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.
