Former Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice honored at annual Red Mass

The fifth annual Red Mass is at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at Sacred Heart Chapel, Saint Benedict’s Monastery, on the College of Saint Benedict campus, St. Joseph. The public is invited to attend.

A reception follows the Mass at Teresa Reception Center, Main Building, CSB. Those who wish to attend the reception must register by Nov. 2.

John Simonett, a former associate justice with the Minnesota Supreme Court, will be honored at the Red Mass as recipient of the Fidelis Apparitor Award. The award, which means “faithful servant” in Latin, will be given to individuals who have been good and faithful servants of the law.

Honorees are chosen by virtue of their exemplary service, outstanding competence and leadership, and their adherence to the directive in the Rule of Saint Benedict: “No one is to pursue what is judged better for oneself, but instead, what is judged better for someone else.”

Simonett is a 1948 graduate of Saint John’s University, Collegeville. Following his graduation cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1951, he was a partner from 1951-80 at Rosenmeier and Simonett in Little Falls, Minn.

Simonett served as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1980-94. He then joined the Minneapolis law firm of Greene Espel as a partner in August 1994. He serves as a mediator and arbitrator, listed with the American Arbitration Association and authorized under state’s rules governing alternative dispute resolution.

The celebrant and homilist for the Red Mass is Abbot John Klassen, OSB, of Saint John’s Abbey. A welcome will be given by Sister Nancy Bauer, OSB, prioress for Saint Benedict’s Monastery.

The readers include Judge James Rosenbaum, chief judge, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota; and Minnesota First District Judge Martha Simonett, who is John Simonett’s daughter. A reflection will be provided by Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Russell Anderson.

The judicial year in many jurisdictions around the world is traditionally opened with a Red Mass. The celebration of the Mass is designed to provide judges, lawyers, civic leaders and academics of all faiths the opportunity to reflect on the powers and responsibilities that are part of their offices.

Red Mass participants ask God to grant the virtues and gifts necessary for the proper and just administration of their duties. The Red Mass name comes from the red vestments and garments that early legal participants wore on this occasion.

CSB/SJU Hosts Spring Policy Forum on “Metropolitan Growth: Debating the Good Life”

• Event Record

The Public Policy Learning Community at the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, and Saint John’s University, Collegeville, sponsors its annual Spring Policy Forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 29 at the Stephen B. Humphrey Auditorium on the SJU campus.

The topic of this year’s event is, “Metropolitan Growth: Debating the Good Life.”

A four-person panel will discuss the increasingly important issues of land use, housing and transportation, and look at the questions, “How do we grow?” and “Where do we go?”

“This panel brings together nationally-known experts with diverse viewpoints on the best ways to respond to a myriad of public policy issues facing our growing metropolitan areas,” said Matt Lindstrom, associate professor of political science at CSB/SJU and director of the PPLC. “Covering ecology, economics and ethics, the panel is sure to be both informative and entertaining.”

The panel consists of:

• Karen Anderson, mayor of Minnetonka, Minn., from 1994-2005, and a past president of the National League of Cities (2001-02). She completed a term as president of the League of Minnesota Cities in 1996, and served for eight years as a Minnetonka council member at-large;
• Joel Kotkin, an Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and the author of number of books on cities and urban growth, including “The City: A Global History” and “The New Geography, How the Digital Revolution is Reshaping the American Landscape”;
• Parris Glendening, executive director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute (SGLI) and the former governor of Maryland (1995-2003). The SGLI was created by Glendening to help state and local elected, civic and business leaders design and implement effective smart growth strategies.
• Randal O’Toole, an economist who has been director of the Oregon-based Thoreau Institute since 1975, and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute since 1995. His recent research and policy interests have centered on regional planning and growth management in Portland, Ore., and more recently, on the New Urbanism. His publication, “The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths,” is a critical appraisal of growth management and regional planning in Portland.

The panel will be moderated by Ernie Diedrich, professor of economics and environmental studies at CSB/SJU. He has been a member of the faculty since 1980, and is known for his intellectual and social interest in environmental economics.

Diedrich co-founded the schools’ environmental studies program, and has served in a variety of leadership roles in non-profits, such as the Minnesota League of Conservation Voters, the Minnesota Project and, most recently, the Avon Hills Initiative.

The event is free and open to the public.

Saint John’s University Announces The Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture

Saint John’s University announces the establishment of The Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture to honor one of its most distinguished graduates.

The annual public lecture, conducted at Saint John’s University, will feature distinguished speakers who will address topics cherished by Senator McCarthy – politics, poetry, social and economic justice, constitutional reform, campaign finance – as well as other pertinent public policy issues.

The announcement followed a memorial service for McCarthy attended by his family, friends, monastic confreres and political contemporaries, including former Vice President Walter Mondale.

During seven years as a student at Saint John’s Preparatory School and University and nearly a year as a member of the Benedictine community of Saint John’s Abbey, McCarthy was exposed to significant spiritual and intellectual movements – monasticism, liturgical renewal, social action, ecumenism, liberal arts – which he integrated into the fabric of his personal and professional life.

Late in life, McCarthy expressed his hope “that future generations of students are exposed to the same intellectual movements I encountered as a student at Saint John’s.”

“By establishing The Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture, Saint John’s seeks to ensure that the memory and legacy of this remarkable and courageous man will live on as a source of inspiration for generations to come," said Br. Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president of Saint John’s University. “Gene McCarthy embodied values at the heart of Benedictine life and reckoned deeply with Catholic teachings on social justice and personal integrity. He was a man whose college education and religious formation prepared him to lead others by manifesting a Christian conscience in his writing, speaking and actions.”

Reinhart added, "This lectureship will further Senator McCarthy’s commitment to democracy, and it will advance his resolve to ‘restore faith in the processes of American politics and government.’”

The McCarthy Lecture will be a centerpiece of the Center for Public Policy at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict.

“I sincerely hope that one day soon the lectureship will evolve into a full-fledged endowed Chair in honor of Senator McCarthy,” noted Reinhart. “Gene dreamed that one day such a program would focus on ‘social justice and its relationship to economic history and moral teachings of the Catholic Church.’”

The lectureship will carry on McCarthy’s deep commitment to the ideals and principles of democratic self-government. It will seek to inspire a new generation of young people to pursue fresh ideas, to challenge the status quo, to effect positive change in their communities and, like McCarthy himself, to lead with honesty, integrity and courage.

To reflect McCarthy’s interests, this lecture series will be comprehensive in scope. It will emphasize, in McCarthy’s words, “the projection of the spiritual and intellectual ideals that I was first exposed to at Saint John’s into politics and government.”

In expressing the McCarthy family’s appreciation to Saint John’s for establishing a lectureship in honor their father, Michael McCarthy stated, “The scope of this series promises to stimulate the kind of thoughtful discussion our father sought to promote in his public and private life—discussion informed not just by policy and politics but also by poetry, philosophy and by concerns of the people, whose voice too often goes unheeded.”

McCarthy, who died at age 89 on December 10, 2005, was a seminal figure in Minnesota and national politics in the last half of the 20th century. He was a five-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a two-term U.S. Senator and a three-time presidential candidate. He changed the course of history when he sought the presidency in 1968, galvanizing popular opposition to the war in Vietnam, forcing President Johnson from office and hastening the end of a war that cost more than 58,000 American lives.

Memorials to the Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture may be made to:

The Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture Fund
Saint John’s University
P.O. Box 7222
Collegeville, MN 56321

CSB/SJU Hosts SpeakOut on Hurricane Katrina

• Event Information

The College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University Philosophy Department and Project Logos at SJU will sponsor a SpeakOut on Hurricane Katrina at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 2, in Alumni Lounge on the SJU campus. The conversation will explore implications of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy locally and nationally. The SpeakOut is free and open to public.

This “town hall meeting” will begin with short presentations by Tony Cunningham, CSB/SJU professor of philosophy; Matt Lindstrom, CSB/SJU associate professor of political science and director of the public policy learning community; Derek Larson, CSB/SJU assistant professor of history and director of the environmental studies program; and Ozzie Mayers, CSB/SJU professor of English. The presentations will be followed by an open discussion.