Stephen R. Weisz Studies in Salamanca, Spain

At Tusculum we often talk about learning as an experiential as well as a lifelong process. That philosophy applies not on to students, but also to faculty, who often find that they can still encounter wonder and excitement in learning. Dr. Stephen Weisz, campus minister, had the opportunity to rediscover the excitement of education this summer in and around the town of Salamanca, Spain, a place still preserved "just as it would’ve been in Medieval times," as he describes it.

Weisz was chosen to participate in the Asociacion Ecumenica Juan XXIII at the Pontifical University under Professor Don Jose Sanchez Vaquero for nine days in the city last July.

According to Weisz, his visit comprised not only professional development, but the realization of a "lifelong aspiration."
Salamanca is known as a focal point of ecumenism, a cause toward which Weisz has dedicated both his personal and professional life. The ecumenical aim—that Catholics and Protestants relate to one another in harmony—was already a concern for Weisz when he first became interested in the city back in his college days. That’s when he was introduced to the Salamancan mystical philosopher Miquel de Unamuno, who wrote the influential existentialist book The Tragic Sense of Life.

"I had this lifelong dream of going to Salamanca to walk where he had walked, and to study where he had taught," Weisz explains. Unamuno believed that all religious faith, not just historic Catholicism, is important in giving purpose and meaning to life. "And so the whole city of Salamanca is an ecumenical environment," Weisz said.

The topics that Weisz and his fellow students studied in this environment included monastic spirituality, ecumenism in the year 2000 and beyond, ecumenism and liturgy, and Sephardic (or Spanish) Judaism. The group also made pilgrimages to many of the shrines of the Spanish Christian mystics, including St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

"It was really very moving," Weisz said, "because it really gave me a sense of how these people were very directly in contact with God. There was a very strong sense of spirituality and a great deal of a sense of obedience to Christ."

The opportunity to participate in the Eucharist ceremony with Roman Catholics and Protestants all at one table was also especially moving for Weisz, who has been combining Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions for his Sunday services at Tusculum for several years. He does so "as an expression of our commitment to ecumenism," he said.

"Not a lot of colleges do that," he said. "That was one of the reasons I was chosen to go to this conference, and why I felt we should be represented this year … and I shared a lot of the liturgy we’ve used here."

Weisz also had the opportunity to brush up on Spanish, his minor in college. Worship and classes were all conducted in Spanish, and on one occasion Weisz was invited to lead a service along with an Anglican minister from Denver, Colorado.

"The Institute not only strengthened my experience of ecumenism in terms of worship here, but it’s also very useful in a course I teach, 'Spiritual Autobiographies,'" he said. Weisz took the opportunity to teach his students this fall much of what he learned about St. Theresa and St. John of the Cross. Weisz said he tried to communicate to them "the great sense of history and the great sense of philosophy” one experiences with travel abroad.

As for the future of ecumenism, Weisz says he is personally optimistic, although "there seems to be in the late 1990s a renewed interest in denominationalism again." This is because "people are afraid to think of a megachurch. ...They feel that they will lose their identity and their historic roots." To these Weisz advises, "just remember, we’re all members of the Body of Christ."