Catholics on Call has a new Faculty Moderator!
After Fr. Ed Shea, O.F.M. had served as the Faculty Moderator for Catholics on Call during the past year, he has been reassigned by his community this spring. He left his position as a Formation Director and moved to St. Peter in the Loop in downtown Chicago to serve the community there. On August 15, Fr. Steve Bevans, S.V.D., an amazing teacher here at CTU, has started as the new Factulty Moderator for Catholics on Call. Please join me in saying thanks to Fr. Ed for his service and contribution to the program and in saying welcome to Fr. Steve, who is introducing himself here:
"I’m Steve Bevans, born, 67 years ago in Baltimore, Maryland; moved with my family to California at age 13; and, after joining the seminary at the ripe age of 14 (yes, 14!), I’ve lived all over the United States and the world. I’m a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) a missionary congregation founded in 1875 by the German St. Arnold Janssen (1837-1909). I started out in high school seminary in Riverside, California, and then studied in Massachusetts south of Boston, upstate New York, near Dubuque, Iowa, Chicago, and Rome. I took my first vows in 1966, perpetual vows in 1970, and was ordained to the priesthood, just outside Rome, in 1971.
My first assignment was as a missionary to the Philippines, where I taught theology in a diocesan seminary that served nine dioceses in the northern part of the island of Luzon. I loved it there, and my almost nine years there have really shaped my life, especially my ministry of scholarship and teaching here at CTU. In 1981 I began doctoral studies at the University of Notre Dame and graduated there in 1986 after having, luckily, gotten a job here at CTU. I’ve been here ever since, and I have loved every minute of it here too. I knew from very young that I was called to be a teacher, and my greatest wishes have been fulfilled—to teach in a first-class school, with amazing colleagues on the faculty, and teach equally amazing students from every part of the world.
For the first fifteen years of the 25 years I have been here at CTU, I pretty much “worked on my career” and did not get too involved in much parish work or sacramental ministry. About nine years ago, though, one of my former students at CTU asked me if I would consider presiding at Eucharist on a regular basis at the St. Giles Family Mass Community in Oak Park. I accepted the invitation, and that acceptance has changed and shaped my life in new and exciting ways. The St. Giles community is a lay-run community, and I am on equal footing with everyone in the community, but just that. Equal. There is nevertheless a deep respect for my being a priest, and because of that I have gotten intimately involved in people’s lives in the community in ways I never would have dreamed of ten years ago. At St. Giles I have found a new vocation, or maybe better, I have had my original vocation as religious and priest confirmed in the deepest way possible.
I am still very much a teacher and scholar, but I have taken on a new identity as pastor, and I love it. Still, I guess you’d say my main hobby is writing—it’s the most exciting thing I can think of to do, and when a new article and book comes out I know it’s the closest I will ever get to parenthood! However, I really enjoy getting exercise, like walking and swimming, and I occasionally still play racketball. I also love music—especially classical music—and I have series tickets with several friends to the CSO. I’m a Cubs fan and try to go to a game at least once a summer. This year I bought four game tickets in advance, but I’ve only been able to go to one game!
I’m excited about working with Catholics on Call this year. The more I get to know the program, and especially after attending the last morning of the Young Adult Conference this year, I am getting a sense that this will be something to which I can contribute, and I think it will challenge and stretch me in ways that can only be worth while. I never thought I would do something like this, but the Spirit always has surprises!"
Stephen Bevans, SVD
Stephen Bevans is currently Louis J. Luzbetak, S.V.D., Professor of Mission and Culture at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, USA and the Faculty Moderator for Catholics on Call. He is a Roman Catholic priest in the Society of the Divine Word, an international missionary congregation, and served for nine years (1972-1981) as a missionary in the Philippines.
His publications include: Models of Contextual Theology (2002), Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (2004, with Roger Schroeder), Evangelization and Freedom (2009, with Jeffrey Gros), and Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective (2009).
He is past president of the American Society of Missiology (2006) and past member of the board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America (2007-2009). In 2009 he was visiting lecturer at Yarra Theological Union in Melbourne, Australia, and in the fall of 2009 he served as Scholar in Residence at the Crowther Center of mission studies at the headquarters of the Church Missionary Society in Oxford.
