Generations Newsletter, Department of Development,
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556
Half
the dioceses in the United Stated do not have a Catholic college
or university within their diocesan boundaries. Thus they depend
upon outside experts--such as Notre Dame’s Institute for
Church Life--to assist them in training their priests, lay ministers
and volunteer workers.
Most
of them are unable to send candidates for ministry formation to
seminaries and universities for lack of funding or lack of standard
academic preparation for pastoral training.
In
response, the Institute for Church Life (ICL) is creating a Satellite
Theological Education Program (STEP), which draws upon the resources
of teleconferencing and Internet communication and establishes
a link with Notre Dame’s Department of Theology to provide
help in training new ministerial candidates in far-flung places.
STEP is just one of a range of diverse ICL programs aimed at developing
and supporting leadership in spirituality, liturgy, ministry,
and social concerns. For more than 25 years, ICL (originally the
Center for Pastoral and Social Ministry) has provided training
and formation programs for new clergy and lay ministers, retreat
and renewal experiences for countless thousand of individuals
seeking to be refreshed in their faith and spirituality, and,
through the Center for Social Concerns, experiential learning
activities and volunteer service programs for students and faculty.
In
this work, writes Rev. Paul J. Philibert, O.P., who serves as
ICL’s director, “The Institute seeks to embody the spirit
and mandate of the Second Vatican Council, to implement a mission
of transforming the Church and society in light of the Gospel,
and to renew the theological and ministerial traditions and liturgies
that animate the living Church.”
The
Institute’s central office, which is developing STEP and
other programs, such as Pastoral Consultations - which brings
together bishops, lay leaders and academic experts for forge pastoral
links - also oversees the Center for Pastoral Liturgy and Retreats
International. Each of these units, in turn, has a mission to
sustain and enhance its service to the Church. Over the last three
decades, for example, the Center for Pastoral Liturgy has served
more than 13,000 liturgical workers from the United States and
abroad. Today, the Center maintains and operates an unrivaled
Liturgy Network of more than 350 professionals, representing 50
dioceses and 5,000 parishes that utilize CPL’s online real-time
database for mutual dialogue.
Meanwhile,
each year more than a million individuals enter the doors of the
nearly 400 retreat and renewal centers across the United States
and Canada that are member of Retreats International - the oldest
directed lay movement in the American Catholic Church and headquartered
at Notre Dame. The role of this ICL center is to communicate with
the personnel of these retreat centers: to provide instruction,
to disseminate research findings, to listen to the needs of the
centers, to observe and report on trends in spirituality, to highlight
success stories, and to assist others in their ongoing formation
and renewal.
The
Institute’s Central Office, the Center for Pastoral Ministry,
and Retreats International - as well as the Center for Social
Concerns, which has formal links with ICL but operates independently
- are all a part of the University’s Generations campaign.
A wide range of Institute needs translate into campaign objectives.
To name a few:
•Faculty
Fellowships for STEP: five @ $20,000 (endowment).
•Named
Endowment For Excellence in Pastoral Development: $250,000.
•Names
Endowments For Excellence on the Importance of Preaching, The
Center for Pastoral Liturgy: three @ $200,000.
•Expansion
of CPL Educational Resources via the Internet: $400,000.
•Internship
in Spiritual Direction for Retreats International: $350,000 endowment
($17,500 annual expendable).
•Regional
and International Conferences for Retreats International: $20,000.
•Leadership
Development and Minority Participation Program in the Center for
Social Concerns:$25,000.
•Social
Concerns Seminars: $120,000.
In his case statement titled “Foundations for Excellence
in Church Leadership,” Father Philibert has written:
“The
expansion of ICL’s programs and, in particular, the establishment
of a number of new endowments with in the Institute, are a reflection
of the University’s commitment to its own Catholic roots
and mission and thus is a major component of Notre Dame’s
current Generations campaign. Appropriately, this commitment and
the expansion of the Institute’s programs come on the eve
of a new millennium, a historic time for a global society and
a time of symbolic resonance for all Christians.”
These
words set the tone for both the Institute’s mission and its
determination to play an active, vibrant role in the life of the
Church in the century to come.
