Ordo Praedicatorum

In their September 13 issue, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, The Catholic Standard, published the following article on the installation of new officers of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and the blessing of the cornerstone for the new Academic Center and Theological Library, currently under construction.

Dominican House blesses new officers, installs cornerstone

By Lynnea Pruzinsky Mumola
Special to the Standard

Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, blessed and helped lay the cornerstone last Saturday for the new $18 million academic center now under construction at the Dominican House of Studies on Michigan Ave., N.E.

“People of little faith become prisoners of the moment,” Archbishop Sambi noted, while adding that people of great faith look further. Those “preparing to become Dominicans are a visible guarantee you have a long time in front of you,” the pope’s personal representative to the United States said.

Cardinal William Keeler, archbishop emeritus of Baltimore, joined Archbishop Sambi in spreading cement onto a rose-colored marble imprinted with a cross and the center’s completion date, “2008 AD”. Workers then lifted the marble block into place.

More than 125 students and guests gathered at the Dominican House of Studies, a seminary for Dominican theological formation since 1905, for the event. Currently there are 30 Dominican brothers preparing for the priesthood at the Dominican House.

At the ceremony for the cornerstone, friars, seminarians and visitors processed through a chain-link fence past large piles of earth to the construction site. They climbed a set of temporary wooden stairs onto a poured concrete floor of the half-finished building. Exposed steel beams and concrete blocks formed the outline of the center which will house the theological library and new administration offices and classrooms.

Dominican Father Dominic Izzo, prior provincial of the Province of St. Joseph, delivered a brief homily at the service. “Christ must always be our cornerstone,” Father Izzo said.

He noted the Dominican House’s many years of serving the archdiocese and the country. “Today is not a day to record history, it is a day when we - with the help of God - make history.”

Earlier, Archbishop Sambi prayed for the safe completion of the project. “Let us pray for (God’s) help as we lay this cornerstone to His glory. We pray that He will bring this construction to a successful completion and that His protection will keep those who work on it safe from injury.”

Since 1941 the Dominican House of Studies has served both as a residence for the Dominican community as well as one of six pontifical faculties of theology in the United States, the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. As such, the Dominicans can confer advanced degrees in theology in the name of the Catholic Church and act as an accrediting institution for other theological schools.

Following the laying of the cornerstone, Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl celebrated the installation Mass of the three officers of the pontifical faculty. Dominican Fathers Steven Boguslawski, Gabriel O’Donnell and Joseph Fox professed their faith and gave an oath of fidelity for the offices of president, vice president and academic dean, and vice president for advancement and professor of canon law respectively.

Father Boguslawski, a scholar and author of several books focusing on Jewish-Catholic relations in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, is currently the executive director of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center.

Father Gabriel O’Donnell serves as the postulator for the sainthood causes of Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus and Dominican Sister Rose Hawthorne, founder of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, N.Y. he holds a doctorate in liturgical and spiritual theology and served on the staff of the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Father Joseph Fox holds a doctoral degree in canon law and has served several posts in Rome including staff official of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and director of pastoral formation at the Pontifical North American College. Since 2003 he has taught on the faculty at Sacred Heart Majory Seminary and served as theologian consultant to Cardinal Adam Maida in Detroit and as a delegate for special services at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center.

Archbishop Wuerl praised the members of the Dominican community for their excellence in preaching God’s word. The faithful know that Christ will bless the cross taken up in God’s name because the truth of the Gospel has been proclaimed for generations, he added.

Yet, the archbishop also issued a challenge for the times. “Faithful students, your challenge is all the greater because we live in a culture that wants to dismiss the Gospel message,” he said.

“The truth of the Gospel and the voice of the shepherd has been passed on today,” Archbishop Wuerl said. “The new academic center is one more tangible sign,” he said. “A great structure becomes one more great link in the chain that reaches back to the apostles.”

Several bishops attended the laying of the cornerstone and Mass of Installation including Archbishop Thomas Cajetan Kelly, OP, a Dominican and archbishop emeritus of Louisville, Bishop Robert Carlson of Saginaw, Bishop Basil Losten, bishop emeritus of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Stamford, Bishop Earl Boyea, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, Bishop John Quinn, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, and Bishop Rutilio Del Riego Janez, auxiliary bishop of San Bernardino.

This article was reprinted with the kind permission of The Catholic Standard. ©2007 The Catholic Standard.

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