The following comes from a May 16 release from Santa Clara University.
A longtime benefactor and board member of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University has helped launch a $230,000 endowed scholarship fund for the Berkeley-based school, in honor of Oakland Bishop Emeritus John Cummins.
The initial donor is Thomas Bertelsen, Jr., chairman of the board of JST, and also an alumnus of the school, which he attended after retiring from a successful career as an investment banker. Other board members and friends JST have also contributed to the fund.
The donations have created the John S. Cummins Endowed Scholarship Fund, which will be invested to provide scholarships for students from Asian countries – especially Mongolia, East Timor and Nepal — to attend JST. The first scholarship is expected to be awarded in the fall of 2014.
“We are grateful to Tom Bertelsen and the other donors for helping open wider the doors of JST to theology scholars around the world,” said Michael Engh, S.J., president of Santa Clara University. “This is true to the Jesuit Catholic spirit of advancing the mission of the Church, wherever the need is greatest.”
Bishop Cummins devoted 25 years of his life to helping the Catholic Church in some of the least advantaged parts of Asia, where he served as a “fraternal delegate” to the General Assemblies of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences.
“Bishop Cummins has seen the need for top Asian theologians and pastoral ministers to receive advanced theological teaching despite economic obstacles,” said Thomas Massaro, S.J., dean of JST. “This generous gift honors and advances that dedication.”
Bishop Cummins began his relationship with the Jesuit School of Theology in 1962, when he became chancellor of the Diocese of Oakland and was made liaison to the three Catholic theological schools that were part of the Graduate Theological Union. He served on the board of directors of JST for ten years, and will step down in June.
“Bishop Cummins has been a longtime supporter of JST and other schools in the Graduate Theological Union,” said Bertelsen. “I am happy that this fund will support worthy students from around the world who share his values.”
To read the account of how Bishop Cummins furthered the homosexualist and pro-euthanasia agenda, click here.
To read the entire release, click here.
I had heard from a professor at JSTB that the Jesuits most appreciated that Bishop Cummins left them alone. After Cummins retired, the Jesuits reorganized their theological school in Berkelely so that it was under the umbrella of Santa Clara University in San Jose, whose Bishop McGrath is also one to leave the Jesuits alone. When McGrath retires, where will the Jesuits reorganize to next?
The Jesuit School of Theology will only be able to accomplish training of true Catholic leaders for these Asian communities if the new Jesuit Bishop of Oakland can reform the Jesuits in California. Otherwise the students may take back to Asia something other than the Catholic faith.
Father Perozich,
Thank you for writing what many of us were thinking!
I know that Archbishop Khai was very weary of sending his seminarians to America because he wanted them to be CATHOLIC!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I would have no interest in contributing to this fund as my memory of Bishop Cummings is that he put the diocese of Oakland into a nearly insurmountable debt by constructing the new cathedral, the most expensive cathedral in the country, without the means to pay for it.
Did Bp Cummins persuade the federal govt to pay for it?
Robert,
The Cathedral was for the most part material. The damage he permitted to the Faith is SPIRITUAL!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I cannot remember seeing Archbishop Khai ever in a Sports Shirt!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Should a retired bishop be required to wear the collar even in his own home? Please!
I think that journalism must adhere to certain standards of ettiquette. The reportage here concerned the endowment of a scholarship, so the donor’s information is of interest, and the information about BpE. Cummins’ affiliation with Asian concerns is within that pervue. That said, if the occasion of this “news report” was taken advantage in order to further the “non news” of Cummins’ association with topics not pertinent (however much I or anyone else agrees with the Church’s teaching) to the article, that violates journalistic integrity.
Bertelsen said, “I am happy that this fund will support worthy students from around the world who share his (Cummins) values.” Therefore, whatever are his values, they are fair game.
Asking someone to contribute to a Jesuit School of Theology (an oxymoron) in the name of yet another bishop who cares less for the Magisterium of the Church may be asking a lot. Of course, most (not all) of the Jesuit schools (LMU, Verbum Dei HS, etc, etc, etc) are catholic in name only. In this case, it’s not located in Bezerkly for nothing!
“Journalistic integrity” is based on what Charles of CenCA?
This “Anonymous” is Skai (Skai).
Charles: good luck! Do you really expect the few regular posters to this site to actually worry about violating journalistic integrity?
Seriously?
WHAT?
To authentically teach the Faith, schools of theology MUST include as REQUIRED materials to study completely:
1) Catholic Bible;
2) Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition;
3) Code of Canon Law;
4) GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal).
If any of these are missing, do NOT DONATE, because it is not authentic.
Do your homework prior to giving away your money, so the Faith will not be taught erroneously.
Dottie, a school of theology needs to teach theology. There are many Catholic theologians, some saints, some still living. It would be wise not to teach from the dissident theologians except in the same way that the errors of heretics are used to spotlight the Catholic Truth.
Dottie you are correct. Errors and Falsehoods are being taught in the name of the Catholic Church.
Stop the errors and teach theology INCLUDING requiring the texts of the Bible, CCC, and Code of Canon Law. (The CCC and Code can be found on the Vatican web site. ) No Catholic should attend any School of Theology or Seminary or Convent that does not include these in full. These texts are the litmus test for the TRUTH.
“ The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I approved … and the publication of which I today order by virtue of my Apostolic Authority, is a statement of the Church’s faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church’s Magisterium. I declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion. “ – Pope John Paul II. (CCC pg 5)
“ In this Year of Faith let us ask ourselves if we have actually taken a few steps to get to know Christ and the truths of faith more, by reading and meditating on the Scriptures, studying the Catechism, steadily approaching the Sacraments. ” – Pope Francis 5/13/2013
Dottie, perhaps you should find out what the curriculum of a graduate schooll of theology requires in each of its courses. What you suggest as requirements are generally covered in most of the advanced programs. Those things that you suggest as minimum requirements are just that. When they are covered they move on to another two years of advanced study, always using scripture as the basis of all studies, etc.
please God who is going to take the sin away from san diego jesuit and the staff, that it is said do not teach Catholic morality and values!!??? AND THEY ALLOW DRAG SHOWS, AND IT IS SO TERRIBLE THAT I EVEN HATE TO WRITE THAT
WORD OR SAY IT ABOUT THE TERRIBLE SHOWS…..HOW CRAZY IS ALL OF THIS AND “THE CHURCH” ALLOWS IT AND DOES NOTHING ABOUT IT!!!
ALL THEY DO IS WRITE ABOUT IT AND DISCUSS IT….”DEAR LORD ABOVE”
WHAT IS THERE TO DISCUSS…….STOP THE SIN….CLOSE THE SCHOOL…..
I am going to borrow from a strand of comments I and others concluded regarding a similar situation at Verbum Dei (a Jesuit-administered high school), because it also relates to the situation here where Bp. Cummins, not one of the most discipline-oriented bishops, has an endowed scholarship fund memorializing his name and kind of leadership: the Jesuits in California appear to be as usual suspect and evidencing their “Lethargy of Faith.” What is a pattern is that pro-abort politicians and “bishop-celebrities” (in this case, just like the late Bishop Gumbleton and Unternauer, who either oppose Catholic teaching or honor it in the breach (=my opinion of Cummins’ leadership), now for decades, continue to be welcome on Jesuit-administered campuses. However, so much for the “freedom of discussion” argument, because men and women of faith (Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, Helen Alvare of George Mason Univ. School of Law, any number of the Catholic Priests for Life, etc) are rarely if ever welcome at Jesuit colleges and high schools. Only look at Santa Clara University which in January 2013 invited pro-abort novelist Amy Tan to a highly touted lecture event at their campus, or the recent invitation of Georgetown University to Kathleen Sebelius for a high profile address, just for two recent examples. Now, if you really want to get daring, all you SJ’s in leadership at the high schools and colleges and show your interest in intellectual debate, I dare you to invite Bp. Fellay or Bp Williamson to speak or similar trad leaders, or for that matter, recently named Bp-to-be. Michael Barber SJ of Oakland, all of whom will more than hold their own intellectually against a vapid spiritual leadership among this cadre. No, no: the Jesuit leadership types (exceptions noted) don’t want a muscular intellectual Catholicism on campus: it will be “too divisive.” Oh: by the way: Georgetown Univ. had the opportunity to sponsor “The Vagina Monologues” again on campus this spring semester (2013). As retiring lecturer James V. Schall (SJ: Georgetown) recently said, “Our courts and university faculties are no longer courageous enough to ask whether what they were deciding and teaching is true. In order to avoid responding to this basic question – “Is it true?’ – with an answer not merely an opinion, they have preferred to go on and on making distinctions and equivocations that would allow them to continue to undermine our moral and intellectual stature so that they could justify certain ways of acting and living.” What happens with a tree that only bears bad fruit?
Don’t forget that Bishop Cummins worked very hard to secure the passing of a bill that legalized sodomy in California. That alone should explain why the Jesuits are so enamored of him.
People have no morals.