Ravens Front and Center at New York Encounter 2019

Benedictine College was front and center at the Communion and Liberation movement’s New York Encounter Feb. 15-17.

The event is an annual three-day public cultural event in the heart of New York City featuring “a vast array of conferences, artistic performances, and exhibits.” Benedictine College was a sponsor of the event.

This year’s speakers included New York Times columnist David Brooks and Boston Archbishop Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley and many others, including  Dr. Kimberly Shankman, Dean of Benedictine College.

In the afternoon Shankman moderated a presentation by Sr. Laura Girrotto.

“What a story!” said Dr. Shankman. “It was amazing listening to her.”

Sister Laura was sent 25 years ago to a remote area of Ethiopia where she had to live in a tent, build her own house, and barter for supplies. Today her mission there runs a school with 1,500 students, employs 250 Ethiopians and she is fundraising for a 200-bed hospital.

Shankman was also chosen to read at the event’s Mass celebrated by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Papal Nuncio to the United States.

Benedictine students presented an exhibit on medicine called “The Kindness of Science.”

According to Becca Haeusser, class of 2021, “This exhibit offers a unique opportunity to meet three masters of medicine whose work and clinical innovations were fully at the service of their patients.”

Dr. Gerald Brungardt, ’79, a Benedictine college graduate and member of the board of directors attended the exhibit. He is pictured here with, from left to right, Benedictine students: Anne Duchesne, Pietro Mariani, Jonah Hintgen, Ella Majerus ’21, and Becca Haeusser ’21, along with a visiting medical school student from Wichita.