Post title swiped from Rocco who has news on the KC front – very inside baseball, but a number of us have been following the relatively recent tenure of Bishop Finn in this diocese (Bishop Finn came from St. Louis, where he was widely respected, and editor of the diocesan paper, among other things).

In one of his first major moves, Bishop Finn announced that adult faith formation and lay ministry training would be in for re-evaluation and overhaul. Things are taking shape, as Rocco reports:

Word from the Midwest is that Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St Joseph has announced a new lay formation program for his diocese in partnership with Ave Maria University.

Talk about your 180s.

Rocco also provides his own translation of the Holy Father’s words to the Jesuits this morning, celebrating several anniversaries (the Jesuits have big celebrations coming this year) –

And from the desire to serve the Church in a more useful and effective way was born the vow of special obedience to the Pope, who he classified as "our first and principal foundation" (Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, I,162). This ecclesial character, so specific to the Society of Jesus, continues to be present in your persons and in your apostolic activity, dear Jesuits, as you make yourselves able to encounter faithfully the Church’s urgent necessities of each time.

Among these, I find it important to mark out the cultural imperative in the areas of theology and philosophy, the traditional environs of the apostolic presence of the Society of Jesus, as well as the dialogue with modern culture, which boasts marvelous progresses in the scientific realm, remaining firmly marked by a postive and relevant (materialista) science. Certainly, the force of promoting in close collaboration with the other ecclesial realities a culture inspired toward the values of the Gospel calls for an intense spiritual and cultural formation.

For this reason, St Ignatius wished that young Jesuits be formed for many years in the spiritual life and in their studies. It is good that this tradition be maintained and reinforced, given the growing complexities and vastness of modern culture. Another great preoccupation for him was that of Christian education and the cultural formation of the young: from this impulse with he gave to the institution of the "colleges" [high schools], which, after his death, sprung up in Europe and across the world. Continue, dear Jesuits, this important apostolate maintaining unaltered the spirit of your Founder.