http://www.ai.edu RSS feeds for Aquinas Institute of Theology 60 http://www.ai.edu/AboutUs/PressReleases/tabid/69/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/10/Five-Women-to-be-Honored-at-St-Rose-of-Lima-Societys-Inaugural-Event.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.ai.edu/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=69&ModuleID=402&ArticleID=10 http://www.ai.edu/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=10&PortalID=0&TabID=69 http://www.ai.edu/AboutUs/PressReleases/tabid/69/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/10/Five-Women-to-be-Honored-at-St-Rose-of-Lima-Societys-Inaugural-Event.aspx (ST. LOUIS) – Aquinas Institute of Theology is pleased to announce the formation of the St. Rose of Lima Society to recognize women who have made significant contributions to the life of the Catholic Church and the ministry of Jesus. Five women from the St. Louis and Metro East areas have been chosen for induction into the Society. Sister Carol Kopff, OP, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Mary Knollmeyer, Sister Grace Marie Mueller, SSND, Sister Antoinette Temporiti, CPPS, and Rosemarie Voelker will be honored as Pillars of Dominican Spirituality. Their induction will take place at the inaugural luncheon of the St. Rose of Lima Society on Thursday, March 31, 2011, at 11:30 am, at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza Hotel, 7730 Bonhomme Avenue, Clayton, Missouri. This society is named for St. Rose of Lima, who entered the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in 1602. St. Rose, noted for carrying her ministry into the wider community, was the first person born in the Americas to be canonized a saint. The St. Rose Society recognizes and honors those women who exemplify the pillars central to Dominican spirituality: preaching, prayer, study and community. Sister Carol Kopff, OP, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Sparkhill, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her longtime contributions and commitments in ministry. She has been active in prison ministry since 1980 in Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, and has been at the Missouri Eastern Correctional center since 1992. In addition to prison ministry, Sister Carol has served for over nine years as Pastoral Administrator and Pastoral Associate in Ewing, Missouri and Monroe City, Missouri. She taught at the junior high level for nineteen years in Missouri and New York. Mary Knollmeyer, of St. Louis, Missouri, will be honored as a Pillar of Dominican Spirituality. Mrs. Knollmeyer, married to George F. Knollmeyer, is a Third Order Carmelite. Mary is a consecrated Marian Catechist and teaches the basics of the Catholic faith and Marian spiritual practices. She is a leader in the Our Blessed Mother’s Rosary Program in St. Louis, the aim of which is to increase devotion to the Holy Rosary. Mrs. Knollmeyer visits many Catholic schools and other Catholic organizations. Mary is an active member of St. Anselm’s parish in west St. Louis County and has presented a radio series on the lives of the saints, airing through the Covenant Network. Sister Grace Marie Mueller, SSND, working in the parish of St. Luke in Belleville, Illinois, will be honored as a Pillar of Dominican Spirituality. Sister Grace is a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame and serves as the Parish Life Coordinator at St. Luke’s. She is being recognized for her ongoing commitment to ministry as an educator in the parish RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), liturgical and prayer leadership, her service in the Vincent de Paul Society, and her leadership in the interfaith community of the Belleville diocese. Sister Antoinette Temporiti, CPPS, of St. Louis, Missouri, will be honored as a Pillar of Dominican Spirituality, for her work to establish Microfinancing Partners in Africa (MPA). A member of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, Sister Toni has worked since 2003 to develop the MPA, whose purpose is to develop sustainable businesses and economically viable communities by creating funding systems that furnish small, collateral-free, low-interest business loans. Rosemarie Voelker, of Clayton, Missouri, will be honored as a Pillar of Dominican Spirituality. Rosemarie and her husband John became members of St. Joseph’s parish in Clayton when they moved to the St. Louis area in 1956. She and her husband have seven children. Mrs. Voelker has long been active in the St. Vincent de Paul Society in her parish and is noted for the generosity of her ministry to the poor and struggling. Rosemarie also founded the Suzanna Conference to help battered and abused women. For more information regarding the St. Rose of Lima Society or the inaugural luncheon, please contact Aquinas Institute of Theology at (314) 256-8858, or e-mail maynard@ai.edu. Aquinas Institute of Theology is a St. Louis-based Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry sponsored by the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). Offering both residential and on-line degree programs, Aquinas Institute of Theology is the only Catholic institution in America to offer a doctoral degree in preaching. CM Admin Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:59:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:10 http://www.ai.edu/AboutUs/PressReleases/tabid/69/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/9/Construction-Begins-At-Historic-Catholic-School.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.ai.edu/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=69&ModuleID=402&ArticleID=9 http://www.ai.edu/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=9&PortalID=0&TabID=69 http://www.ai.edu/AboutUs/PressReleases/tabid/69/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/9/Construction-Begins-At-Historic-Catholic-School.aspx WHAT: Groundbreaking WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Monday, February 14 WHERE: 3407 Lafayette Avenue OF INTEREST: This century-old building in the Compton Hills neighborhood is undergoing construction to begin its fourth life. In every incarnation, the building has been affiliated with a Catholic ministry. CONFIRMED GUEST: The Most Rev. Edward M. Rice, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. MORE INFORMATION: Sara Jelercic with Paric Corp., (636) 561-9565 or sljelercic@paric.com.Or, Kristi Ruggles, representing the Dominican communities, (314) 660-7341 or kristi.ruggles@sbcglobal.net. (ST. LOUIS) – A ceremonial breaking of ground and a ritual blessing next week will symbolize the start of a fourth purpose for a historic building in the Compton Hills neighborhood in St. Louis. Representatives from the City of St. Louis, architectural firm Nehring Design LLC, general contractor Paric Corp., and the St. Louis Catholic community are expected to participate in a groundbreaking for the new St. Dominic Priory at 11:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 14, at 3704 Lafayette Avenue. The Most Rev. Edward M. Rice will lead a blessing. This $8.1 million project will renovate and restore 48,000 square feet of existing space, preserve architectural gems, and build a 10,000-square-foot addition. The building, which opened in 1909 as Loretto Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school, will reopen later this year as a residential community for students preparing for ordination and ministry in the Dominican religious order, also known as the Order of Preachers. The students will come from 25 central and southern states, which represent two distinct geographic regions for the order. The Central Province is headquartered in Chicago and includes 14 states. The Southern Province is headquartered in New Orleans and encompasses 11 states. The priory is being built in St. Louis because Dominican priesthood candidates from these provinces complete their graduate degrees at Aquinas Institute of Theology in Midtown. “This is the right time for this expansion in St. Louis on multiple levels,” said the Rev. David F. Wright, O.P., formation director for the Dominican community and a member of the leadership team for the project. “Since 1981, our students at Aquinas Institute have been living „temporarily‟ with the Jesuit community at Saint Louis University. In recent years, the number of Dominican students has grown, and that growth has created a need for more space.” The number of Dominican students based in St. Louis has increased from 18 in the fall of 2007 to 32 scheduled to begin classes later this year. The students will be part of a community of more than 40 Dominican brothers and priests living at the new St. Dominic Priory. The Rev. Charles Bouchard, O.P., former president of Aquinas Institute of Theology, said moving to the space is a good decision for other reasons as well. “The Dominican order, like every religious order, has its unique purpose and personality,” Bouchard said. “We are preachers and teachers, and our ministry is rooted in and nourished by community life. We live in community as brothers and pursue the intellectual life and a life of spreading the Gospel. In this space, we will flourish as individuals and as a community. We will restore and keep alive a space with a century-old Catholic connection. We will add stability to an urban neighborhood. And, through conveniences such as being near a university bus line and city bus service, we will meet the needs of our students.” The building, which drivers see as they exit Interstate 44 at Grand and Louisiana, represents a storied past. It was designed by architectural firm Barnett, Hayes, and Barnett, which was begun by the 19-century legendary architect George I. Barnett. Among buildings he designed are the state governor‟s mansion and the St. Louis Cathedral in the Central West End. When the building opened as Loretto Academy in 1909, it was a suburban school constructed to escape city pollution and respond to population growth. In 1952, Loretto Academy closed and consolidated with Nerinx Hall in Webster Groves. In the 59 years since, the building has served as a day care center, a home for retired Loretto sisters, and most recently, an apartment community, run by an association of religious orders, serving women and children in poverty. Changes in federal rent subsidies made it impossible for the association to continue to provide housing, and the building has been vacant since 2009. The building represents an eclectic blend of Tudor revival, characterized by the brickwork and the copper domes on each tower, and Colonial revival, characterized by the four white columns on a neo-classical portico. It includes 32,000 square feet of living space and additional 16,000 feet of chapel, corridors, and storage. The living quarters will undergo extensive renovation. The newly constructed 10,000 square feet will provide common space. Among features that will be preserved is a beautiful tile fireplace with a carved wooden mantle and a chapel that features stained glass windows believed to be the work of St. Louis artist Emil Frei. CM Admin Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:55:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:9