On Monday, Feb. 16, Friar Wayne Hellman, OFM Conv., delivered the annual Whittington Lecture at the Newman Catholic Community in Chapel Hill, N.C., in its newly renovated St. John Henry Newman Hall. The Whittington is an endowed lectureship around the theme of faith and spirituality in the public sphere. This year’s topic, “Contemporary Issues in the Light of the Franciscan Tradition,” was chosen in honor of the Year of Francis marking the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death.
Friar Wayne, a three-time minister provincial of Our Lady of Consolation Province, is emeritus professor of Theology at St. Louis University. He is best known as one of the principal editors of the multi-volume Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, the English-language critical edition of the early medieval writings of and about St. Francis.
In his lecture Friar Wayne highlighted three principal themes of the life of the saint: his encounter with the leper, which was the genesis of Francis’ identification with the poor both for his own sense of self-emptying and that of his brother friars; his desire that both he and the friars go “beyond the mountains” and “over the seas” to engage the wider world; and his deeply Christian theological anthropology of the dignity of the human person.
He concluded by analyzing the following contemporary issues in the light of those themes: the callous disregard of the poor both in the United States and overseas, in particular migrants; the inward-looking tendency to withdraw from awareness of and responsibility for the underdeveloped parts of the world; and an over-emphasis on individuality to the detriment of the life and well-being of humanity as created in the image and likeness of God. Pastor and Director of Campus Ministry Friar Tim Kulbicki, OFM Conv. introduced the lecture and moderated the lively discussion which followed.
The lecture is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X35l_LSMIJc.
~ Submitted by Friar Tim Kulbicki, OFM Conv.
