News & Media
One of America’s leading Catholic social teaching experts explains the state of the field and why he studies it
We are pleased to make available our latest podcast interview, this time with our longtime friend Russell Hittinger, who together with Mary Ann Glendon is co-chair of Lumen Christi’s Program in Catholic Social Thought. In this conversation Hittinger explains how he got interested in CST, what the state of the field is today, and how he became affiliated with Lumen Christi.
Hittinger is the Warren Professor of Catholic Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, and Research Professor of Law, at the University of Tulsa, as well as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
You can also listen to the interview by subscribing to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
New station delivers lectures and interviews with our visiting scholars as downloadable audio content
Lumen Christi is pleased to announce the launch of its new podcast, The Lumen Christi Institute Podcast.
On our podcast we will make available our many lectures, symposia, panel discussions, and addresses by the scholars, clerics, and public intellectuals who participate in our programs.
We also will make available interviews with our speakers and affiliated scholars. These interviews allow friends of Lumen Christi to speak to their personal lives and intellectual journeys, assess current events within and involving the Church, and discuss the work of Lumen Christi and their relationship with the Institute.
Podcast episodes are hosted from our Soundcloud channel. For your convenience, individual episodes also are grouped there into playlists categorized by theme (for example, “Campus Lectures” or “Interviews”) or speaker (“Anders Cardinal Arborelius”). Subscribe to “The Lumen Christi Institute Podcast” via your podcast provider of choice to automatically receive all content as it is uploaded.
Episodes can also be accessed and downloaded from any of the following providers:
Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, ListenNotes, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and Google Play Music.
Just getting started with podcasts or with Lumen Christi? We recommend these popular episodes.
Questions about the podcast or about how to access it can be directed to Michael Bradley.
Important security update regarding online giving to the Lumen Christi Institute
Anders Cardinal Arborelius has established himself as a strong leader of Sweden’s Catholic minority
The Lumen Christi Institute is excited to welcome Anders Cardinal Arborelius, Sweden’s top-ranking Catholic prelate, to Chicago for two addresses on March 12 and 13. Arborelius’ visit will be an occasion for seeing old friends. He previously spoke at Lumen Christi programs in 2001 and 2005, and supported the founding, in 2001, of the Newman Institute, a Jesuit-run Catholic college domiciled in Uppsala University, Sweden’s oldest. The Newman Institute was in part inspired by the Lumen Christi Institute.
Born in 1949 in Switzerland to Swedish parents, Arborelius was raised Lutheran but always felt himself drawn toward the contemplative life. After a year-and-a-half long process of discernment, he was received into the Catholic Church at age 20.
Two years later, while intending to become a diocesan priest, Arborelius read Saint Thérèse of Lisieux’s autobiography The Story of a Soul. That book changed his life, and he decided to become a Discalced Carmelite, the contemplative religious order to which Thérèse had belonged.
He pursued studies in Lund, Brussels, and at the Carmelite college for studies in Rome, taking his final religious vows in 1977 and being ordained to the priesthood in 1979. Then he spent nearly twenty years living in a contemplative hermitage in southern Sweden, from which he would venture out to give talks and retreats. Until, that is, he received an extraordinary request.
In November of 1998, John Paul II appointed Arborelius the Bishop of Stockholm, Sweden’s single Catholic diocese that spans the country. Arborelius was the first ethnic Swede appointed to his homeland’s see since the Reformation, in part because Sweden has since then produced so few Catholic priests.
In his capacity as shepherd of Sweden’s roughly 115,000 Catholics—though he ventures that due to recent high immigration, especially from eastern Europe and the Middle East, that official number may be less than half the true one—Arborelius is charged with steering the Church in one of Europe’s most secular countries. According to some surveys, less than one third of Swedes describe themselves as religious, and even fewer participate regularly in liturgical services.
Twenty years after his appointment Arborelius received another singular summons. Last summer, Pope Francis elevated him to the cardinalate, making him the first cardinal in Sweden’s history, and also appointed him to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The latter appointment signaled the Vatican’s recognition of Arborelius’ committed ministry amid Sweden’s highly ecumenical conditions: nearly 60 percent of Sweden’s population (of just under 10 million) are baptized Lutherans.
According to a transcript of a radio interview conducted by the Vatican shortly before this historic elevation, the cardinal-designate said of its significance:
It’s really a historical event and I think it’s typical of Pope Francis that he looks to those parts of the world that are far away … so he wants to encourage those minorities scattered all over the world and show that they are important in God’s eyes and in the eyes of the Church even if they are very small realities.
The man who had dwelt in contemplative silence for nearly twenty years had arrived. Sweden’s leading news magazine Fokus even named Arborelius “Swede of the Year” for 2017—the first time a Catholic prelate had received the honor.
One contemporary issue about which the newly minted cardinal has been vocal is the role of women in the life of the Church. This ever lively topic’s relevance was intensified when Pope Francis created a Commission of Study on the Diaconate of Women last August. The Commission consists of twelve members, half of them women, and is led by Cardinal Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—a position that Joseph Ratzinger held for many years under John Paul II before becoming Pope Benedict XVI.
Asked about his thoughts on this subject in a June interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Arborelius reflected that “the role of women is very, very important in society, in economics, but in the Church sometimes we are a bit behind.”
Referencing Pope John Paul II’s practice of sometimes seeking counsel from Mother Theresa and Chiara Lubic, founder of the Focolare movement, Arborelius suggested that “maybe [this papal practice] could be made more official,” adding: “We have a College of Cardinals, but we could have a college of women who could give advice to the pope.”
The cardinal has been reflecting upon these issues for some time. In a 2001 interview, he said:
The promotion of responsibility for women in Church and society also is an important issue. Because there is no real longing for female priests among Catholics, we can concentrate upon the real possibilities for women.
Arborelius brings an important perspective to these considerations. He inhabits a religious tradition that has produced some of the Church’s most popular female saints and most influential thinkers and writers: the mystic and reformer Teresa of Ávila, the beloved Little Flower Thérèse herself, and Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)—a brilliant philosopher who, although she did not receive the prestigious habilitation qualification (similar to a doctorate in the US) due to prejudice against her for being a woman, was commended by her mentor Edmund Husserl as being well capable of the highest level of research according to the standards of German universities.
Arborelius will draw upon the wisdom of these Carmelite figures and his own experience as a contemplative and prelate in delivering his two addresses.
On Monday evening, March 12, Arborelius will give a talk titled “Silence, Prayer, and Contemplation in a Secular Society” at the University Club of Chicago. An open bar and heavy hors d’oeuvres reception will begin at 5:30pm, and the cardinal will begin his remarks at 6:30pm. Registration is required. Tickets cost $75.
The following afternoon, at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, he will give a free and public lecture titled “The Witness of Contemplative Women in the Heart of the Church” at 4:00pm.
University of Chicago Students Visit Art Institute’s “Doctrine and Devotion” Exhibit
“The trip was a delightful opportunity to see an exhibit that might not have otherwise been on my radar,” said one student. “The art was all exceptionally beautiful. And, of course, hearing Thomas [Levergood] intone the Salve Regina in the middle of the Art Institute only heightened the aesthetic experience.”
Lumen Christi’s University Program fosters a deeper engagement by students and faculty not only with the Catholic Church’s intellectual and spiritual traditions, but with its artistic and aesthetic traditions as well.
On October 5, executive director Thomas Levergood led a group of ten students to the Art Institute of Chicago for an evening visit. The trip was cosponsored by the University of Chicago’s Hildegard of Bingen Society, a non-sectarian student group that facilitates study of Christian thought, history, and culture.
The purpose of the trip was to enjoy one particular visiting exhibit at the Art Institute: “Doctrine and Devotion: Art of the Religious Orders of the Spanish Andes.” Presenting thirteen paintings by South American artists from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, “Doctrine and Devotion” introduces visitors to images promoted by several Catholic orders at work in the Spanish Andes—the Dominicans, Franciscans, Mercedarians, and Jesuits—and examines the politics of the distinct iconographies each group developed as it vied for devotees and prominence.
Students were encouraged to remain in that exhibit and to dwell at length upon the paintings. Then, in accord with a custom observed during Lumen Christi visits to the Art Institute, Levergood led the group in chanting the Salve Regina in front of a painting of the Virgin Mary. “It’s fitting that before leaving the exhibit, we say goodnight to our Mother,” he said before chanting the opening notes.
Trevor von Boeck, a philosophy major, was grateful for the highly concentrated purpose of the visit.
“I enjoyed having the opportunity to spend time focusing in close detail on a few paintings. In particular,” he said, “I was struck by the representations of the mendicant orders and the fervent devotion to Mary that sprung forth from most of the paintings.”
Afterward the group enjoyed dinner at the Art Institute’s famous rooftop terrace restaurant, Terzo Piano, before returning to Hyde Park.
“Doctrine and Devotion” is on loan to the Art Institute from the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, whose patrons are friends of Lumen Christi. According to its website, the Foundation “recognizes the power of the arts to challenge and shift perceptions, spark creativity and connect people across cultures.”
Learn more about “Doctrine and Devotion.”
The Thoma Art Foundation has loaned exhibits to the Art Institute in the past as well. From late 2014 to early last year, it cosponsored the exhibit “A Voyage to South America: Andean Art in the Spanish Empire”—the Art Institute’s first exhibition of Latin American art of the viceregal period (roughly 1521 to 1821)—which was hosted in the same rooms as “Doctrine and Devotion,” Galleries 212 and 212A. In 2015 Lumen Christi sent a group of students to admire that display.
Jack Sexton, a doctoral student in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought with interests in American political thought and the history of philosophy, was moved by the piety expressed in the images.
“As someone who was neither raised Catholic nor has much feeling for visual art, I found the exhibit surprisingly moving,” Sexton recounted. “The circumstances of the South American missions could not be further removed from those of people in ‘advanced’ countries today, and yet the piety expressed in these extraordinary works of art, simple but in no way naïve in the pejorative sense, still really strikes home.”
Daniel Ortiz, a fourth-year Fundamentals major, said of this year’s visit, “it was a delightful opportunity to see an exhibit that might not have otherwise been on my radar. The art was all exceptionally beautiful, but my favorite was the depiction of the Virgin Mary as La Divina Pastora (the Divine Shepherdess).”
“And, of course,” he added, “hearing Thomas intone the Salve Regina in the middle of the Art Institute only heightened the aesthetic experience.”
“Doctrine and Devotion” will be on display at the Exhibit through January 3, 2018.
Image: Bernardo Bitti (Italian, active in Peru, 1548–1610). Virgin and Child, about 1592–1605. Carl and Marilynn Thoma Collection.
Joe Ricketts Discusses his Cloisters on the Platte Project
Joe Ricketts is perhaps best known in the Chicagoland area as a co-owner of the 2016 World Series champion Chicago Cubs. Many know him as a successful leader and entrepreneur with decades of business experience. Perhaps fewer know the story of his relationship to silent retreats in the tradition of Saint Ignatius of Loyola or his philanthropic efforts to popularize them.
Lumen Christi opened its autumn quarter with a Cultural Forum event featuring Ricketts at a luncheon hosted at the Chicago Club on September 19. In his introductory remarks, LCI executive director Thomas Levergood specially thanked the Hon. J. Peter Ricketts— Governor of Nebraska and alumnus of the University of Chicago—for helping to arrange for his father, Joe, to speak. Peter Ricketts has served on the Institute’s Board of Directors since 2013.
In his talk, which he titled “Building an Ignatian Retreat,” Joe Ricketts related how his faith was renewed and his life transformed by attending a silent retreat in the Ignatian tradition, a practice of which he has made an annual habit since the late 1990s. He also discussed his project of building The Cloisters on the Platte, a 931-acre center for spiritual retreats near Omaha, Nebraska scheduled to open in summer 2018.
Ricketts explained to a packed room of 120 professionals and Lumen Christi affiliates that although he practiced his Catholic faith as an adult, he felt uninspired and incomplete for many years in so doing. That all changed when he attended a silent retreat at a center in Minnesota. In that experience of prayer, Ricketts found the spiritual elements of meditation and contemplation whose absence had been troubling his faith life. He began making annual retreats at that same center, and convinced several of his children to make them as well.
Reflecting on his experience at the retreats and the large number of Christians in the United States who would benefit from them much as he did, Ricketts decided to purchase nearly 1,000 acres of land in his home state’s Platte River Valley, a beautiful wooded plot southwest of Omaha. There he started to plan a retreat center that would service not only Catholics but all persons of faith interested in making retreats in the Ignatian tradition and growing closer to God through Christ.
“Here is a man who reached the pinnacle of business success and, through it all, remained true to his Catholic faith,” said one attendee, a young professional working downtown. “What an excellent example for me and other young Catholics of the transformative power of faithful witness to Christ.”
From architectural designs for the chapel to marketing strategies, Ricketts recounted various aspects of the center and unfolded his thinking concerning how it would take shape and operate. He also described his hand-selected team of consultants and project planners who assist him in his executive decision-making.
The highlight of Ricketts’ talk was a four-minute video documenting one of the several remarkable architectural and artistic dimensions of the retreat center: a Stations of the Cross display featuring seven-foot, realistic sculptures and accompanying audio reflections. Ricketts said that he had searched the country and globe for a Stations display that he could purchase for The Cloisters. Nothing was adequate to his vision. So, he assembled his own team of nationally renowned artists to undertake this project.
Watch the Stations of the Cross video here.
The members of this elite team who were interviewed for the video spoke movingly about how meaningful the project was to them. Several said that working on these Stations was their life’s masterpiece artistic endeavor. One sculptor likened the display’s scope and meaning to Michelangelo’s labor of love in the Sistine Chapel, saying that Ricketts’ project could be “one of the most profound representations of the Stations of the Cross in the world.” Ricketts himself teared up as he shared that other workers, artists, and planners involved in The Cloisters project had confided in him that they viewed their participation in its creation as their life’s purpose.
Tiffany Barron, a Lumen Christi graduate student associate studying international relations at the University of Chicago, sat at the head table with Ricketts during lunch. Calling him “warm and personable,” she noted that what struck her most about his remarks was “the impact that the Ignatian retreat center has already had on the artists, construction workers, and other collaborators involved in its creation.”
Kathryn Thompson, another LCI graduate student associate who studies at the Pritzker School of Medicine, agreed. “Perhaps the most delightful thing about Mr. Ricketts’ talk was the way in which such a drastic project impacted the diverse workers and teams in small and beautiful ways,” she reflected.
Although The Cloisters is not scheduled to open until late summer 2018, it already is brimming with group reservations. Ricketts said that the local Catholic ordinary, Archbishop George Lucas of the Archdiocese of Omaha, supports the project and is kept abreast of its progress.
Luke Waggoner, a young professional working downtown, was impressed that such a successful entrepreneur continued to prioritize his faith.
“It was uplifting to hear Mr. Ricketts’ story of how Ignatian retreats changed his life,” Waggoner said. “Here is a man who reached the pinnacle of business success and, through it all, remained true to his Catholic faith. What an excellent example for me and other young Catholics of the transformative power of faithful witness to Christ.”
Barron gleaned from Ricketts’ talk the helpful lesson that “skills developed in other sectors of life can be used for the good of the Church.” Thompson was moved to see that “such a large and seemingly dramatic project was creating space for simple and small encounters with Christ even in the process of its being built.”
Ricketts boasts a stellar entrepreneurial résumé. Upon graduating from Creighton University (a Jesuit institution) in 1968 with a degree in economics, Ricketts began his career as an investment advisor. Several successful professional stints later he co-founded First Omaha Securities, a retail securities brokerage firm in Omaha. That company grew quickly and in 1983 evolved into TD Ameritrade, which now manages over $600 billion in client assets.
In the past ten years Ricketts has stewarded his resources through a variety of philanthropic endeavors in addition to The Cloisters on the Platte, including the Opportunity Education Foundation, The Ricketts Art Foundation, The Ricketts Conservation Foundation, and Ending Spending, Inc.
He now lives in Little Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his wife of more than fifty years, Marlene, whom he credits with helping to keep him strong in his Catholic faith. They have four children and thirteen grandchildren.
For more information on The Cloisters on the Platte, visit cloistersontheplatte.com.
For more information on Joe Ricketts, visit www.joericketts.com.
