Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

Page 24 text:

20 Bernard J. Cooke, S.J. The Ecumenical Man Father Bernard J. Cooke, S.J., chairman of the Marquette University Department of Theology, ecumenical man. So the epithet should read on his office door in Grandmora Hall. Father Cooke is one of few contemporary theologians who can intimately affect many persons without relying on personal contact. A priest and a seminarian in a parish rectory near Kansas City, Missouri, discuss his progress in theology education. Two theology graduate students still argue at 3 o'clock in the morning about his last lecture on the ecumenical movement. He was named an editorial associate of the new Journal of Ecumenical Studies—Catholic. Protestant and Orthodox last year and is a member of the board of directors of the National Society of Catholic College Teachers of Sacred Doctrine. He has spoken on topics from birth control

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HLv TO-.A i irack. Wc arc beginning 'iers against ilie,Negro. are on the ri k down the other. Wc aregnjswng the comentment we couid feel by working together with our neighbor, think of ling ourselves? c should want totally! we all have the same end, which, as St. Thomas wrote, so fills man's appetite that nothing is left besides it for man to desire.” Our end is eternal happiness, for which wc constantly struggle. But as we search, God urges us to consciously experience human happiness with others, as long as wc do not violate His laws. He even told us that wc perfect ourselves by perfecting our relationships with others. “Love can be kept,” says Thomas Merton, only by being given away.” them-tions nd the sick is more and We to knock Wo train We ding the homeless, the hungry und the world. What we need better effort along these lines. This is only the beginning ... ' People like ourselves, educated to a belief in the worth of each man and ihe oneness of all men. will either confirm or disprove the diagnosis of our society as The Twisted Age.” Wc either unify the family of man through cooperation and love or we tear it apart. “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” What we want for eternity depends on how we answer that divine imperative. How did we involve ourselves at Marquette t his year?... r'

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21 to labor relations before the Milwaukee Ministerial Association, the Milwaukee Peace Council and the Northwestern Theological Seminary. He participated in the first inter-faith dialogue in Milwaukee with the First Methodist Church, and in a panel discussion with the Swiss Protestant theologian. Dr. Karl Barth, at the University of Chicago. Father Cooke is not really close to any of his students, graduate and undergraduate, though his name is nationally synonymous with modern Catholic thought. With his heavy black coat unbuttoned, hatless and carrying a bulging briefcase, he double-times between classes—more like a West Point plebc than a 42-year-old assistant professor of theology. He speaks slowly, softly and answers questions precisely. There is never embellishment or hedging. “It’s extremely hard to get close to the guy,” one theology graduate student said. “He moves so fast.” Students and faculty marvel at his pace. “'He’s up at 5 o’clock and in the ofiice by 7 each morning,” another student said. Father Cooke is still in his office at I 1 o’clock many nights. Father Cooke tapes his Origins of the Church television coarse.