By Julia Mericle
News Editor
he Most Rev. Richard J. Malone, bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo, students and faculty gathered in the University Chapel in Doyle Hall Sunday evening to participate in the Opening Celebration and Mass of the Holy Spirit.
The celebration began with an academic procession and the recognition of the new Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, introduced by Fr. Michael Calabria (O.F.M.).
Next, Patrick Panzarella Ph.D., an associate professor of English, was honored for his 50 years of service to the university.
The academic portion of the celebration concluded with the presentation of an honorary degree to Bishop Malone. He received a Doctorate of Humane Letters.
Bishop Malone participated in saying the Mass of the Holy Spirit, which followed.
As the students and faculty attending prepared themselves for a new academic year, Bishop Malone spoke about the future.
“We read and discuss and debate and research and write and test and explore and create,” Bishop Malone said. “We seek to know, so that knowing we will become more fully and fruitfully and meaningfully and successfully and authentically human, more who we are created to be.”
According to Bishop Malone, St. Bonaventure joined many Catholic universities around the world in beginning the year with the Mass of the Holy Spirit.
University Ministries, headed by Julianne Wallace, and volunteer students helped with the mass by singing, reading and serving at the altar.
Threat of rain caused Mass to be moved from a tent outside near the Hickey Dining Hall to the University Chapel in Doyle and also postponed the final segment of the celebration, the blessing of St. Joseph’s Oratory.
Father Ross Chamberland. O.F.M., director of St. Bonaventure University’s Lateran Center, led the alumni fundraising effort to restore the oratory as an adoration chapel.
A lead donation from Andy LaVallee, owner of LaVallee’s Bakery and Live the Fast Ministries in Massachusetts, along with other alumni donations, made the restoration project possible.
According to Chamberland, the total cost of the restoration will be about $20,000. This number accounts for new lighting fixtures, paint, finishing for the floor and installing a security system.
The security system will allow access to the adoration chapel at all times by scanning a St. Bonaventure University ID.
Chamberland said the idea to create a space for Eucharistic adoration originated from a conversation with Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., university president, about how to move forward with elements of Catholic identity on campus. Eucharistic adoration is the adoration of the presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist which you can see.
“That is a very visible sign of that invisible reality: prayer,” Chamberland said.
A picnic in the Hickey Dining Hall concluded the opening celebration and Mass of the Holy Spirit.
Both the president and the bishop attended the dinner following the celebration.
mericlje13@bonaventure.edu
