‘Reconciliation ministry is new and growing,’ says ministry director
by Stefani Manowski
May 3, 2011

‘Reconciliation ministry is new and growing,’ says ministry director

Father Thomas A. Kane, CSPFather Thomas A. Kane, CSP

Reconciliation ministry continues to be timely and necessary “in terms of the scandals, hurts and alienation people experience within and outside of the church,” according to Tom Welch of St. Philip Neri Church in Portland, Ore.

That is why Mr. Welch was one of the approximately 300 people gathered at Boston College for the second reconciliation symposium themed, “Healing God’s People: Practical Skills and Pastoral Approaches.” The sold-out April event was sponsored by Paulist Reconciliation Ministries and the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

“Reconciliation ministry is new and growing,” said Father Thomas A. Kane, director of Paulist Reconciliation Ministries and faculty member at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. “This symposium aims to help people understand the process and ministry of reconciliation so they can take the information and tools they have gathered here and apply it in their own lives, churches and communities.”

The event was built around three keynote and two workshop sessions. Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture spoke on “Restoring Trust”; Robert C. Bordone, a professor at Harvard Law School and director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, spoke on “Understanding and Managing Difficult Conversations,”; and Thomas H. Groome, professor of theology and religious education at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, synthesized they key points of the day and facilitated a question-and-answer session.

“What is not said is often key to why a conversation is difficult,” said Mr. Bordone. “What’s not said is as important as what is said.”

Morning and afternoon workshops took on a variety of topics including: the theology of reconciliation; communal and cross-cultural approaches to healing trauma; the healing skills and sensitivities of listening; healing from an interfaith perspective; healing justice and social sobriety.

The symposium was an opportunity to enhance the professional skills of native Bostonian Cynthia Pasciuto. Ms. Pascuito is not only an attorney and mediator, but is a professor of alternative dispute resolution at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass.

“The symposium gave me additional insight and new tools I can actually put in to use,” she said. “I really liked that it had a spiritual component. I learned that I can be waiting and still have hope, have patience and not lose hope.”