"Colloquium on Renewing the Church"

College of the Holy Cross
November 18-21, 2004

The Second Annual Alumni/ae Colloquium will be held on May 12-16, 2006.

Bishop Fenwick and the Society of Jesus founded the College of the Holy Cross in 1843 to educate young people to make a notable difference to the Church and to American society. They succeeded. The College has thousands of alumni and alumnae today who care about both. One of them has pledged to the College a donation which allows the College to reach out to his fellow graduates in times of grave challenges in the Church, to invite them to an experiment unique in American Catholic higher education: a three-day alumni/ae colloquium on renewal of the Church.

One hundred alumni/ae and spouses, and 20 current undergraduate student leaders are invited to examine the present difficulties faced by the Catholic Church, and to decide how they might contribute to the solution of those difficulties. The College will bring together under the aegis of its Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, scholars and church leaders who can help us understand the Church's current problems and evaluate them. In the format of an intense dialogue akin to Ignatian discernment we will ask the hard questions and struggle with the Church's (our own!) weaknesses, embarking on a long journey toward a renewed Church. We will "seek to find God in all things," especially in the Church that suffers under the weight of sin.

For additional information, contact William Shea, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, at wshea@holycross.edu.