Go Out to All the World
Go Out to All the World is the title of a talk, given by Fr. Robin Ryan on the occasion of the Convocation of Religious in the Diocese of Phoenix on April 24-26, 2009.
In his final address to about 100 women religious of the Diocese, Fr. Robin Ryan speaks about the call to communion, referring to the second chapter of Vita Consecrata, where Pope John Paul II discusses religious life as a “sign of communion”. Men and women religious are in a particular way called to give witness to the experience of communion with the triune God and with one another. Robin describes the challenges of this calling in a world – and a Church - that has become increasingly divided, in the next section “The Pain of Polarization”. “First of all, it seems that in a world marked by painful divisions, we are called to witness to the possibility of communion in our life together”, he concludes. To develop a “spirituality of dialogue”, he recounts the eight principles for dialogue enumerated by the Catholic Common Ground Initiative.
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Robin Ryan, C.P.
Robin Ryan, C.P., taught systematic theology at Catholic Theological Union from 2004-2010. He was elected Vicar Provincial of his religious congregation (the Passionist community) in May 2010. He earned his Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America. Prior to coming to CTU, he taught theology at Saint John's Seminary in Boston for nine years. During his time at CTU, he also served as the founding director of Catholics on Call, a national vocation discovery program for young adults. He is the author of a number of essays on God and human suffering, young adults and the Church, Christology, and ecclesiology. He is the editor and co-author of Catholics on Call: Discerning a Life of Service in the Church (Liturgical Press, 2010). He is also the author of the forthcoming book God and Suffering: A Theological Conversation Through the Ages (Paulist Press, 2011).
