Announcements

URGENT APPEAL TO  DONATE IMMEDIATELY! EMERGENCY FUNDS DESPERATELY NEEDED TO HELP AQUINAS SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP COMMONSENSE WISDOM EXECUTIVE COACHING ACADEMY (CWECA) FUND SPECIAL GRAND OPENING, FALL 2021, DISCOUNT TO MEMBERS OF THE USCCB

In light of the recent letter sent to them from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/archbishop-vigano-slams-us-bishops-conference-for-claiming-biden-is-second-catholic-president

And extend a similar discount to the presidents and upper-level administrators at Georgetown, Notre Dame, and St. John’s (NYC) Universities, similar institutions worldwide; and free tuition to:

His Holiness, Pope Francis!

Commenting on the USCCB’s recognition of Joe Biden being elected as “the second president of the United States to profess the Catholic faith,” Dr. Peter A. Redpath, CEO of the Aquinas School of Leadership, LLC remarked:

“As C.S. Lewis, Étienne Gilson, and James V. Schall, S.J., had well understood, just as science as a real genus chiefly exists in the scientific soul (psychology, psychological quality of habit/habitus and freely chosen actions of the scientist), as a real genus, the Catholic faith chiefly exists in the Catholic soul (psychology, psychological quality, habit/habitus and freely chosen actions of the Catholic soul: in that psychology).

In addition, since habits are specified by their acts, to be a Catholic president, a person would have to display in his prior political behavior: 1) a habitual tendency freely to choose to do commonsense, morally good political acts and avoid commonsense, morally evil political ones; 2) not seek to implement into social behavior activities that essentially incline to destroy, really undermine Christian/Catholic action in conformity with common sense and essential principles that enable really Christian/Catholic and common sense action to come into being, grow, and flourish in political existence, not destroy the essential principles and behavioral psychology of the very organization to which a person repeatedly and publicly celebrates being a member.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. And no organization (social, political, business, or any other) can operate at all, much less in a harmonious and healthy way, when its members mistakenly think they can really be members of this or that organization and apply in their organizational behavior contradictory opposite principles of organizational actions. Believing this can really happen defies common sense. To paraphrase Gilson, “Common sense wisdom (philosophy) always buries its undertakers.” And this is the case whether these undertakers be ordinary people, people who purport to be religious leaders, or the organizations they purport to lead, like the Catholic Church!

To most self-defined, commonsense Christians/Catholics, and Americans with political common sense, the close-to-50-year political behavior of Joe Biden has manifested glaringly habitual tendencies toward acting politically like a neo-gnostic spiritualist, neo-Pelagian, and neo-Averroist self-promoter: someone who, when politically- and personally-expedient, wears his faith on his sleeve; but actually, in his daily political life, evinces the habitual behavior of someone out for personal and political gain who hates the real Catholic Church and real Christians. Ask the Little Sisters of the Poor who, he says “inspire him” to run politically and who, simultaneously he says, politically he “plans to sue.”

Apparently, some members of the USCCB and even Pope Francis find no difficulty in the Catholic faith simultaneously co-existing together with neo-gnositc, neo-Pelagian, neo-Averroistic double-truth principles in the soul of Joe Biden, and being the predominant proximate principles of his lifelong professional political behavior.

Biden’s professional political life displays that of a man who: 1) believes that two truths exist: a public, psychologically Enlightened and progressive, scientific, political one, and a private and psychologically and scientifically backward, religious one; 2) that these two truths can essentially and simultaneously contradict each other and exist as such in his soul; and 3) when and if they do conflict in really possible choices, he must always side with psychologically Enlightened, public, scientific political truth over psychologically backward, unscientific, religious truth. His essentially irrational and psychologically unscientific and backward faith can never influence his essentially rational and psychologically scientific and political reason.

In some miraculous way, apparently, some Eminences who glory in the name Catholic Bishops and His Holiness find no rational absurdity in such a Catholic political and individual psychology, anymore than they do maintaining the false claim that Biden was actually recently elected president of the United States. Could the reason for this nonsensical claim chiefly be that, with all due respect, this inclines to be the psychological constitution of some Eminent Catholic Bishops and His Holiness themselves? Could Eminent Catholic Bishops, even His Holiness, be that lacking in Catholic/Christian, even ordinary human religious and political, common sense?

Impossible, you say? Who could dream of such a reality? How about James V. Schall, who, shortly before he died in 2019, sent me this short email message:

“Trump is so much smarter and shrewder than his critics. No wonder he is enjoying it all.”

And who, when I asked him what, more than anything else, could fix the problems in the US Catholic Church, gave me this immediate reply:

“All we need is one good bishop.”

And who (given the fact that most of them have been educated at Catholic universities like Georgetown, Notre Dame and St. John’s [NYC]) should be surprised that this might really be the prevailing psychology of these religious leaders?

Not Fr. Schall, I surmise, who, I suspect, would agree that the US finally has had that one good bishop he spoke about: Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

I urge some USCCB members, upper-level Catholic university administrators worldwide, to take advantage of this CWECA discount, and Pope Francis the free tuition offer, while they are still available; and I thank them for everything they have done in the past and continue to do to guarantee that the CWECA program cannot help but prosper and grow by leaps and bounds in the near and distant future: Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat!”

MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

FACULTY TIRED OF BEING ABUSED BY YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS DEPRIVED OF EDUCATION IN THE WEST’S RICH COMMONSENSE WISDOM TRADITION BY YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY

ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP!

JUMP ABOARD THE CWECA LIFEBOAT!

SEE THE NOTE BELOW FROM JUDE P. DOUGHERTY  ABOUT THE AQUINAS SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP COMMONSENSE WISDOM EXECUTIVE COACHING ACADEMY (CWECA)

ITS MISSION STATEMENT AND MOTTO IS:

TRANSFORMING APPRENTICES INTO THE GREATEST OF

EDUCATORS, MANAGERS, EMPLOYERS, EXECUTIVES, AND WORLD LEADERS!

THE RATIONALE FOR ITS FOUNDING AT THIS TIME IS:

In light of a report from trusted sources in NYC that, due to a dramatic drop (reportedly around 30%) in fall semester 2020 enrollments, one of the most well-known self-identified Catholic universities in the US told its faculty and administrators that a need exists to declare a state of “financial exigency” (including a reduction of salary and University contribution to retirement accounts), Peter DeMarco, CEO of the Priority Thinking Institute, LLC (PTI: https://prioritythinking.com/) and Peter A. Redpath, CEO of the Aquinas School of Leadership, Management, and Organizational Development, LLC (ASL: https://www.aquinasschoolofleadership.com/) say they have moved up to 11 January 2021 launch of a joint affiliation they have been planning for several years. DeMarco explained this decision by saying:

“Peter Redpath and I see the Covid-19 pandemic to be a sign of the straw that broke the famed Camel’s back. For over 20 years, Dr. Redpath and some of our colleagues have been predicting that the Industrial Age, administratively top-heavy and commonsense-impoverished college and universities in the West would soon start to fall like dominoes. The analogy Dr. Redpath once gave me was that their collapse would resemble US military scrambling to board helicopters to get out of Saigon at the conclusion of military involvement in the Vietnam War. As a West Point graduate, that image has stuck with me since I first started to study under Dr. Redpath to apply philosophical principles he has derived mainly from St. Thomas Aquinas to build my executive coaching business across the globe. In doing this, I have discovered that great, contemporary business leaders all over the world are desperate to hire commonsense leaders who can think and reason prudently, courageously, and wisely through today’s challenges. Sadly, most, college and university administrators and faculty, like most contemporary politicians, are sorely lacking in common sense. Even in China—my last international trip in January, 2020, before the Covid travel restrictions were implemented— I found within top business leaders with whom I met a hunger to apply to their leadership teams the concrete and fertile, Thomistic psychological principles I use instead of the abstract and sterile concepts that infect contemporary graduate business schools.

Redpath remarked: “Simultaneous arrival on the international scene of the joint Tsunamis of Covid-19 and Donald Trump have obscured to much of the world the reality of the chief causes of the contemporary chaos and anarchy we are presently witnessing on a global scale: The largely parasitic metaphysical and moral principles that generated the modern and Enlightenment, Industrial Age, administratively centralized, colleges and universities have exhausted the host of classical wisdom that had enabled these institutions to survive for centuries. Like the world-historical events of the educational collapse that befell the great Medieval universities after the Bubonic plague hit Europe in the mid-fourteenth century and the fall of Constantinople about 100 years later (in 1453) that helped usher in Marsilio Ficino’s famed Platonic Academy, fall of contemporary Enlightenment colleges and universities as a result of the coincidence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the presidency of Donald Trump is a sign that these institutions have spent whatever metaphysical and moral capital they had: (1) inherited from the wisdom and prudence of antiquity and (2) added to it on their own. Just as the commonsense, land-based, Florentine, Platonic Academy was needed to help issue in the Italian renaissance and, as an unforeseen reaction against it, the later, centralized, administratively top-heavy Enlightenment colleges and universities of the Industrial Age, a common sense, online international academy is now needed at this world-historical moment to generate a new, administratively decentralized, global, higher educational renaissance properly suited for the digital age. As our friend, Professor Curtis L. Hancock once sagely observed, looking to contemporary college and university administrators and most of the faculty members at these institutions to fix this mess ‘is like looking for help from arsonists to extinguish a forest fire.'”

According to DeMarco and Redpath, to avoid as much administrative interference from such individuals in delivering internationally for the new digital age the highest quality of academic excellence at lowest cost to as many students as possible, this renaissance, totally-online and asynchronous, Commonsense Wisdom Executive Coaching Academy (CWECA) will be proudly totally non-accredited, and totally free of foundation and governmental support of any kind! In addition, it will start by offering 5 completely different types of advanced degrees, based upon a model that harmonizes into a genus unto itself the excellence of soul generated by the commonsense, metaphysical and moral leadership teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas and the excellence of soul produced by analogous commonsense metaphysical and moral teachings within Asian institutions of wisdom and martial arts traditions. Achievement of these degrees will not be time-bound by the traditional Western college and university semester model. Instead, degrees will be awarded based upon mastery of academic material.

Already in place, they say, are the faculty and curriculum for the CWECA’s first two degrees that include: (1) required courses in the commonsense wisdom within the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Confucius, Hinduism, and Mortimer J. Adler, and others; and (2) some elective courses based upon the commonsense wisdom of great educational leaders like James V. Schall, S.J., Etienne Gilson, and Marshall McLuhan. An initial, required 15-lesson orientation course for the fall start of the CWECA is scheduled to begin on 11 January 2021.

Anyone interested in further information about studying at, or offering elective courses on some great, commonsense leader from within a wisdom tradition for, the CWECA should contact:

John Lyle, Esq., at: jlyle@prioritythinking.com

and

Dr. Peter A. Redpath at: peterredpath@aquinasschoolofleadership.com

• New information about CWECA:

(1) To date, 24 scholars have started to develop syllabi and/or programs to offer courses at CWECA

(2) Some of these courses are required for those pursuing a degree. Others are electives for those pursuing a degree OR not pursuing one. All deal with commonsense wisdom of exceptionally wise human beings from different well-known wisdom traditions.

(3) Jude Dougherty’s note refers to his examination of some of these syllabi and programs developed by scholars from the Western Catholic wisdom tradition, including pagan Greek and Roman philosophers.

(4) CWECA courses include exceptional works of wisdom from well-known global wisdom traditions.

(5) Students who wish to enroll in courses to pursue a degree and a certificate will need to take a 15-lesson orientation course that discusses Mortimer J. Adler’s masterful monograph:How to Speak. How to Listen. Students not pursuing a degree may also take this course. Whichever option a student chooses, completion of this course may later be used toward completion of degree programs, and taking it is not a mandatory requirement for taking courses within CWECA.

(6) The first orientation course will be offered asynchronously, and on a rolling basis.

(7) Announcement of September 2021 course offerings and faculty names.will appear in next month’s Aquinas Leadership International email update.

• Vatican announces joint award of 2020 Ratzinger Prize to Jean-Luc Marion and Tracey Rowland

For more information about this event, go to:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/australian-professor-and-french-philosopher-win-ratzinger-prize-66287

• In case you missed the 2019 special honor accorded to our courageous colleague Ray Dennehy, go to: https://catholic-sf.org/news/warrior-for-life

A man who has never feared going into the lion’s den!

• Donations Sponsorships for the Daughters of St. Paul annual Christmas concert requested to be given at:

https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/OTM4NDI=

Go to the following link to find other ways to help the Daughters of St. Paul:

• Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., reports he has great news, but asks for help:

The  great news is that the Thomistic Institute’s Aquinas 101 course consisting of a series of short YouTube videos that introduce the classic truths of the Catholic tradition have  had over 40,000 people sign up and over 1.3 million views!

His problem is that the TI needs to film more of them. While they do not yet have the money to do so, they have received a generous pledge to match every dollar given to this project before November 14th.

He requests we help out by going to the following link to donate to this great work:

https://thomisticinstitute.org/appeal/2020

• For information about a Call for Papers for the 12th International Conference on The Image, at the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, School of Education, Lisbon, Portugal 13–14 September 2021, go to:

https://ontheimage.com/2021-conference/call-for-papers

• Go to the link immediately below for latest news about Ave Maria University’s theology programs:

https://mailchi.mp/avemaria/october-amu-graduate-theology-e-newsletter-hzr38bvezc?e=9644eacfe5

• Go to the links below from American Philanthropic regarding job openings, grantwriting, foundations, and much more:

https://www.americanphilanthropic.com/

and

https://giversdoersthinkers-podcast.buzzsprout.com/