Members of the American Catholic Historical Association,
Greetings! Happy New Year to all. I hope that 2018 has been filled to date, and will continue to bring, many blessings to you, your loved ones and to your efforts to promote the study of Catholic history across the globe and throughout the centuries.
As a word of initial welcome and introduction, please let me introduce myself to those whom I have never been privileged to meet. My name is Rick Gribble and I am a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross, presently serving as a Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts. It will be my honor and pleasure to serve as the President of our Association for 2018. Carrying on from the capable leadership of my two immediate predecessors, Professors Liam Brockey of Michigan State University and Kathy Cummings of the University of Notre Dame, it is my hope that we have a very successful year, both in our formal meetings, this spring at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland and next January, our annual meeting, in Chicago, and through our individual and Association efforts to further the study of a subject we love, the discipline that for most has been our professional passion.
As President for this year, I write to bring you New Year’s greetings and to welcome and encourage your participation in the ACHA. While it was extremely cold in Washington, D.C. our annual meeting, as those who were able to attend can attest, was filled with many wonderful papers, lively discussions and topped by a highly engaging and intellectually stimulating paper, given by Professor Cummings during her Presidential address at the annual luncheon.
Writing on behalf of the Executive Council and myself, I want to encourage you to consider active participation with our Association. This year marks the centenary of the American Catholic Historical Association, founded as you know by John Gilmary Shea. This milestone in the history of the ACHA must be celebrated in appropriate fashion. The Executive Council will find appropriate ways to mark this momentous occasion. At the outset of my tenure as President, I encourage all to consider individual papers, panels, and roundtable discussions that can mark the centenary and can be presented both in Chicago and at Emmitsburg during our spring meeting, to be held April 12-15, 2018. (Both the call for papers for the annual meeting in Chicago and the call for papers for the spring meeting in Emmitsburg are posted on our website.) I am certain we will have two great conferences.
Once again, my greetings at the outset of 2018 and the start of my one-year tenure as your President. Working with the Executive Council and especially with our new Vice President, Katie Holscher of the University of New Mexico and our Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Fr. Bentley Anderson, SJ, at Fordham University, it is my hope that we can serve the membership in productive and forward-looking ways.
Sincerely yours,
Rick Gribble, CSC