Gonzaga University president to leave post in July 2009 SPOKANE, Wash. – Jesuit Father Robert J. Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University, announced March 17 that he plans to leave his post in July 2009 and will work with the school’s board of trustees to initiate a transition in leadership at the Jesuit-run university. Father Spitzer, a graduate of Gonzaga, has been its president for the past 10 years, overseeing growth in the university’s facilities, enrollment, fundraising, technology and mission programs. “The university has made considerable progress during the past 10 years and now enjoys a momentum which will catalyze even further progress,” Father Spitzer said. “I believe that transitions are best made during times of real advance rather than times of crisis or neutrality, and so I believe that this is an ideal time to begin the transition process.” During his tenure, enrollment at the university has increased along with the annual budget. Several construction projects also took place totaling more than $200 million. In a letter to the Gonzaga community about his resignation, Father Spitzer said that after a new president is in place he plans to keep up his relationship with the school and continue to write and do presentations on ethics, faith, leadership, metaphysics and philosophy. “It has been a real privilege to work with all of you, and more importantly, to share in the faith, hope, friendship and love that you aspire to bring to one another and to the world,” he said in his March 17 letter. Father Spitzer, 56, is a native of Honolulu. The priest earned a bachelor’s degree at Gonzaga University and a doctorate in philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington. He has taught at Seattle University and Georgetown University in Washington, both of which are operated by the Jesuits. The Gonzaga president has written several books and articles. He also founded or co-founded five institutes of higher education including: Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education and the Gonzaga Institute of Ethics, at Gonzaga; the Center for Life Principles, in Redmond, Wash.; and Philosophical Foundations of Physics and University Faculty for Life, both at Georgetown University. Archbishop inspires Catholics with first Easter message Donned in ornate gold vestments, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien celebrated his first Easter Mass in Baltimore before a packed Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland, March 23. Looking out at a congregation dressed in brightly colored dresses, Easter hats and suits, Archbishop O’Brien said, “This day breathes of life.” “In Christ’s resurrection, new hope is given,” he said. The archbishop noted that discrepancies are to be expected among the various Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, “especially with a story so stupendous,” but said, “This is a Christ-given opportunity to stir up the fire of the Holy Spirit.” “Too many stones are obstructing too many hearts,” the archbishop said during his homily, referring to stones of worry, fear, racism, terrorism, lingering hatred and jealousy. “How many Calvaries are within miles of here?” the archbishop asked. He encouraged Catholics to spread the Easter message, not by “empty words,” but by good deeds. He cited the work of Catholic Charities and pregnancy centers as hopeful examples. “It was beautiful,” said Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland, parishioner Ginny Karr of the Easter Mass. Mary Ellen Russell, who attended Mass with her husband and daughter, said the archbishop’s homily was “very timely – very aware of what’s going on in the world and yet rising above it.” It was her first time attending a Mass celebrated by the archbishop, and her impression was that “he seems very friendly.” “He seems very attentive and very accessible,” said Ms. Russell (not of the Maryland Catholic Conference). Easter Vigil sheds light on stories of conversion When Jared Angus offered to be the designated driver for friends headed to a nightclub, he had no idea it would lead to a conversion to Catholicism. While at the nightclub, he met his future wife, Ranette, a devout Catholic born and raised in the Philippines. When he first visited her house and saw a Bible in a prominent position, they began to talk about religion. He had been raised in various Protestant churches. “The entire time I thought denominations didn’t matter,” he said. As the pair became more serious, so did the talk about religion, and Ranette suggested Jared take a Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) class. “At first I was really turned off by it,” Jared said. “I said, ‘A six-month class? I can walk into any other church and be a member.’” But he was intrigued and began to ask Ranette more questions about her faith – questions she wasn’t always able to answer. So they decided to take an RCIA class together. Jared didn’t experience one defining moment when he realized he wanted to be Catholic; rather it was a gradual understanding that this church was a little different. “There wasn’t a huge, dramatic turn of events,” he said. “I thought, ‘Yeah, I might as well go through with it.’ We’re all Christians, but there’s no disputing the Catholic Church was first. The way I see it, I should be a member of the original church.” On March 22, Jared, with Ranette as his sponsor, was received into the church at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien was the principal celebrant of the Mass known as “the Queen of Vigils.” “As our church calls into this night’s prayer the basic elements of light, fire and water, this is not a night for scientists or even for theologians,” Archbishop O’Brien said. “We must be willing to be swept, heart and soul and body, into the imagery of this night. Our liturgy is not so much recollecting as re-actualization.” Indeed, as the catechumens and candidates processed by candlelight into the huge gloom of the darkened cathedral, the liturgy had a timeless feel to it, as if it could have been any century. “Be well aware that you are a special gift to the church this vigil,” Archbishop O’Brien told those received into the church. “You have no doubt of the Lord’s call.” He urged them to share their faith stories and promised them that the paschal candle will burn through whatever darkness or trial they encounter. “May each of us be drawn to that light to be reconciled to God,” he said. Catholics pray at abortion clinic on Good Friday Guided by teens carrying a large wooden cross, a solemn throng of Catholics slowly processed from Shrine of St. Alphonsus in Baltimore to an abortion clinic on Howard Street March 21 to pray for women considering abortion. Held on Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Christ’s crucifixion, the procession included a recitation of the Stations of the Cross. Pilgrims paused several times along the route, many of them kneeling on the cold sidewalk, to mark Christ’s Way of the Cross. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien led the prayers, using a bullhorn to lift his voice above the occasional din of passing busses, trains and early-morning traffic clicking over light-rail tracks. “Almighty and ever-loving God, we feel your love and understanding in the consolation and support we receive from one another,” Archbishop O’Brien prayed at the sixth Station of the Cross. “Give us, we beg you, the courage and dedication to sacrifice and suffer with those who are in need, the least of your people.” Once the pilgrims arrived at their destination – a Planned Parenthood facility located in a blighted section of the city near boarded-up businesses – they prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary. A few women, some accompanied by men, entered the building as the pilgrims prayed for them. Terry Maxwell, a parishioner of Immaculate Conception in Towson, said he participated in the service to “share the weight of the cross” with Christ and pray for women considering abortion. “Hopefully our witness and our prayers will help those people in there today,” he said. Pope says risen Christ vanquished sin, death VATICAN CITY – In the darkness of night in St. Peter’s Basilica as well as under dark skies unleashing torrents of rain on St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI said the risen Christ vanquished the darkness of sin and death. “It is true: In the solemn Easter Vigil, darkness becomes light, night gives way to the day that knows no sunset,” he said March 23, giving his Easter blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and the world) in St. Peter’s Square during a storm. “We pray that joy will be present among us despite these circumstances,” he said at the end of the blessing, which capped a Mass punctuated with thunder and lightning. “Even this darkness today is like light,” the pope said of the slate black sky. Tens of thousands of people packed into St. Peter’s Square armed with umbrellas. Members of the Swiss Guard stood at attention despite the rain dripping off their helmets and sending red dye trickling down their backs from the helmets’ soggy red plumes. The night before, Pope Benedict celebrated the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica, lighting a fire and the large Easter candle in the darkened church. During the Mass, he baptized five women and two men, including an Italian journalist who was born in Egypt to a Muslim family. Magdi Allam, 55, attended Catholic schools in Cairo and moved to Italy as a young adult.