An Academic Adventure

When you go to a theology conference, you can have remarkable side experiences. Such it was when Carla Mae Streeter, OP attended the College Theology Society 60^th Annual Convention May 29-June, 1, 2014, held at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, PA. The Conference theme was “God Has Begun a Great Work in Us” The Embodiment of Love in Contemporary Consecreated Life.” Carla Mae was a respondent to a paper in Sacramental Theology given by Aquinas adjunct professor, Dr. Joseph Marcos.

A Benedictine Arch-abbey, St. Vincent’s is the first of the United States’ Benedictine foundations. But surprisingly, Latrobe is also the home of the famous beloved children’s television star, Mister Rogers. The Mister Rogers archives are housed at the beautiful Mister Rogers Center on campus, an ecologically constructed building that is a marvel to see.

The arch-abbey has also given land to Latrobe for an efficient set of wetlands adjoining the college campus. Drawing water from the abandoned coal mines that honeycomb the region, this sulphur and iron polluted water is cleaned by a natural system of plants that draw the minerals to their roots without damage to the plants themselves. The clean water is then sent on its way through the city of Latrobe. One of the quiet marvels going on around us…that hasn’t been on the evening news!