Browse: Home / CMN on Campus: About Our New Mount St. Mary’s University Office

CMN on Campus: About Our New Mount St. Mary’s University Office

May 16, 2011

By Vicki Schieber, Catholic Mobilizing Network

Mount St. Mary's University LogoMay 16, 2011 – The Catholic Mobilizing Network recently opened an office at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmittsburg, Md. CMN spokesperson Vicki Schieber is working with Dr. Trudy Conway, professor of philosophy at the Mount, who has for years taken the initiative to educate students and faculty on  the death penalty issue by procuring grant funds to support classes, providing speakers and initiating campus projects. Besides interacting with students who volunteer to input e-newsletter signups in the CMN database and for other projects, Schieber also provides fundraising services through the office.

We again send our thanks to Mt. St. Mary’s President Dr. Tom Powell, who has made this office possible. Having a space at Mt. St Mary’s allows CMN to foster academic creativity with the faculty and Seminary. We have already engaged interns and generated events that promote the strong Catholic message of the sanctity of all life. Recent highlights from the Mount include:

- Mount faculty members are writing a textbook to benefit the work of Catholic Mobilizing Network. Sixteen scholars who concentrate on various disciplines including sociology, political science, economics, theater, philosophy and theology have met to discuss content and organization. This team has had discussions with notable anti-death penalty advocates Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents, Dale Recinella, a lay chaplain working on Florida’s death row and author of The Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty and the newly released Now I Walk on Death Row. Fr. Michael Bryant, chaplain at the D.C. Detention Center, has also met with the writing team.

Sr. Helen, Dale and Fr. Michael all send the message that opposition to the death penalty is not primarily about being against something. It is primarily about living for the restoration of people whose lives have been torn apart by violence and hate. The theme of restoration will be the central thread of the textbook. The team will write on the Bible, Christ, redemption and the Catechism. Attention will be given to the social problems of racism, poverty and marginalization of the disabled. The intent is to communicate the love and hope of the Gospels and Catholic social teaching.

- As part of the Catholicism on Campus TV program for EWTN hosted by Msgr. Swetland of the Mount’s Philosophy Department, a series of 14 episodes was filmed on the Mount’s campus during the first week of April. Two of these episodes examined the death penalty, restorative justice and prison reform. In the first program, Vicki Schieber shared the story of her daughter’s rape and murder in 1998 and her journey beyond revenge and retribution to forgiveness and reconciliation. In the second episode, Dr. Trudy Conway joined the discussion and responded to questions posed by several Mount seminarians about restorative justice and her work with death row inmates. The season filmed in April at the in Mount will air on EWTN in March 2012. (Read an article on the “Catholicism on Campus” TV series.)

- This summer we will introduce the CMN-Mount fall schedule and introduce CMN-Mount interns for the upcoming semester.

- Coming soon: Mount St. Mary’s responds to the needs of the Church by producing homilies, educational bulletin announcements and a seminary curriculum on the death penalty.