1 INTERNATIONAL THOMAS MERTON SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Vol. 26, No. 2 Fall, 2019 Sixteenth General Meeting a Success The Program Committee was chaired by ITMS “O Peace, Bless this Mad Place” was the theme of Past President Michael W. Higgins and included the Sixteenth General Meeting of the International Christine M. Bochen, Kevin Burns, Cassidy Hall, Thomas Merton Society, held June 27-30, 2019 at ITMS President Mark C. Meade, ITMS Treasurer Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA. Approxi- David Orberson, Joseph Q. Raab and Natalie Terry. mately 180 people attended the conference, from 34 At the ITMS Town Hall on Friday, June 28, it was states and 4 other countries. announced that the ITMS Seventeenth General Meet- General session addresses included Ron Hansen: ing will be held June 24-27, 2021 at St. Mary’s Col- “Thomas Merton’s My Argument with the Gestapo”; lege, Notre Dame, IN; outgoing president Mark C. Robert Ellsberg: “‘The Gate of Heaven Is Everywhere’: Meade will serve as Chair of the Program Committee, The Journey Faith of Thomas Merton”; and Rose Ma- and Arlene Montevecchio, Director of the Center for rie Berger: “Direct Transmission of Faith.” Mark C. Spirituality at the college, as Site Coordinator; com- Meade delivered the Presidential Address entitled “The mittee members include ITMS President David G. Reality of Personal Relationships Saves Everything.” Golemboski, ITMS Secretary Cassidy Hall, Daniel A panel on Daniel Berrigan, SJ moderated by Michael P. Horan, OFM, Jonathan Montaldo, ITMS Treasurer W. Higgins featured presentations by Frida Berrigan, David Orberson, ITMS Vice President Christopher Anna Brown, Eric Martin and Ched Myers. Pramuk, Judith Valente and Julianne Wallace. An evening concert on the opening day of the con- New Officers and Board ference, entitled “Hidden Manna: Dialogue with the The Officers and Board of Directors of the Inter- World through Poetry and Song,” was presented by national Thomas Merton Society for 2019-2021 were Cyprian Consiglio, OSBCam, with cellist Joseph announced by outgoing president Mark C. Meade at Hebert. On the following evening, the films Day of the Town Meeting of the ITMS Sixteenth General a Stranger by Cassidy Hall and Patrick Shen, and Meeting on June 28, 2019 at Santa Clara Univer- Merton Friends and Sleeping under Those Magnifi- sity, Santa Clara, CA. In accordance with the ITMS cent Redwoods by Morgan Atkinson were screened. by-laws, the officers were chosen by the Board and On Thursday afternoon an Ecumenical Vespers members of the Board by the membership at large, Service was led by Rev. Dr. Margaret Boles of the from a slate prepared by the ITMS nominating com- Covenant Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto, CA, and mittee, David Golemboski (chair), Robert Grip and Friday evening prayer was led by Kathleen Deignan, Monica Weis, SSJ. A total of 423 ITMS members, CND. The Benediction and Meal Prayer at the Con- 36% of the membership, participated in the election, ference Banquet on Saturday evening was delivered 390 through on-line voting and 33 by mail. by Rev. Amanda Wagoner Meade. The banquet was Officers are David Golemboski, president; Chris- preceded by the closing Eucharistic liturgy, celebrated topher Pramuk, vice-president; Cassidy Hall, sec- by Rev. Daniel P. Horan, OFM. retary; and David Orberson, treasurer; Mark C. The conference included five opening sessions, Meade will continue to serve on the board as past fifteen concurrent sessions, and eleven workshops, president. Newly elected members of the board are: performances and guided prayer sessions with forty- Daniel Horan, OFM, Alan Kolp and Gray Matthews; seven presenters. Deborah Kehoe, Theresa Sandok, OSM and Judith 2 Valente were re-elected to the board. Ph.D. from Boston College and has been a previous David Golemboski is Assistant Professor of Gov- member of the ITMS Board. ernment and International Affairs at Augustana Uni- Deborah Kehoe, a current member of the Board, versity, Sioux Falls, SD. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow recently retired from teaching at Northeast Missis- in the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy sippi Community College and the University of Mis- at the University of Missouri after completing his sissippi in Oxford, where she lives with her husband Ph.D. in the Department of Government at George- George. A member of the ITMS since 2001, she has town University. A former Daggy Scholar, he has frequently presented papers at ITMS General Meet- previously served as ITMS Secretary and Vice Presi- ings and has published essays and reviews in The dent and as co-chair of the Nominations Committee. Merton Annual and The Merton Seasonal and is co- Christopher Pramuk is Associate Professor of editor of The Merton Annual. Theology and University Chair of Ignatian Thought Alan Kolp holds the University Chair in Faith & and Imagination at Regis University, Denver, CO, Life at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, OH. A and author of numerous books, including the award- previous member of the ITMS Board, he is co-author, winning Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton most recently of Exception to the Rule (2017), and has (2009), and most recently, The Artist Alive: Explora- published articles on Merton in The Merton Seasonal tions in Music, Art, and Theology (2019). and in Merton and the Protestant Tradition. Cassidy Hall, current ITMS secretary, is a writer, Gray Matthews teaches communication at the photographer, filmmaker and trained counselor, cur- University of Memphis and coordinates the Memphis rently studying for a master’s of divinity degree at Chris- Chapter of the ITMS. He has been a previous member tian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. She was of the ITMS Board and has also served as co-editor part of the production team for the film In Pursuit of of The Merton Annual and as site coordinator for the Silence, shown at the ITMS Fifteenth General Meeting, ITMS Tenth General Meeting in 2007. and director of the forthcoming filmDay of a Stranger, Theresa Sandok, a current member of the Board, shown at the ITMS Sixteenth General Meeting. is president of the Servite Sisters of Ladysmith, WI, David Orberson, current ITMS treasurer, received and former professor of philosophy and Dean of the his Ph.D. from the University of Louisville and a College of Arts & Sciences at Bellarmine University. Master of Theological Studies from the St. Meinrad She served as interim director of the Thomas Merton School of Theology. He is author of Thomas Merton – Center in 1997-98. Evil and Why We Suffer: From Purified Soul Theodicy Judith Valente, a current member of the Board, is a to Zen (2018). He has been teaching theology part- retired journalist and poet from New Jersey who cur- time at Bellarmine University since 2007. rently lives in central Illinois. She is the author of the Mark C. Meade is Assistant Director of the spiritual memoir Atchison Blue as well as two books of Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University poetry, and has co-authored with Brother Paul Quenon and previously served as ITMS Vice President and a series of daily meditations. Her most recent book is Treasurer and as co-chair of the Communications How to Live: What the Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us Committee. He has been a board member of the Ken- About Happiness, Meaning, and Community (2018). tucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and has ITMS President David Golemboski also announced served on the National Council of the Fellowship of that ITMS members from six countries will serve Reconciliation. as International Advisors for 2019-2021. They are: Daniel P. Horan, OFM is assistant professor of Lars Adolfsson (Strängnäs, Sweden), James G. R. systematic theology and spirituality at Catholic Theo- Cronin (Cork, Ireland), Linda Espie (South Oakleigh, logical Union in Chicago, and the author of twelve Australia), Dominiek Lootens (Frankfort, Germany), books including The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Marcela Raggio (Mendoza, Argentina) and Ryan Merton: A New Look at the Spiritual Influence on his Scruggs (Montreal, Canada). Life, Thought, and Writing (2014). He received his Paul Pearson will continue to serve as ITMS Resi- 3 dent Secretary and as ITMS Accounts Manager. Pat- Kathleen Deignan, CND, founder and director of rick F. O’Connell will continue as editor of The Merton the Iona Spirituality Institute at Iona College, New Seasonal and Deborah Kehoe and Joseph Raab as Rochelle, NY, served as the thirteenth president of the co-editors of The Merton Annual. Michael Brennan International Thomas Merton Society (2011-2013) and will continue to serve as ITMS Chapters Coordinator. as Program Chair for the ITMS Fourteenth General Louies Awarded Meeting at Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY in The 2019 Thomas Merton Awards, informally 2015. She has edited When the Trees Say Nothing: Writ- known as “Louies,” were presented by outgoing ings on Nature, by Thomas Merton (2003) and Thomas ITMS president Mark C. Meade on June 29, 2019 at Merton: A Book of Hours (2007) and is a noted liturgical the banquet of the ITMS Sixteenth General Meet- composer and pastoral musician. ing at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA. The Shannon Fellowships Awarded award is a bronze bust of Thomas Merton created by At its June 2019 meeting, the ITMS Board of Direc- sculptor David Kocka. The recipient of the “Interna- tors awarded 2019-2020 Shannon Fellowships to Peter tional” award, given to an individual who has made Bao (Bao Zhaojui) and Jim Robinson. Bao will use the a significant contribution on an international level fellowship to examine holograph, typescript and other to the promotion of Merton’s writings (in English or unpublished materials at the Thomas Merton Center in translation) and to the presentation of his ideas, is at Bellarmine University for a project entitled “Study Detlev Cuntz.