Romana

The fifth anniversary of the canonization of St. Josemaría was celebrated with a round table discussion at the Golden Gate Club in San Francisco, California. The topic was “Christians in the world: a story waiting to be told.”

Kelly Macatangay, the moderator, reminded those attending that every canonization proclaims and celebrates a saint, a life lived in Christ. She emphasized that the lives of the great saints are great stories, and that the life of St. Josemaría, specifically, reveals the greatness of ordinary life.

Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco began his talk with a reflection on the Christian narrative in connection with Pope Benedict XVI’s recent book Jesus of Nazareth. Starting with some words of the Pope on the saints as “authentic interpreters of Sacred Scripture,” he insisted on how St. Francis, the patron of the city, had encouraged Christians in the world to live in deep communion with Christ, just as St. Josemaría did at a later date.

William Park, who taught for many years at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where he created a program of studies in cinematography, spoke about how great literature reflects the existence of a universal moral imagination that points to the divine origin of mankind.

The third speaker was Karen E. Bohlin, the principal of Montrose School in Medfield, Massachusetts and a senior scholar at Boston University. She spoke on the value of everyday stories in the intellectual and moral formation of young people.

The conference concluded with a reception during which the participants were able to greet the Archbishop.