Steubenville, Ohio, Oct 3, 2019 / 06:45 pm (CNA).- The incoming president of Franciscan University of Steubenville has spent the past few months speaking, and listening, to students, alumni, and friends of the university.
He’s become well-known for a phrase he uses.
“We don’t just want God to bless what we’re doing, we want to bless what God is doing,” Fr. David Pivonka, TOR, tells students and alumni.
And God, Pivonka told CNA, is doing new things at the Ohio university he now leads.
God “is revealing himself to us and making it clear that he has a plan and a desire for us,” the priest said during an Oct. 3 interview, the day before his inauguration as the university’s seventh president.
There is, Pivonka said, “a newness, or freshness that is going on,” at the university. And, he insists, that newness is not about him, but about God’s Providence.
“In my own life and in the life of the friars in our community, we are just seeing different pieces come together and different people being placed here, and I think God is doing a really great thing, and a prophetic thing.”
Pivonka said God is inviting the university to a “refocusing” of its identity, and its priorities. How that unfolds will depend on prayer and discernment.
“It’s really keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, being faithful to what he is asking us to do,” Pivonka told CNA.
“I think St. Francis has something to do with that,” he added, mentioning that the saint can “helping us continue to understand what makes a Franciscan university different than any other university.”
Pivonka, 54, has some ideas about what that might look like. Franciscan identity, he emphasized, is about daily conversion, repentance, discipleship, and about solidarity with the poor.
The priest mentioned especially the importance of the university’s relationship with locals in the city of Steubenville, which suffers from high unemployment and economic depression, and the surrounding Ohio valley.
Pivonka said he’s met with local leaders to try to strengthen the university’s place in the region. He said he’s encouraged local leaders to think with him creatively about how the university – mostly set apart from the rest of the city atop a hill – can better engage with, and benefit from the community.
“What can we do in a mutual relationship? What can they do to help the university? Bause there’s gifts and talents here that have not been utilized. And, what can we do to help them?” he asked.
Noting the poverty of the region, Pivonka said that “one of the greatest things to raise people out of poverty is education. Education opens up new worlds, opens up doors. It provides people with options. The poor don’t always have options, and that’s a horrible feeling to have: that you don’t have any options or choices. I think education provides those options.”
“We want to make more resources available for the local kids who can’t afford to come to the university. We already have a grant of 50% off of tuition for any local kid. There’s some people for whom that’s enough to get them over the hump. They can come. But there are still others where that’s not enough. We want to do a better job at making sure that if an individual who lives in the Ohio Valley and wants an education from Franciscan, that we’re able to help them with that.”
He also told CNA that he wants his leadership of the university to emphasize unity—in the Church and within the university community. And he said unity will require a spiritual vision.
“We just find ourselves in a Church in a time that is really broken,” Pivonka said.
“The Church has been really wounded, but she has always been that way. There has never been a time when the Church wasn’t like that,” he added.
“But she is still the bride, and she is still beautiful, and still worth fighting for, and she is still worth protecting, and my fear is that maybe we haven’t recognized that, maybe we have been unable to see that. That is one of my prayers that the university is able to help see the bride, see the Church as she is.”
“The university,” he said, “could be a source of unity and healing.”
He prays that will be the case.
Pivonka told CNA he thinks prayer can also be a source of unity on the university’s campus.
While the Charismatic Renewal has long been associated with Franciscan University, Pivonka said that he’s mostly concerned that students live as Christian disciples, regardless of their spirituality.
“One of the things I said at the beginning of the year to students and the faculty is ultimately that I’m not concerned with people involved with Renewal as a movement, but what I am concerned about is that our lives be animated by the Holy Spirit,” he said.
Acknowledging liturgical “polarization” on the university’s campus, and more broadly in the church, the priest explained that “my prayer, and I think it’s possible but it will take work by us, is that we can, by the grace of God, really give an example that we don’t all have to pray in exactly the same way, and we can approach the Lord differently.”
“But part of being Catholic is embracing one another and giving one another freedom to do that without judgement, without dismissal. And that’s one of the goals and one of the desires I have for the university.”
“The Spirit of God is the same Spirit for all of us,” he said.
In the Church “we are supposed to be most united in our prayer and in our worship, and we are actually becoming more divided. I think that is ultimately the work of the Evil One, I really do. So can Franciscan University be a source of renewal, that we can bring this together? That’s my prayer.”
Pivonka is familiar with renewal at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
The priest graduated from the university in 1989, during the tenure of its well-known and charismatic fourth president, Fr. Michael Scanlan, TOR, who is largely credited with sparking a turnaround in the faith and culture of the university, which was nearly closed when Scanlan took the helm in 1974. Pivonka joined the Franciscans, Third Order Regular, the religious order that oversees the university, and later worked closely with Scanlan in the university’s administration.
The university’s trustees unanimously elected Pivonka president on May 21. The priest acknowledged that Scanlan, who died in 2017, has recently faced allegations of improper conduct during his term of leadership at the university.
Scanlan is alleged to have enabled and covered-up sexual misconduct on the part of another popular Franciscan friar on the campus. While Pivonka said he had not seen direct evidence supporting the claims made against Scanlan, he told CNA that he is sorry that anyone might have been harmed by failures on Scanlan’s part to respond properly in the face of allegations, and that the allegations – and his responsibility to address them- have been the subject of his prayer.
Pivonka said that as president of the university, he is committed to transparency in leadership, and to facing the past directly.
“We want to make sure that if there’s anybody who’s been a victim of any abuse or anything that was inappropriate, that we want to make sure that they’re cared for and that they’re heard and that they’re seen, and taken care of whatever circumstances, whoever was responsible for that to make sure that justice is brought about and healing is brought about,” he told CNA.
He emphasized the efforts made by the university in recent years, especially under the leadership of Fr. Sean Sheridan, his predecessor as president, to address accountability and assure a safe environment at the university.
Pivonka also emphasized the university’s commitment to forming students, to “household” faith communities, to academic freedom, and to “dynamic orthodoxy,” a phrase long associated with Franciscan, but attributed to the late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York.
“I think that when one experiences the beauty and grandeur and the glory of orthodoxy in right practice and right living, then orthodoxy is life-giving.”
“There is a need for an animated orthodoxy, an orthodoxy that’s alive, that’s fresh, that’s engaging. That’s really where we see orthodoxy here at the university,” Pivonka added.
Pivonka will be inaugurated as the university’s president Oct. 4, on the feast of St. Francis. He told CNA that as a leader, he hopes to be an instrument of conversion.
“My prayer is that people will experience conversion. That’s continually my prayer in the work that I’m doing at the university,” Pivonka said.
Calling a Catholic university a “faith community,” Pivonka said that “a faith community needs a pastor. It needs a shepherd, it needs a teacher. I really see my role in the university as that – it’s a priest and a shepherd.”
As a shepherd, he said, he hopes that after they graduate, students of Franciscan University are “engaged in their professions. That they’re outstanding doctors and lawyers and engineers and nurses and teachers and catechists and priests. That they are profoundly competent in their field. That they are influencing the people that they work with, to witness to them, to live the goodness of God’s love for them.”
“That they see the beauty of the Church, are engaged in the life of the Church, participating in their parishes, as lectors and youth ministers and Eucharistic ministers and works of mercy. That they are holy moms and dads that love their kids, that they are raising saints. That they live with hope and joy, purpose.”
He added that he hopes the university he leads will exercise a prophetic mission in the world.
God has placed on his heart, he told CNA, that “the Lord wants to do more, to use the university as a prophetic voice to a culture, to a Church, about what is possible. About hope that the situations in which we find ourselves are not the end of the story. About faithfulness.”
Ultimately, Pivonka said, he’ll measure his success by the holiness of his students.
“I told the students at the opening school year Mass that my goal and my desire is that each one of them hear the Lord say to them, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into joy today.’ So, big picture success is that each of the students and everyone associated with the university ultimately inherits the Kingdom of God.”
[…]
I’d recommend that these bishops ought to spend the time praying for their own salvation.
Let us recollect that the Shepherds of their flocks the Bishops are called to be more concerned about the welfare of their flock than of their own souls. Taking a moment to pray for the victims, the shooter and first responder is certainly charitable and compassionate and our calling to pray for our enemies and the enemies of God, those that hated Him before they hated us.
Yeah, you’d recommend it. You wouldn’t take the trouble to pray for their salvation yourself, of course. Not your job, is it, deacon? But then, maybe that’s no great loss, if your prayer was only going to run like this: “O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this bishop. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess.”
You make no offer to pray for them yourself. Such an offer might be Pharisaical grandstanding — it usually contains at least an element of that — but if you were to follow through with private prayers, some good would come of it.
Nor are you offering fraternal correction. You do not address them directly. I doubt you would say that directly to your own bishop, or even write a letter with a signature and a return address to any of these other bishops.
What you are doing is gossiping. That’s all. Cut it out.
You put “deacon” in front of your name, presumably because you think Holy Orders entitles you to some deference. Well … not really in a forum like this, where the argument should not depend on the genetic fallacy that it matters who said it. Regardless, if you think your office of deacon entitles you to respect, the same logic should require you to think that the office of bishop entitles them to whatevever respect or deference you hope to receive from your title.
If no one can tell you have Holy Orders from the wisdom and holiness of what you write, maybe keep that part to yourself.
I will pray for you, however, Outis.
We are not obligated to respect corrupt leadership, and defending it, which is a consistent pattern for you, is sin on your part.
Absolutely
Fight, fight, fight the progressives outside the Church and inside the Church.
Prayers for all those who were injured or killed yesterday. 🙏
Security breakdown is obvious and as some of the media are reporting this morning, looks bad to the world when your Republican candidate is not adequately/smartly protected, (not to mention those in attendance).
Dear Kevin Roberts.
To bring this sad event into perspective, let’s remember that it is not the radical Left alone who are responsible for political violence. At the storming of the Capital (which was a violent political response which this very man did little to prevent) several people also lost their lives. Violence is never the answer and both parties are quilty of it. We must condemn all violence and not put the blame on one party alone. May the former president recover and conduct a decent campaign and be willing to humbly accept whatever the outcome. May both parties become more honest and moral in their rhetoric and behavior. May we as Americans hold the next president accountable for his actions and demand transparent and just leadership. May God bless America.
“We must condemn all violence and not put the blame on one party alone.”
A disgraceful and inappropriate post. Republicans aren’t shooting their opponents.
Is it disgraceful and inappropriate to condemn violence and call for both parties to be accountable? How can we ignore those on the Right such as the Proud Boys and the KKK etc. etc. who openly support Trump? Just look at their current posts and tweets that are calling for war and promoting violence! It’s Not all one sided. Both parties have drifted into the extreme. There is little if any honest dialogue, none seem willing to compromise. Our form of government welcomes diversity of opinion and dialogue resulting in compromise and cooperative dialogue . We need to understand and respect each other and get along. Nothing is gained by broad brushing and labeling others. We need love, tolerance and respect which is becoming to our Christian witness.
“… the Proud Boys and the KKK…”
I think all reasonable people lament and denounce the endless rioting and the hundreds of millions of dollars in destructions and damage caused by the Proud Boys and the KKK during the riots of 2020. (Ahem.)
The idea that because Party A (Dems) have become incredibly radical, amoral, and immoral means that Party B (GOP) has surely done the same in equal measure is both stupid and contrary to data/reason. The problem with the GOP, in many ways, is that is simply does what the Dems did 5 to 10 years ago rather than following actual objective principles. Hence, the part of stupid. And the reality of a “uniparty” in so many ways. But it mustn’t blind anyone to the fact that the Democratics, as a Party, have completely sold out to the culture of death, insanity, moral depravity, mutilation, etc.
James Connor,
Your “perspective” referencing the storming of the Capitol lacks perspective…
The House Select Committee formed to investigate January 6, 2001—why did it reject the request for a broad perspective to consider escalating events preceding that single date? The street riots in other urban areas in 2000? In Minneapolis and Portland, and in Seattle where several city blocks, including a police precinct station, were occupied for almost a month? Several shots fired and one 16-year-old boy hit fatally. Have a look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Occupied_Protest
Would Jan. 6 have been even thinkable without these incompetently-handled lead-in events?
I clearly recall, at the beginning in Seattle, Mayor Durkan at the site (and broadcast live on local radio) likening the event to a neighborly “block party,” and then pleading, “we gave you free college education, what more do you want?” A reference to Seattle’s recent taxpayer-funded program for free junior college education. Compassionate vote buying, and a small-scale version of forgiving student loan debt?
“What more do you want”? The swan song from a therapeutic/value-neutral education system and Provider State?
So, about your “perspective”: there are more layers to this onion. Including this recent clip regarding responsibility: https://x.com/OversightAdmn/status/1800207258514575730
Dear Peter. I doubt that we will ever know what really happened at the storming of the Capitol, but we do have numerous tweets and recordings of Mr. Trump which call for vigilante violence against those who have parted ways with him or he considers his enemy. Such as arresting and locking up former President Obama, the Clintons, former vice president, Michael Pence, President Joe Biden and many others. Many people have been intimidated. Some politicians such as Mitt Romney have publicly stated that they got out of politics because of threats against their families . These are all instances of dirty politics, and we must demand better. The dirty politics of the past pale in comparison to what is happening now. Watergate Looks like a fraternity prank in comparison to the physical violence we are experiencing today. Both parties are guilty of giving their tacit support to violent groups who support their agendas. It is not at all one sided. We must demand better we must demand accountability and transparency. My prayer is that the former president humbles himself and is drawn close to the Lord and if re-elected becomes an exemplary leader who draws the country together. I pray that he respects the rule of law and the limitations of his elected office. I pray that he openly condemns all of the violent groups who support him as well as those on the left. I pray that he will welcome dialogue and be able to respect the opponents views without resorting to character assassination. In short I pray that he may become a humble and holy man who is greatly used by the Lord. May God bless America and him.
Meanwhile, I’ll pray that you might develop the willingness to see beyond your DNC talking points and see the situation, and your contributions to it, more clearly. Don’t worry about Trump. Repent of your own sins.
James. I agree with your assessment of our polarized politics. As you point out, there is dirty politics on both sides. However, I take issue with Trump ever becoming humbled or admitting guilt for anything. “The buck stops THERE”. His enormous ego prevents him. But you and I must continue to pray for miracles. We have no choice.
Thank you.
No political figure was assassinated on Jan 6th. The people who gathered to support President Trump were peacefully assembled.
The folks who dressed up in costumes and entered the Capitol, which is in fact a public building that exists to serve the American citizens, had emerged from a QAnon rabbit hole. I know a few people who follow that conspiracy narrative and they can barely perform their daily tasks competently, much less organize an insurrection.
I think there was a combination of easily led, angry citizens and some orchestration by interests who wanted to smear Trump and his supporters. It was a perfect way to accomplish that. If Donald Trump had been a political insider he might have seen it coming.
WOW! Your glasses? On Jan 6 several people died. “Stop the Steal” protesters Kevin Greeson, 55, and Benjamin Phillips, 50, both died of cardiovascular disease. Rosanne Boyland died “in a crush of fellow rioters during their attempt to fight through a police line. Ashli Babbitt shot while entering a broken Capitol window. Officer Brian Sicknick “passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.” The report stated that Sicknick “was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed. Four suicides: Four other police officers committed suicide in the days and months after the riot. In-your-face!. Crazy Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson echoed “the rioters were only a group of tourists HAVING FUN”. AND, he was there!!!
Evidence Trump, Guiliani, Bannon and Eastman were directly initiating the invasion…
Trump: “Go down to the Capitol and FIGHT LIKE hell. While reclining to the WH for 2 hrs, Meadows received many calls to have Trump end the attempted coup, (even his family!!!), he refused. Then, after the building was trashed, Trump arose to say “Go home now, we LOVE YOU!!!
Bannon’s podcast and on TV. Jan. 5th. “Fasten your seat belts. All hell is going to break loose tomorrow”.
At the elipse…
Giuliani Call for ‘Trial by Combat’ Before Trump Mob Broke Into Capitol.
Eastman: Even after Jan 6 Eastman was trying to convince the public that the 2020 election was fraudlent. Iroinically prior to the coup told Trump two days before the insurrection that his scheme to keep himself in power was against the law.
All three begged Trump for a pardon!!!
Some other lawyer minions who admitted guilt…
Kenneth Chesebro the architect of the false elector scheme
Jenna Ellis, pleads guilty in Georgia.
Sidney Powell who was restricted from Trump meetings because she was “crazy”.
All factchecked. Hope this helps.
This rant is simply insane and is a good example of the very kind of delusional thinking that prompted the assassin’s attempts this weekend. Shame on you.
Mr. Morgan, a riot is not a coup nor an insurrection.
I’ll be glad when Mr Mr Trump is reelected, please God, and we can put these false narratives aside.
It’s a free country and you can vote for whomever you choose but we shouldn’t be going down these rabbit holes forever.
“On January 7, 2021, a United States Capitol Police (USCP) officer, Brian Sicknick, died after suffering two strokes the day after he responded to an attack on the U.S. Capitol.” ~ Wikipedia, citing a Washington Post article.
“All factchecked.” … badly.
Political violence has come from both sides of the political aisle. But currently 95% of the violence emanates from the Far Left. January 6 is the fault of the right, compared to the George Floyd riots, Antifa riots, Antifa taking over entire cities like Portland and Seattle, and the violent Pro-Hamas protests on US campuses, all of which are the fault of the Left.
I’m afraid that blood may flow from BOTH sides soon. BOTH are equally dangerous. It’s the nazis against to communists all over again. Different names but same ideologies.
Republicans are not Nazis. There is no logical or historical basis for that claim, which means that you are either profoundly ignorant or outright lying, both of which are unacceptable from the standpoint of basic Catholic teaching.
You are not the Pope. You don’t speak for the Church.
Violence is mostly from the GOP, and that the catholic church is tolerating this is unbelievable. Jesus Christ would be be very ashamed of the American catholic church.
Pope Francis’s view of this whole abortion and LGBTQ issue is exactly how Jesus would look at it.
“Violence is mostly from the GOP…”
Which branch? The Antifa-GOP? The BLM-GOP? The Planned Parenthood-GOP? The Abortion-Without-Limits-GOP? The Trans-Mutilation-GOP? The Illegal-“Immigrants”-Who-Commit-Violence-GOP?
So many choices. (Sarcasm off.)
At our Mass this morning not a moment of silence nor prayers for the victims, shooter certainly not for Trump even in the prayers of the people. No parting comments after the dismissal. When I asked Father about the lack of compassion, he dismissed the attempted assassination as an “incident” then hurried away.
EWTN definitely mentioned it right away.
Does anyone really care about what are essentially automatic canned replies expressing shock and outrage tweets, of outrage so sincere it does not put off eating breakfast and forgotten the moment SEND is pressed….I am so sick of posturing by “leaders” and their PR staffs. But such posturing makes up the majority of “news” today, a long string of blather statements.
The unfortunate attack on former President Trump is a sign of the toxic political polarization evident in the divisive rhetoric, seemingly the new norm.
The evidence is being accumulated, but it is reported that the weapon used was the military-style AR15, much like my miltary issue, the powerful M16.
We must pray that honest and freedom loving American poeple will become more involved in helping an effort to reunite our delicate republic. A start is joining an organization in your area using the “bully pulpit” provided. And, contact your political reps.
When Trump was in the hospital a major event happenned. President Biden called to offer his concern and whished him a full recovery. Trump THANKED Biden and told him that “the heat of political rhetoric needed to be lowered”. Biden agreed and made an appeal to the public from the Oval Office.
It appears that the current divisivness began when Trump refused to provide a peaceful transfer of power and began a maddening campaign to overthrow the election.
I hope the heat will cool quickly. Suprisingly or not, they are only providing ONE thermometer .
All well and good, as in yada yada yada, ssdd, etc.
But let’s not forget that ‘catholic’ Joe Biden is quoted as recently saying this to his donors: “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.” (source – Sean Fitzpatrick Crisis Magazine July 15, 2024)
Who is dangerous?
And then Biden, in expressing “regret” for that comment, STILL turned right around and called the opposition (backed by about half the population) a “threat to democracy”….that is, not voting for Biden and his party, and voting for anybody else, is undemocratic…
Biden’s short-term memory isn’t the best, and his long-term habit is inflammatory speech.
Supposedly, the man who investigated him for mishandling classified information declined to prosecute on the grounds that he could not prove mens rea for a person with such significant memory problems. Likely we cannot expect him to be entirely responsible for his speech now either.
Has Pope Francis issued a personal message about the attempt and directly to President Trump? A message from the Vatican press office is not enough
Liked what MrsCracker & Terrence posted.
Today heard a solid podcast that shooter Crux couldn’t have acted alone with supporting details& then a scary but true-sounding podcast with video of ASST FBI DIRECTOR Brittany (?) sitting BEHIND TRUMP at Sat’s Butler, PA assassination attempt. She’s on camera using her cell phone but looking toward shooter BEFORE he shot! Then she doesn’t freak out & slips down behind her sign- unlike everyone else! She calculatedly then took photo of Trump on floor!
Then a demonic George Soros post on VOZ shows their chilling picture “prophecy” of a bullet in glass next to $47 in cash (-presidents on bills) ! Trump would be President #47!!
And let’s recall that the Left lied “prophesying” again claiming that “Trump would take revenge on his political ‘enemies’ after his election”. But then I realized that all of the “FBI-protected” Leftist criminals would then BE investigated by actual TRUTHFUL law-abiding Conservative PROSECUTORS, with FAIR judges! Optic that they’d be “innocent victims”! Ugh!
PRAYING for WISDOM for our citizens & GOD’S WILL 🙏