpt from Liz Lev’s address at the Catholic Studies 30th Anniversary event. N owhere else is the wonder of Catholicism better expressed than in the Basilica of St. Peter’s. Over the course of the Rome Program, students get to know the building from the ground up. They attend Mass, several fortunate seminarians get to serve the Pope, and they climb the dome as it becomes their domus or home away from home. They visit the scavi , the excavations below that reveal the tomb of Peter, a pauper’s grave of a body thrown into a hole in the ground after being crucified upside down for a crime he didn’t commit. The Romans thought they had thrown away the trash, but they inadvertently planted a seed. A seed that grew into the extraordinary beauty of the basilica above. The students pile through the doorway with thousands of others in the common experience of wonder. Everyone stops: the atheist, the believer, the bored and the excited, affected by the sight. The light penetrates the building, and it penetrates the soul, even though many will try to deflect its power. The Church seems so splendid, it is hard to imagine all the struggle and suffering that went into its building. Michelangelo’s astonishing dome, his own personal testimony of his faith, focused on the high altar above the grave of St. Peter. Though based on the ancient Pantheon of the pagan era, the Florentine sculptor/ painter/architect pierced the drum with sixteen massive windows giving the impression that the 137.5-foot span of brick and masonry floats above the papal altar.
Dr. Liz Lev
A s an early visionary of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas, Bishop Arthur Kennedy was honored at the 30th anniversary celebration with the Catholic Studies Priest-Scholar Award. He was also recognized as a lifelong friend of this first-of-its kind program. Dr. John Boyle, department chair, had the distinct privilege of introducing the man who helped set Catholic Studies on its path in 1993. In speaking of the earliest days of the interdisciplinary program, Boyle noted that Kennedy deeply understood there are fundamental dynamisms of reality at work and reflected in the intellectual life. “There is a unity that should characterize intellectual life and university life that points to a transcendental horizon that connects all knowledge and faith. And no one, in those early days, articulated these dynamisms as clearly and as deeply as Arthur did.” But it wasn’t just about the articulation. It was about modeling it. Kennedy was a man recognized among his colleagues as a priest and scholar. He united a spiritual vitality with an intellectual quest that permeated the whole of life. On accepting the award, Kennedy recalled his arrival in the Theology Department and his early collaborations that were foundational in the development of Catholic Studies. Together with Dr. Don Briel, they imagined the creation of the great universities of Europe that began with faith. “You begin with a sense of what it means to love God and to be loved by God. You begin with a sense of support. You begin with a sense of Divine Wisdom. And now we began to see a new way. This is what Catholic Studies became.”
Bernini had large shoes to fill as he accepted the commission a century later to decorate the altar of the chair. Bernini pushed the boundaries of art even further as he devised a way to unite painting, sculpture and architecture into an image that would illustrate the authority of the Magisterium and the mystery of the Holy Spirit. Essentially, Bernini invented the IMAX theatre, counting on the majesty of the liturgy, the enchantment of the music, and the drama of the art to transport the beholder into a sensory experience of the Divine. Michelangelo’s dome was part of a plan to create the “head and shoulders” of the Church appearing on the Roman skyline after many years of adversity during the Reformation, a rebirth of the faith as it were. Bernini followed suit by creating the colonnade, the arms of the Church open to welcome all. However, as the students leave St. Peter’s for the last time, those arms open to release them into the world to share this Renaissance with others. Ite, missa est .
Bishop Arthur Kennedy
In addition to his faculty tenure on the St. Paul campus, Kennedy identified the property in Rome that would eventually become the Bernardi campus, home to the Catholic Studies semester in the Eternal City. And he connected Catholic Studies to Dr. Liz Lev, a world- renowned art historian who has guided hundreds of Catholic Studies students through the churches and museums of Rome and opened their eyes to the reality of the faith in art. Kennedy served as Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Boston from 2010 until his retirement in 2017. The Bishop Arthur Kennedy Endowed Scholarship Fund provides essential funding for undergraduate students pursuing a major or minor in Catholic Studies.
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Lumen Winter 2024 Page 9
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