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October 22, 2001
Louisville, Kentucky ----- Over two dozen Catholic foundation leaders will meet November 2nd at Gethsemani Abbey Kentucky for a special day of reflection entitled: Thomas Merton - Spiritual Master. The gathering is one in a series of annual retreats where members of FADICA join with spiritual writers and church leaders for discussion and prayer. This year's program, will feature Notre Dame Professor Lawrence S. Cunningham, a renowned expert on the life of the late Trappist Monk Thomas Merton. Merton's most famous work, The Seven Storey Mountain, is considered one of the greatest spiritual biographies of modern times. A precocious and wild youth, Merton converted to Catholicism during his student years at Columbia University in New York City and shocked friends by entering the Cistercian order at Gethsemani Abbey, Kentucky. While Merton's earliest books dealt with prayer and interior growth, his later writings ventured into the responsibilities of Christians in the face of injustice, war, violence, and disunity. Merton's popular appeal rests in his ability to articulate the deepest spiritual hungers of the modern mind. FADICA is sponsoring the gathering in association with the Thomas Merton Foundation of Louisville. The Foundation is established to preserve the writings of Thomas Merton and to promote his spiritual perspectives. Past FADICA fall gatherings have been led by the late Henri Nouwen, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, poet-bishop, Robert Morneau, writer Rosemary Haughton, and many others. According to FADICA president, Francis J. Butler, these fall gatherings have "helped to ground FADICA's trustees in their Catholic faith and underscore the unique spiritual underpinnings of their philanthropy." |