Last May I entered a post on dotCommonweal about the new chapel that was under construction on the campus of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, and about the striking mosaics that are one of its most distinctive features. Tomorrow the chapel will be dedicated. In today's New York Times, Peter Steinfels reflects on its significance.Steinfels quotes Sacred Heart's President, Anthony J. Cernera:

Anthony J. Cernera, the president of Sacred Heart a layman and a theologian ... said the chapel was a challenge to the spiritual but not religious catchphrase.It would be a terrible mistake to fall into the trap of accepting that dichotomy, he said. The best way to be spiritual in the Catholic tradition is to celebrate the Eucharist and to use all the signs of the faith.If the leadership at Sacred Heart does not buy the spiritual versus religious dichotomy, they also do not seem to be paralyzed by the inclusive versus exclusive dichotomy. Their university, they know, is widely recognized for promoting Christian-Jewish and ecumenical understanding.

Under Cernera's leadership, Sacred Heart University has been in the forefront of reflecting upon the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and of presenting it both to its own faculty and to the wider community. Dr. Cernera has edited two volumes of essays by prominent theologians, philosophers, and educators: Examining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. He also sponsors a yearly presidential seminar for faculty of Sacred Heart University from different academic disciplines.Moreover, as Steinfels indicates above, the University's Center for Christian Jewish Understanding is a leader in promoting ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. One outcome has been another book edited by Cernera: Examining Nostra Aetate after Forty Years.I have been a friend of Anthony Cernera for many years, and am honored to be one of the presenters each year in his faculty seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. When I ask myself what has shaped his creative vision, it seems to me that it is the providential fruit of two influences: the intellectual rigor and creativity he received from his Jesuit education at Fordham and the liturgical centeredness flowing from his love affair with the Benedictine tradition embodied in Mount Saviour Monastery near Elmira.Together they have shaped his conviction that when the Eucharistic center is firm, the circumference can be joyfully extended to embrace all witness to God's Wisdom. The new chapel is testimony to that conviction.

Robert P. Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, is a longtime Commonweal contributor.

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