Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 23 - March 31, 1988

              The
Fairfield
Volume 12, No. 23MRRORV Our Second Decade Thursday, March 31, 1988 The Image of Fairfield
Sistine Chapel
Discussed
Ann Marie Puckhaber
Staff Writer
Father John O'Malley, S.J.,
delivered a lecture entitled "The
Religious Culture of Renaissance
Rome: Illustrations from the
Sistine Chapel" in the Oak Room
on Wednesday, March 23 as part
of the Bellarmine Lecture series.
In his lecture, O'Malley
wanted to demonstrate "the impact
that Renaissance Humanism had
on the Christian vision of life and
indicate how this is suggested or
reflected especially in
Michelangelo's frescoes on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel."
Michelangelo painted the ceiling
for Pope Julius II between 1508
and 1512.
Renaissance culture was at
one time considered pagan. Ac-cording
to O'Malley, however, it
is now seen as "profoundly Chris-tian."
O'Malley used the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel to tell "some-thing
about how educated Romans
of the early sixteenth century felt
and thought about their religion."
O'Malley said that the ceiling
is not a "haphazard conglomera-tion
of images without meaning or
plan." He feels that the ceiling
does have a message to convey;
and that Michelangelo had a theo-logian
as an advisor when he
painted the ceiling.
The Prophets and Sibyls
cover a large part of the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel. Sibyls were
pagan priestesses who never ap-pear
in the Bible. O'Malley said
that they "dwelled in shrines and
uttered enigmatic judgements and
prophecies." The men and women
of the Renaissance believed that
they foretold the birth of Christ.
They believed that through the
Sibyls, God spoke to the Gentiles.
O'Malley said that "the
Prophets most clearly spoke of the
coming of the Messiah." Mich-elangelo
placed Jonah directly
over the altar. Jonah spent three
days in the belly of the whale and
Jesus rose from the dead after three
days. O'Malley explained that
Jonah is a "symbol of Christ."
The central panels of the ceil-ing
depict the stories from the
Book of Genesis. O'Malley said
that these panels "were remark-able
in accord with the tastes and
interests of Renaissance theol-ogy."
A new rhetorical way of
preaching emerged during the
Renaissance known as panegyrics,
which were speeches that re-counted
and praised the deeds of a
hero. The creation of the world
was one of the great deeds of God.
According to O'Malley, the
section of the ceiling that repro-duced
the creation of man im-pressed
men and women of the
Renaissance because it "captured
one of the most pervasive themes
of their rhetoric — human dig-
Continued on page 2, column 5.
Speaker for Class of88
Beth Gillin
Contributing Writer
The Rev. Timothy Healy, S.
J., President of Georgetown Uni-versity
in Washington D.C., will
be the commencement speaker at
the graduation ceremonies to be
held on Sunday, May 22, at 10:30
A.M. at Bellarmine Terrace.
Father Healy, chosen to speak
by Fr. Aloysius P. Kelley S. J. and
the Board of Trustees, will also
receive an honorary doctor of
humane letters degree as recogni-tion
of his leadership in American
higher education. In higher educa-tion,
Fr. Healy has been a major
figure nationally and has served as
chairman of the American Council
on Education, the National Asso-ciation
of Independent Colleges
and Universities and the National
Committee on Accreditation, and
has served as a member of other
national commissions. In addition
to writing two books on the poet
John Donne, Fr. Healy has written
extensively for national maga-zines.
He served as executive
vice-president of Fordham Uni-versity
and vice-chancellor of the
City University of New York be-fore
becoming president of Geor-getown
in 1976.
According to Mr. Murray
Farber, Fairfield University's Di-rector
of Public Relations, Fr.
Healy was chosen to speak be-cause
he is "outstanding in the
field of education." Senior Pat
Doherty expressed the feeling of
many, saying that "he hopes Fr.
Healy will deliver an inspiring
message to us.
However many seniors ex-pressed
disappointment with the
selection of Fr. Healy. Jane Mc-
Carthy '88 held, "If I wanted to
hear the President ofGeorgetown I
would have went to Georgetown."
The feeling was reaffirmed by
Deirdre Errity '88 who said, "I
don't see the big deal with having
the President of Georgetown
speak. We might as well have had
Fr. Al Kelley talk at commence-ment."
It seems that seniors would
have liked the University to have
gotten a more well known speaker
for the commencement address.
Other recipients of honorary
degrees will be:
Geraldine W. Johnson, super-intendent
of schools in Bridgeport
from 1976 to 1981 and again as the
interim superintendent in early
1986. She is now director of the
Council on Adolescent Pregnancy
of Greater Bridgeport. Mrs.
Johnson began her career as first
grade teacher and after 19 years
became a school superintendent
for 12 years before becoming
Bridgeport's first black superin-tendent.
She will receive an hon-orary
doctor of laws degree in
recognition of her professional
achievements as an educator.
Ernest M. Lorch, president
and chief operating officer of the
Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corpora-tion,
a private investment com-pany,
director of international
corporations and chairman of the
board of the Varlen Corporation,
and an attorney. He is known for
his concern for the disadvantaged
and is director of the Protestant
Council of Churches ofNew York
City; director and treasurer of the
City-Wide Athletic Association of
New York; director and treasurer
of the Wheelchair Classic Chari-ties,
president of Youth East Bas-ketball
Association; and a coach
for a Harlem church-sponsored
basketball team. Mr. Lorch will
receive an honorary doctor of laws
degree in recognition of his hu-manitarian
vision.
George F. Taylor, chairman
of the board and chief executive
officer of City Trust in Bridgeport
and general co-chairman of the
Barnum Museum Capital Cam-paign,
chairman of the Bridgeport
Area Foundation and a director of
the YMCA of Greater Bridgeport,
vice chairman of the Connecticut
Public Expenditure Council and a
member of the board of directors
of St. Vincent's Medical Center
and the Board of Trustees of the
University of Bridgeport. He has
also been active professionally as a
member of the Govemmertt-R-ete---
tions Council of the American
Bankers Association and state vice
president. He is a past president of
the Connecticut Bankers Associa-tion
and past chairman of the Busi-ness/
Industry Council of Greater
Bridgeport and past president of
Junior Achievement of Western
Connecticut. In recognition of his
significant service and leadership
in the Greater Bridgeport Area,
Mr. Taylor will be awarded an
honorary doctor of laws degree.
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Extra Reading
Day Added
Lynn Ann Casey
Assistant News Editor
In response to five years of
petitioning, the administration of
Fairfield University has decided to
add another Reading Day to school
calendar in the Spring of 1989
strictly on an experimental basis.
Mark Dietz, FUSA's Director
of Academics, led the campaign
for the addition of this third Read-
TngTJay. "It was not easy," said
Dietz, "but we persisted because
we were following the wishes of
the majority of students."
There was a lot of student sup-port
for Dietz as well as adminis-trative
support. The main reason
the administration was hesitant on
adding the day was the extreme
noise level in the dormitory hall on
the night before the Reading Day.
Continued on page 2, column 1.
Cardboard City Camps Out
Greg Curley
Senior Staff Writer
Eighteen students spent Mon-day
night on the Oak Room Patio.
These students built a temporary
shelter out of cardboard boxes to
serve as refuge. Their purpose was
to increase student awareness
about homelessness at Fairfield
University.
Monday night was part of a 36
hour vigil in which students from
various campus organizations
came together and demonstrated
the plight of the homeless. They
constructed their "cardboard city,"
lived with no luxuries, distributed
literature on homelessness, and
collected donatidns for the Family
Shelter in Bridgeport.
Beth Palmer, Director of
Campus Ministry and participant
in the 36 hour vigil, explained, "A
number of students came together
after the series of talks on home-lessness
in February, and said they
really wanted to do something to
make homelessness visible on
campus." She was impressed that
"the idea and organization came
from the ground up," emphasizing
that students ran and controlled the
entire event. She commented that,
"their level of awareness and
commitment says a lot about our
students."
Anne Petrides, a junior in the
Faith and Justice Coalition, and an
overnight participant in the vigil,
called her experience very
"thought-provoking." She said it
was "cold and cramped," but
added that the "support" of the
group helped to make the night
bearable. She said it was impor-tant
to note that "We had
options...options the real homeless
don't have." If at any time the
situation became overwhelming,
she said that they could have "re-treated"
to their dorms or the
Campus Center.
Lynne Starpoli, a sophomore
organizer and participant in the
vigil commented, "I love being out
there because it means a lot to me.
I like opening eyes and getting in
good discussions with people."
She continued by stating, "We got
some rude comments and a few
weird looks," but that it was worth
it to help others "realize that there
are different life styles out there."
The participants in the vigil
emphasized many points, includ-ing:
35 million Americans live in
poverty. Over half of the families
in the U. S. live below the poverty
line; two thirds have no toilets.
There are between 2500-3000
homeless people in the greater
Bridgeport area and as many as
50% of them have mental prob-lems.
The Regan administration
has cut spending on housing from
32 billion dollars to 7.5 billion
dollars. They cited these facts as
"demanding reform."
Participants called the vigil a
"great success," claiming that the
homelessness awareness at Fair-field
was brought to a higher de-gree.
Freshman Lee Ghazil
summed the event up by saying, "It
is really heartening to think that
there are people on this campus
who look beyond Fairfield."
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Cardboard City Residents Brave the Elements Photo: Brian Holden