The theme of Breaking Bread Fall 2005 was "Welcoming the Stranger: Hospitality in the Christian Tradition". Fr. Mark Poorman, CSC, Associate Professor of Theology and Vice President for Student Affairs, was our opening speaker, giving a brief reflection on our theme.
The dinner took place in the Notre Dame Stadium Press Box on November 2, 2005. Participants arrived around 6:00 and had some time to mingle and get to know each other as well as enjoy the view. Dinner started at 6:30. There were seven students and one professor at each table. At the beginning of dinner, Fr. Poorman spoke about "Welcoming the Stranger: Hospitality in the Christian Tradition". His remarks were meant to serve as a springboard for the small-group discussions that followed. The evening wrapped up around 8:30.
More About Fr. Mark Poorman, CSC:
Rev. Mark Poorman, C.S.C., was elected Vice President for Student Affairs by Notre Dame's Board of Trustees in April 1999. He had served the previous two years in the University's administration as executive assistant to first the executive vice president and then the president.
Father Poorman graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois in 1976. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Notre Dame four years later and was ordained a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1982. He spent the next three years at Notre Dame, serving as rector of Dillon Hall and associate director of Campus Ministry. He began studies in Christian ethics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley , California , and earned his Ph.D. in Theology there in 1990. Father Poorman's teaching and research concern moral theology and its pastoral applications. His undergraduate courses survey contemporary issues in Christian ethics, and his graduate courses are concerned with Christian ethics, Catholic moral teaching and pastoral practice. He directed the Theology Department's Master of Divinity program for many years. Among the subjects on which he has written articles and lectured widely are medical ethics, sexuality, Christian ministry, and Catholic higher education. He is the author of Interactional Morality (Georgetown Press, 1993) and editor of Labors from the Heart (Notre Dame Press, 1996), a collection of essays on mission and ministry at Notre Dame. Father Poorman resides on campus in Keough Hall, an undergraduate residence hall.
