President’s Fall Message

For most of us, the school year has begun. The new crops of undergraduates and graduates likely will have a number with a strong interest in Catholic studies. Please encourage these younger scholars to visit our Website, and consider membership in our Association.

The program for the Boston meeting has been posted to ACHAhistory.org. It contains a rich variety of papers from the various sub-fields of our members. There will likely be something for everyone! Jim O’Toole of Boston College took the responsibility for organizing this meeting–and it is his usual thorough and professional job. Thanks Jim!

There will be some new things at our annual meeting. The new honorary awards will be presented at our annual banquet: Lifetime Service to Scholarship, Service to Catholic Studies and Teaching Excellence. We have already made these selections and the names will be announced sometime in October. When I phoned the recipients of these awards, they were all delighted. Our Association’s affirmation means a great deal. We hope you can be on hand to witness the conferral of these awards together with our annual book presentations.

Likewise, we shall be presenting two $500 scholarships to young scholars who will be presenting papers at our meeting. These funds, raised from the generous donations of former presidents and with a grant from the Association, will offer some material assistance to our young people to come to meetings. Those graduate students planning to come to Toronto to present papers will have the same opportunity. The gift is small, but it symbolizes the efforts of the Association to reach out and help the next generation of scholars.

There will be one change in our “traditional” ACHA program. The annual Mass for the living and deceased members of the Association will be held at 5:00 PM Saturday evening January 8th instead of its traditional early-morning slot on Sunday morning. It will be followed by a reception afterward. Since many members depart for home on Sunday morning, we thought we could re-schedule the Mass to help those who might not otherwise be able to attend Sunday Eucharist. Fr. Cyprian Davis, OSB will be our presider. Priest members are welcome to concelebrate (please bring alb and stole).

Please check the website for information about our slate of candidates for Vice-President, Executive Council, and Nominating Committee.

We wish you all a productive semester and hope to see as many of you as possible in Boston for our Annual Meeting.

Regards,

Fr. Steven Avella, ACHA President 2010