Activities/Application for Assistance

Application for Assistance from the Institute
Download the application to the Bishop John S. Cummins Institute for Catholic Thought, Culture, and Action. (bottom of this page)

Activities sponsored by the Institute include the following:

Catholic Intellectual Tradition Workshops

• Directed by Monika Hellwig in June 2005;
• Directed by Michael Himes in June 2006;
• Directed by Rosemary Haughton in June 2007

Lectures/Discussions

• The Most Reverend Allen Vigernon, Bishop of Oakland in 2003.
• Richard McBrien in September 2004.
• Social Justice Lecture Series organized by CILSA in 2004-05.
  Speakers included Greg Boyle, SJ, and Kevin Willmott.
• Catholic Classics Series: In tandem with a Religious Studies department quarter-credit class for students, a series of conversations were scheduled by the department with prominent theologians (including Brian Patrick McGuire, professor of medieval history at Roskilde University, Denmark) on classic Catholic texts.
• Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel peace prize recipient,  in November 2005.
• A Sacramental Community: Women, Spirituality and the Arts: a symposium co-sponsored with the Art and Art History Department. The Symposium was a celebration of Mary in the Catholic imagination, architectural spaces that mediate the presence of God, and contemporary sacred expressions in word and form. There were 20 different presentations, two art exhibits, an organ and choral recital, a dance performance, and a closing Mass. The primary goal of the Symposium was to provide an opportunity for the College to join as a sacred community and acknowledge scholarship, explore contemporary perspectives, and honor creative achievement.  Nine staff and faculty joined ten additional presenters and offered scholarly papers and art performances, with over 100 students attending.  Ten different departments participated. Sister Mary Rose Bumpus, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Spirituality at the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University gave the keynote address.
• The Most Reverend Allen Vigneron, Bishop of Oakland in 2006 on Deus Caritas Est
• Katie Springer Panel Discussions on God and Science in 2005 & 2006
  The topic in 2006 was abortion.  The Catholic perspective, a perspective from biology, a perspective from psychology, and one from philosophy was made, followed by a general discussion.
• Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, in January 2006
• Rosemary Haughton, an autobiographical sketch on what it means to be a Catholic,  in June 2007
• Father Bryan Massingale, Racial Justice, and the Catholic Lasallian Traditions,  November 2018
• Austin Hartke, The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians, October 2019

Cultural Events

• Dinner for Muslim students and their families, January 2017.

Catholic Social Teaching Activities

• Co-sponsored conferences with The Henning Institute 2004-2007.
• Co-sponsored Summer for the Common Good with CILSA, a residential program for students working on various community service projects in the Bay Area in 2005.  This program allowed 13 students to engage in faith and social action through the lens of the concept of the "Common Good."  Participants worked at a variety of non-profit agencies and schools for 8 weeks tutoring children, translating for refugees, and fixing broken bicycles, among many other things.  These students lived together in an intentional community on campus where they met weekly to pray, talk about issues at their agencies, and reflect on the concept of the "Common Good."
• Supported students working in New Orleans, Katrina Relief, during January Terms and Easter Vacation in 2005 - 2007.  al Development Activities

• Annual sponsorship of faculty at Collegium Workshops.
• Sponsorship of faculty at Vatican conference, "Catholicism and Science Education."
• Sponsorship of Board Members at the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Rome Seminars on Catholic Higher Education.
• Sponsorship of students at Huether Conference in 2006.
• Sponsorship of students at Immersion Project at Fort Benning, 2005-07.