Minutes of Culture Commission Meeting October 1, 2004

Minutes of the Culture Commission Meeting
October 1, 2004
CISA - Rome

Present for the meeting were Fernando Millán, Patrick McMahon, Michael Plattig, and William J. Harry.

(The meeting was scheduled to only be 3 hours long, before the start of the Administrative Board of the Institutum Carmelitanum. Consequently, the members of the Culture Commission who are not part of that Board were not expected to attend but will be given the opportunity to give feedback to the discussion of the Commission.)

1) Review of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting

William Harry reviewed the major points from the previous meeting of the Culture Commission (May 4-7, 2002) and gave updates where necessary. Many of the items refer to matters which will be taken up by the Administrative Board of the Institutum in their meeting later today.

2) Review/Evaluation of Progress on Achieving the Commission’s Charge

(presented here in reverse order from the agenda)

A) To continue with the work of connecting the various Carmelite libraries in the world.

There have been a couple of meetings of the librarians in the last three years under the direction of the Delegate for Culture. At the last meeting, those present agreed to form a voluntary association – the Carmelite Library Association (CLA) which is intended to build cooperation among the libraries in the various projects the libraries have taken on (card catalogues on the internet, establishing/strengthening libraries in developing areas, digitizing rare books, etc).

Another significant decision by the group was the adoption of the MARC record system and the Z3950 platform for card catalogue databases. This will allow each of the libraries to put their card catalogues on the internet and make it possible for the user to search the holdings of all the Carmelite libraries simultaneously.

The Carmelite library of the Dutch Institute came online over the summer. The Washington library has set Christmas as the deadline for its catalogue to be online. The Washington library can be used as the basis of most of the other Carmelite libraries around the world, moving the project ahead once it is online.

Other ongoing topics like book preservation, digitizing rare books, making duplicates available to other Carmelite libraries, etc will be dealt with at future meetings.

At the last meeting of the librarians, representatives from three Carmelite libraries (Nantes, Krakow, and Dublin) attended for the first time.

B) To involve the members of the Order in developing new centers of Carmelite spirituality in the various regions of the world.

One meeting of the various Institutes of the world has been held with very poor attendance by representatives of the Institutes. A second attempt to have a meeting of the various Institutes will be made following the Congress on the Rule in July 2005. The goal of the meeting was so see what each Institute does and if some of the other Institutes could provide any kind of mutual support.

Some initial steps are being taken by the Provinces in Spain towards the establishment of an Institute. This will begin with the publication of a journal before the year is out.

The British and Irish Provinces, together with the Discalced Carmelites, held a forum once in England and once in Ireland. It is believed that this could eventually become an Institute of some form.

The Titus Brandsma Institute in Holland continues to develop SPINE and SPIRIN which have the potential to dramatically alter the landscape in Carmelite spirituality and how Institutes and scholars will work. Any groups which meets in Holland is give a presentation explaining these two efforts.

C) To appoint an ad hoc commission to study:

i) the proposals of the Institutum Carmelitanum

- this is being done by the Administrative Board of the Institutum

ii) the role of a General Delegate for Culture

- since the Delegate could not be present for the meeting, this topic was dealt with briefly. It was noted that the job description that has been developed for the Delegate would perhaps require more than one person—especially the need to have personal contact with the students and provincials in order to identify students and programs for higher studies. There was also some discussion of the need for the Delegate to be present at meetings of the General Council so that the topic of Culture would remain very present.

iii) the proposal of the Titus Brandsma Institute (SPINE and SPIRIN)

- the Culture Commission remains very committed to these two projects. The Institutum has expressed its desire to become involved as have a couple of the other Institutes. The Carmelite librarians spent a couple of hours at the Titus Brandsma Institute and viewed the presentations on SPINE and SPIRIN. The Carmelite Provincials of Northern Europe also viewed the presentations.

D) To develop a strategy to promote higher studies in the Order

This topic was discussed at length. Some statistics on the Order (ages in the regions, distribution of male Carmelites around the world, distribution of male Carmelites in formation, the results of the survey of degrees held by Carmelites, and listings of the international centers of study, the Carmelite Institutes, and the major Carmelite libraries) were distributed.

Members felt that many good things are happening in the area of culture within the Order (various study centers around the world, a number of provinces sending people on for higher studies, renewed emphasis on the Institutes and libraries). However, there is still too little awareness among the provincials and provinces of the need to dedicate personnel and resources towards culture. Since there is a vocation shortage in the ‘north’ there appears to be a reluctance to commit people to full time academics. In parts of the ‘south’ there appears to be little interest in studying Carmelite topics since they are from the European culture.

There was major disappointment expressed at the lack of cooperation to complete the survey of academic degrees held by Carmelites. Some provinces and monasteries never responded to multiple requests for information while some responded with incomplete or old information. This survey has been talked about for almost 10 years. A complete survey would enable us to have a clear picture of where we stand with academic preparation in the Order and what specialized areas need to be addressed. It would also give the General Council the information they need to broaden the number of people asked to serve on commissions, etc.

The discussion then turned to broadening the idea of culture beyond higher culture.

We returned to the idea of making an aggressive public relations effort for promoting culture. The strategy could include:

A power-point presentation during breaks at the General Congregation;
A presentation on the status of culture at the Congregation;
A traveling Carmelite museum display for major museums around the world;
Development of a picture archives;
CD ROM with a virtual Carmelite museum;
Development of the Carmelite Museum website project;
Addressing the lack of Carmelite identity among some of the newer areas of the Order
     - translation of Carmelite spirituality into their culture (inculturation)
     - strong ongoing formation programs for younger Carmelites
     - articles (entire issue?) in Carmelus dedicated to this topic
Speaking with the provincials/delegates of Indonesia, the Philippines, Africa, and India to identify their needs in this area;
To insure that initial formation has a strong “Carmelite Identity” piece to build enthusiasm for ‘res carmelitana’ early on;
To identify candidates for advances studies through:
     - the Delegate for Culture,
     - Personal contact with Provincials
     - Prior General and/or General Councilors asking Provincials about sending students for advanced studies
     - General Council and Delegate for Culture regularly speaking together about the situation in the provinces.

Finally there was some discussion about possibly structural changes needed in order to systematically raise the level of culture in the Order:

1) Role/Position of the General Delegate for Culture;

2) Membership of the President of the Institutum on those International Commissions in which the Institutum should be playing some kind of role (specifically Formation and Study of Charism and Spirituality);

3) A General Councilor and Delegate for Culture needs to be linked to the Institutum’s Administrative Board.

The next meeting of the Culture Commission would be in the winter of 2006, in conjunction with a meeting of the Administrative Board of the Institutum. Those members of the Culture Commission who are not members of the Institutum’s Administrative Board would be invited to attend the meeting.

Issues to be dealt with that the meeting would be:

1) Finalizing any proposals from the Culture Commission to the 2007 General Chapter, including proposed structural changes if any;

2) Planning a 6 year celebration of Carmelite Culture to follow up on the celebration of the Rule of St. Albert;

3) Evaluation of steps taken to raise the culture of the Order.

Following the meeting, I received an email from Tito Figueirôa outlining his discussion points/proposals for the Culture meeting. Because of email difficulties with the Curia’s ISP, I was unable to receive them in time for the meeting. I list them here so that committee members can be aware of Tito’s ideas. Eventually these and any other contributions will be incorporated into a final version of the minutes of the meeting.

Many thanks for your efforts on behalf of the Order!!!

English Translation from Tito
Appointments to Cultural Politics in the Carmelite Order:

1. Guide the Provinces regarding priorities in the choices of the subjects or themes for Master's degree academic thesis (License «Licenza» and Doctorate «Ph.D.»). Goal: The themes must be according to the Order charisma and the needs to the People of God, in the region where the Provinces are located.

2. The animation function of the cultural politics in the Order be managed by the General Counselor for the Culture, with the permanent advisement - via internet and/or annual meetings – of the respective Culture Commission, in which should be included the Delegate for the Culture. For this one competes, to the future, the function of executing the items decided by the Commission, and he will answer, before the General Counselor, by the execution -or not- of those ones.

3. Develop, regarding the Carmelite Family, a program of permanent formation, encouraging the friars, sisters, secular carmelites, to participate in courses, researches, readings groups guided by the internet, regarding Christian spirituality themes and Carmelite ones, History of the Carmel and the Church, Mariology, Theology of the Religious Life and/or of Lay people.

4. To facilitate the accomplishment of this proposed of the previous item, the General Board seeks to create a discussion and/ or communication group in the internet (similar to yahoo groups) so that lay Carmelites, friars, nuns, brothers, can share together their readings, written texts and activities in this field.

5. The General Board establishes for sex years, goals regarding the number of candidates to – or students for - License and Doctorate, as well as regarding frequency to the Spirituality Institutes courses.

6. That the subject of one of the first Provinces Council Meeting, for the next sexcenium, be about the culture and the studies in the Order, in order to deepen and implement the goals and the programming for the Culture approved by the General Chapter and established by the Order Government.