Peggy L. Fox, President and Publisher of New Directions Publishing Company, has been named a member of the Thomas Merton Legacy Trust.  The announcement was made by Abbot Damien Thompson of the Abbey of Gethsemani.  Robert Giroux has resigned his position as an active member of the three-person Board of Trustees to become a trustee emeritus and a consultant to the Trust.  Ms. Fox will join Thomasine O’Callaghan of Louisville, KY and Anne McCormick of New York City as trustees. 

     The Merton Legacy Trust was established on November 14, 1967 to oversee Merton’s literary estate, to arrange all copyright matters, and to take responsibility for future publication of Merton’s work, with all income from his writings going to the Abbey of Gethsemani; the Trust also establishes policies regarding the collection and use of archival materials at the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville and is generally charged with promoting public interest in Merton’s work.  The original trustees were Merton’s friend and longtime agent Naomi Burton Stone, his friend and publisher James Laughlin, founder of New Directions, and Mrs. O’Callaghan, a local friend of Merton and of the monastery.  When Mrs. Stone retired, her place was taken by Mr. Giroux, a Columbia classmate of Merton and editor of Merton’s autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain and numerous subsequent Merton works.  At the death of Mr. Laughlin, Anne McCormick, longtime secretary of the Trust, became a trustee.

     Ms. Fox was born in Cincinnati, OH and grew up near Gettysburg, PA.  She earned a B.A. in English at Wittenberg University and an M.A. in English at the University of Pennsylvania.  She left doctoral studies to join New Directions in 1975 and has served as Director of Foreign Rights, Manager of Contracts and Copyrights and Senior Editor; she became Vice-President in 1992 and has been in charge of day-to-day operations of the press since that time, becoming President and Publisher in 2004.  She lives in Piermont, NY with her husband Ian MacNiven, who is writing the authorized biography of James Laughlin.

     David Golemboski of Louisville, KY, a 2005 ITMS Daggy Scholar and a Young Adult Representative to the ITMS Board of Directors, received the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at their annual meeting in Baltimore on November 12, 2007.  The annual award, sponsored by the bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development, is presented to a young adult who demonstrates leadership in fighting poverty and injustice in the United States.  It is named for the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, former archbishop of Chicago, a leading advocate of the “seamless garment” approach to defending human life and dignity in all its forms and phases.

     Golemboski, a presenter at the ITMS Ninth General Meeting while still an undergraduate student, pointed to the importance of his discovery of Thomas Merton for the development of his religious commitments.  “One of the biggest influences for me was reading Thomas Merton in high school,” he said.  “It was a time when I was trying to figure out where I fit into my peer group and who I am as a Catholic.  That was part of determining where my life was going to go.”

Franz Jägerstätter Beatified

     Franz Jägerstätter, the Austrian farmer who was beheaded by the Nazis on August 9, 1943 for his refusal to serve in Hitler’s army in what he believed to be an unjust war, was beatified on October 26, 2007 in the cathedral of Linz, Austria, in the presence of his 94-year-old widow Franziska and his four daughters.  The service, marking the penultimate step before canonization as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, was conducted by leading members of the Austrian Catholic hierarchy whose predecessors had offered him no support in his conscientious objection.

     Thomas Merton wrote about Jägerstätter in “An Enemy of the State,” a review article on Gordon Zahn’s 1964 book In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter, which first brought the obscure martyr to the world’s attention.  In his essay, originally published in Peace News in January, 1965 and included in Faith and Violence (1968), Merton praised the witness of Jägerstätter and concluded that the “real question raised by the Jägerstätter story is not merely that of the individual Catholic’s right to conscientious objection (admitted in practice even by those who completely disagreed with Jägerstätter) but the question of the church’s own mission of protest and prophecy in the gravest spiritual crisis man has ever known.”     

     Jägerstätter was born in 1907 in the tiny village of St. Radegund, Austria.  Little in his early life indicated the path to execution and sanctity that Jägerstätter would eventually take.  Best known for owning the first motorcycle in the village, Franz was not particularly pious, occasionally got into brawls, and even fathered a child out of wedlock.  While away from St. Radegund for a time in the late 1920s, he returned to the practice of his faith, a commitment that deepened after his marriage in 1936.  He served as sexton of the parish church, began reading Christian devotional materials and became a person of deep prayer. 

Gordon C. Zahn (1918-2007)

     Sociologist, Catholic peace activist and author Gordon C. Zahn, a correspondent and later an editor of Thomas Merton, died December 9, 2007 in Milwaukee, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.  He is best known for his 1964 book In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter, which is generally credited with playing a major role in leading to Jägerstätter’s beatification, which took place shortly before Zahn’s death, as well as in increasing official Catholic support for conscientious objection.        

     Zahn, who was born in Milwaukee in 1918, was one of the few Catholic conscientious objectors to World War II and spent much of the war years at Camp Simon, a Civilian Public Service camp in New Hampshire.  After the war ended, he enrolled at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, but his pacifism proved to be controversial there and he transferred after his freshman year to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, where he earned his undergraduate degree.  He then went on to graduate work at The Catholic University of America, where he completed a doctorate in sociology, studying with Fr. Paul Hanley Furfey, a strong supporter of the Catholic Worker movement.  He taught at Loyola University, Chicago, and from 1965 until his retirement in 1983 at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.  He was one of the founders in 1972 of the American branch of Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace organization, and established the Pax Christi Center on Conscience and War in Cambridge, MA, which served as a resource center for issues of peacemaking, particularly conscientious objection.

     Merton began corresponding with Gordon Zahn in late 1961, inviting him to contribute to Breakthrough to Peace: Twelve Views on the Threat of Thermonuclear Extermination, a collection of articles that Merton was assembling for publication in September 1962; Zahn’s essay for the anthology was entitled “The Case for Dissent.”  The two men remained in contact throughout the rest of Merton’s life; his letters to Zahn are included in The Hidden Ground of Love.

     Zahn’s first major book, German Catholics and Hitler’s Wars (1962), which detailed how Catholic authorities in Germany provided support for the German war effort, was praised by Merton in a March 1962 Merton letter to Frank Sheed, whose firm had published the book, as “a most important and well-done job of work.”  (Merton’s notes on the book are now available in the appendix to his recently published monastic conferences, An Introduction to Christian Mysticism.)   

     While researching German Catholics and Hitler’s Wars, Zahn first came across the story of Jägerstätter, and subsequently returned to Austria to investigate it in depth.  The result was In Solitary Witness, which provided strong inspiration for the Catholic peace movement both in the United States and abroad, particularly in resisting the nuclear arms race and the Vietnam War.  Merton wrote an important review of the book, “An Enemy of the State,” included in Faith and Violence (1968).  Other significant works by Zahn include War, Conscience and Dissent (1967), a collection of articles which is cited, along with Merton’s Faith and Violence, in the U.S. bishops’ 1983 pastoral letter The Challenge of Peace as representing the tradition of Christian pacifism and non-violence, and Another Part of the War: The Camp Simon Story (1979), a memoir of his experience as a conscientious objector.   

     In 1971, Zahn edited Thomas Merton on Peace, a collection of Merton’s articles and essays, many previously unpublished, on war, peace and nonviolence, with Zahn’s own extensive introduction entitled “Original Child Monk.”  The volume was later reissued in almost identical form as The Nonviolent Alternative (1980), the title by which it is better known.

Anne E. Carr, BVM (1934-2008)

     Theologian and Merton scholar Sr. Anne Carr, BVM, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, February 11, 2008, at her home in Chicago.  Dr. Carr, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, was widely regarded as one of the major Christian feminist theologians in the Roman Catholic Church. 

     Anne Carr was born in Chicago on November 11, 1934, daughter of Frank J. and Dorothy Carr.  She attended local schools and graduated from Mundelein College in 1956.  While teaching in the Chicago public schools after graduation, she did graduate work in English literature at Loyola University, Chicago.  In 1958 she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary; after profession, she earned an M.A. in Theology from Marquette University and began teaching at Mundelein, serving as acting chair of the Theology Department from 1964 to 1966.  In 1966 she began theological studies at the University of Chicago, receiving her Ph.D. in 1971.  She became undergraduate chair of the Mundelein Theology Department in 1970, and in 1973 took a two-year appointment as visiting assistant professor in the Religious Studies Department of Indiana University at Bloomington.  In 1975 Dr. Carr accepted the position of assistant dean and assistant professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, becoming associate dean and associate professor in 1977; in 1988 she was promoted to full professor.  Dr. Carr also taught as a visiting professor at Trinity College, Dublin, Boston College and Harvard Divinity School.

     In 1988, Anne Carr published A Search for Wisdom and Spirit: Thomas Merton’s Theology of the Self.  She was a plenary speaker at the Second General Meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society, held at Nazareth College, Rochester, NY in 1991; the published version of her presentation, entitled “Merton’s East-West Reflections,” received the first place award for best scholarly article from the College Theology Society in 1995.  She also served on the Advisory Board of The Merton Annual from 1993 until the time of her death.

Fourth and Walnut Anniversary

     The fiftieth anniversary of Thomas Merton’s “epiphany” at Fourth and Walnut Streets in Louisville will be celebrated Tuesday, March 18, 2008, at 5:30 p.m., at the Muhammad Ali Center, One Muhammad Ali Plaza, 144 N. Sixth Street, Louisville, KY  40202.  Members of the Louisville religious, civic and business communities will participate by sharing their own experiences of epiphany.  The event is sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center of Bellarmine University, the Louisville Bar Association, the Muhammad Ali Center and Interfaith Paths to Peace.  It will be followed by a brief ceremony at the site of the epiphany (now Fourth and Muhammad Ali Streets).  Coinciding with the celebration is the opening at the Muhammad Ali Center of the exhibit “A Hidden Wholeness: The Zen Photography of Thomas Merton,” which will run from March 18 until June 30.

New Editors for Annual

    David Belcastro and Gray Matthews have been named co-editors of The Merton Annual, beginning with Volume 21 (2008).  The four-year appointment was made by Donald Grayston, president of the International Thomas Merton Society, in consultation with the ITMS Publications Committee.  Retiring editor Victor A. Kramer will continue his relationship with the Annual as a member of its Editorial Board.

     The Merton Annual began publication in 1988 as an independent, refereed scholarly journal of articles, reviews and interviews on Thomas Merton and on topics of interest to Merton, under the co-editorship of Robert E. Daggy, Brother Patrick Hart, Dewey Weiss Kramer and Victor A. Kramer.  With Volume 6, Michael Downey and George Kilcourse joined Victor Kramer as co-editors, with Dr. Downey continuing in that role through Volume 10 and Fr. Kilcourse through Volume 16.  With Volume 17, the Merton Society took over primary responsibility for the journal, with Dr. Kramer continuing as editor, assisted by various guest editors.  The Annual, now published by Fons Vitae Press, is available to ITMS members at a reduced price as part of their membership.

     Professor Belcastro, chair of the Religious Studies Department of Capitol University, Columbus, OH, has been a speaker at every ITMS General Meeting, and has published widely on Merton and contemporary cultural figures.  He has been a member of the Editorial Board for the Annual, and has written the bibliographical essay and coordinated reviews for previous issues.

Merton Focus of Benedictine Meeting

     The 2008 Convention of the American Benedictine Academy, entitled “Monastic Spirituality: Expanding Merton’s Vision,” will take place August 7-10 at Mount Marty College, Yankton, SD, hosted by Sacred Heart Monastery, a community of Benedictine women in Yankton.

     Presenters at the conference include: Kathleen Deignan, CND: “Eco-Monasticism: Thomas Merton’s Vision and Challenge”; Sidney H. Griffith: “‘Sharing the Experience of the Divine Light’: Thomas Merton’s Path to Interreligious Understanding”; Dewey Weiss Kramer and Victor A. Kramer, “Merton and the Benedictine Rule: Obedience”; Beverly Lanzetta: “Mystical Union in the Global Community: Thomas Merton’s Radical Interiority”; Paul M. Pearson:  “A Hidden Wholeness: The Zen Photography of Thomas Merton.”  The conference will also include the ABA banquet, the Academy’s Presidential Address by Jacquelyn Ernster, OSB, small group discussions with the presenters, morning and evening prayer, and celebration of the Eucharist.  For further information, see: http://www.osb.org/aba/2008.

Merton Anniversary Web Page

     A web page announcing all events being organized to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the death of Thomas Merton will be set up on the merton.org web site.  Notice of all such events should be sent to Thomas Merton Center Director Dr. Paul M. Pearson at: [email protected]

       On September 15, 2007, a retreat entitled “Praying with Thomas Merton,” based on reflections taken from Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, was held at the St. Charles Pastoral Center, Romeoville, IL, sponsored by the Joliet Diocese and led by Mark Quinn, Ph.D.    

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     Joseph Marren and Kimberly Blessing presented a session entitled “One Monk’s Message: Establishing an Enlightened Ethic for the Media,” on using Thomas Merton’s work as a guide to preparing a working ethical code for journalists, at the Colloquia 2000 Series on Media Ethics, October 14-17, 2007 in Honolulu, HI. 

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     A Thomas Merton Retreat sponsored by Common Ground, an adult-education group for interfaith study and dialogue, was held October 19-23, 2007 at the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, KY, which included a visit to the Abbey of Gethsemani.  The retreat was led by Ron Miller, co-founder of the group. 

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     On October 11 and 25 and November 1, Fr. Patrick Collins presented a mini-course on Thomas Merton’s The Inner Experience at Hope College, Holland, MI.

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     On November 10, Fr. Patrick Collins led a retreat on Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI.

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     On November 18, Vaughn Fayle presented a concert featuring his settings of four of Thomas Merton’s poems as chamber music, performed by Lon Ellenberger, counter-tenor, with Liliana Wosko on cello and Dr. Fayle on piano, at the Immaculate Conception Parish assembly room in Chicago; the performance was preceded by a talk by the composer entitled entitled “The Singing Voices of Thomas Merton.”

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     On December 12, The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living marked the thirty-ninth anniversary of Thomas Merton’s death with a presentation by poet and monk Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO entitled “Thomas Merton and Emily Dickinson: Monks and Mystics – An American Perspective on Contemplative Living.”

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     On January 19, Dan Phillips led a retreat on “Thomas Merton, Steward of Silence” at the Penuel Ridge Retreat Center, Ashland City, TN.

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     On February 8-10, Fr. Patrick Collins directed a Merton retreat at the San Pedro Center, Winter Park, FL.

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     On February 15, Jonathan Montaldo gave a presentation entitled “Choosing to Love the World: Thomas Merton & Contemplative Living” at Saint Joan of Arc Church, Boca Raton, FL   On the following day, he directed a Bridges to Contemplative Living Retreat at the church.

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       On Monday evenings during March and April, Fr. Patrick Collins will present a course on Thomas Merton’s spirituality at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids MI; for further information, phone: 616-632-2923; email: [email protected].

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     On March 7-9, a Lenten Silent Retreat will be held at Bethany Spring, The Merton Institute Retreat Center, New Haven, Kentucky; on March 14-16, a Palm Sunday Weekend Silent Retreat will take place at the center; on  March 19-23, a Holy Week/Easter Silent Retreat will be held at the center.  For more information, call: 502-899-1991; email: [email protected].

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     On March 14-16, Joseph Chamberlin will lead a “Bridges to Contemplative Living Retreat” at Bon Secours Spirituality Center, Marriottsville, MD; for further information, call: 410-442-1320; email: [email protected]; website: www.bonsecoursspiritualcenter.org.

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     On March 28-30, John King will direct a retreat on Thomas Merton at St. Scholastica Retreat Center, 1205 S. Albert Pike, Fort Smith, AR 72909; for further information, call: 479-783-1135; fax: 479-783-8138; email: [email protected]; website: www.StScho.org.

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     Bridges to Contemplative Living Retreats will be held at Bethany Spring, The Merton Institute Retreat Center, New Haven, KY on April 4-6, 28-30, May 9-11, 16-18, June 6-8, 9-11, 13-15, 16-18, 27-29.  For further information, call: 502-899-1991; email: [email protected].

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     On April 4-6, Jonathan Montaldo will direct a retreat entitled “Choosing to Love the World: Thomas Merton & Contemplative Living” at the Jesuit Spiritual Center, Milford, OH; for further information, call: 513-248-3500; email: [email protected].

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     On April 7-9, 11-13, May 19-21, retreats on “Thomas Merton and Mary Oliver: Poets of the Sacred” will be held at Bethany Spring, The Merton Institute Retreat Center, New Haven, KY; for further information, call: 502-899-1991; email: [email protected].

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     On April 25-27, Fr. Patrick Collins will lead a retreat on Thomas Merton’s The Inner Experience at the Cenacle Retreat House, Warrenville IL; for further information, call: 800-240-6702; website: http://www.cenacle.org/index.htm.

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     On May 9-11, Jonathan Montaldo will direct a retreat entitled “Choosing to Love the World: Thomas Merton & Contemplative Living” at Malvern Retreat House, Malvern, PA; for further information, call: 610-644-0400; email: [email protected].

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      On May 16-18, Fr. Patrick Collins will direct a retreat on “The Spirituality of Thomas Merton II” at St. Benedict Center, Schuyler NE; for further information, see the Center’s website: www.benedictinemissionhouse.com/center.

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On June 9-11, a Facilitators’ Training Workshop for the Bridges to Contemplative Living Program will be held at Bethany Spring, The Merton Institute Retreat Center, New Haven, KY; for further information, call: 502-899-1991; email: [email protected].

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     On June 9-13, Fr. Patrick Collins will direct a  Merton retreat at the Sinsinnawa Mound Center, Sinsinnawa, WI; cost is $325 ($195: commuters); for further information, call: 608-748-4411; email: [email protected]; website: http://www.sinsinawa. org/MoundCenter/RetreatOfferings.

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    On June 20-22, Jonathan Montaldo will direct a retreat entitled “Choosing to Love the World: Thomas Merton & Contemplative Living” at Bishop Molloy Passionist Retreat House, Jamaica Estates, NY; for further information, call: 718-739-1229; website: www.bishopmolloy.org.

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    On June 28, Jim Harford will give a presentation and readings from his book Merton and Friends. This will begin at 10.00 am in the parish center of St. Rose Parish, 603 7th Avenue, Belmar. Please RSVP to Tina DeVito at the parish office 732-681-0512, ext. 491 or by e-mail to [email protected].

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     John Dear, SJ will present a course entitled “Gandhi, Merton, Day and King: Prophets of Nonviolence,” July 6-11 as part of the Institute for Adult Spiritual Renewal at Loyola University, Chicago. For further information call: 312-915-7970; email: [email protected]; website: www.retreatsintl.org.

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     The Fall 2008 “Week with Thomas Merton” Elderhostel will be held October 5-10, 2008 at Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY.  For further information contact Linda Bailey at 502-452-8161; e-mail: [email protected].

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     On September 16, James Douglass will give a presentation entitled “Resistance, Revolution and Detachment: Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thomas Merton” at Frazier Hall, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY; the lecture, sponsored by the Bellarmine Thomas Merton Center, is free and open to the public.

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    Disarming the Heart: Pathways to Peace, October 3-4, 2008 at St.Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Plenary speakers will be Dr. Michael W. Higgins, Ron Dart and Dr. Paul M. Pearson. Concurrent sessions by Allen Bentley, Judith Hardcastle, John S. Porter, and Lynn Szabo. The conference will conclude with a Contemplative Interfaith Gathering. Further information is available at: St. Thomas Conference or by contacting Debbie Hudson at [email protected] or (506) 452-0645.

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