The Xavierite
On Tuesday, September 16, Saint Xavier University launched their first guest lecture with Sister Helen Marie Burns,R.S.M., Ph.D., in the Butler Reception Room.
Sister Helen Marie’s presentation, entitled “Education Requires Ingenuity: The Heritage of Catholic Education,” explores how the ingenuity of women religious (sisters) furthered and continues to shape Catholic education in the United States, especially for women.
In her lecture, Sister Helen Marie takes inspiring words from Mother Frances Xavier Warde, the founder of Saint Xavier and an important symbol of what our university stands for, stating that “to instruct is an easy matter, but to educate requires ingenuity, energy and perseverance without limit.”
Here she shows that such ingenuity expressed by Mother Xavier Warde and the Sisters of Mercy is still important, especially within high education Catholic institutions like Saint Xavier University.
Currently, Sister Helen Marie is Vice President for Mission Integration at Mount Aloysius College, a Mercy institution in Pennsylvania.
Her educational experience spans both high school and college teaching, as well as scholarly and motivational presentations for educational organizations and at academic conferences.
She has served on the boards of several educational institutions, including the University of Detroit-Mercy, Misericordia University, Mount St. Agnes Theological Center for Women, and St. John School of Theology and Seminary.
Sister Helen Marie also earned her doctorate from the University of Iowa in the History of Religion and Religious Thought in 2001.
“The Catholic college, dare we say education enterprise, serves the church and the world, not just by forming its students to the christian faith, but by here and now providing a context in which students and faculty alike can think about, grapple with the problems of both.”
Here Sister Helen Marie quotes Margaret Farley, who spoke at 1978 presentation to Our Mercy of Higher Education’s Colloquium and how she interpreted another way as to how the university and college has served the church and the world.
“While Catholic education has always utilized the talents of many members of the Catholic community, religious congregations of women held a key role in its contributions and characteristics…as a pastoral strategy, a tool for enculturation, and a context for prophecy and promise,” Sister Helen Marie says.
Sister Helen Marie encourages the process of students developing ingenuity and she argues that similar ingenuity is required to keep Catholic educational institutions like SXU relevant and vital in response to society’s evolving needs.
The Catholic Colloquium lecture series is sponsored by the Office of Mission Integration and Mercy Heritage.
This lecture series, inaugurated in 2006, honors the responsibilities of a Catholic university to serve its students, faculty, staff and the broader Catholic and civic communities by providing opportunities to examine contemporary civic, religious and social questions in the light of a vibrant, socially committed faith.
Lectures are free and open to the public.The next lecture will be on March 19, 2015 by speaker Mary Chrisine Athans, B.V.M., Ph.D.
For more information concerning the lecture Series, please contact the Office for Mission and Heritage at 773-298-3809.
Gisselle Lopez
News Editor