Newman Week presents Catholic speaker, fundraising events
To launch the annual philanthropic Newman Week, the St. Thomas More Newman Center invited Catholic writer and editor Margaret O’Brien Steinfels to speak Thursday night.
Steinfels, the co-director of the Fordham University Center on Religion and Culture, talked about reinventing Catholicism, or defining the relation between the Roman Catholic Church’s traditions and modern American culture.
“The pace of change makes it hard to maintain values, traditions and communities in a form transmissible to students, children and grandchildren,” Steinfels said.
In her “What’s Lost, What’s Left: American Catholics in the 21st Century” speech, Steinfels said active lay Catholics need to take up the job of reinventing Catholicism.
“We need to take this job to heart, define it thoughtfully and carry it out gracefully,” Steinfels said. “It can’t be done out of anger or resentment. It’s time for adult lay Catholics to assess what’s possible and then do it.”
Funds raised for Newman Week will benefit the Youth Empowerment Zone, a Columbia nonprofit that helps local youth find jobs.
Saturday, the Newman Center will hold the Mardi Gras-themed Fire and Ice Formal in the Mark Twain Ballroom in Memorial Union at 8 p.m., according to a schedule on their Web site. A kid’s carnival in the multipurpose room will feature games from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, the Web site stated.
According to the online schedule, students will lead a prayer vigil for the Youth Empowerment Center at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the chapel. From February 11 through 13, Catholic Student Association members will perform the student-written “Signs from God” musical at 7 p.m. in the chapel, the Web site said. At the dessert auction on Friday, February 12, participants will bake desserts to be auctioned off as a fundraising activity, Newman Week Coordinator Katie Miller said.
Through Newman Week’s Campus Competition, 47 students will advertise for events, volunteer for the carnival and fundraise, Miller said. She said the team receiving the most points from these activities will receive a dinner at Flat Branch Pub and Brewing and a movie at Ragtag Cinema. Students do not have to be Catholic to participate in the competition, Miller said.
So far, the Newman Center has raised more than $3,000 for the Youth Empowerment Center, which is about the same amount raised at the end of Newman Week last year, Miller said.