News

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ten international academics and museum professionals will reflect on the broader issues of the problematic search for meaning in the display of one culture by another in a symposium titled “Religion Matters: Art, Piety, Destruction, and the Politics of Display” on Feb. 26 beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. There is no charge for the symposium; registration is required. To register, please e-mail Patricia Hinchliffe at phinchli@holycross.edu.

The symposium is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Catholic Collecting, Catholic Reflection 1538-1850: Objects as a Measure of Reflection On a Catholic Past and the Construction of Recusant Catholic Identity, which runs from Feb. 22 to April 13 in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at Holy Cross.

Symposium presenters will discuss the inevitable loss of meaning in the display of one culture by another — both for current cultures geographically separate but also cultures separated by time. The themes will include Jewish, African, Buddhist, and Native American art as well as that associated with Catholic practice.

The accompanying exhibition contains more than 60 objects, most from Jesuit institutions across the United States and in England, and includes centuries-old and extremely rare stained glass, liturgical vestments, paintings, books, sculpture and other works of art important to Catholic culture and worship. More than half of the pieces have never before been exhibited in the United States.

There are three sessions to the symposium. To view abstracts on each talk visit: http://college.holycross.edu/projects/catholiccollecting.

Session I – 10 – 11:45 a.m.
Virginia Chieffo Raguin, College of the Holy Cross, curator of the exhibition, Introduction and Overview
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, University of Texas Austin: Salvaging Saints, the Rescue and Display of Relics in Reformation Times
Sarah Brown, English Heritage: England’s Iconoclasm and the Survival of the ca. 1500-1510 Stained Glass Cycle at St Mary’s, Fairford
Gail McMurray Gibson, Davidson College: The Towneley Plays, a Recusant Family, and the Survival of English Medieval Drama

Session II – 1 – 2:30 p.m.
Roderick O’Donnell, English Heritage, London: “The Real Thing”: A. W. N. Pugin and the Reintegration of Works of Art in the Architecture of the Catholic Revival
Charlene Villaseñor Black, University of California, Los Angeles, Inquisitorial Practices of Hispanic Past and Present: Artistic Censorship and The Virgin Mary
Elisabeth Cameron, University of California, Santa Cruz: Kuba Kingdom (Congo) African Textile Art appropriated in Christian Church Decoration

Session III – 2:45 – 4:45 p.m.
Tom Freudenheim, former director of the Museum Program at the National Endowment for the Arts and former Deputy Director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin: The Challenge of Jewish Context within the Object-Oriented Museum
Ena Heller, Director, Museum of Biblical Art, New York: A Delicate Balance: Modernism and Religion in Museums Today
Dina Bangdel, Virginia Commonwealth University, Pleasures of Viewing: Agency, Power, and the Politics of Display in Buddhist Art
Tiffany Jenkins, Institute of Ideas, London: From the Profane to the Sacred: The Rise of Reverence in Secular Institutions from the National Museum of the American Indian to the British Museum

A reception at the Gallery, which will be open until 6 p.m., will follow the syposium.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Black Entertainment Television commentator Jeff Johnson will give a talk on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

The theme of the talk will revolve around Black History Month and the challenges African-Americans still face.

Johnson appears on BET’s weekly “Rap City” program and hosts the network’s quarterly program “The Jeff Johnson Chronicles,” addressing contemporary social issues facing the black community. A social activist, minister, public speaker and leadership trainer, he also is working to increase the nation’s young voter turnout as national director for the America Votes Young Voter Project.

Johnson has been seen on CNN, MTV, and C-Span and featured in USA Today and The New York Times. Michael Eric Dyson, author and professor, says Johnson “is imaginative in his commitment and devotion to extending into the hip-hop generation the marvelous and matchless genius of our forefathers.”

The event is sponsored by the Black Student Union at Holy Cross.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Leslie Woodcock Tentler, professor of history and director of the Center for American Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America, will give a talk titled “Catholics and Contraception in Twentieth-Century America” on Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

Tentler’s book on the subject, Catholics And Contraception: An American History (Cornell University Press, 2004), deals with how pastors and lay Catholics have responded to church teachings on contraception over the course of a century.

The stated aim of the Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity is to explore “the place of religious and spiritual life in a world that is sometimes at odds with faith, other times in search of it, and always at work reshaping it.”

The series is sponsored by the College’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Nir Eisikovits, who teaches at Boston University in its Core Curriculum and is a fellow at the Brookline-based International Institute for Mediation and Historical Conciliation, will give a talk titled “Political Reconciliation — Cases from South Africa and the Middle East” on Feb. 14 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Professor Nir Eisikovits will discuss theoretical lessons from his study of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and elaborate on their relevance for the Middle East.

Eisikovits’s research focuses on the moral and political dilemmas that arise in post-conflict settings. His research interests include the possibility of sympathy between enemies, the feasibility of forgiveness in politics, and the comparative benefits of truth commissions and war crime tribunals for societies emerging from prolonged conflict.

Eisikovits has published several articles, including “Forget Forgiveness: On The Benefits of Sympathy for Political Reconciliation” and “Moral Luck and the Criminal Law.” He has also written numerous op-ed pieces on the Middle East conflict for various American newspapers and weeklies.

The event is the fifth of a six part series titled “Islam and the West: A Clash of Civilizations or a Search for Common Ground.” The series is sponsored by Holy Cross’s Peace and Conflict Studies.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Richard Wightman Fox, professor of history at the University of Southern California will give a talk titled “Savior of the Nation: Lincoln’s Assassination and the Birth of an American Icon” on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center, Room 519 at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

Fox is the distinguished fellow at the American Antiquarian Society for 2005-06 and author of several books, including most recently, Jesus in America (HarperCollins, 2004). He studies how ideas, beliefs, and cultural practices develop in relation to social structures and individual quests for meaning. He is especially intrigued by the curious intermingling of religiosity and secularity in the United States. This borderline of piety and worldliness is a very fruitful area for further historical research, he says.

The event is sponsored by the department of history and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross will present Catholic Collecting, Catholic Reflection 1538-1850: Objects As a Measure of Reflection on a Catholic Past and the Construction of Recusant Self-Identity in England and America from Feb. 22 to April 13. The show’s curator is Virginia Raguin, visual arts professor at the College.

The exhibition contains more than 60 objects, most from Jesuit institutions across the United States and in England, and includes centuries-old and extremely rare stained glass, liturgical vestments, paintings, books, sculpture and other works of art important to Catholic culture and worship. More than half of the pieces have never before been exhibited in the United States.

A series of public events in conjunction with the exhibit opening will be held at the Cantor Art Gallery on Feb. 22:

* 4:30 p.m. Gallery talk by Virginia Raguin, who will discuss the value of the pieces of art.
* 5 p.m. Holy Cross Chamber singers, under the direction of choir director Pamela Getnick, will perform music by Renaissance master Josquin des Prez, featuring a setting of the text “Ave Maria … Virgo Serena,” one of Josquin’s best loved works.
* 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Reception

Ten international academics and museum professionals will reflect on the broader issues of the problematic search for meaning in the display of one culture by another in a symposium titled “Religion Matters: Art, Piety, Destruction, and the Politics of Display” on Feb. 26. To see the schedule and abstracts of talks visit: http://college.holycross.edu/projects/catholiccollecting.

The exhibition focuses on the preservation of religious objects by Catholics during the “penal times” under British law. These objects, acquired with great risk, embodied the faithful’s bonds with God, church tradition, and each other. When suppressed, many Catholics during this period came to identify their faith with the prayer books, paintings, and objects of ritual such as Mass vestments and chalices that they were able to obtain or hide. These Catholics became known as recusants — recusing themselves from oaths of loyalty and participation in the state-sanctioned religion. The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) played a major role during this period, in terms of both missions in England and in the colony of Maryland, created as a sanctuary for Catholics in 1634.

Among the Jesuit institutions that have loaned objects for the Holy Cross exhibition are: Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, England; Campion Hall at the University of Oxford, Oxford, England; Georgetown University; Loyola University, Chicago and Holy Cross. The exhibition groups stained glass, alabaster carving, manuscripts, printed books, liturgical vessels, paintings and vestments, including the prized chasuble given to Westminster Abbey by Henry VII.

A major focus will be on the Mass and altar furnishing. Several chalices were produced for Jesuits on clandestine missions in England; one traveled with the Jesuits to Maryland. A series of essays accompanying the exhibit profile aspects of piety, politics, and art, including the early missionary work of the Society of Jesus in England and the Maryland Colony.

A fully illustrated catalogue of 224 pages will be published jointly with the Catholic University of America Press.

One of the major goals of the exhibition is to encourage active interpretation and invite a variety of audiences to reflect on what these objects meant to people of the past. The Chaplains’ Office at Holy Cross will incorporate the exhibition as part of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, and 20 members of the faculty will utilize the show as an element in their courses. One course will train students to act as interpreters for a variety of age groups — from school children to senior citizens — who will visit the gallery. Participants in local parish Lenten programs and Confirmation classes will also be welcomed to tour the gallery, and experience what the objects reveal about Catholic beliefs and the stories of their preservation.

Catholic Collecting, Catholic Reflection 1538-1850 is also occurring during a significant celebratory year for the Jesuits. The year 2006 marks the 450th anniversary of the death (1556) of its founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola and the 500th anniversary of the birth (1506) of two of his fellow students and companions, St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber. Jesuit Jubilee 2006 is being celebrated internationally, with events planned at the Jesuit colleges and universities as well as Jesuit provinces the world over. For listings of the many educational events marking this year, visit www.jesuit.org.

The hours for the Cantor Art Gallery are Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 5p.m., Saturdays 2 – 5 p.m. The gallery is closed March 4 and 11. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610. Admission to the gallery is free. Public parking is located on Linden Lane, gate 2, off College Street.

For more information, call the Cantor Art Gallery at 508-793-3356 or visit the Gallery’s Web site at: www.holycross.edu/departments/cantor/website/index.html.

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BACKGROUND FOR Catholic Collecting,Catholic Reflection 1538-1850

The Broad Context

The focus on the motivation for collecting forces us to address equally vehement motives for disuse and even destruction of beautiful religious objects. Religious works of art that have survived from the Middle Ages in England have done so in the face of aggressive campaign of destruction. The Taliban’s prohibition of art and the destruction by dynamite of what was then the largest Buddhist image in the world is an example. The deadly struggle over possession of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, known to the Islamic world as the Haram al-Sharif, testifies to the mesmerizing function of the place and the tangible object to the cultural identity. We see the history of possession in the importance of the restoration of objects taken from Jewish citizens by the National Socialists in the German pogrom — sold on the art market and ending up in collections of American Museums. The itinerary of the work of art — here sacred objects — has become a major contemporary interest. Important Catholic families of England who preserved works of art are the Howards, Arundels and Jerninghams who are represented by collections in the United States. The Jerninghams were among the first to collect large-scale panels of stained glass from the monasteries closed in Europe around 1800. The windows that once adorned the family chapel are now dispersed to places like the Harvard University Art Museums and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Bulter-Bowdens were a Catholic family that kept the single extant copy of the now widely read and studied Book of Margery Kempe. Lancashire families were particularly strong in maintaining the Catholic faith. The Towneley family is well known and the family home Towneley Hall is now maintained as a museum. The Towneley Cycle of medieval English drama takes its name from the single manuscript preserved by the Towneley family.

The exhibition has several categories.

Medieval Objects Preserved by Recusants

Textiles: “Opus anglicanum” (“English work”) prized embroidered vestments produced in England were unparalleled in medieval textile work, and one of England’s chief exports. Unique objects, including a vestment commissioned by Henry VII for Westminster Abbey, will be featured. The chasuble was part of a set of more than 30 vestments now reduced to two, saved from public destruction by transport out of England.
Manuscripts: Stonyhurst has several medieval prayer books called “Books of Hours” showing iconoclastic disfigurement, prayers defaced and the faces or eyes of the saints in the illumination scratched out. These objects are not simply splendid examples of medieval illumination, metalwork, or textiles, each object communicates the history of the people who valued — or feared it.
Alabaster: Carving in alabaster was one of the primary arts associated with England, site of the best-known quarries. A form of gypsum, alabaster is relatively soft when mined, facilitating its carving. It hardens slightly after exposure to the air and also accepts color and gilt well. Thus it was an ideal material for complex sculpture for interior decoration of shrines and altars.
Stained glass: Once England’s dominant form of monumental painting, stained glass was destroyed by iconoclasts, and more perished through neglect. Small remnants have now become exceedingly precious, such as images of Saints Katherine and Agnes from East Anglia, surviving as an overlooked panel in the upper reaches of a window.

The Battle of the Books: Printed books, many profusely illustrated, formed a part of the verbal and visual polemic that engaged Catholic and Protestant Europe from the 1550s-1680s. The Decem Rationes (Ten Reasons for the Truth of the Roman Church) was written by the Jesuit marytr Edmund Campion in 1581. Printed at a secret Catholic press, 400 copies were distributed at Oxford University, one of the surviving five will be exhibited. The small book, De Persecutione Anglicana Libellus, written by Robert Persons in Rome, 1582, contains 117 pages with six pages of engravings that include Campion’s capture and death. Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophaea was published in Rome in 1584, and illustrated by engravings after the paintings of English martyrs from earliest to present times that were installed in the English College in Rome and renowned throughout Europe.

Catholic devotional items commissioned in England/Ireland during suppression: These objects include chalices and vestments without their hallmarks — allowing the silversmith to remain unknown. Stonyhurst has 17th-century vestments and Mass textiles that were secreted in homes in Lancashire and worn by the martyred St. Edmund Arrowsmith. A silver chalice made during English prohibition is dated 1684 and is now in the Martin D’Arcy Gallery. The chalice is inscribed so that it is possible to know that it was made as a gift of Elizabeth Rookwood to the Jesuit missions in East Anglia. A hand-carved tiny shrine with the Instruments of the Passion was made by one of the young men educated abroad in Catholic schools who returned to England. A series of liturgical vessels brought with the Jesuit missions to Maryland include a chalice secretly produced in Elizabethan times and used in Charles County in the early 18th century. For expedience, base metals rather than the traditional silver and silver gilt were sometimes pressed into service. A pewter chalice and paten of presumed Maryland manufacture long associated with the missions date to about 1650-1700.

Items commissioned or acquired on the Continent and brought into England: These items include an “agnus dei,” a disk made from the papal Easter Candlestick and given to the Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion. He had the item with him when arrested by government agents. He hid it (wrapped in indulgences) in the ceiling of a grange. It was discovered only in the 1930s when the building was being repaired. A series of 17th-century oil paintings on copper in the style of Van Dyck were important from the Low Countries by the Shireburns. Small in size, they present biblical narratives and saints’ images popular in Catholic countries, but abhorrent in England.

The Gothic Revival, when religion becomes collectible art: The 19th-century saw both rehabilitation of the art of the Middle Ages and the restoration of legal right to religious dissidents most associated with medieval culture. Catholics, some of the first to be interested in the field collected medieval stained glass from the Continent. Around 1800, Sir William Jerningham built a new family chapel near Norwich and placed imported medieval glass in its windows. These panels are now in numerous collections in Europe and America, including the Worcester Art Museum’s Donor Portrait of Prior Peter Blommeveen, 1510-30. Augustus W. N. Pugin, a Catholic, made Gothic a dominant building style for all of England. The Victoria and Albert Museum, founded with a “secular” purpose, to acquire examples of ancient craft and design that would serve as inspiration for contemporary artisans, acquired medieval art. Most of these objects originated in religious contexts. The disputed past of England became “our” past with little reference to fractious dispute or the role of the government in the destruction and suppression of religious subject matter. With the Gothic Revival the medieval past achieved a new national aura.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture will continue its “Celebration of Books” recently published by Holy Cross faculty with a discussion on Practicing Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. in the College’s Rehm Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Practicing Mortality (Palgrave, 2005) is a collaborative endeavor to deepen readers’ understanding of “contemplating seeing” through the works of Plato, Thoreau, Heidegger and others. The authors — an art historian and philosopher — explore what it means to “see” reality and contemplate how viewing reality philosophically and artfully is a form of spirituality. In this way, the authors propose a way of seeing that unites both critical scrutiny and spiritual involvement, as opposed to simple passive reception.

The authors of Practicing Mortality are Christopher Dustin, associate professor and former chair of the department of philosophy, and Joanna Ziegler, professor of art history and former chair of the department of visual arts. Both authors are recipients of the College’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Mark Freeman, professor of psychology and assistant dean of the Class of 2007, will review the book, Dustin and Ziegler will respond with their own remarks and an open floor discussion will follow. Freeman is author of several books of his own, including Finding the Muse: A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Conditions of Artistic Creativity (Cambridge, 1993). Designated an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine in 1995, Finding the Muse explores the lives of a group of aspiring American artists, focusing especially on problems of creativity as they relate to such issues as the mystique of the modern artist, the place of the art market in fashioning artistic identity, and the limits and possibilities of modern art itself.

Therese Schroeder-Sheker, founder of the Chalice of Repose Project and educator at the Catholic University of America, says, “Practicing Mortality is a masterpiece of the contemplative life. … With quiet beauty-filled humility, and in a seamless blending of voices that rarely occurs, Professors Ziegler and Dustin return pedagogy to a creative, religious significance and substance that is at once deepening and liberating. … Thoroughly American, fully grounded, highly textured, radical in its candor, confident and peace-filled, Practicing Mortality is sure to become a spiritual classic: read, re-read, and read again by everyone who enters its world.”

The event is the continuation of a series of discussions of books by faculty that run across the concerns of the Center — religion, ethics and culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The American Sign Language and Deaf Studies Program announces its calendar of events for the 2006 spring semester. Unless otherwise stated, all events are free and open to the public. For more information on any of the events, contact Judy Fask, director of the ASL/Deaf Studies Program, at 508-793-3344 or jfask@holycross.edu.

Unless otherwise stated, the following events take place on the College of the Holy Cross campus.

Feb. 1; 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Kimball Dining Hall
Silent dinner with deaf friends and instructors in ASL. Meal tickets can be purchased by non-Holy Cross students.

Feb. 2; 6 p.m.
McCooey Chapel in St. Joseph Chapel
Celebrate Mass in ASL with Rev. Joe Bruce.

Feb. 2; 7 p.m.
Stein Faculty Lounge
Celebrate the Lunar New Year – Year of the Dog with Ying Li, visiting lecturer in ASL/Deaf Studies, and the faculty and students in the Chinese program. Contact yli@holycross.edu.

Feb. 15; 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Stein Hall, Room 116
Verizon: Recruitment informational meeting for customer service and technology positions. Contact: Carness Jones at carnell.jones@verizon.com.

Feb. 16; 7 p.m.
Stein Hall
ASL-sponsored “Movie Night”

Feb. 24; 10:30 a.m.
Worcester Public Library, 3 Salem Sq.
Story telling in ASL by Holy Cross ASL students. Contact at library is Ann Hrobsky at ahrobsky@cwmars.org.

March 2; 6 p.m.
McCooey Chapel in St. Joseph Chapel
Celebrate Mass in ASL with Fr. Joe Bruce.

March 16; 7 p.m.
Stein Hall
ASL-sponsored “Movie Night”

March 19; 1 – 3 p.m.
Hart Center Pool
DEAFinitely Swim program begins. Swim lessons for deaf, hard of hearing, children of deaf adults and siblings. Instruction in ASL. Pre-registration required. Contact jfask@holycross.edu.

March 22; 5:30 p.m.
Kimball Dining Hall
Silent dinner with deaf friends and instructors in ASL. Meal tickets can be purchased for non-Holy Cross students.

March 26; 1 – 3 p.m.
Hart Center Pool
DEAFinitely Swim Program continues for those registered.

March 31; 10:30 a.m.
Worcester Public Library, 3 Salem Sq.
Storytelling in ASL by Holy Cross ASL students. Contact at library is Ann Hrobsky at ahrobsky@swmars.org.

April 6; 6 p.m.
McCooey Chapel in St. Joseph Chapel
Celebrate Mass in ASL with Fr. Joe Bruce.

April 9; 1 – 3 p.m.
Hart Center Pool
DEAFinitely Swim program continues for those registered.

April 19; 5:30 p.m.
Kimball Dining Hall
Silent dinner with deaf friends and instructors in ASL. Meal tickets can be purchased for non-Holy Cross students.

April 20; 7 p.m.
Stein Hall
ASL-sponsored “Movie Night”

April 21; 10:30 a.m.
Worcester Public Library, 3 Salem Sq.
Storytelling in ASL by Holy Cross ASL students. Contact at library is Ann Hrobsky at ahrobsky@cwmars.org.

April 23; 1 – 3 p.m.
Hart Center Pool
DEAFinitely Swim program continues for those registered.

April 30; 1 – 3 p.m.
Hart Center Pool
Last class for those registered in DEAFinitely Swim program.

May 3; 4:30 – 6 p.m.
Stein Faculty Lounge
ASL Club/Deaf Studies and end of year reception. Come join the Philip family as we celebrate the end of the year and announce the student recipients of the John Philip award and the Laurent Clerc award for the Deaf Studies program. The John Philip award, named in honor of a deaf leader in the Worcester community, is given to a deserving student in the Deaf Studies program demonstrating leadership skills. The Laurent Clerc award is an award given to a senior in the Deaf Studies program who demonstrates the most improvement in ASL.

May 25; 3 p.m.
Baccalaureate Mass, Hart Lawn (rain location: inside Hart Center)
Join Holy Cross seniors as they celebrate with family at the Baccalaureate mass and enjoy watching the ASL signing choir as they join the Holy Cross singing choir.

May 25; 5 – 6:30 p.m.
Stein Hall
Deaf Studies reception for students receiving the Deaf Studies certificate. We invite all families and friends to join us.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Rev. Charles E. Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University professor of Human Values in the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University will give a talk titled “The Catholic Church Today and the New Pope” on Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The talk, which will briefly review the papacy of John Paul II, will be approached from a theological perspective and will partly draw on Curran’s book The Moral Theology of John Paul II (Georgetown University Press, 2005). He will also evaluate the nine-month-old papacy of Benedict XVI.

Fr. Curran taught at Catholic University of America for 25 years. In 1986 he was pronounced not to be fit to teach Catholic theology by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) because of disagreement over church teaching in sexual ethics. Fr. Curran, a priest in good standing of the diocese of Rochester, N.Y., has taught at Perkins Divinity School for the past 15 years and continues his research, writing and teaching as a Catholic.

Fr. Curran, who has served as president of three national scholarly societies of theology and ethics, has written extensively in the field of moral theology, including The Catholic Moral Tradition Today: A Synthesis (Georgetown University Press, 1999) and Catholic Social Teaching, 1891-Present: A Historical, Theological, and Ethical Analysis (Georgetown University Press, 2002). He is an expert in fundamental moral theology, social ethics, the role of the Church as a moral and political actor in society, and Catholic moral theology.

The lecture is sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ogretta B. McNeil, member of the Worcester City School Committee and former faculty member at the College of the Holy Cross, will be the keynote speaker for a panel presentation titled “Herstory: Five Women of the Civil Rights Movement: A Celebration of Women Who Made an Impact — Shirley Chisholm, Vivian Malone, Constance Baker Motley, Rosa Parks, C. Dolores Tucker” on Jan. 31 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the College’s Rehm Library. The event, free and open to the public, commemorates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement.

Each woman’s life will be presented by a panel composed of five members of the Holy Cross community: Diana Cruz, assistant professor of English; Sabrina V. Forbes, associate director of Academic Services and Learning Resources; Shakima McCants, community development coordinator in the Office of Residence Life; Lucie Noriscat ’07 and Ferene Paris, community development coordinator in the Office of Residence Life. Each of the five women who will be celebrated died last year and each was pivotal to advancing civil rights in this country.

Dr. McNeil spent 27 years at Holy Cross, where she was a professor of psychology and class dean. In addition to her accomplishments as a faculty member and administrator, she spearheaded a number of important initiatives, including her role as an organizing member of the African American concentration and Phi Beta Kappa and an advisor, member and confidante to African American, Latino, and Asian students. She was president of the New England Psychological Association in 1988-89.

The event is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Education.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross Alternate College Theater presents Rodger & Hart’s classic musical, Pal Joey on Jan. 26 and 27 at 8 p.m.; Jan. 28 at 2 and 8 p.m. and Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. in Fenwick Theatre at the College of the Holy Cross. Tickets are $7 for the Holy Cross community and $10 for the general public.

Set in the seamy 1930’s Chicago nightclub circuit, the production follows the mishaps of Joey, an MC who elbows his way into a job at a seedy Chicago nightclub and is soon juggling the affections of a naive chorus girl and a wealthy socialite who just happens to be married. Once Joey has charmed the socialite into setting him up in his own club, he ditches the chorus girl and is riding high, playing the big-time operator. When a punk threatens to spill the whole business to the socialite’s husband, she decides that she’s bored with Joey anyway, dumping him and the club. Having had a taste of his own medicine, you’d think Joey would head back to the sweet girl who really loves him. Wrong. Some things never change, but you know what? He’s still on his feet.

The penultimate Rodgers & Hart collaboration introduced the first anti-hero to propel a musical. Joey is an opportunistic cad, but he always seems to land on his feet. Featuring an unforgettable score that includes “If I Could Write a Book,” “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” and “Zip,” Pal Joey is certain to entertain.

The Alternate College Theater is a student-run organization. Every aspect of the production — from the directing to the lighting design — is done by Holy Cross students. Michael Lueger ’07 plays Joey, Kate Lowry ’06 plays the socialite, while Eric Butler ’06 directs. Other members of the production staff include costume designer Katherine Fritz ’08, set designer Pat Gavin ’07, choreographer Caroline Maus ’06, and musical directors Jack Hanlon ’06 and Lauren Doucette ’08.

Pal Joey is suitable for all audiences.

For press tickets or for more information, contact Rachel Mergens at ramerg07@holycross.edu or call the ACT box office at 508-793-3536.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Sheila Cavanaugh ’81, senior vice president for internal communications at Fidelity Investments, will give the annual Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life on Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Cavanaugh leads a team of people dedicated to keeping Fidelity’s 37,000 employees knowledgeable, informed, and educated. She worked as a global strategies consultant with Coopers & Lybrand, and spent more than a decade as a banker in New York, Japan, Switzerland and the former Soviet Union. In the late 1980s, she took a sabbatical year from banking to teach English with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at a Vietnamese Refugee Camp in Southeast Asia. She returned to pursue a graduate degree in business at Yale, and spent two years at Harvard Business School publishing research for use in graduate programs. From there, she became a Soros Foundation fellow and moved to the Baltic States to start one of the first credit training programs after the fall of communism.

An economics major, Sheila worked her way through school in factories in Worcester, and suffered a stroke at the beginning of her career. Sheila and her husband, whom she met in Indonesia, are the parents of three young children from South Korea. She volunteers at the International Institute of Boston, a refugee resettlement agency.

The Thomas More Lecture honors a graduate of Holy Cross who exemplifies the College’s dedication to the integration of faith and learning. It is sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The following films will be shown at Kimball Theatre at the College of the Holy Cross. All films are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. For additional information, please call the Kimball Theatre Box Office at 508-793-2455.

“The 40 Year-Old Virgin”
Fri, Jan. 20 and Sat., Jan. 21: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated R.

“Separate Lies”
Wed., Jan. 25: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“The Legend of Zorro”
Fri., Jan. 27 and Sat., Jan. 28: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

“Shopgirl”
Wed., Feb. 1: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Jarhead”
Fri., Feb. 3 and Sat., Feb. 4: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated R.

“North Country”
Wed., Feb. 8: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”
Fri., Feb. 10 and Sat., Feb. 11: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated G.

“Proof”
Wed., Feb. 15: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Prime”
Fri., Feb. 17 and Sat., Feb. 18: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Oliver Twist”
Wed., Feb. 22: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”
Fri., Feb. 24 and Sat. Feb. 25: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated R.

“A History of Violence”
Wed., March 1: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Pride and Prejudice”
Wed., March 15: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG.

“Zathura”
Fri., March 17 and Sat., March 18: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

“Syriana”
Wed., March 22: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
Fri., March 24 and Sat., March 25: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Good Night and Good Luck”
Wed., March 29: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG.

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
Fri., March 31 and Sat., April 1: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

“Brokeback Mountain”
Wed., April 5: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Walk the Line”
Fri., April 7 and Sat., April 8: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Paradise Now”
Wed., April 19: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“The Ice Harvest”
Fri., April 21 and Sat., April 22: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated R.

“The New World”
Wed., April 26: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“King Kong”
Fri., May 5 and Sat., May 6: Showings at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

A complete listing of films is also located at:
http://www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/features/2005-2006/kimballfilms_spring06

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ellen Perry, associate professor of classics at the College of the Holy Cross, will give a talk titled “The Battle of the Casts: Museums and the Classics at the Turn of the Last Century” on Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center, Room 519. The lecture is free and open to the public.

At the turn of the century, what most people knew about Greek art, they knew through the medium of plaster. The 1905 construction in Boston of a new building for the Museum of Fine Arts brought the debate about the value of plaster casts to the fore. This “Battle of the Casts” was a debate about the purpose of the art museum as a whole and whether an art museum should educate or simply provide objects, which people would admire aesthetically.  The latter view prevailed in the short term, the result being the removal of plaster cast collections, followed by the acquisition of original, but often second-rate sculptures.  Professor Perry will discuss how this change in museum practice has altered our expectations as museum-goers, as well as our view of the ancient world.

Perry received her Ph.D. in classics from the University of Michigan and specializes in classical archaeology, ancient sculpture, Roman art and rhetoric.  Her book The Aesthetics of Emulation in the Visual Arts of Ancient Rome was published last year by Cambridge University Press.

The lecture is sponsored by the department of classics at Holy Cross and the Hellenic Arts Society of Worcester.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross Alternate College Theatre presents the beloved musical Anything Goes on Jan. 25 and 26 at 8 p.m.; Jan. 27 at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. in Fenwick Theatre (O’Kane Hall). Tickets are $7 for the Holy Cross community and $10 for the general public.

Packed with great Cole Porter standards such as “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “De-Lovely,” and the infamous title tune, the show features spectacular dancing and comic mischief. When stockbroker Billy Crocker stows away on a trans-Atlantic liner in pursuit of the girl of his dreams, he finds himself in the company of gangsters, showgirls, and society mavens. This madcap voyage on the high seas features assumed and mistaken identities, mismatched lovers, and a leading lady, Reno Sweeny, who can make the whole thing swing. But can she set everything to rights while pursuing her own love affair?

The Alternate College Theater is a student-run organization at Holy Cross. In each production, students manage every aspect from directing and acting to lighting and set design. Mike Lueger ’07 is directing Anything Goes. Other members of the production staff include costume designer Katherine Fritz ’08, set designer Patrick Gavin ’07, lighting designer Mary Beth Cotty ’09, and producer Emily Rast ’09.

Anything Goes is suitable for all audiences.

For press tickets or for more information, contact Emily Rast at emrast09@holycross.edu or call the ACT box office at 508-793-3536.