Vita Evangelica: Essays in Honor of Margaret Carney, OSF

v VITA EVANGELICA Essays in Honor of Margaret Carney, OSF If one of the dynamics of conversion – a theme so central to Francis and Clare of Assisi – is the ability to re-invent oneself (that is, to become someone or something different than one was before, journeying like Abraham into unknown lands and territories), then Margaret Carney , OSF, whose 65 years of life we celebrate with this extraordinary volume of essays, has surely re-invented herself many times over. But such permutations in a long and rich life have always been occasioned by an intense desire to place herself ever more deeply at the service of the Church and her beloved Franciscan Family. For those who have known her, she has been teacher and student, liaison and leader, author and administrator, graduate professor and now university president. Margaret Carney entered religious life in 1959 as a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Providence of God (Whitehall Franciscans) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She began her service to the community as a teacher on the elementary and secondary school levels between 1963 and 1980. Simultaneously, from 1972 to 1978 she also served as Associate to the Vicar for Religious in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, a position that increased her awareness of the complex relationship of religious men and women to the larger Church. In 1978 Margaret began graduate studies at Duquesne University, earning a Master of Theology degree in 1984. She had also begun a Masters program at the Franciscan Institute, completing her degree in Franciscan studies in 1985. Continuing along this academic path, she went to Rome in 1986 for doctoral studies at the Pontificia Università Antonianum, becoming in 1988 the first woman to receive a doctorate at that venerable Franciscan institution. Her dissertation on Clare of Assisi was turned into a popular touchstone for Clarian studies: The First Franciscan Woman: Clare of Assisi and Her Form of Life (Quincy, Illinois: The Franciscan Press, 1993). vi VITA EVANGELICA In this same period of intense academic activity, as part of the International Work Group of Franciscans seeking to re-energize Third Order religious life, she participated in one of her proudest achievements : the rewriting of the Rule and Life of the Third Order Regular, resulting in the proclamation of a new and definitive text in 1982. Also in the same period began her active association with the Franciscan Federation (USA), serving in many different capacities from 19801988 . Then, after serving as Assistant General Superior of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Providence of God from 1980-1984, she found herself elected, upon the completion of her doctorate in 1988, as General Superior of her congregation, serving with great distinction in that capacity until 1996. Yet another turning point occurred in her life when she was invited to the Franciscan Institute by Fr. Anthony Carrozzo, OFM, to serve as a full-time faculty member, teaching courses on Clare and Franciscan Women, and the Third Order Regular Rule. In 1998, Margaret was named Director of the Franciscan Institute and Dean of the School of Franciscan Studies. It was under her leadership that the Institute began a process of reintegration back into the life of St. Bonaventure University and a new and important outreach to the Third Order Regular and Secular branches of the Franciscan Family. As publisher of Franciscan Institute Publications, she broadened the focus of this aspect of the Institute’s activities, with an eye to making scholarship more accessible to wider portions of the Franciscan world while maintaining the international reputation for works of erudition and critical editions. Up to this point, the varied contours of Margaret Carney’s life, professional careers and achievements would have been the glory of any religious academic and administrator. But when in March, 2003, St. Bonaventure University faced the most profound institutional crisis in its history – a crisis of integrity which threatened to stain its national and international reputation – Margaret once again stepped forward , when asked, to serve as Senior Vice-President for the Franciscan Charism while maintaining the reins of the directorship of the Institute. Intended initially as an interim position, she nonetheless found herself selected by the Board of Trustees, in...