The Ernest Fortin Memorial Lecture at Assumption College

"Christian Faith and American Democracy: A Growing Gap?"

by Robert P. Kraymak
- Professor of Political Science, Colgate University

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Respondent:

Michael Novak
- George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy and Public Policy

Friday, March 16, 2012; 4:00 pm

In 1983 at the age of 61, Fr. Morand Kleiber, a former provincial and teacher, was asked to pack up his bags and undertake a new mission, professor of philosophy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the Assumptionists were experiencing an influx of vocations thanks to the openness of the second bishop of the diocese of Beni-Butembo, Most Rev. Emmanuel Kataliko.  Bishop Kataliko, trained by the Assumptionists, who had from the beginning of their efforts in the diocese chosen to orient all vocations to the diocesan clergy, came to the conclusion that it was time to encourage the presence of male religious life in his diocese and where better to start than with the Assumptionists themselves? Thus it was that the first young Congolese entered the Assumptionist formation program in 1979. By the time Fr. Morand came in 1983 there was already a sufficient number of young religious that a house of philosophy was opened.

Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark took me back to another Sunday in the recent past and far away.

I was blessed to be a part of a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land last October/November, and joined 8 others in a group lead by Fr. Peter R. Precourt, A.A., our pastor here at St. Anne-St. Patrick Parish in Fiskdale, MA. Each day we travelled to a different place were our Lord had actually been; where He was born, lived, preached, fed, healed, prayed, died and rose.

As we continued our fourth year of “Conversations…” at the Assumptionist Center in Brighton, MA, the community, residents and guests were asked to reflect on “The Gospel in Your Life” ahead of time. Using a different format by not inviting a guest presenter who would address a particular theme or topic, participants came prepared to share their thoughts and reflections on the fundamental question: “What gospel message inspires me in my life choices?”