Friday

11:30 am Registration Opens
12:00 pm Angelus and Brother André Marie’s Opening Remarks
12:30 Sister Marie Thérèse, M.I.C.M.: “On the Origin of Cultural Integration”
2:15 Brian Kelly: “The Royal Priesthood of the Laity”
4:00 Gary Potter: “Getting Culture”
6:00 Dinner
8:00 Holy Rosary

Saturday

7:00 am Holy Rosary
7:30 Holy Mass
8:45 Breakfast
10:00 Sister Maria Philomena, M.I.C.M.: “Towards Deeper Understanding of the Powers of Life as they Transcend the Material: Arguing Wisdom and Transmitting Culture”
11:15 Jack McManus: “The Place of Sound Money in an Integral Catholic Culture”
12:30 pm Angelus / Lunch
2:00 Robert Hickson: “What Is It, Then, To Be a Priest? – Some Examples from the Culture of Catholic Literature and Their Effects”
4:00 C. J. Doyle: “The Pope, the Liturgy, and the Anglicans”
6:00 Dinner
8:00 Panel Discussion (all speakers / moderated)

On Sunday, November 1 (All Saints Day), in the place of the regular brunch/lecture, we will have our All-Saint’s Day party, with children dressing up as saints to stump our “expert panel” (some of the brothers and sisters).

The lineup of speakers for our 2009 Saint Benedict Center Conference is now complete. Our speakers will be Sister Marie Therese, Sister Maria Philomena, Doctor Robert Hickson, Mister Gary Potter, Mister John McManus, Mister C. Joseph Doyle, and Mister Brian Kelly. Your humble servant — not listed on the roster — will be the master of ceremonies, so my comments will be spread throughout the two days.

The theme our speakers will be addressing is “Toward an Integral Catholic Culture: Variations on a Theme of Father Feeney.” Having a bit of a musical background, the phrase, “variations on a theme,” is something that came natural, especially considering the fact that all of this year’s speakers are men and women who explicitly consider themselves disciples (directly or indirectly) of Father Feeney. The “theme” upon which they will be improvising “variations” (i.e., their own insights) is summarized by Gary Potter on page 63 of After the Boston Heresy Case. Read the rest of this entry »

The information currently available on our annual conference is as follows…

The dates are October 30-31. This is a Friday and Saturday.

The location is at Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, New Hampshire.

The speakers are to be announced.

The price is to be announced. (But it will be less than last year’s.)

Hotels: There is a block of rooms reserved at the Super 8 Motel in Keene. For our conference goers, they are available for the special price of $75.59 a night. Please call 603-352-9780 (not their toll-free number) to reserve your rooms at that special price. Tell them you are with the Saint Benedict Center conference to get the special pricing.

Other hotels in the area include the Best Western (603-357-3617), and the Holiday Inn (603-352-7616).

For those on a budget, there will be some rooms available at the Center, as well as the hospitality of some of the layfolk in our Richmond community. For availability, please call Russell at our offices after May 15 (603-239-6485 or rlp@catholicism.org).

This year’s conference — a two day event — will be Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10. [UPDATE: The conference will be October 30-31.] This is Columbus Day weekend. We’ve moved our annual gathering to the Fall, when New England puts on its best colors. Another change is in location: The Conference will be hosted entirely at Saint Benedict Center, in Richmond New Hampshire.

Further details on speakers, cost, etc., are forthcoming. Mark your calendars now!