Catholic Benedictine Leadership Team (CBLT)

The Catholic Benedictine Leadership Team was formed to continue the work that was initiated by the Catholic identity planning committee.

Ongoing events and projects

Benedictine experience

"A day in the life of a monk" is an invitation to Saint Martin's students to experience Benedictine monastic life for a day. Click here for more information.

The Catholic Benedictine Leadership Team hosts informal introductory talks on the Rule of Saint Benedict several times a semester. These talks are usually given by a monk of Saint Martin’s Abbey.

"Coffee with the monks" is a chance to meet and chat with the monks of Saint Martin’s Abbey over coffee and snacks. "Coffee with the monks" is often held in the Saint Gertrude Dining Room.

To keep pace with the issues of maintaining the Catholic identity in the University setting, Saint Martin’s is committed to sending two members of the CBLT a year to the annual week-long Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education at Boston College. In so doing, the CBLT has built connections and has understood that Saint Martin’s situation is similar to that of many American Catholic universities.

Past events and projects

On April 15, 2004, the CBLT hosted its first event in bringing Regina Wolfe (currently christopher chair in business ethics at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois) to speak about the her experience of integrating the Benedictine identity into the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University (of Collegeville, Minnesota and Saint Martin’s founding institution), where she was professor at the time.

On November 8, 2004, CLBT member Todd Monohon facilitated a lunch-hour discussion on hopes and concerns related to the Benedictine identity at Saint Martin’s University.

The CBLT welcomed Patrick McCormick, professor of religious studies at Gonzaga University, on November 4, 2005 to speak about Catholic social teachings as embodied in the Biblical stories of the Exodus from Egyptian slavery and of Jesus’ feeding of the multitude.

On April 1, 2006, the CBLT hosted a spring retreat at Lambert Lodge with Sr. Monika Ellis, O.S.B., of Saint Placid’s Priory who facilitated discussion on a comparison of “the modern way and Benedictine way.”