Fall/Winter 2003 - St. Jerome`s University

Creating community
I
t could have been Convocation: the
procession of professors in full regalia, the
students walking forward one by one to be
greeted by officers of the university. But it wasn’t.
Held in Siegfried Hall on St. Jerome’s feast day,
September 28, 2003, it was St. Jerome’s first
Investiture Ceremony.
The event was held to welcome all new
students and their parents to the St. Jerome’s
community, says Andrea Charette, Director of
Student Services. “Convocation is a very important
event for both students and their families. We
wanted to do something equally meaningful at the
beginning of their time with us.”
good, Charette admits. “Students like the
convenience of QUEST. But more than one said
they missed coming in to see us.”
More importantly, without that face-to-face
meeting, some students might never know who
their academic advisor is, talk to anyone about
career goals or finances, or know who to ask
about personal problems. “The onus was on us to
make the connection,” Charette says.
Making connections is the purpose of a slate
of new initiatives, starting with the Investiture
Ceremony. To maintain the connection, the
St. Jerome’s Off Campus Connection program
(SOCC), coordinated by students Tracy Pickard
and Melanie
Seaborne, offers
non-resident
students a
program of
events such as
bonfires, bus
trips, and
lectures, as well
as volunteer
opportunities.
Smaller events
can have an
impact too, like
the Student Life
101 breakfast for
new students
held in August,
and the
orientation week
barbecue with
First- year students at St. Jerome’s first investiture ceremony.
staff and faculty
Photo: Mike Christie
doing the
The ceremony, the presentation of cooking—a successful party that attracted 200 of
a gold “SJU” lapel pin to each
this year’s 260 new students.
student, and the signing of a
Sometimes, all it takes is a phone call to break
special book, followed by a reception
the ice. Last year, early in the term, staff contacted
and evening mass, combined to make an early and all new students to ask how things were going.
memorable connection with new students,
They asked about specifics. “Do you know who
including those not living in residence—the ones
your academic advisor is? Do you know how to
who may have difficulty getting involved in the
use QUEST?” The students were also informed
university community unless the community
about health services, counselling, and other
reaches out to them.
support services, and of opportunities for getting
St. Jerome’s has always prided itself on being a involved with the St. Jerome’s Students’ Union
place where everyone knows one another,
and ATC (Across the Creek), the recently revived
student newsletter.
everyone belongs. In the past, staff and students
The response was so positive, the calls will be
made each others’ acquaintance as the students
repeated this year. “Many had questions that we
came in to drop or add courses or view their
were able to resolve right then,” Charette says.
records. But now, students can do most of their
“But most of all, they were so pleased that we had
paperwork online, through QUEST, the
reached out to them.”
university’s student information system. Which is
St. Jerome’s University
Volume 21 · Number 2
Fall/Winter 2003
A weekend of affirmation
by Michael W. Higgins
T
Michael W. Higgins is
President of St. Jerome’s
University.
Photo: Ron Hewson
The ceremony
itself is
designed to
reflect the
academic and
spiritual values
that underpin
the educational
project that is
St. Jerome’s
University.
hings happen at St. Jerome’s University in
the University of Waterloo. We take some
pride in that and so should you as our
valued graduates and friends.
Most recently, we’ve instituted a new ceremony
welcoming our first-year class: the St. Jerome’s
Investiture Ceremony. (Not, as one hard-of-hearing
fellow thought, the SJU investment seminar.) This
was not designed as some form of especially twisted
torture—dragging the students out of bed at the
early hour of 4:30 in the afternoon, bringing their
parents back onto campus just when they thought
they were rid of them. No, we thought it
important to highlight this threshold moment in
some significant way because our first-year class is
entering a community of learning, a company of
scholars; they are now part of a tradition that is
centuries old. Moreover, they have chosen to join
this universal and transhistorical community
|in a local and historical way: by registering at
St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
This threshold moment requires recognition.
The ceremony is designed to remind our firstyear students that they are in for the long haul.
Not that it will take longer for them to get their
degree at St. Jerome’s University than elsewhere.
No, I mean that they have become part of the
St. Jerome’s family, and that they will carry its
values and ethos within them—the enduring
friendships and the wisdom.
The ceremony itself is designed to reflect the
academic and spiritual values that underpin the
educational project that is St. Jerome’s University.
We began with an academic procession (all
gowned appropriately) followed by an opening
prayer led by our Chaplains and a word of
welcome from me as President. Readings from the
Hebrew and Christian scriptures, a selection from
our own University history, Enthusiasm for the
Truth, and an address from our Dean, Kieran
Bonner, conveyed to the initiates the importance
of learning and academic life.
The investiture proper involved a summons by
our Registrar, Dana Woito, and a presentation by
our Director of Student Services, Andrea Charette,
and Associate Dean, Steve Furino, of the SJU pin,
which was affixed to each quivering student.
Finally, our Librarian, Carolyn Dirks, oversaw the
moment when the newly invested student signed a
book recording the names of our first-year class for
2003. Three, four, or five years hence each student
will sign the book again at the closing
Convocation or graduation exercises.
2
The Investiture Ceremony was not intended to
clothe the students with the full splendour and
robes of high office in the medieval manner. In
fact, we expected the students to come fully
clothed beforehand. Rather, the Investiture
Ceremony is a partial clothing with the SJU
insignia, and it is a privilege. Our students will
bear the sign of this company of scholars with
pride for years to come.
The Investiture Ceremony–our inaugural
one–was part of the St. Jerome’s weekend. The
first part of the triduum–if you can pardon the
blasphemy for a moment–began on Friday night,
September 26th, with the third annual
St. Jerome’s Feast. This year we acknowledged the
contribution of the Honourable Allan J.
MacEachen as the recipient of the Chancellor
John Sweeney Award for Leadership in Catholic
Higher Education. Dr. MacEachen, a political
legend in this land, was appropriately feted and
celebrated at a sumptuous feast full of rich food,
rich company, and rich conversation. In honouring
Dr. MacEachen we also honoured the university
that he has nobly served and championed as an
ambassador: St. Francis Xavier University in
Antigonish, Nova Scotia, a university that is
currently celebrating its 150th anniversary year.
The St. Jerome’s Feast is about recognition
and leadership in the area of Catholic higher
education in Canada. But it is also about the
values communicated and embodied by a tradition
hundreds of years old, by an educational network
of like-minded institutions struggling to make
sense of an ever-changing world, by a corps of
teachers and students who appreciate the critical
and indispensable role of the spiritual in the
making of the genuinely and fully human. It is
what St. Francis Xavier University, King’s College
at the University of Western Ontario (our sister
college that regularly celebrates this feast with us),
SJU, and the many other affiliated, federated, and
independent Catholic colleges and universities in
Canada do. We are a national resource, a treasure.
Just a bit like Dr. MacEachen himself.
And so we opened with the Feast and,
appropriately, we concluded with the annual
St. Jerome’s Day Mass on Sunday evening. An
exhausting weekend by everyone’s reckoning. But
also a weekend of good feeling, affirmation,
solidarity, and enlightenment.
Not a bad way to spend a late September
weekend and a very good way to remember who
we are and what we are about.
MacEachen accepts Sweeney Award
S
elected to
Parliament in
the Cape
Breton riding
of InvernessRichmond
(later Cape
Breton
HighlandCanso) in
1953. Over the
next 26 years
he held many
cabinet-level
posts, including
the ministries
of Labour,
National
Health and
Welfare,
Manpower and
Immigration,
and Finance,
and he was
Government House Leader, President of the Privy
Council, Secretary of State for External Affairs,
and Deputy Prime Minister. He also served in the
Senate from 1984 to 1996.
At St. Francis Xavier, MacEachen served on
the board of governors for six years and was
instrumental in creating the Sister Veronica Chair
in Gaelic Studies. He was also the driving force
behind the establishment of the Chair in Social
Justice. “If the Christian Church is ever to find
common ground with youth,” he said, “that
common ground must be on the matter of social
justice for the world.”
The Legal Studies and Criminology Option,
directed by Fred Desroches, Sociology, is
now based at St Jerome’s. New interdisciplinary courses include Introduction to Legal
Studies, offered this fall, and Convict
Literature—writing by prisoners and about
prisons—planned for 2004. This interdisciplinary program complements St. Jerome’s
activities in Sexuality, Marriage and the
Family, Medieval Studies, Italian Studies, and
a nascent Irish Studies program. ◆ The Dutch
Wife (Penguin, 2002), the latest novel by Eric
McCormack, English, was a finalist for the
2003 Toronto Book Award. ◆ Again this year,
in collaboration with the Canada Council for
the Arts, St. Jerome’s is hosting a series of
public readings by Canadian poets, novelists, playwrights, and essayists. The series, coordinated by
English professor Gary Draper, includes Stan Dragland,
Neil Bissoondath, Gail Bowen, Joan Crate, Barry
Dempster, Donna Morrissey, and Karen Solie, and may
include John Brooke. ◆ B.J. Rye, Psychology, is collaborating with a former St. Jerome’s student, Sarena Weil,
on a Canadian Mental Health Association project. Weil
won a Trillium grant to set up and evaluate an intervention program for high school students who suffer from
social anxiety and depression. Rye also helped organize a conference in Toronto for an Androgen
Insensitivity Syndrome Women’s Support Group, won a
$5000 grant from the Hospital for Sick Children for the
event, and spoke at the conference, which took place
August 15-17, just after the widespread power outage.
SJU News
peaking at the third annual St. Jerome’s
Feast on September 26, the Hon. Allan J.
MacEachen, the recipient of the Chancellor
John Sweeney Award for Leadership in Catholic
Education, drew a parallel between St. Jerome’s
and his own university, St. Francis Xavier in
Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Both are longestablished Catholic universities that were
originally led by German-speaking priests.
Strangely, after St. FX’s first rector, Fr. John
Schulte, “mysteriously disappeared from his post,”
MacEachen said, he resurfaced as an Anglican
priest—in Berlin, Ontario.
The St. Jerome’s Feast is an annual dinner
held to recognize leadership in Catholic postsecondary education and to raise funds for
St. Jerome’s graduate program in Roman Catholic
Life and Thought. MacEachen, a cabinet minister
under Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, spoke
of the Scottish-Catholic tradition “proudly
transplanted in Cape Breton” that gave rise to
St. FX. “It is my strong conviction that it is
important to maintain that tradition that goes
back so far, and that means so much to the people
I come from,” he said.
“Dr. MacEachen is an outstanding example of
the extraordinary leadership provided by alumni in
the cause of Catholic post-secondary education,”
says Michael W. Higgins, St. Jerome’s president.
“Throughout a distinguished political career,
Dr. MacEachen has never flagged in his
commitment to St. FX and, in honouring him, we
honour all those who, through their voluntary
efforts, further the historic role of Catholic
universities.”
After graduating from St. FX in 1944,
MacEachen was a professor there until he was
3
Current Chancellor Richard
Gwyn, right, with the
Honourable Allan J.
MacEachen, recipient of
the Chancellor John
Sweeney Award for
Leadership in
Catholic Education.
Photo: Mike Christie
Two new faculty members
Gerardo Acerenza,
French and Italian
Studies (left) and Bruno
Tremblay, Philosophy,
are the newest faces at
St. Jerome’s.
SJU News
Photo: Ron Hewson
erardo Acerenza, Italian and French
Studies, joined St. Jerome’s in July. Born in
Potenza, in southern Italy, Acerenza first
learned about French Canada in a dictation exercise
in primary school. “I hadn’t known before that
there were people in North America who spoke
French,” he recalls. That spark of interest led to
studies in French-Canadian literature at Potenza’s
Basilicata University and, in 1996, to the University
of Montreal, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on
the language of Jacques Ferron, a leading figure in
Québécois letters.
Acerenza’s special focus is on the relationship
between linguistics and literature. He is currently
G
exploring the role of French dictionaries in
French-Canadian literature and organizing a
“Colloque St. Jerome’s—Dictionnaires et
littérature canadienne-française,” to be held at St.
Jerome’s in November 2004. This year he teaches
three Italian and two French language courses.
While living in Montreal didn’t take much
adjustment—“It’s a very European city”—
Kitchener-Waterloo is quite different. But he is
settling in and getting to know the area.
Also new on campus is Bruno Tremblay,
Philosophy. Born in Chicoutimi, Quebec, he
attended Laval University for doctoral studies in
philosophy. Why that discipline? “I hated
specialization. I would have liked to study
mathematics, physics, literature—but couldn’t do
all that. I decided to go into philosophy because it
is the broadest discipline of all.”
The explanation also applies to his focus on
medieval philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas and
Albertus Magnus, whose interests ranged almost
everywhere. “I am currently doing research on
Albertus’ and Boethius’ logical treatises, and intend
to do so for a few more years,” he says. His
interests also include informal logic, Greek
philosophy, and philosophy of science. In his first
year he will teach Introduction to Philosophy (fall
and winter), Ethical Theory, and Philosophy
in Literature.
Tremblay comes to Waterloo from Quebec City,
where he taught at Laval and at the College of
Sainte-Foy. Before that he taught at the University
of Victoria and at Lester B. Pearson College in
British Columbia. Coming to St. Jerome’s allows
him to learn more about a system that links a small
college or university with a large one—an English
academic tradition that’s not seen in Quebec.
“The conference was a success, although the meeting
was a lot smaller than we anticipated, because of the
blackout,” Rye reports. Finally, continuing work she
began at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
(CAMH), she presented research based on the “School
Culture” project at meetings of the Canadian
Psychological Association and the American
Psychological Association this summer. She is now an
affiliated scientist with CAMH and works on this project
as a volunteer. ◆ Alumni will remember the library’s
collection of high-quality recordings of Shakespeare’s
plays, including performances by the likes of Sir
Laurence Olivier and Albert Finney, on vinyl albums.
Over the summer, library staff have converted these
platters to compact discs for the use of a new genera-
tion. Pericles, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet are
already available for loan. ◆ In the winter 2003 term,
St. Jerome’s housed the first group of students from
the University of Calabria (Unical) in Italy, as part of the
tripartite exchange agreement between St. Jerome’s,
the University of Waterloo, and Unical. The six Italian
students, although a touch homesick at the start,
ended up enjoying their stay and their studies. Gabriel
Niccoli, Italian Studies, the coordinator for the agreement, says he became their Canadian “father.” In the
course of their stay the students visited Niagara Falls,
took in a basketball game in Toronto, and toured the
Elora/St. Jacobs area. “They brought their precious
coffee machines from Italy and would often surprise me
at the office with specially made espresso—just for the
4
Floyd Centore remembered
F
loyd Centore died on August 24, 2003. A
faculty member at St. Jerome’s since 1969,
he chaired the Philosophy department in the
early ’70s and early ’80s. As a philosopher, his
central interest was the human condition. He
published seven books, with an eighth—The
Reality of God—expected to come out in 2004.
Of them all, says Gerry Campbell, Philosophy, a
friend and colleague for 34 years, he was proudest
of Confusions and Clarifications, which he wrote
for his students.
Although he was recognized as a leading
Thomist scholar, for Centore the students
provided his real motivation for coming to work.
“Floyd thrived on teaching,” Campbell says. “And
the students obviously had great affection for him,
as the course evaluations showed.”
He was known for a down-to-earth teaching
style, conveying philosophical abstractions in
terms students could grasp and remember, no
matter what their age. Doug McManaman
(BA ’84) enjoyed his classes so much that later, as
a teacher in Toronto’s separate school system, he
took all his students to St. Jerome’s every
semester to talk with a real philosopher. “What
particularly impressed my young students were his
zeal and his ability to answer their questions by
opening up a door to a universe of learning,”
McManaman says.
Centore paid close attention to his students
and often would work as hard as they did on the
assignments, copiously annotating draft essays and
suggesting useful sources. “He was thorough,
organized, and caring,” says Mary Jac Tell
(BA ’79), now a St. Jerome’s library staff member.
She recalls Centore taking the time to guide her
through a maze of philosophy books when she
was an
overwhelmed
mature student
with young
children.
He was
never shy about
expressing his
opinion,
whether in a
memo to
colleagues or a
letter to the
local newspaper.
“Floyd came of
the tradition
that philosophy
is not a
specialization,
but encompasses all the arts and sciences,” says
Campbell. “He was equally ready to speak about
morals or science or the history of philosophy. Yet
in all the 34 years I knew him I never heard him
say an unkind word about anyone. Even in
disagreement with someone’s philosophical
position, he was never demeaning.”
Above all, friends recall his sense of humour,
optimism, and serenity. McManaman describes
him as a professor who never fell prey to the sin of
intellectual arrogance, who “could have lunch
with anyone.” To Gabriel Niccoli, Italian Studies,
he was “as real and authentic as they come,” a
man whose faith found expression in love of
friends, family, and students.
Floyd Centore leaves his wife Helen and three
children—Paul (BMath ’91), Laura (BA ’96), and
Helen (BA ’90, Renison).
‘professor papi’,” Niccoli recalls. “They’re always calling me from Italy and they miss this place and all their
wonderful new friends (they stayed in our residences),
even though they had never imagined that winters
could be so cruel.” ◆ In June 2003 the peripatetic
Scott Kline, Religious Studies, travelled to Montreal to
take part in a week-long round table meeting on evil
and international affairs, sponsored by the Carnegie
Council on Ethics and International Affairs. In August
2003 he spoke to the Kansas City, Missouri Rotary
Club on “Religion, Evil, and International Affairs.” In
November 2003, he’ll be back in Montreal delivering a
paper entitled “The Culture War Goes Global: ‘Family
values’ and U.S. foreign policy” at the Ninth
International Karl Polanyi Conference. ◆ English faculty
members Danine Farquharson, Gary Draper, Carol
Acton, and Ted McGee are teaching a new series of
student essay-writing workshops this fall called Write-itright@SJU, coordinated by chief librarian Carolyn Dirks.
Workshops have intriguing titles such as “Writing is
Lego” and “Juliet’s Dresses or Bottom’s Ass.”
Complementing the workshops is a website that will be
accessible by a link on the St. Jerome’s website,
www.sju.ca, featuring clear, practical tips on writing and
links to other helpful websites. A list of “St. Jerome’s
profs’ pet peeves” includes such sins as “Leaving the
assignment to the last minute (they can tell!)” and
“Highfalutin’ diction: when the words chosen don’t
mean exactly what the writer thinks they do, or when a
simpler word would do the job better.” ◆ The New
5
Charity Run
supports shelter
program
St. Jerome’s 28th
Annual Charity Run was
held on October 4,
coordinated by students
Heather Harrison,
Jasmine Light, and
Cassandra Roach.
Following opening
ceremonies in the St.
Jerome’s courtyard,
approximately 60 people
took part in the fivekilometre run/walk (two
laps) around the Ring
Road. Later they enjoyed
a barbecue hosted by
the Students’ Union and
a spaghetti supper run
by the Student Catholic
Community. In the
residences, the floors
competed against each
other to raise money.
The day’s events brought
in more than $3,700 to
support the St. Louis
Church Out of the Cold
Program, which provides
shelter and a meal for
homeless people during
the winter through
several area churches.
First Art and
Spirit Festival
premieres
SJU News
The first annual St.
Jerome’s Festival of Art
and Spirit, held July 4-5,
had an encouraging first
run, says organizer
Danine Farquharson. The
average attendance at
readings was 45.
Approximately 80 people
came to the Michael
Enright panel discussion,
while the Kevin Burns
multimedia opener and
the Sanctuary jazz trio
concert drew about 95
each. It’s expected the
numbers will grow as the
festival’s reputation
spreads. “We would like
to shift the focus each
year,” Farquharson says.
“This year it was on the
written word. Next year
the focus might be on
visuals; the following
year, on music.”
Farquharson’s horizons
keep expanding
T
he scope of Danine Farquharson’s radar
recently expanded to include Irish
women’s writing. “Most of the Irish
writers I’ve studied and taught have been men,”
she explains. “I’m now also looking at the writing
of contemporary female authors such as Edna
O’Brien, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, and Emma
Donoghue.”
Farquharson is an assistant professor of
English who came to St. Jerome’s from Memorial
University two years ago as a specialist in Irish and
20th-century British literature. Still on the
horizon is a website devoted to the Easter Rising
of 1916—“a watershed event in Irish history”—a
gathering of novel excerpts, poems, songs, art,
and political cartoons connected to the event. The
website may be up, although not complete, by
next summer.
Working with Fred Desroches, Sociology, she
has developed a new course, Convict Literature,
to be offered as part of the Criminology and
Legal Studies program by winter 2004. The
course covers writing by prisoners, or by nonprisoners about prisoners and prisons—a topic
that touches on sociology, politics, theology, and
philosophy. “The metaphor of the prison versus
freedom is something all writers tap into at some
point,” Farquharson says. As an interdisciplinary
course taught by different professors, it’s ideal.
“Prisons are present in all nations and cultures,
but vary in each. If you teach the course with
reference to the American experience, it will be
very different from the same course related to the
South African or Irish experience.”
Quarterly, a literary magazine
published out of St. Jerome’s
University at the University of
Waterloo, has won the Gold Medal
for Fiction and the Gold Medal for
Poetry at the 2003 National
Magazine Awards, beating out
better-heeled magazines like Toronto
Life. The fiction award went to Anne
Fleming of Vancouver and the poetry
to Alison Pick of St. John’s. Both writers have a Waterloo connection. Pick
grew up in the area and attended KCI;
Fleming is a UW grad (BA ’88) and her
story contains many local references.
6
If literature is
the air she breathes
(“But I’m making
an effort to read
something at home
that is not Irish
literature,”)
teaching is her food
and drink. There is
a quiet satisfaction
in research that
includes the
recognition of your
peers, but nothing,
she says, can beat
seeing that “I got
it!” expression on a Photo: Ron Hewson
student’s face. “That’s worth any number of years
of graduate school, any amount of student debt,
any number of meetings you have to sit through.”
And the light can shine both ways. Partly as a
result of discussions with some very bright fourthyear students, Farquharson began to see British
writer Julian Barnes in a new light, and is starting
a new study of his work.
She thrives on interaction with people, both as
individuals—she serves as St. Jerome’s grievance
officer—and in large numbers. This summer she
chaired the organizing committee for St. Jerome’s
first Festival of Art and Spirit. Next up, she is
organizing a conference of the Canadian
Association for Irish Studies, of which she is the
secretary-treasurer. The conference will be held at
St. Jerome’s in May 2005.
The word from Rome
“
T
he ash heaps of Church history are littered
with the corpses of journalists who tried to
predict the outcome of papal elections,”
John L. Allen, Jr. told an attentive audience in
Siegfried Hall this September. But although he
refused to name a favourite, he did offer three
front-runners and one dark horse. One of the
four, he believes, will succeed John Paul II as the
next pope.
Allen was delivering the Somerville Lecture
on Christianity and Communications, “The Word
From Rome: The Next Pope and the Future of
the Church.” The lecture, part of the 2003-2004
season of the St. Jerome’s Centre for Catholic
Experience, is sponsored by the Toronto-based
Catholic Register. The author of Conclave: The
Politics, Personalities and Process of the Next Papal
Election (2002), Allen covers the Vatican for the
Kansas-based National Catholic Reporter and will
be a commentator for major American television
networks during the next conclave.
Allen began by demolishing two points of
conventional wisdom, beginning with the
widespread expectation that the next pope will be
Italian. “It’s true that many Italians feel the Polish
experiment has had its day,” he says, but the
numbers don’t support an Italian pope. Of the
109 cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal
election, only sixteen are Italian.
Second: of the 109 eligible cardinals, 104
were appointed by John Paul II. Logic says they
will probably elect someone like him, but history
does not agree. “Papacies do not unfold in linear
fashion,” Allen says. Instead, there is a pendulum
effect—a perceived need to change direction,
especially at the end of a long papacy. The
progressive Leo XIII was succeeded by the antimodernist St. Pius X, for example.
So, there are no sure bets. But we do have
some clues to the likely leaders, based on Allen’s
understanding of the criteria the cardinals are
using to evaluate the candidates.
Five criteria
The first is geography. When Karol Wojtyla was
elected in 1978, the “Church of Silence” was
behind the Iron Curtain. Today’s oppressed
church is in the Third World. If the cardinals
decide to send a signal by electing a Third World
pope, he will probably come from Latin America,
where half of the world’s 700 million Catholics
live, and where the church exudes a “youthful
energy and muscularity” that is very stimulating,
Allen says.
Next criterion: age. John Paul II was elected
at 58 and still holds his post 25 years later. Allen
senses that with the world changing so fast, Rome
may want a shorter papacy next time. The ideal
choice would be a man aged 65 to the early 70s.
Third: stance on the “mega-issues” facing the
church—globalization, biotechnology, the role of
the laity and women, and inter-religious dialogue.
Overshadowing all, Allen says, is the issue of
collegiality. The general feeling among the
cardinals is that there has been too much
micromanagement. The next pope must be
willing to spread power around and must have the
realpolitik skills to make this work.
Fourth is charisma. In 1978, the media fell in
love with a mountain-climbing playwrightphilosopher-pope, a master communicator. His
successor needn’t cast such a large shadow,
although he must be able to hold his own on the
world stage with other heads of church and state.
Allen senses strong agreement in the College of
Cardinals that rather than a world statesman, they
want someone who is pastoral, who will confirm
people in their faith and support the pastoral role
of the church.
The final criterion is holiness—a quality that’s
rare and hard to define.
Four cardinals
Looking around, Allen sees nobody who fits all
the criteria. But four cardinals do have a buzz
around them.
Cláudio Hummes, from Brazil, is seen as a
humble man and a pastoral cleric with the capacity
to foster unity among opposed factions; but he
lacks charisma. Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, from
Honduras, is charismatic, media-savvy, and a
passionate advocate of social justice; but does he
have the necessary intellect? Godfried Danneels,
from Belgium, is respected for his erudition and
could strengthen the church in Europe—but will
the cardinals elect a European? The dark horse is
Lubomyr Husar, head of the Greek-Catholic
Church in Ukraine—an unlikely choice as a U.S.
citizen and a Slav (like the current pope), but
revered for his moral courage.
Although he’s willing to name the apparent
front-runners, Allen is still hedging his bets. “The
process is more open, and there are more
prospects for surprise than people think.”
7
St. Jerome’s
Centre for
Catholic
Experience
2003-2004
October 31
Preston Manning, Living
the Interface between
Faith and Politics
(Wintermeyer Lecture)
November 14
Cynthia Mahmood,
Understanding Terrorists
and Martyrs: Personal
Encounters with
Religious Militants
(Teresa Dease Lecture)
Also in Toronto,
November 12
January 23
Robert Schreiter, CPPS,
Plurality and Differences
in an Unstable World
(Scarboro Missions
Lecture) Also in Toronto,
January 24
February 13
Joseph Schner, SJ,
Growing Up in a School
of Love (Ignatian Lecture)
March 26
Christopher Burris, How
Do I Hate Thee? (Joint
Waterloo Region Catholic
District Board/St.
Jerome’s University
Lecture)
April 2
Miriam Martin, PBVM,
Women and Worship
(Joint Waterloo Region
Catholic District
Board/St. Jerome’s
University Lecture)
www.sju.ca/services/stju
_centre for information
on times and locations
The St. Jerome’s
Graduates’ Association
established the Father
Norm Choate
Distinguished Graduate
Award to recognize
graduates who have
made outstanding
contributions to their
professions, their
communities, or the
church.
If you know of a St.
Jerome’s graduate who
deserves this
distinction, please
submit a nomination
including the following
information:
• the nominee’s name,
current address and
phone number;
• a summary of the
achievements which
qualify the nominee for
consideration, and
• your name, address
and phone number.
Direct nominations to:
The Graduates’
Association
c/o Harry Froklage
Director of Development
and Graduate Affairs
St. Jerome’s University
290 Westmount Road
North
Waterloo ON N2L 3G3
or via e-mail to
froklage@uwaterloo.ca
The deadline for
nominations is Friday,
January 30, 2004.
A distinguished voice
D
ick Callahan (BA ’62, Latin and English)
came to St. Jerome’s from Scranton,
Pennsylvania as a seminarian more than
40 years ago. With other students at Kingsdale he
was invited to try out for the UW Warriors
basketball team but, sidelined by injuries, he had
to wait until 1962 to make a contribution—and
not with his slam dunk. When a PA announcer
failed to show up on one occasion, Callahan, with
no credentials but chutzpah and a knowledge of
the game, volunteered for the job.
That one game turned into a whole season.
Since then, he’s turned his voice into a gift to his
community. This November he returns to St.
Jerome’s to receive the Fr. Norm Choate
Distinguished Graduate Award for 2003. “I’m
especially pleased that the initial nomination for
this award came from my three daughters,
Colleen, Kelly, and Katie,” he says. In their letter,
they describe their dad as “a solid and loyal
participant in his community, always on the go…
He loves people, loves to make them laugh.
Personal relationships are a priority for him.”
Callahan moved back to the United States
after graduation, eventually settling in California
with his wife, Patricia. In 1980 he established his
own company, Callahan Insurance Services, and a
second company, Kosich & Callahan, 10 years
ago. He is now in a record third term as president
of his local life insurance association and is proud
that the organization recently named him their
first Professional of the Year. A member of the
International Million Dollar Round Table, he
emceed the 2001 and 2002 meetings of the Top
of the Table, the leading one percent in the
financial services and insurance industries.
All the while, he was pursuing a parallel career
as a sports announcer. Starting in 1981, he called
more than 700 games for the Golden State
Grad Notes
Call for
nominations
8
Warriors NBA
basketball team. He
missed only 14
games—seven of those
for heart surgery.
Concurrently, for 28
years he volunteered as
the voice of the St.
Mary’s College of
California Gaels football and basketball teams. He
also gave his time and skills to St. Mary’s as
president of their Career Center Advisory Board,
as well as volunteering in other capacities. “Dick’s
emcee and announcing skills are legendary,” says
James Weyland, an administrator at St. Mary’s.
“His control of an audience and his humour
are captivating.”
Other people thought so too. Callahan was
chosen to be lead announcer at the 1994 World
Basketball Championship Games in Toronto and
to announce the 1999 NBA All Star Game in
Oakland. In 2000 he began announcing the
University of California, Berkeley Golden Bear
football games, work which he does as a
volunteer.
Callahan uses his voice to good effect beyond
the sports field as well, mediating in disputes
relating to the town of Moraga, where he lives,
and emceeing events for the Danny Foundation, a
non-profit organization that promotes crib safety,
and for local and state-wide Special Olympics
games. “His spirit of volunteering is contagious,”
says Michael Weintraub, a colleague. “He turns
what would have been mediocre events into longremembered galas.”
Nor has he forgotten St. Jerome’s. He has
been an involved alumnus, serving as an emcee for
special events, a peer canvasser and a generous
supporter of his alma mater.
John J. Hallam (BES ’74,
Geography and Planning) lives in
Toronto, where he is a senior account executive in Partners Promotional Group Inc.
Outside work, he enjoys coaching high
school and community football.
Cycles (University of Toronto Press, 2001) and
Stephen Leacock: Humour and Humanity (McGillQueen’s UP, 1988). In his critical work, he describes
the short story cycle—a collection of stories linked by
continuing characters, themes, and settings—as a
uniquely Canadian genre. Lynch, who teaches at the
University of Ottawa, continues writing on Canadian
An article in the May 2003 issue of humour and satire and is working on a novel about
Books in Canada examines the
missing children.
ideas of Gerald Lynch (BA’76, MA’78),
fiction writer and critic. He has written two
Following graduation, Kerry McNamara (BA
novels, most recently Exotic Dancers
’84, History/Geography) taught in the Halton,
(Cormorant, 2001) and two short story
York, and Hamilton Catholic School Boards. He also
collections. His critical works include One
served the town of Dundas as a municipal councillor
and the Many: English-Canadian Short Story and chair of planning and development for two terms of
’74
’76
’84
Meet Miss Switzerland
B
right lights, TV cameras, glam dresses. The
scene in Lucerne, Switzerland, on
September 13 was worlds away from the
quiet quad at St. Jerome’s. Especially the finale:
tears and a glittering tiara, as Bianca Sissing
(BA ’03, Psychology) was chosen Miss
Switzerland 2003.
The competition was covered by Swiss
national television, newspapers, and magazines.
Soon the entire country knew that “Sizzling”
Sissing, as one broadcaster called her, is a
vegetarian, stays in shape by kick-boxing, and
doesn’t speak Swiss German, although she does
speak High German with “a charming
English accent.”
Her crowning was considered somewhat
controversial. Sissing isn’t the typical Miss
Switzerland. Swiss only on her father’s side, she
has spent most of her life in Ontario, except for
summers working in Switzerland and visiting her
paternal relatives. And, as a 24-year-old university
grad, she was older than all the other candidates.
The pageant scene wasn’t foreign to her,
though. She modelled in Toronto, Ottawa, and
Montreal through high school, but by age 17 had
decided it was time to devote herself to school.
She modelled again in second year while at
St. Jerome’s, but quit because making those
7 a.m. calls in Toronto while attending classes
in Waterloo proved too stressful.
At the same time, she was learning about
another world altogether: the Third World. She
spent part of three summers while at university
volunteering for overseas projects with Global
Youth Network, first as a member of a team that
travelled to Honduras to help the victims of
Hurricane Mitch. “We participated in community
development work such as house construction,
working with children in an orphanage, and other
office. Recently Kerry was named principal of Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Winona, Ontario, and he
and his wife Janis moved to nearby Grimsby.
mcnamarak@ms.hwcdsb.edu.on.ca
Shari Chantler (née Biggar, BA ’94) and her
husband Scott (BA ’95, UW) announce the
birth of Miles Russ Chantler on May 22, 2003. Shari
calls him their “miracle baby—he is a beautiful, happy
little one, and we waited a long time for him! I look
forward to being off for a year and home with Miles.”
Shari is a clinical resource worker at St. Joseph’s
Hospital in Guelph, where she runs a recreational day
program for adults with acquired brain injuries. She
’94
Bianca Sissing,
BA ’03, also Miss
Switzerland ’03,
helped rebuild
houses in
Honduras in the
aftermath of
Hurricane Mitch.
practical work,” she says. “Experiences like these
help you realize how privileged we are as
North Americans.”
Another year she helped lead a trip to
Guatemala to work at development projects with
local NGOs. Since she had to conduct her own
fundraising campaign to cover her travel costs, she
received some support from St. Jerome’s through
the University Catholic Community.
The Miss Switzerland glamour will continue
for another year. The title comes with a new car
and 200,000 Swiss francs worth of modelling
contracts, and Sissing will represent Switzerland at
the Miss World competition in December. But
after September 2004, she’ll be back in the real
world. That will include, she hopes, a career in
which she can use her psychology degree to work
with troubled children.
adds a special hello to Jodi and Marcia.
s_chantler@hotmail.com.
Susan Trimble (née Dujardin, BA ’94, Medieval
Studies) and her husband Jason (BMath ’95, UW)
announce the birth of their son, Nicholas Charles
Trimble, on February 15, 2003. Susan says she is
enjoying her leave, but will be back at work in
December. She is administrative assistant to the CEO
and the director of administration at the War Amps
National Headquarters. “Jason will stay home with
Nicholas for the last 12 weeks of parental leave, and
take a break from Hewlett-Packard,” Susan writes.
susan.trimble@rogers.com.
9
Continuing
CONNECTIONS
Bragging rights are on the line
Meeting of
the Minds
The Meeting of the
Minds at the Fourth
Annual SJU Trivia
Challenge takes place
on Friday, November 21
at 7:30 p.m. in the
Community Centre.
Tickets are $14 per
person and $96 for a
table of eight (tax
included). Free pizza
and munchables. Cash
bar.
Grad Notes
Reserve your place by
contacting Harry
Froklage at (519) 8848111, ext. 255 or at
froklage@uwaterloo.ca
here’s nothing trivial about it.The annual
SJU Trivia Challenge has been called many
things, including “stimulating,”
“competitive,” and “a hoot.” But to the twentyplus teams of players huddling after each question
and brainstorming answers in furtive
whispers, what they are doing is
anything but frivolous. There are, after
all, bragging rights on the line.
“It really is a team event,” says
Mike Sherry (BA ’81, Philosophy).
“Others knew things about which we
had no clue and we knew things
about which they had no clue.”
Last year, Mike,
his wife,
Sheila (BA
’87, Religious
Studies &
English), Pat
Anzovino
(BA ’87,
Philosophy)
and
Margaret Carreiro (BA ’86, Fine
Arts) formed half of team Zero Knowledge.
More than thirty grads came back to Jerome’s
for last year’s challenge which drew over 160
players in total. For many, like Katie Donohue
(BA ’93, English & French) and Mike Keaveney
(BA ’95, Economics & Psychology), it has
become “a fun evening,” a chance to reconnect
with friends like Genevieve Anderson (BA ’94,
Religious Studies & Psychology). Some grads had
a chance to chat with former professors, like
Linda Brox (BA ’71, English) who tried to
T
recruit Fr. Jim Wahl to her team.
But for others, the St. Jerome’s tradition of
healthy competition remains undiminished.
The Apostles—the lean, mean thinking
machine recruited by Judy Noordermeer
(BA ’90, Sociology & Peace and Conflict
Studies) which conquered in 2001—were
back to defend their title. Twenty other
teams of inquiring minds were determined
to wrest it from them.
Hushed silence met the first question:
“Which Fraggle wore a cloth cap that
covered its eyes? Was it
a) Boober?
b) Wembley?
c) Red? or
d) Mokey?”
Pat Anzovino
knew: “It’s
Boober.”
Judy
Noordermeer
and Joan
Grundy (BA ’84
English & Religious Studies)
supplied their respective teams with the Iroquois
Six Nations (Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga,
Onandaga, and Tuscarora). Dana Woito (BA ’84,
MA ’86, English) knew the name of Dorothy’s
uncle in The Wizard of Oz (Henry). Leisa
Wellsman (BA ’92, French) remembered that
writer Ernest Hemingway and composer Joseph
Haydn shared the same nickname (Papa).
Michael Spearin (BMath ’98, Actuarial
Science) knew that the “J.D.” in J.D. Salinger
stood for “Jerome David.” Mary Jac Tell
Anton Milardovic (BA ’95, Religious
Studies) and his wife Dorothy were married
on July 13, 2002 in Hamilton, Ontario. Recently they
moved to Cambridge, where Anton is starting his sixth
year of teaching computer science and business studies courses at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary
School. Recently designated a computer science
specialist, Anton is also the school’s IT facilitator and
webmaster. As well, he is the treasurer for the Ontario
English Catholic Teachers Association, Waterloo unit.
anton@crolinks.com.
Allison Ashley Cline (BA ’95, Religious Studies)
enjoyed the article in Update’s spring/summer 2002
issue about grads who became high school chaplains.
She would like to know if others have become chaplains in other areas. “My first introduction to a woman
chaplain was in 1989 when I took Women and the
Church at St. Jerome’s. I didn’t even know women
could be chaplains,” Allison recalls. From 1997 to
2000, she drove from Sudbury to Toronto every week
to pursue her Master of Divinity degree at Wycliffe
College. Now, Allison is the chaplain at Pioneer Manor,
the largest long-term care facility in northern Ontario.
She is certified to serve as multi-faith chaplain for
hospitals and long-term care facilities and continues to
take courses in clinical pastoral education.
’95
10
Hey SJU grads!
by Harry Froklage
(BA ’79, Religious Studies) dazzled her table by
knowing that Gerald Ford had once been named
Leslie Lynch King, Jr. Catherine Merritt
(BA ’00, Economics & Applied Studies) affirmed
that O Canada became our national anthem in
1980, and Tara Doherty (BES ’00, Environment
& Resource Studies and Music) correctly
identified the patron saint of music as
“St. Cecilia.”
Wayland Chau (BMath ’96, Actuarial Science
& Statistics)—who was teamed up with Lyn
McNiffe (BA ’81, Arts) and Patti Tusch
(BA ’80, English)—remembered the author of the
Discworld novels (Terry Pratchett),
Dr. Frankenstein’s first name (Victor) and the
correct spelling of “m-n-e-m-o-n-i-c.”
But Margaret Carreiro of Zero Knowledge
turned out to be the ringer of the night. “We
looked ahead on the answer sheet and saw that
the last, big bonus question, was Canadian and
had seven parts,” Mike Jenny disclosed. “What’s
Canadian and comes in sevens? The Group of
Seven, of course. And Margaret majored in Fine
Arts.” The correct names—Carmichael, Harris,
Jackson, Johnson, Lismer, MacDonald and
Varley—piled up seventy bonus points for Zero
Knowledge and led them to victory.
Mike Jenny says that Zero Knowledge will be
back to repeat this year. Judy Noordermeer
counters that the Apostles are gearing up for a
come-back. Wayland Chau and Mike Spearin are
looking to put a brand new name on the Bragging
Rights Trophy. Or perhaps a team of newcomers
will triumph.
The gauntlet—the answer to “An armoured
metal glove”—has been thrown.
Have you moved? Changed jobs?
Married? Any additions to the
family? Help us keep your fellow
grads informed by filling out and
returning this form. We’ll publish
your news, along with a photo,
if there’s room, in SJU Update.
Name (Please include birth name)
Address
Telephone
e-mail/WWW
Degree/Year/Programme
Are you working?
Job title
Employer
Kingsdale memories
When Warren Kimball left the Kingsdale campus in
1957, he had all the requirements for a degree
except French. “So I left St. Jerome’s with a lovely
‘certificate in philosophy,’ designed and hand-lettered
by one of the graduates, Bud Pickel,” he says. “That
certificate still hangs proudly on my office wall.”
These days, little of the Latin and philosophy he took
remains—“although I can still see Father Murphy
flamboyantly writing out his entire lecture on the
blackboard with the repeated advice: ‘Memorize this
and you’ll get an A.’” All the same, “Not only did I
learn how to study and even think a little, but what
intellectual self-discipline I have came from the St.
Jerome’s experience.”
Marcy Italiano (née Friscolanti, BA ’96,
English) has released her first novel, Pain
Machine. It is available online: visit her website
(www.marcyitaliano.com) for more information. She
has also published short stories, including “Beneath
the 3” in the anthology Reckless Abandon (Catalyst
Books). Another story, “Queen,” has been accepted
for the anthology The Decay Within. Marcy is at work
on her second novel. To pay the bills, she and
Giasone (“G”) are working at the St. Louis Adult
Education Centre in Waterloo as computer instructors.
talking@marcyitaliano.com.
’96
Address
Naturally, his Kingsdale memories include hockey. As
a pond player from New York, he had to show he
belonged on the same ice as the Canadians. “During
opening skate-around, I took the puck and skated
down the ice as fast as my short legs would take me.
It was OK that one of the Canadian students went
past me in a flash—but I knew I was in trouble since
he was skating backwards. I volunteered as goalie.”
Although he didn’t complete his St. Jerome’s degree,
Warren Kimball earned an MA and PhD at Georgetown
University and went on to a distinguished career as
an historian at Rutgers University. He is currently the
Mark A. Clark Distinguished Visiting Professor of
History at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.
On November 29, 2003, Scott Kline, a
professor of Religious Studies at St.
Jerome’s since July 2002, and Megan Shore (BA ’99,
Religious Studies), will be married in Stratford,
Ontario, Megan’s home town. Megan is currently at
the University of Leeds, in England, working on her
PhD thesis on the role of religion in the Truth and
Reconcilation Commission in South Africa.
Telephone
e-mail/WWW
Are you married?
Spouse’s name
Degree/Year/Programme
What’s new in your life?
(Enclose additional sheet if
necessary)
’99
❑ Please do not publish this info
in SJU Update.
Please return this form to:
Harry Froklage
Director of Development and
Graduate Affairs
St. Jerome’s University
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G3
Phone: (519) 884-8111, ext. 255
Fax: (519) 884-5759
You can also send e-mail to:
froklage@uwaterloo.ca
11
Upcoming Events
Volume 21
Number 2
fall/winter 2003
SJU Update is
published by
St. Jerome’s
University, federated
with the University of
Waterloo, and mailed
free of charge to all
graduates, former
residents, students,
faculty, and friends
of the University for
whom we have
reliable addresses.
Editor
Linda Kenyon
Design & Production
Ampersand Studios
Contributors
Patricia Bow
Harry Froklage
Michael W. Higgins
Photography
Mike Christie
Ron Hewson
Advisory Board
Kieran Bonner
Harry Froklage
Michael W. Higgins
The Father Norm Choate
Distinguished Graduate Award and
the 2003 Graduates’
Association Lecture
Friday, November 7, 7:30 p.m.,
Siegfried Hall
T
his year’s Graduates’ Association Lecture
features Fr. James a. Wahl, C.R., PhD,
discussing “The Birth of A Catholic
University: St. Jerome's and the Kingsdale
Years.” The co-author of Enthusiasm for the
Truth: An Illustrated History of St. Jerome’s
University will trace the transition of St.
Jerome’s High School into an institution of
post-secondary learning in 1953 when the
Kingsdale campus opened in south Kitchener.
Kingsdale came to specialize in the teaching of
seminarians and some lay people and established
the foundation for what later became
St. Jerome’s University in the University
of Waterloo.
The evening will include the presentation of
the Fr. Norm Choate Award to Richard J.
Callahan (BA ’62, Latin and English).
The SJU Trivia Challenge
Friday, November 21, 7:30 p.m.,
Community Center
I
t’s the most fun you can have with nothing
but your brain and seven friends! Valuable
prizes. Free pizza and munchables. Cash bar.
Tickets: per person $14; per table of eight
$96 (includes GST).
Contact Harry Froklage, Director of
Development and Graduate Affairs, (519) 8848111 x255, froklage@uwaterloo.ca
If a student calls
If a student calls from the University of
Waterloo seeking your financial support, they
are also calling on behalf of St. Jerome’s. This
year, students will call seeking support for five
SJU projects, two new and three ongoing.
They are:
Please address
correspondence to:
SJU Update
St. Jerome’s University
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L 3G3
Phone: (519) 884-8110
Fax: (519) 884-5759
e-mail: froklage@uwaterloo.ca
website: www.sju.ca
• A graduate program in Roman Catholic Life
and Thought
• A Chair in Quantum Computation
• Scholarships
• Handicapped accessibility projects
• The Centre for Catholic Experience lectures
To support one of these projects, simply tell
your caller that you want to designate all or
part of your gift to SJU.
And thank you!
St. Jerome’s University
Waterloo, Ontario
N2L 3G3
On Friday, July 4, nearly 40 grads and spouses from
as far away as Calgary, Vancouver, and Bermuda met
at the Duke Of Wellington pub in Waterloo to celebrate
20 years since their first arrival at St. Jerome’s.
Kevin Coates reprised his undergrad role as a
pianoman at the Duke and played his own ’80svintage song, “I’d Rather Be Celibate For the Rest of
My Life.” From left, rear: Simon Shutter, J.D. Yari,
Mark Dales, Liz Lemaitre (glasses), Shelagh Maloney,
and her husband Colin Watson. Middle: Kevin Coates,
Nan Forler, Carolyn Pitre, Mark Spicula (print shirt),
Tony Pracsovics (dark jersey), Nancy Spikula, and Jeff
White. Front, kneeling: David Cash and Liz Pracsovics.
Publications Mail Registration No. 40065122