Prior's Newsletter July 2004

Saint Albert Priory

Dominican Friars
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 596-1800

July 2004

Annual Assignments Affect the Priory

Fr. Michael Monshau, OP

The missionary dimension of Dominican life requires that we live with a certain detachment. This detachment leaves us free to accept assignments to different ministries when the Order needs us elsewhere.

A number of our student brothers will be assigned to other Dominican houses this year as part of their formation curriculum. In our senior community, two of our priests are being assigned to other locations, while two other Fathers are being sent here.

Leaving Saint Albert’s are Fathers Bartholomew Hutcherson and Gregory Rocca. Father Bart, who has served as Socius (Assistant) to the Provincial, will be Newman Center Director and superior of our community in Tucson, Arizona. Father Gregory, who has just completed his tenure as President of our Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, is also going to Tucson, where he will enjoy a sabbatical year for study and writing.

Newly assigned to Saint Albert’s are Father Michael Sweeney and Father Kieran Healy; read more about them elsewhere in this issue.

In the midst of the adjustments required by our annual assignment process, we find encouragement in the dependable presence of the many friends of the community. We thank you for that gift. Do join us for Mass and prayer whenever you can. We value your presence among us.

Sincerely,
Father Michael Monshau, O.P.

Summer
Liturgy Schedule

Sundays
8:30 AM	Readings and Morning Prayer
9:30 AM	Mass
5:30 PM	Evening Prayer
Mondays through Friday
7:30 AM	Readings and Morning Prayer
5:00 PM	Mass/Vespers
Saturdays
8:00 AM	Mass and Morning Prayer
5:30 PM	Vespers

The Public is Always Welcome!

Two New Faces at St. Albert's

Fr. Kieran
Healy, OP

Fr. Michael
Sweeney, OP

Arriving directly from Africa, where he had been assigned for eleven years, Father Kieran Healy is the new Student Master (formation director) for the cooperator brothers’ formation program, located at Saint Albert Priory.

Father Kieran hails originally from the Berkeley and Oakland areas and is a graduate of Saint Mary’s College, Moraga. In the past, in addition to pastoral assignments in the States, he served the Western Province as Vicar Provincial and was involved in media.

In Africa, Father served in Kenya, at different times as Novice Master and Student Master for the Vicariate of Kenya, and most recently as pastor of Saint Catherine of Siena Parish in Village Market, Nairobi.

Also assigned to the Priory this year is Father Michael Sweeney, the new President of our Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley.

Father Michael joins us from Seattle after a distinguished term of service with the Catherine of Siena Institute. The Institute is a program dedicated to equipping parishes for the formation of lay Catholics for their mission in the world by providing innovative programs, resources, and leadership training faithful to Church teaching, enabling parishes to become centers of lay formation and mission.

Fr. Gregory's Work is Published

Fr. Gregory
Rocca, OP

Father Gregory Rocca has published an important theological work entitled Speaking the Incomprehensible God: Thomas Aquinas on the Interplay of Positive and Negative Theology. The book is published by the Catholic University of America Press.

Promotional materials have described it as a "comprehensive retrieval of Thomas Aquinas’s theological epistemology of the divine names. Aquinas’s theology of the divine names encourages contemporary dialogue to keep the tensioned truth of God in view and to remember that only a fruitful interplay of positive and negative theology can do justice to the Elusive One who evades our linguistic capture and yet desires to be acknowledged and worshiped as Creator and Sustainer. The book will prove helpful to specialists in Aquinas and to others . . . interested in the God-talk dialogue and can profit from an in-depth retrieval of Aquinas."

Father Gregory has been a member of the Priory community this past year. This spring he completed his tenure as President of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. This summer he will move to our community in Tucson where he will be on sabbatical for the year. He will be missed here.

The Priory cloister is usually filled with friars, but during the summer most of them are away for ministry and study; the cloister seems a bit deserted. The relative quiet of summer enables us to catch up on needed maintenance repairs. These are costly. This is a good time to repair the roof ($10,000), do some outside painting ($8,000) or replace our gutters and drain pipes ($80,000). We would be most grateful for any financial help with these projects.

Our Province participates in eScrip. The group name is “Western Dominican Province” and the group ID number is I 54804935. Can you support this endeavor? It’s free!

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