Crossroads Cultural Center

The God Particle to be discussed in NYC

Crossroads Cultural Center AND the American Bible Society are hosting a presentation on the latest discoveries in particle physics at an event open to the public and free of charge.

Saturday, April 13

6:30pm

American Bible Society (at 61st & Broadway)

Dr. Giorgio Ambrosio, Applied Scientist, Fermilab, and Dr. Stephen Barr, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware.

The announcement reads,

The recent announcement of the discovery of a Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, has generated enormous shockwaves in the press. Some people call it The God Particle.

Why such an awesome name? Can it really be the key for unlocking some of the mysteries of the universe? Can it help us understand the origin of mass, for instance? Can it tell us anything about ourselves and our place in the universe?

In their talks, the two speakers will address these and other related questions. The talk is geared to the general public and will include a “virtual” tour of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland.

More information

Versed in Prayer: a poetry reading by Rita A. Simmonds

To celebrate faith and culture in this Year of Faith, Rita A. Simmonds, a friend, is reading her poetry in a program Versed in Prayer, at St. Malachy’s-The Actors’ Chapel in NYC on 28 November 2012, 7pm.

Rita’s poetry is frequently featured in the monthly MAGNIFICAT magazine. Her work is award-winning.

Versed in Prayer is MAGNIFICAT’s way of celebrating the Year of Faith following upon the invitation of Pope Benedict: “Faith is God’s gift and transforms the person deep within. Confessing with the lips in turn implies public testimony.”

Versed in Prayer will be moderated by MAGNIFICAT’s Editor-in-Chief Father Peter John Cameron, OP with the abled assistance of Jonathan Fields on guitar and photography by David Galalis.

The event is free. No tickets required. More info found here.

CATHOLICSM: The New York Premier

You are invited to a screening of CATHOLICISM with ArchbishopTimothy Dolan’s introduction and a presentation by project’s creator
Father Robert Barron, and Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete.

A reception and book signing following the event.

Presented by Crossroads
Cultural Center and Word on Fire

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

The Times Center

242 West 41st Street

New York, NY map

Click here to
RSVP

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete

Author, theologian, columnist

Father Robert Barron

Author, speaker, theologian Founder of Word On Fire.

MORE
INFORMATION

This event is open to the public and
free of charge, but seating is limited.

Tickets must be obtained online
through www.catholicism.eventbrite.com

Continue reading CATHOLICSM: The New York Premier

Peter John Cameron speaks on Luigi Giussani, the priest wounded by beauty

On October 8, 2011, a film series co-sponsored by the Siena Forum for Faith and Culture and Crossroads Cultural Center on extraordinary Christian lives concluded with the showing of the documentary conducted by Elena Guarnieri of “Vita Straordinarie: Don Luigi Giussani” (Extraordinary Lives: Fr. Luigi Giussani”) on the life and work of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, called: the priest wounded by beauty by Pope Benedict when he offered the Sacrifice of the Mass for the repose of Giussani’s soul on 25 February 2005.

Dominican Father Peter John Cameron gave his commentary the film 150 people watched at New York’s Church of Saint Catherine of Siena (E. 68th Str.). Watch it… Cameron’s insights are good to reflect upon….

“Magdalene’s Song”: a film of beauty and grace

“Magdalene’s Song,” is a film by Mauro Campiotti about Blessed Mary Magdalene of the Incarnation (Caterina Sordini) foundress of the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, an order of contemplative nuns who had an extraordinary relationship with the Lord and devotion to the Church in a time of great difficulty.

This film was the third in a series of four films on “Interesting Lives for Our Times” sponsored by the Siena Forum for Faith & Culture and Crossroads Cultural Center.

The Director, Mauro Campiotti, and 4 nuns from the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament were present to answer questions at the end of the film.

Thanks to Rita Simmonds and Tom Sullivan for the pictures.

I loved this film and I look forward to having a copy of it. I recommend seeing “Magdalene’s Song.”

A great treat was meeting the nuns who are a part of the order founded by Blessed Mary Magdalene. These two sisters are also blood sisters and there’s a third sister who’s a sister.

Here’s a blog post on the Blessed Mary Magdalene and here order.

Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement: an American witness to the Culture of Life

Last night at the Church of Saint Catherine of Siena (NYC) a remarkable event took place. About 120 people from all over the Metropolitan New York area attended an event co-sponsored by the Siena Forum for Faith and Culture and Crossroads Cultural Center whereby we wanted to know more about a pivotal figure of the 20th century who was truly human and in love with Christ through the poor, the Servant of God Dorothy Day. Ms. Mary Lathrop, a longtime friend and spiritual daughter of Day’s, with Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, spoke about the person of Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker Movement and Catholic Social teaching. Albacete as you know is the well known priest, physicist and theologian who works with the lay movement Communion and Liberation in the USA. Lathrop is a remarkable woman of faith and conviction who gave us a deeper appreciation for the real person that Day was and not the ideaology that is often passed off for the same.

A video of the event is located here.

The following article by Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete was published today on Il Sussidiario (English edition):

This week I was asked to participate in a discussion about Dorothy Day, founder of the “Catholic Worker Movement.” The story of her life captures like none other the history of the Catholic Church in the United States during the last century, and a judgment on her life pretty much indicates how American Catholics look at the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, NY, on November 8, 1897 and died on November 29, 1980. I must confess that I knew very little about her during the 60’s and 70’s, except that she was a very controversial Catholic pacifist, feminist, and maybe socialist who made many Church authorities very nervous (and still does here and there). I knew about her opposition to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, but it was not until recently that I read her stunning editorial excerpted below so you can get a feel for her soul’s style:

Mr. Truman was jubilant. President Truman. True man; what a strange name, come to think of it. We refer to Jesus Christ as true God and true Man. Truman is a true man of his time in that he was jubilant…the newspapers said. Jubilate Deo. We have killed 318,000 Japanese…

Continue reading Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement: an American witness to the Culture of Life

Siena Forum to host conversation on Dorothy Day with Lorenzo Albacete and Mary Lathrop on June 21

“Reality holds a signature from God … we must seek to decipher”

The transcript for the talk on whether a scientist can be a believer that was given at a lecture hosted by the New York Encounter in January has just been released by the Crossroads Cultural Center. Faith and reason is being explored here. It is a great question to ask if a believer in Christ –or perhaps a Jew or Muslim adherent– can be credible, true to his or her being given a certain intellectual formation. Does belief in God forfeit our true search for the Divine? Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete’s portion of the discussion is the most interesting to me and it is noted below (emphasis mine). A believer sometime has to work overtime to convince him or herself that faith and science are compatible. The other day my attention was drawn to what a little girl said about Lent: her view of life and the simplicity by which we have to look everything realizing that we don’t make ourselves; everything is given. Albacete answers the question of the compatibility of faith and science: The answer, I propose, is not only yes he can, but, in fact, it is faith that will sustain his or her passion for investigating nature, and prevent the process itself and its results from becoming enslaved to political, economic, and religious ideology.Let me know what you think.

In such a case, is awe, wonder, and joy at scientific
discoveries possible? When I was thinking about this, a friend sent me the text
of a speech given by Msgr. Luigi Giussani about the “love of being” that is
remarkably appropriate to this reflection. Giussani’s argument is that the truth of Christianity can be
verified by a proper consideration of the evidence for it. Evidence, he says,
is the correct word, even if the evidence for the Christian claim is given to
us through signs. Signs are things that can be touched, seen, and experienced. The Apostles had Jesus in front of them and this presence was a sign of His
victory over death, and therefore of His mysterious identity. But what about
us? What happens with the passage of time? What signs are there for us as
evidence of the truth of the Christian claim, of the reasonableness of the
Christian claim?

The interpretation of the signs available to us engages our
liberty, he says. In this drama, our liberty is a manifestation of our love for
being. Without this love for being we are not truly free and we will never
grasp the evidence of the signs given to us. At this point, as an example of
this love for being, Giussani invokes the Magi.

Continue reading “Reality holds a signature from God … we must seek to decipher”

China’s war on women and girls: one-child policy, forced sterilization, forced abortion & infanticide

On Wednesday I joined my friend Suzanne Tanzi, a
fellow traveler among friends in the lay ecclesial movement, Communion and Liberation, to an in-service billed as “Gendercide, Sex Trafficking and Violence Against Women” given in light of the Christian perspective as a way to give an alternate voice to the ideology of the United Nations Commission of the Status of Women. By the Way, Suzanne is also the editor of Traces magazine (you ought to subscribe!!!!).

The presentations were heavy and some of them need refining. The content was stimulating and possibly burdensome for the weak of heart. The truth of the violence against women around the world is devastating. I sat listening mourning the presence of evil actions in our society today. We are never very far from human frailty! On the train ride home last evening I stumbled upon a New York Post article about a Wednesday bust on drug use and mid-afternoon sex acts on a bench dedicated to Katharine Hepburn in the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on East 47th Street, got me thinking. This presentation was being given at Holy Family Parish a few steps away from these heinous acts! You see, wanton sexual behavior and drug are not very far from us. The human dignity is at being trampled. But hope enlightened the heart
and mind where one would be tempted to despair. I walked way from the afternoon having been received salt and light, thanks in part, from meeting Reggie Littlejohn.

Continue reading China’s war on women and girls: one-child policy, forced sterilization, forced abortion & infanticide

New York Encounter 2011: a review

Last weekend the New York Encounter was “a success” for the second year in a row. Lots of people, friends and guests came together for a public meeting to hear presentations, to engage in discussion, to share friendly meals and to be caught up in beautiful music. Several significant speakers addressed the crowds. People like Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap., Father Julián Carrón, Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, John Garvey, Carla Hendra, Charles, Townes, Clara Gaymard and others.

The Encounter is a faith and cultural festival in the heart of the New York City sponsored by Communion and Liberation and Crossroads Cultural Center and several other organizations.

Let me bring together several key events by providing essays in review:

Sharon Mollerus writes about the address given by the new President of the Catholic University of America John Garvey who spoke on freedom in the university context and what it means to be at a Catholic institution and the work of freedom. Nothing gets the “goat” of university professors, especially the pampered and self-appointed intellectuals, more than questions of freedom in university life. Mollerus’ essay “CUA President John Garvey Defends Freedom in the University.”

Dino D’Agata writes “Claudel’s ‘The Tidings Brought to Mary.'” Paul Claudel is estimated to the most significant poet of the 20th century and THE most quoted poet by Pope Benedict XVI. Dino D’Agata is a consecrated lay-member of Memores Domini teaching high school in Washignton, DC.

Fred Kaffenberger also reviews Claudel’s play in an essay, “A French House in New York City” where he reflects on what this play may say to a post-modern American audience.

Fred Kaffenberger also reviews the new English translation of the iconic Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi’s work, Canti by Jonathan Galassi in an essay, “Galassi’s Translation of Leopardi: Reviews.”

The New York Encounter is about being with others to see how I can face life differently. If we want change in life, to have a different way of living in society we to engage our own human flourishing with points of compassion, facing the situations presented to us in life with hope, courage, compassion, What do I believe? Who do I rely on for companionship, intellectual wonder and cultural fun?

Crossroads Cultural Center has a growing file for the New York Encounter that you may find useful.

Follow the New Encounter on Facebook where you can find photos and other useful info.