St. Thomas’ Day Lecture at St. Vincent Ferrer
January 31st, 2008 by Br. Peter Totleben, OP
On the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, January 28 the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City sponsored a lecture by Dr. Russell Hittinger.
A friar of our community at St. Vincent’s, Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., gives this account of the evening:
The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer’s first St. Thomas’ Day Lecture was a tremendous success. Over 200 people gathered on January 28, the feast of St. Thomas, to hear Professor Russell Hittinger deliver a paper entitled “Two Modernisms and the Thomistic Response: Reflections on the Centenary of Pius X’s Condemnation of Modernism.” The setting was quite fitting. Under the church’s vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows (Aristotle is depicted in one of them), Professor Hittinger described the power Thomism still possesses to “baptize” for human and sacred use the proposals of modernity. Specifically, Hittinger assessed the varied attempts of modern popes to develop modern concerns, his preference resting on the method and style of Pope Leo XIII, who during his pontificate promulgated over 100 “Thomistic” encyclicals on a variety of political and social questions. These encyclicals, argued Hittinger, did more to advance the Church’s social doctrine against the errors of modernity than the syllabi errorum composed by Pius IX and Pius X. A spirited discussion followed as members of the audience affirmed the catechetical use of such lists. A fuller version of Professor Hittinger’s lecture can be found in the current issue of Nova et Vetera.
