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Editor:
Tom McFadden
Managing Editor: Niall O'Donnell
Contributing Editors: Tom O'Connor,
Matt Hadro (Sports)
Contributing Photographer: Tom O'Connor
Issue:
November 30, 2007
Name: Katie Anzalone
Age: 18
Year: Freshman
From:Stoneham, MA
Major: History or Political Science (Undecided)
Any Hobbies? Cooking, baking, running
What's your favorite class or professor? History with Dr. O'Donnell. I've always loved history even though it's hard to make it interesting sometimes. When you can sit in class listening and simply enjoy it and look forward to the next time—it's a great class.
Do you play any sports? Yes, softball.
Do you participate in any drama or music related activities? Not currently, but I would love to participate in the spring play.
What is your favorite thing about Christendom College? Definitely the friendships I've made so far. It's so great to be with so many amazing people my age who not only share the same faith but the same struggles as well.
Why did you choose Christendom College? My parents have always wanted me to go to Christendom. I never thought I would actually want to until I came to the summer program and loved it.
What do you plan to do after graduation? Go to nursing school and specialize in pediatric care.
When the Arts Come Out to Play
On Saturday, November 17, the St. Lawrence Commons was transformed into a majestic concert hall. As the program announced, it was “An Evening of Music, Art & Originality.” Almost twenty acts were performed by a variety of students and even some of the Professors got involved.
Sarah Miranda and Marya Doylend began the night with “Waltzing Bobcats,” an entertaining piano duet that was followed by John Killackey performing a lively Irish folk song, played expertly on the fiddle.
Kyle Kelley played a truly unique piano piece, entitled “Pachelbel Reloaded,” which received enthusiastic applause from the audience. Seniors Sarah Berger and Meredith Wise ended the first Act by performing the duet, “The Return of the King,” which they had performed during this same event during their freshman year. Everyone appreciated this beautiful rendition of the soundtrack theme, which was flawlessly played on piano and violin.
During the short intermission, the audience had a chance to view an art display, which included sketches, paintings and other pieces created by students. Everyone was very impressed by the quality of work produced by these artistically gifted students.
Act II certainly began on a high note, with Tom and Peter McGuire, and their elder brother and History Professor Brendan McGuire, performing an Irish medley on bagpipes and drums to the delight of all those present. When the McGuires exited the stage, they left to tremendous applause from the audience. Francis and Steven Ginski personified the theme of originality with their original piece performed on guitar and drums. The quartet of Kak Freeman, Bridget Randolph, Mary Beth Baker, and Laura Shrader captured the audience’s attention with their performance of “Broken.”
All in all, St. Cecilia’s Night 2007 was a beautiful night of diversity, music, and art. St. Cecilia must have been proud to listen to the evening’s performances!
Santa Caecilia, ora pro nobis!
Mega-Shield Brings 125 Students to Their Knees at Abortuary
Each Saturday, after attending 7am Mass on campus, a group of Christendom students under the title “Shield of Roses” travels to Washington, DC, to peacefully protest their opposition to abortion by praying outside an abortion mill. This tradition was established at Christendom from the very beginning and continues up to this day.
The abortion mill, operated by Planned Parenthood, is located right in the middle of Washington, DC, on 16th St. and L.
According to Sophomore Paul Wilson, the current president of Shield of Roses, normally about 25-50 students give up their Saturday mornings each week to defend life through their witness and prayer.
On November 17, over 125 students from Christendom participated in the prayerful efforts of the Shield of Roses. The event is advertised as Mega-Shield and generally takes place once a semester, although the last time this many students took part was in 2004.
“Not everyone can give up their Saturday morning each week to protest the horror of abortion,” Wilson says. “We are students, after all, that’s our vocation at the moment, and that means we have papers, tests, and lots of homework – and Saturday mornings are primetime for these types of activities. But by encouraging a large portion of our student body to attend a miniature “March for Life” once a semester is good for everyone because it helps us see the “real” faces of abortion – the pro-choice escorts, the women entering the building, and even the people on the street who yell things from their cars as they drive by – and this helps us to pray harder for the babies, the women, the doctors, and the nation. And I think that’s a good thing.”
Admissions Director and Shield of Roses Moderator Tom McFadden was present that day.
“I spend my days informing interested students and their parents of the merits of Christendom College,” says McFadden. “When the students get excited about saving the lives of the unborn and encourage almost 35% of the Front Royal campus students to travel the hour and a half to DC to pray many Rosaries and the Divine Mercy Chaplet in front of an abortuary, my job gets easier. Christendom students never cease to amaze me!”
Christendom’s motto, “To restore all things in Christ,” is more than just a motto for the students. It is their mission and their way of life. Through the rigorous moral and academic education that they receive at Christendom, the students are well prepared to enter society and the workforce as “Soldiers for Christ,” dedicated to the restoration of all of Christendom.
Subject of Debate: Embryos
The Chester-Belloc Debate Society convened for the second time this year last Sunday. Led by Theology Professor Dr. Eric Jenislawski as Faculty Moderator, and Seniors Peter Smith, Sean Vieira, and Sam Philips as Executive Council.
The topic for the night’s debate was: Can a Catholic adopt and implant an embryo to save the embryo’s life?
Among the many speakers were John Jalsevac, K.C. Dufrain, Peter Smith, and Cassidy Bugos. As the debate progressed, many strong arguments were presented. The final vote ultimately resulted in sixteen in favor of implantation, eleven against, and four undecided votes.
Choir Makes Noise in Library
The Palestrina Chamber Chorus held a small concert in the rotunda of the St. John the Evangelist Library this past Sunday.
Orchestrated by Professor Kurt Poterack, the Chorus performed ten pieces of twentieth century sacred music. Compositions by Calvert Shenk and Professor Poterack were included in the repertoire.
The concert was very well attended, with only standing room available. The Palestrina Chamber Chorus ended with a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria, composed by Kurt Poterack.
Opportunities Await at the Leadership Institute
The Leadership Institute hosted a small gathering at St. Kilian’s Café on Monday, November 19, for those interested in possible political careers.
Alex Knight, Christendom almunus (’07), and Kevin Deanna represented the Leadership Institute, and gave a brief overview of what the organization has to offer. Among these services are: Paid Internships, Political Courses and Seminars, Job Placement and the organization of Campus Leadership Programs.
Students were able to speak with Alex and Kevin and sign up for the various services after the talk.
You can visit the Leadersip Institute on the web at www.leadershipinstitute.org.
What Makes Catholic Art Catholic?
Mrs. Nora Hamerman, an art historian, free lance writer, and lecturer for Christendom's Notre Dame Graduate School, gave a PowerPoint presentation entitled "Catholic Art of Today: Between Memory and Hope" this past Wednesday in the lower level of St. John the Evangelist Library.
Hamerman's talk focused on the art of the current exhibit being held in the library, "Redeeming Art."
"We chose the art by asking ourselves, 'What makes this art Catholic? What are the traditional themes?'" she said.
She then displayed a list of themes they had used in compiling these works of art: The face or icon of Christ, images of Our Lady, the Saints, the Sacraments, Good works.
"Now this particular set of themes was underlined at the Council of Trent where the Church defined itself in relation to the challenges it faced," she said.
"Those are the traditional Catholic art themes. We never found all of them in any one particular work of art," she added. "But that was what we were looking for."
Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, she said, "Memory and hope are inseparable. To poison the past does not give hope, it destroys it's emotional foundations. Through the celebration of holy seasons, liturgy, and custom, our personal memories are nourished by mankind's great memories, in turn it is only by translating them into personal memories that these great memories are kept alive."
Hamerman took this notion and applied it to Sacred-Religious Art. The artist takes these great memories or truths and makes them personal bringing them to people, she said.
In
honor of the 30th Anniversary of Christendom College
the Chronicler Online takes a peek into the past
of the college each week.
Then and Now II: Back Into the Past
Over its 30 years Christendom has gone through some amazing changes. Below are some examples. Move your cursor over the images below to see what it used to be like.
Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel
Playing Guitar in the Student Center/Lounge
Graduation Ceremony
Reading in the Library
Basketball Season Sees Highs and Lows
It’s getting close to the end of the semester now, with both the men’s and women’s basketball programs looking to continue to overcome their respective slow starts, and finish strong. The women are presently 2-4, with a couple of close losses in the mix.
They started the season strong with a hard-fought overtime thriller against NVCC, winning by three points. Then, however, they dropped four straight, with a disappointing loss to Davis College by four points, on the road.
But the team came together in an impressive victory against NCAA Division III Wilson College. They end their first semester of the season at home on December 4, against Lancaster Bible College.
Newcomers such as transfer Abby Hill have made quite a difference, adding much-needed depth to this year’s squad. Hill was especially strong down low against NVCC, where she had a double-double with 21 points and over 10 rebounds.
Bethany Hepler and Mary Kate Vande Woude, both freshmen, have also made a significant impact. And the veterans have rounded out the team quite well, including guards Becca Harris, Allison Kavanaugh, and Kathleen McKinnon who return from last year’s squad.
Meanwhile, on the men’s front, the Crusaders stand at 2-6. After an opening-day loss to Maryland Bible College, the men dropped two in a row on their next road trip, including a disappointing game at Davis College where junior Greg Monroe dropped in 39 points in a losing effort.
But then the Crusaders stormed back at Maryland Bible College the next week. Facing a team that had beaten them by 30 at Christendom, the Crusaders held the lead for most of the game before bowing out in overtime, 72-62. The game had been an example of how the men have made some strides this season since the opening tip-off. The defensive effort at Maryland Bible was significantly better.
The men followed the game up with a loss to NCAA Division III Randolph College and resounding victories against Washington Bible College (88-48) and Roanoke Bible College (100-50).
They end their semester with a road game in Pennsylvania on Saturday followed by a Christmas Tournament at Malone College in Ohio on the weekend of December 14-15.
Q: I’m interested in visiting Christendom but I don’t see any references to Open House Weekends or Visitor Weekends? When are people supposed to visit and what do they do once they are there?
–M.J., Pittsburgh, PA
A: Well, it is true that we don’t have Open House Weekends or specific Visitor Weekends, but we do accept visitors to campus pretty much anytime throughout the year. We want to offer our visitors a certain amount of flexibility and don’t want to discourage them from visiting on one particular day or weekend, if that’s the best time for them.
Basically, you take a look at our student activities calendar and our visit page on our website, and then you contact Angela McNeely in our admissions office (amcneely@christendom.edu) and book your visit through her. Many people come on a Thursday night or Friday morning and then stay until after Mass on Sunday. Others choose to come on a Tuesday and leave on a Thursday. Some just come out for the day. Whatever works for you, we say.
If you are planning on flying to our area, you fly into Dulles Airport (IAD) and we pick you up for free, and return you for free. While here, we feed you, put you up in our dorm rooms, send you to whatever events are going on, and there is no cost to you. In fact, if you are flying, we even provide you with bedding, a pillow, and towels. We have blow up queen size mattresses that you sleep on, or sometimes your student ambassador takes the mattress and gives you his or her bed. You sit in on whatever classes you wish, although we normally suggest freshman classes, and you have a personal meeting with me, to ask me whatever questions you have about Christendom. It seems to me to be a little more customer-oriented to do visits this way, but I do see some advantages to official Open House or Visitor Weekends, too.
We believe that the students who visit Christendom truly get a feel for what life is like here at one of the most Catholic colleges in America, and they are able to see if Catholicism is truly the air that we breathe, as we advertise. They are able to see if the students that attend Christendom are really as dedicated, knowledgeable, moral, happy, and educated as we say that they are. And most importantly, they are able to see if Christ is truly the King of our campus, as we proclaim.
And sometimes, after their visit, people find out that they want nothing to do with Christendom. They find that Christendom is not their cup of tea, or better, not the type of family that they wish to join. And that’s fine with us. We only want people coming to Christendom who fully understand what we are and why we do what we do. We only want people coming to Christendom who want to be formed by our educational experience and who want to embrace the culture of Christendom and become more in tune with our Catholic cultural heritage. And not everyone’s into this.
So, a visit can go a long way to figure out whether Christendom is for you and whether the students, faculty, and staff at Christendom are, as they say, your “peeps.”
Thanks for asking and hopefully we’ll see you on our campus in the near future.
If
anyone has questions about applying, visiting, scholarships,
financial aid, campus life, rules and regulations, majors,
core curriculum, transfer credits, or even about the food
here at Christendom, please do not hesitate to contact me
at any time: 800.877.5456 ext 1290 or tmcfadden@christendom.edu.
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