Merry Christmas from the CNLAP! ·
A Merry Christmas to all of our friends and supporters who over this past year have done so much to make Newman College a reality. Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to those who have devoted many hours to the renovation of the new campus in Otsego, helped coordinate the August dinner and the October symposium, and welcomed guests for Thursday lunches. Especially, we appreciate all who have remembered the CNLAP in their prayers and with their financial support.
Our special thanks to Mr. D. J. Florian, Deacon Kurt Lucas, Bishop Paul Bradley, Fr. Don Klingler, Dr. Dennis Weber, Fr. Rob Johansen, Fr. Robert Sirico, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Casey, Mr. and Mrs. Al Thorrez, Dr. Martin Brenner, Mr. Dave Etters, Dr. Henry Dietrich, Mr. Michael Miller, Dr. Brendan McGroarty, Mr. Jeremiah Banister, Dr. Paul Radzilowski, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bede, Mrs. Becky Pearson, Mrs. Dinah Howrigon, Mrs. Ria Bush, Mr. Joseph Myers, Mr. Pat McNally, Mrs. Priscilla Szalony, Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Cypher, Mr. Gary Haden, Ms. Liz Kettle, Mrs. Maria Dotterweich, Mr. Clayton Hallett, Miss Catherine Nolan, Mr. Bret Sunnerville, and many, many others.
Fr. Joseph Fessio to present the Second Annual Thomas More Lecture this spring ·
The Cardinal Newman Liberal Arts Project is pleased to announce that Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder on the St. Ignatius Institute and the St. Ignatius Press in San Francisco, will present the second annual Thomas More Lecture on Saturday, April 17th at the Newman campus in Otsego. Fr. Fessio will join the college community to discuss the importance of learning undertaken in the light of Christian revelation and how small Catholic promote the personalist culture envisioned by Pope John Paul II.
More information will be available soon.
CNLAP Celebrates its New Campus! ·
On Sunday, November 9th, 2008, friends, students, parents, catechists, and clergy joined the Newman community to celebrate the inauguration of its new campus in Otsego. All gathered to see how the historic facility, replete with golden wood moldings, archways, and cabinetry is being transformed into an academy and college household ideal for students and scholars. Welcoming Mr. Patrick Reilly, President of the Cardinal Newman Society of Manassas, Virginia, the evening began with a symposium in the spacious Humanities Seminar Room.
The scholars, parents, friends, and patrons in assembly first discussed how liberal arts learning is the study of wisdom through philosophy, theology, literature, and the classical disciplines of Latin and Greek. A liberal arts institution, like the proposed Newman College, is a place where through these studies the very best insights of Christian culture at the heart of Western civilization are kept alive. As Newman wrote in The Idea of a University, the liberal arts academy is in this way indispensable not only for the formation of the person individually but also for the building up of culture and the formation of a genuinely personalist society. Understanding this as the mission of the liberal arts academy is to understand how it is extremely necessary for our times.
The First Thomas More Lecture ·
Presented by Patrick Reilly, President, The Cardinal Newman Society
A liberal arts institution, Patrick Reilly explained, must be grounded upon the principles of Revelation. “A true liberal arts academy can only be Catholic,’ he said, “and a truly Catholic university must be a liberal arts institution.” Society is well served by schools that prepare students for careers and the professions, he went on, but liberal arts learning has been the reason for the ascendancy of Western culture historically. Now, it must be its defender. This kind of knowledge and insight is that which is most necessary in the very difficult circumstances and challenges of our present times.
Introducing Mr. Reilly during the benefit dinner, CNLAP president Dr. Ron Muller thanked those who have recently contributed to the Newman College project and pointed out how, at every phase of development, Newman has been blessed with the resources necessary for promoting its task of study and learning. In the future, he explained, he saw how Newman will become a center of learning where the excitement of ideas is paramount. He recalled the gospel account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and how they commented to themselves “Were our hearts not burning,” after Jesus explained to them the meaning of the Messiah, the crucifixion, revelation, and the world itself. Newman College aspires to the same degree of excellence in thinking, understanding, investigation, learning, discovery, witness—and excitement about ideas—he said. Newman will be very good at what Pope Benedict XVI has aptly expressed as the study of the art of authentic human living.
