Cardinal Arinze to Teach at Christendom College Graduate School Summer Program

Feb. 24, 2011 - PRLog -- Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, will deliver two guest lectures in a course entitled Liturgy and the Consecrated Life this summer at Christendom College. The course is part of the Vita Consecrata Institute (VCI) and the Christendom Graduate School Summer Program.

“We are especially thrilled that the Cardinal will be staying on campus, eating with the graduate students and faculty, and taking part in the discussions and community life of the graduate school,” says Dr. Kristin Burns, Dean of the Graduate School.

Cardinal Arinze is no stranger to Christendom, having visited with students and faculty many times at the College’s campuses in Front Royal and Rome, Italy. He considers himself an alumnus of Christendom, having received an Honorary Doctorate from Christendom in 2004.

Held at Christendom’s Front Royal campus from June 20 - July 30, the Graduate School Summer Program is an annual six-week residential semester. This summer courses on God the Father, Philosophy of God and Man, Apologetics, Church History, Theological Anthropology, Theology of the Body, and Culture of the Renaissance will be offered.

“Graduate students compare it to a summer camp for grown-ups—only better,” Burns says. “It’s actually a perfect example of a truly leisurely, Christian, academic community. Freed of most daily responsibilities and work, they can concentrate on their studies, pursuing their interests, sharing ideas, praying, and playing together.”

The Vita Consecrata Institute is a four-week summer program of theological studies and spiritual renewal for religious, priests, seminarians, and other consecrated persons. It takes place during the Graduate Summer program and is co-sponsored by the Institute on Religious Life.  Students attend courses for ongoing formation, preparation for final vows, or intellectual and spiritual renewal. Christendom offers an MA concentration in the Theology of the Consecrated Life, which participants can earn in four summers.

This summer’s VCI program includes courses on Spirituality of the Consecrated Life, taught by Thomist scholar Rev. Brian Mullady, O.P., Rev. Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem., a renowned theologian and President of the Institute of Canon Law at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, will teach The Consecrated Life in the Code of Canon Law. Christendom President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell will co-teach Theology of the Sacred Heart and Consecrated Life with Rev. James Kubicki, S.J., the Director of the Apostleship of Prayer.

“We love having the religious on campus during the summers,” Burns says. “Their joyful presence contributes so much to the atmosphere of the summer program.”

The programs feature opportunities for daily Mass, the Divine Office, Adoration, and Confession—all of which contribute to an experience that is spiritually renewing as well as academic. Multiple opportunities for recreation are available, from day pilgrimages and special lectures, to canoeing and kayaking on the Shenandoah River. For more information about the Christendom Graduate School Summer Program or the Vita Consecrata Institute, please visit http://www.christendom.edu/summer.

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Christendom College is a four-year coeducational Roman Catholic Liberal Arts College with undergraduate and graduate programs offered on three campuses in Front Royal and Alexandria, Virginia, and Rome, Italy.