Reframing Retirement for Mission, June 5-23, 2023

Speakers for Week One, June 5-9

Sister Dianne Bergant, CSA, “Biblical Themes of Laudato Si”, “Biblical Theme of Fratelli Tutti/Missericordia Virtus”  

Sr. Dianne, a Sister of St. Agnes of Fond du Lac, WI, served on the faculty from 1978 to 2014.  She served as President of Catholic Biblical Association of America (2000-2001) and as the Rev. Robert J. Randall Distinguished Professor of Christian Culture, Providence College, Providence, RI  (2009-2010).  She was awarded honorary doctorates  from the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, CA (2013), Marian University, Fond du Lac, WI. (2014), and the Catholic University of Australia, Melbourne, Victoria (2015).  She was an active member of the Chicago Catholic/Jewish Scholars Dialogue (1988-2017), a member of the Board of Trustees, Sacred Heart School of Theology (1983-1989), and of St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, WI (1996-2005).  She sat on the editorial boards of The Bible Today (1979-2005), Biblical Theology Bulletin (1990-2014), Catholic Biblical Quarterly (1992-2001),  New Theology  Review (1997-2003), Teaching Theology and Religion (2003-2005), and Chicago Studies (2003-2009). She has taught and lectured in various places in the United States, as well as in South Africa and Namibia, Trinidad, England and Ireland, Kiribati, Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, Nicaragua, Rome, Australia and New Zealand.

Father Richard Fragomeni, “Poetry of Living”

Rev. Richard Fragomeni is a presbyter of the Diocese of Albany, New York, and has been a member of the CTU faculty since 1990. His teaching involves him in Roman Catholic theology, interpretation theory, and poetry. His current work is in the field of word and sacrament: the intersection of symbolic activity and language as it creates insights into the Christian proclamation of grace. Central to this work is a fascination with the power of liturgy and preaching in the transformation of the human heart.

Richard is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University. He also serves as the Rector of The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, an Italian-American spiritual center in Chicago’s historic Little Italy. In addition to his teaching duties he is a preacher of parish missions and gives presentations nationally and internationally on liturgical, sacramental, and catechetical topics.

Dr. Kevin McClone, PsyD, “Grief and Loss, Road to Joy” 

Dr. Kevin McClone is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified alcohol and drug counselor, and certified chaplain who has worked for over twenty five years in the health care field, including over ten years of hospice care experience. Kevin currently is the Director of the Institute for Sexuality Studies located on the campus of Catholic Theological Union where he has provided one month training programs on Healthy Sexuality for Ministry  for formation and vocation personnel and tutored hundreds of religious and lay men and women from around the world for over ten years.

Kevin has been a keynote speaker both nationally and internationally on topics related to psychosexual development, healthy intimacy, addiction recovery , building healthy relationships, emotional intelligence and coping with loss and grief.  He has been a featured speaker for Guest House Institute, the National Federation of Priests Councils, Palliative Care organizations, the National Catholic Seminary Association, Catholics on Call and numerous parishes and dioceses both in the United States and abroad. Kevin is a consultant to several Chicago area Catholic religious orders and seminaries and retirement facilities where he deals with issues of healthy relationships, psychological assessment, human development, aging, depression and loss and grief issues.

Kevin has written numerous articles on topics such as the Psychospirituality of Change and Growth, Healthy Intimacy and Affective Maturity, The Gift of Sexuality in a Celibate Vocation, Psychospirituality of Addiction and Male Intimacy for such varied publications as Horizon, Seminary Journal, Touchtone, and Human Development Magazines.

Speakers for Week Two, June 12-16

Dr. Kevin McClone, PsyD, “Forgiveness” 

Dr. Kevin McClone is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified alcohol and drug counselor, and certified chaplain who has worked for over twenty five years in the health care field, including over ten years of hospice care experience. Kevin currently is the Director of the Institute for Sexuality Studies located on the campus of Catholic Theological Union where he has provided one month training programs on Healthy Sexuality for Ministry  for formation and vocation personnel and tutored hundreds of religious and lay men and women from around the world for over ten years.

Kevin has been a keynote speaker both nationally and internationally on topics related to psychosexual development, healthy intimacy, addiction recovery , building healthy relationships, emotional intelligence and coping with loss and grief.  He has been a featured speaker for Guest House Institute, the National Federation of Priests Councils, Palliative Care organizations, the National Catholic Seminary Association, Catholics on Call and numerous parishes and dioceses both in the United States and abroad. Kevin is a consultant to several Chicago area Catholic religious orders and seminaries and retirement facilities where he deals with issues of healthy relationships, psychological assessment, human development, aging, depression and loss and grief issues.

Kevin has written numerous articles on topics such as the Psychospirituality of Change and Growth, Healthy Intimacy and Affective Maturity, The Gift of Sexuality in a Celibate Vocation, Psychospirituality of Addiction and Male Intimacy for such varied publications as Horizon, Seminary Journal, Touchtone, and Human Development Magazines.

Father Robin Ryan, Suffering, “God and the Mystery of Suffering” 

Robin Ryan is a Passionist priest and theologian who serves as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Master of Arts in Theology program. He earned Master of Divinity and Master of Arts degrees at Catholic Theological Union. He received his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America. He is the author or editor of several books, including God and the Mystery of Human Suffering (Paulist, 2011).

Sister Tarianne DeYonker, OP, “Creative Writing”

As Co-Director of Vocations and a member of Global Sisters Reports’ 2018-2019 Life Panel of women religious, Sister Tarianne DeYonker, OP, weighed in on the question of how the Catholic Church can keep youth in the Church. She urges older members of the Church to respect and listen to the wisdom and experience of younger Catholics and to show them ways that they can connect to Jesus. She also cites various ways that Adrian Dominican Sisters reach out to youth. Read the entire Life Panel discussion on keeping youth in the Church.

Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, “Art Presentation and Conversation”

Brother Mickey McGrath, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, lives and works in Camden, NJ.  He is an award-winning artist, author, and speaker whose work celebrates the connections between art, beauty, and religious faith. He is also a Guild Master at the Grunewald Guild, an interfaith art community in Leavenworth, WA, where he has taught for thirty-three years. No matter the subject or topic, Bro. Mickey’s work highlights themes of art for meditation; social justice and cultural diversity; and the healing power of beauty in all its forms.

Brother Mickey currently holds the title of visiting artist at De Sales University in Center Valley, PA.  In recent summers, he taught a one-week graduate spirituality class entitled Wise and Holy Women, at Boston College. It was focused on the four women Doctors of the Church: Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux.

Sister Barbara Reid, OP, “Reading the Scriptures with the Mind, Eyes and Heart of a Woman”

Sr. Barbara is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has served on the CTU faculty since 1988. She has served as Vice President and Academic Dean and has been actively involved in the Association of Theological Schools, including service on their Board of Directors. She has led many of CTU’s Israel Retreats and Biblical Lands Study and Travel Programs in Greece, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, and Egypt. A former Spanish teacher, she has given presentations in México, Bolivia, Perú, Uruguay, Brasil, Guatemala, and Santo Domingo. She has also lectured in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Philippines, Thailand, and Rome.

Sr. Barbara is one of the leading scholars in feminist interpretation of the Scriptures. She is General Editor for the Wisdom Commentary Series, a new 58-volume feminist commentary on the Bible published by Liturgical Press (see www.wisdomcommentary.org, where her Introduction to the series can be downloaded gratis).

She is past President of the Catholic Biblical Association (2014-2015). She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Graz, Austria in 2019 and was inducted into Aquinas College Hall of Fame in 2016. She has received the Yves Congar Award for Theological Excellence from Barry University (2017), St. Martin DePorres Award from the Southern Province Dominican Friars (2016), Jerome Award from Catholic Library Association (2012), Theological Award for Distinguished Women Theologians from the College of Mount St. Joseph (2010), the Sophia Award from Washington Theological Union (2000).

Speakers for Week Three, June 19-23

Father Anthony Gittins, CSSP, “Age and Wisdom”, “Wine and New Wineskins”  

From 1980 to 1984, Professor Dr. Anthony J. Gittins, CSSp, taught Theology and Anthropology at The Missionary Institute, London, UK.  Subsequently, from 1984 to 2011 he was, first, Associate Professor of Mission Studies, then (1990) Professor of Theological Anthropology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.  He held the Bishop Ford Chair of Mission Theology between 1999 and 2008, and is now Emeritus Professor of Theology and Culture.

A native of England and  a religious Spiritan (Congregation of the Holy Spirit), he was ordained in 1967, after which he earned M.A.s (Summa cum Laude) in Theoretical Linguistics and in Social Anthropology, and later a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.  After ministry in Africa, he pursued post-doctoral research at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, England.

As an anthropologist, Gittins was always concerned to explore the theological sciences from that perspective.  Apart from teaching courses on Mission theology and spirituality, pastoral approaches to African witchcraft, and African Traditional Religion, he team-taught courses with Professors of Bible, Liturgy and Pastoral Care.  He continues to do Consultancy work and offer workshops, seminars, short courses and retreats, within the United States and further afield, from Australia to Africa.

In terms of pastoral ministry, he worked for thirty years with and among homeless women on the streets of Chicago and then in a soup kitchen run by the Jesus People.  For seven of those years he was part of Genesis House – a community where women struggle to escape from prostitution.

For almost a decade (1972-1980) he lived among the Mende people of Sierra Leone, West Africa, as a missionary pastor, linguist and ethnographer.  From 1980 to 1984 he was Formation Director in London, and lectured at the Missionary Institute there.  Since then he has done missionary anthropological work in a number of countries beyond Africa, including Pakistan, Kiribati, and the Trobriand Islands.

Father Edward Foley, Capuchin, “The Sacramental Imagination” 

Trained in musical performance and liturgics, Ed’s teaching at CTU prodded him to develop as a practical theologian.  In his understanding, practical theology is the contextual interface of experience, religious traditions and society for the transformation of church and world.  He belongs to the Capuchin Franciscan Order, canonically recognized as a “mixed” community of lay and ordained friars of equal dignity.  Ed believes this charism makes a distinctive contribution to a Church that is also “mixed” but sometimes struggles with the “equal dignity” part of that equation.  Besides exercising practical theology as an educator at CTU and concurrently as adjunct at the University of Chicago, he preaches and presides at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago.

Ed publishes and lectures broadly on liturgy, music, preaching, as well as theological education and interfaith theological reflection.  His commitment to the international students in the EDMin program have allowed him to collaborate with them in Australia, England, India, Korea, Namibia, the Philippines, and South Africa.  He has lectured in over 60 Roman Catholic dioceses around the world, and in venues as diverse as the Mayo Clinic and the Houston Astrodome.

He is the recipient of over a dozen grants from such organizations as the Lilly Foundation, the Templeton Foundation, the Collegeville Institute and the Composer’s Forum.  Current projects include a new handbook on Catholic Marriage with a dozen collaborators (most of whom are married), a work on Eucharistic adoration after Vatican II, a project on preaching and the sciences, and an endowed lectureship at Yale University on preaching in an age of disaffiliation.  An award winner author for print and digital work, his publications appear in 9 languages.  He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the lifetime achievement Berakah award (2013) from the North American Academy of Liturgy.

Father Richard Fragomeni, “Poetry of Dying”

Rev. Richard Fragomeni is a presbyter of the Diocese of Albany, New York, and has been a member of the CTU faculty since 1990. His teaching involves him in Roman Catholic theology, interpretation theory, and poetry. His current work is in the field of word and sacrament: the intersection of symbolic activity and language as it creates insights into the Christian proclamation of grace. Central to this work is a fascination with the power of liturgy and preaching in the transformation of the human heart.

Richard is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University. He also serves as the Rector of The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, an Italian-American spiritual center in Chicago’s historic Little Italy. In addition to his teaching duties he is a preacher of parish missions and gives presentations nationally and internationally on liturgical, sacramental, and catechetical topics.

Father Ferdinand Okorie, CMF, “Aging and St. Paul”

Ferdinand Okorie is a member of the Claretian Missionaries. He received his MDiv and an MA in Theology with a concentration in Biblical Languages and Literature from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. Then, he obtained a PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity at Loyola University Chicago.

His research interests include the Greco-Roman context of Early Christianity, the relationship between Paul’s letters and the Pastorals, the formation of Christian identity and the intersection between religion and culture.