Abbot Michael addressing Providence Symposium

Among the many blessings on the Portsmouth campus is the presence of the Portsmouth Institute for Faith and Culture. One might consider them a hidden treasure due to their office move last summer from the Regan Lecture Hall to the Thomas Moore Library, but they nevertheless continue to present programming of the highest quality within the school, on campus, as well as farther afield. Such was the case on March 6 when the annual Providence Catholicism & Culture Symposium, co-hosted by the Humanities Program at Providence College, took place in the 1830 University Club on Benefit Street. Before the three guest panelists engaged on the topic of “Pilgrims of Hope,” Abbot Michael Brunner began the evening at 5:30 p.m. with a prayer, not of his own composition as he explained, but rather by Pope Francis, whose health and comfort were on the minds and in the prayers of all.

Dr. Darryl De Marzio, in his first year as the Institute’s Executive Director, welcomed and thanked the attendees, and introduced Dr. James F. Keating, calling him “our tried-and-true facilitator!” Dr. Keating, a mainstay at Institute events for many years, is an associate professor of theology and the director of the Humanities Program at P.C. Looking ahead, Dr. De Marzio shared that the annual Summer Symposium will occur on June 13-14 at Portsmouth with the overarching theme being “Before and Above All Things.” More immediately, he referenced the theme of the “tangible signs of hope... for our brothers and sisters” as expressed by Pope Francis in his Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee Year of 2025, Spes non confundit, or “Hope does not disappoint.” He gently suggested caution in our use of the word “that,” as in always hoping that God would do something for us, preferring instead the preposition “in,” to express hope in God.
Providence Symposium panelThe first panelist was Peter Nguyen, currently the Executive Director of the St. Thomas More Teaching Fellowship. A Boston transplant from New Orleans, he was a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) Missionary at Harvard University, serving 3 years both as a missionary and a team director. After FOCUS, he was co-founder of a non-profit, the Institute for Priestly Evangelization, working with seminarians and priests in the New Evangelization. Also quoting Pope Francis, Mr. Nguyen said that “hope is a crucial virtue today” and that we are all called “to be pilgrims of hope, to live our mission knowing that God has all of this in His hands.” He gives us “strength to engage, not disengage, since hope needs to be enacted upon. Experiencing life, as it is, brings hope.”
Peter NguyenNext was Francis X. Maier, senior fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC. His interest lies at the intersection of Christian faith, culture, and public life, especially in lay formation and action. For 23 years he was a senior adviser and special assistant to Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., in Denver and Philadelphia. Mr. Maier, too, has a connection with FOCUS, serving as a board member, as well as a consulting editor with First Things magazine. He began by suggesting that “optimism and hope are opposites: one is a virtue and one is a mood,” admitting, however, that “all of my heroes are pessimists!” He clarified the true meaning of the word holy, the root of which many assume to be ‘good.’ Instead, it derives from the Hebrew word, kadosh, or ‘other than,’ and in this context, separated from the world. This holiness, or hope for holiness, he believes, “resides in every one of us, if only we search for it.”
Frances X. MaierThe affable Father Ryan Connors is a priest of the Diocese of Providence and Rector of the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence. He is the author of Rethinking Cooperation with Evil: A Virtue-Based Approach (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2024) and Moral Theology: An Introduction (Cape Girardeau, MO: ECT Press, forthcoming). His essays have appeared in several scholarly journals including The Thomist, Nova et Vetera, and National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. He spoke of “hope as a theological virtue when used in a Christian context,” as opposed to the emotion of hope. “We hope for what we know by faith. The one who hopes, lives differently,” he said, and separated from the world, perhaps, as Mr. Maier suggested.
Fr. Ryan ConnorsAmong the capacity crowd were several area religious including Bishop Robert C. Evans, Retired Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese; Msgr. Albert A. Kenney, Diocesan Administrator; Sr. Mary Amata Mueller, O.P., Principal of St. Pius V Catholic School; Fr. Henry J. Bodah, retired pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Wakefield; and Deacon Dr. Timothy Flanigan, St. Theresa & St. Christopher Parish, Tiverton.
Mr. Darryl De Marzio, Executive Director of the Portsmouth InstituteThe Portsmouth Institute continues to maintain a range of offerings, beyond the Providence Symposium and the Humanitas program in the summer. Tied to Portsmouth Abbey’s engagement in secondary education, the Institute offers its Oxford Summer Programme, bringing a group of high school students to Oxford for historical and theological studies, with a residential element engaging the group fully in the life of Oxford, enabling them to “explore, pray, and learn in the ‘city of dreaming spires.’” The Institute’s Center for Science and the Liberal Arts aims to “inspire both knowledge of and a sense of wonder towards God and the created order,” through interdisciplinary lectures and research building upon the essential ties linking faith and reason. The Institute has also been cultivating Junior Fellows, a community of students at the School “committed to enlivening their social, intellectual, and spiritual lives.” Over its fifteen years, the Portsmouth Institute has been responsive and adaptive to the intellectual and spiritual life of the extended community of Portsmouth Abbey, as it continues to explore and develop events and programing in line with its Benedictine inspiration, “exploring Catholic thought and restoring Christian culture.”