Castelot Summer Scripture series
marks 10th year
Kristin Lukowski of the Michigan Catholic
Published May 26, 2006
Detroit – Next month, people have the chance to immerse themselves in Scripture for four days during a seminar that honors a past teacher.
June 19-22 marks the 10th year for Castelot Summer Scripture series, which will be held at The Retreat Center at St. John's in Plymouth Township. The session is named after scholar and teacher Fr. John J. Castelot.
 Jim Kiefer, director of the archdiocese' Office for Pastoral Ministries, said organizers try to have both national and international scholars at the conference. The international scholar this year is Fr. David M. Neuhaus, SJ, who teaches in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Fr. Neuhaus, an Israeli Jesuit who is active in various organizations that work for justice and peace in the Holy Land, will be presenting the four-part presentation "Wrestling with Difficult Texts: Election, Land and Violence in the Bible." He will discuss the God of the prophets, God's choosing of one people over others, and passages that talk about exterminating nations.
Even if someone has read a Scripture passage a hundred times, there are still things to learn from it, Kiefer said.
"Scripture is the heart of our belief," he said. "It's wonderful if we approach Scripture with a faith perspective."
 Who was Fr. Castelot?
Fr. John J. Castelot, who died in 1999, was a renowned scripture scholar, presenter, teacher and Michigan Catholic columnist. He taught Scripture to most of the priests of the archdiocese and, later, others who studied pastoral ministry. Originally from Hartford, Conn., he was later incardinated here. Fr. Castelot had a role in the first few Castelot Scripture conferences, although he was embarrassed and pleased it was named after him. The scripture series is named after him to honor his dedication to the Word of God, to God's people, and to the Archdiocese of Detroit.
| Plans are available for all sessions, meals and social gatherings, with or without overnight accommodation, with a discount for registering before June 1. Days begin with breakfast, welcome and morning prayer, and continue with several sessions, breaks, meals, Eucharist and social time through the day. A basic reading knowledge of scripture is presumed and participants are asked to bring their Bibles.
Fr. Frank J. Matera, PhD, at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., will be presenting the four-part session "Ethics in the New Testament." He'll be addressing the ethical teachings of Jesus, Paul, John and James and how those teachings can be used in the lives of Christians today.
Fr. Matera said he is convinced the New Testament offers important ethical teachings that are still valid for believers today, he said, although he also realizes it's difficult for believers to apply those ideas to their own lives.
He'll explore Jesus' teachings in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, touching on how Mark's Gospel tells us we need repentance and faith to enter the kingdom of God, and what Matthew's Gospel tells us about righteousness. In the session discussing Paul's writing, he'll talk about why and how believers can live a moral life.
In discussing the Gospel of John, Fr. Matera will look at faith and love – love for one's enemy versus love for one's fellow disciple, for example. He'll also show that while James and Paul can seem to be conflicting, they are not contradictory.
Fr. Matera said he hopes to give people a picture of the Gospels so they can look at the writings themselves and find a way to apply their teachings to their own lives. "What we do is grounded in what God has done for us – salvation," he said in a phone interview.
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Check it out
What: Castelot Summer Scripture
When: June 19-22
Where: The Retreat Center at St. John's, Plymouth Township
To register: Call (313) 237-5954;
| Sheila E. McGinn, PhD, a professor at John Carroll University, in Cleveland, Ohio, will discuss how history differs from imagination and how the Passion is portrayed in film. While the Gospels may portray him one way, the producer of a film has his or her own idea about the kind of figure Jesus would be in his film, and even which scenes from the Gospels to include in the movie.
"The way people get their impression of who Jesus was is from the movies," McGinn said in a phone interview. "Hollywood made Jesus Christ, the movie star."
McGinn will be using both recent and old films and will also be looking at the lives of other famous people of that time, such as the Caesars. Hearing the Gospels from a movie might not give the whole story, she pointed out, because movies are creative works and not history.
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