EarthshakingIn a narrow, concrete-reinforced vault 28 feet under Fordham University's Rose Hill campus, an elderly Jesuit priest spent days tirelessly recording the earth's rumblings. For more than 60 years, physicist Fr. J. Joseph Lynch, SJ, was New York City's resident seismic expert. Using pendulums and other instruments, Lynch recorded an obscure earthquake in the Dominican Republic, noted a German U-boat attack off the coast, "heard" the detonation of China's first atom bomb in the 60s, and could verify that the city's subway trains were running on time. Now, twelve years after Lynch's death at the age of 92, Fordham is reclaiming the space and reestablishing it as a laboratory for cutting-edge seismic research and as a hands-on learning center for public school students. The observatory will be renovated and a museum is planned for the building's entrance. Contributed by Peter West 
From the AtticWhen the Franciscans left Mission Santa Clara, they also left their clothing behind-literally. Eighty-one ceremonial garments from the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century lay hidden in Santa Clara University's de Saisset Museum until recently, when volunteers discovered them in a remote attic crawl space. The colorful vestments, elaborately embroidered in silver and gold, are believed to be made out of old Spanish gowns. Founded by the Franciscans in 1777, Mission Santa Clara was transferred in 1851 to the Jesuits, who established Santa Clara University there the same year. 
|
In StoneMany have stopped to pray at one of the more than 52 shrines made by Fr. James Hannan, SJ (1885-1971), who kiddingly referred to himself as a "Jesuit mason." His shrines grace many Midwestern states, including Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and South Dakota. While many of his structures have met the proverbial wrecking ball, some still remain, including ones at Creighton Prep in Omaha and Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and this Marian grotto on the campus of Regis University in Denver.  North and SouthHoly Family School in Natchez, Mississippi, was founded in 1890 to educate "negroes" when emancipation was a quarter century old but integration still a dream. The school has endured tough times over the years but was recently faced with the threat of closing. Sr. Mary Santry, SND, came from Ipswich, Mass., to Natchez in 1997, determined to save Holy Family, the oldest black Catholic school in the United States, one with a tradition of excellence despite serious under funding. Sr. Santry enlisted the support of Boston College students, who traveled to Mississippi during spring break to renovate school grounds, donate funds, and set up scholarships and an endowment. Their efforts will help support a school that despite basement and hallway classrooms, 1950s-era library materials, and $13,000-a-year teacher salaries continues to produce some of the most talented students in the area. Excerpted from the Boston Globe 
Buddhists in MobileTwelve Buddhist monks from Drepung Loseling, the Tibetan monastery in exile in southern India, were on campus at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama this spring. The college dedicated a week to Buddhist sacred chant, dance, sand painting, and prayer for world healing. |
Making Radio WavesA radio program that began broadcasting from a closet in a building on the Saint Louis University campus 60 years ago has become the oldest Catholic syndicated program in the country. Begun in 1939 by Fr. Eugene Murphy, SJ, the international Sacred Heart Program provides "Contact" free of charge to radio stations in a choice of formats that range from 5 to 29 minutes. This program takes its microphones to the streets and homes around the nation to let ordinary people tell extraordinary stories of overcoming adversity and obstacles in their daily lives. The nationally syndicated "Contact" is broadcast weekly on more than 425 stations in the United States and Canada, several overseas countries, and on the Armed Forces Radio Network. 
On the MoonLong before novelist Mary Doria Russell sent the Society to outer space in her novel The Sparrow, Jesuits were on the moon-at least their names were. The International Astronomical Union has recently codified lunar nomenclature eliminating conflicts and duplications. The new list has 35 lunar craters named after Jesuits, including Italians, Germans, French, Hungarians, Swiss, Austrians, Croatians, and Americans. For centuries the basic map used for lunar nomenclature was the one drawn in 1645 by Jesuit optician Francesco Grimaldi (1618-1663). His map includes crater names invented by fellow Jesuit Giovanni Riccioli, who assigned some of the brightest craters to Copernicans, including Kepler, Galileo, Lansberg, and Copernicus himself. This has always been a puzzle, since as a Jesuit Riccioli staunchly upheld the doctrine of a fixed and central earth, a concept challenged by Copernicus. Riccioli claimed to have flung the heliocentrists into the Sea of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum), but some wonder if this map was his way of revealing a secret fondness for the Copernican doctrine, especially since he named two nearby craters Grimaldus and Ricciolus, while other Jesuit astronomers were assigned to craters in the south, surrounding a crater named after the geocentrist astronomer Tycho Brahe. A first printing the Grimaldi/Riccioli map can be found in the special collections of Woodstock Theological Center Library, Georgetown University. Contributed by Joseph MacDonnell, SJ, and William B. Ashworth 
ConvocationsCommencement speakers at Jesuit colleges and universities in the spring of 1999:
Page maintained by Richard VandeVelde, SJ, webmaster@companysj.com. Copyright(c) 1999, Company Magazine. Created: 12/4/1999 Updated: 12/4/1999 | |