The Cardinal Newman Society has added the ITI to its list of recommended Catholic Schools, noting that the ITI is a “faithfully Catholic institute… situated in the beautiful Austrian countryside just south of Vienna, Austria.”
For the full article that includes an interview with alumnus Max Becher, click on the link below.
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/3625/New-to-The-Newman-Guide-The-International-Theological-Institute.aspx
Thoughts from a current MMF student:
A friend of mine asked me during thesummer holidays if I really wanted to enroll in the second year of my MMF studies at the ITI. He was wondering if it is not just useless drilling in theology and a waste of time which could have been spent more effectively (at work, for example).
As it happens, I enrolled in my second year, and week by week I become more convinced that it was a good decision. The spiritual-cultural state of all of our countries is so poor, and the state of the crisis in family life is so grave that, even if we all “worked ’til we fainted,” it would not save us.
What is of great importance today is sound philosophy, anthropology and theology. They by far surpass economic concerns in importance because they draw us to the things that really matter. If we want to be on the right path to happiness; if we want to eliminate evil and spread the good, we have to come back to God, to faith and promote healthy families – and this is what we are taught here at the ITI.
Thanks be to God and to all who make it possible!
A current student at the ITI shares some of his reflections on fatherhood here at the ITI. See the Fourth Pillar in action! From his blog post on Sunday, September 28, 2014:
Note: I’m by no means saying I have the corner on fathering, but I do do my best and here is some things that have worked in our family. I’d love to hear your additions!
We took a ferry across the Hallstatt Lake into the townsite.
The following are a few photos as we crossed the lake: (below is the house I plan to buy some day)
Our plan was to do a hike into Hallstatt, but the train didn’t stop where we thought it would so we found our youth hostel and took a bus to the train station we wanted to get off at and then hiked back into Hallstatt.
These next two photos are of how they deal with the waterfall coming off the mountain into their village.
The hostel was closed and it took a bit to work out some details. In the meantime we enjoyed the quaint town. Here are a few pictures while we waited for the bus to get us to the trailhead.
The trail we wanted to hike was called the Soleleitungsweg trail. It was created in the early 1600’s to carry a pipeline made from 13,000 tree trunks. Through this pipeline was funnelled brine as it was the easiest way to transport salt from the mines above Hallstatt. Brilliant.
The hike was 7km long carved literally into the side of the mountain. Often we had to duck so as to not smack on head on the stone above us.
This 7km hike was the easiest part of our trip. My kids are becoming better hikers and basically ran this entire hike without blinking an eye. Mind you, there wasn’t a ton of uphill as the old pipeline stayed quite level once hit the right elevation.
By the time we got back to the hostel it was pouring on us and we were soaked and ready for some pizza and beer (and cocoa)!
Here are the shots coming into Hallstatt as we walk down the mountain via hundreds of stairs into this ancient town.
And, as always, we always finish our hike with a chocolate bar!
Here is the view from our hostel window.
and one from the other window.
We walked to the Catholic Church on the hillside to pray our morning prayers together.
The view of the lake from where we were.
After praying the rosary together in the Church we prayed for ancestors in purgatory in the Ossuary. The town had run out of space to bury the dead so they received permission to dig up those already decomposed in order to have room to bury the newly deceased.
It was good to be reminded of our own mortality. Death isn’t something to fear, but something to prepare for.
A font to fill up with spring water.
One thing that Becca and I decided when we first had Winter was that we wanted our kids to be outdoors so much that they felt at home in the mountains. So we’ve made a concerted effort to not have any video games, to have no television, to limit movies to once/week, and to get outside doing things and learning outdoor skills. Why? Because nature can form our character, it is beautiful, and there is no distractions pulling us apart.
It is now the next day and we were ready to begin our hike up to the hutte. We were in the Dachstein mountain range and and had the goal to reach a hutte at 2203m. This would be the kids first hike over 2000m. The hike was a strenuous 6.5 hours for an adult from Hallstatt. This would equate to 11 hours for us – so we needed a different plan. We took the gondola up the mountain as high as we could get and that knocked 4 hours off the posted time.
Here is a picture of the valley we were hiking through. We were high enough that there were very little trees and lots of shrubs.
At a certain point in the hike, the path began to climb out of the valley and we had to climb up (sometimes with ropes) and scale many rocks.
We thought we were getting close and then we looked to the left and there was our hutte at the top of the mountain. It seemed so far away and we were cold and wet and tired …
It was a great feeling to leave the tree line and enter into a land of rock and stone and cliff.
Below is the famous Dachstein Glacier. Many folks stay at this hutte and hike the glacier with crampons.
Tristan, Johannes and Dr. DeMeo hiked faster and beat us to the Simony Hutte. So they were waiting there for us to cheer us on as we finally made it to the top! You can see Dr. DeMeo cheering for us in the doorway.
And then, all cozy and warm, with hot cocoa ordered, we ate our tradition. It is great to be with my kids!
Here is the highest chapel in Austria where we prayed in the blasting wind before we started our day. It was Sunday morning and we had planned to make it back to Hallstatt for Holy Mass. Now we realized this was an impossibility and so we did a liturgy of the Word and a spiritual communion here at the chapel in the freezing cold.
Here we are catching a moment of peace out of the wind before continuing down the cliff side.
Below you can see the Simony Haus at the very top. It was an accomplishment to make it to the bottom safely!
We entered the valley again with 2 hours of hiking (at least) to go and already we were wringing freezing water out of their winter gloves. Benedict was the first to breakdown, than Winter, and then my mighty leader Tristan. What was fascinating was that they had to realize that breaking down and crying wasn’t helping at all. As we stood there we only got colder and more wet. We had to keep moving. All three of them gritted their teeth, bore the suffering and continued forward and I told a story to keep their mind off of the cold.
And then the snow stopped. Just that couple degrees was enough to lift all of our spirits. We made it to the gondola lift thankful, tired and wet. And my kids learned what it meant to persevere. What a great way to learn virtue!
Here was the present Margi left for Benedict by the front door:
One of our traditions to celebrate birthdays is that the kids get to choose the type of cake they want. Benedict wanted a honey cake with blue icing and a ‘B’ with cars. Well, Becca made him just what he asked for!
One thing we’ve loved about ITI is that no one really has a lot of money. Thus gifts at birthday parties are always crafts and cards made from friends. It is fascinating to see how meaningful these become to the kids. It is good to live simply.
And of course we end the day with birthday bumps!
Good water has a reading of 100 or less of dissolved hard minerals. Our water in Trumau has a reading of over 330ppm. This water at Talhof has a reading of 30ppm!
Talhof is a little retreat center run by a priest. Many people come here for pilgrimages and for rest. No one lives all year round.
Of course, Mothers are examples and role models as well. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, ITI always does a 26km pilgrimage to Heiligenkreuz – the 1300 yr old monastery with a piece of the actual cross of Christ. This year Becca took the oldest two to walk and pray their pilgrimage.
Here Becca is just coming into to Heiligenkreuz just in time for Holy Mass. She walked from 7:30 to 3pm over mud and hills and rocks and fields.
And we made sure we stayed at the end for a chance to venerate and kiss the piece of the cross that held our Lord.
Kate begins her virtue training: perseverance. This is the first hike where Katie walked the whole way by herself. I was pretty proud of her!
We arrive at the castle ruins! There is no one there. We have the castle to ourselves. And we don’t have to pay to get in! This rocked!
As is our tradition, we celebrated this (short) hike with a chocolate bar and Kate received her very first hiking chocolate bar! I guess she’s part of the team now, eh?
This place was magical. And to think we could stay here the night and have the castle to ourselves … the kids literally ran up and down and around the castle for 4 hours straight playing whatever make believe games they were playing. It was awesome.
And, the Austrian government even refurbished the old style castle toilet! With a good 40ft drop for your ‘job’ to travel.
The tower was still intact so we made our way to the top. The picture below is looking at the castle from the base of the tower.
Here is the view of the valley that this watch tower and the one across the valley used to protect. If only I could travel back 600 years …
Margi and Winter watching a squirrel in a tree.
Here is Alex Harb, one of our kids favourite babysitters!
The night time rain clouds were gone and beautiful fog seemed through the whole valley.
Breakfast around the fire and Kate happily eating Alex’s granola mix!
Kate and her best friend Margi!
And we came home closer together and with a daddy completely exhausted. I figured the kids might be tired, but rather they returned to campus and ran around till bed time. Crazy crazy amounts of energy…
Twentieth Century English spiritual writer Caryll Houselander, waxes eloquently about the importance and beauty of the purposeful emptiness that occupies the center of our very being in her wonderful book, Reed of God. The title of the book also acts as a principle image as she exhorts us to be reeds of God, filled with the breath of God, the Holy Spirit, and allowing Him to pass through us to into the world beyond. The whole of her teaching is perhaps fittingly summed up in her words, “The one thing she [Mary] did and does is the one thing that we all have to do, namely, to bear Christ into the world.”
I am blessed to be able to spend the summer here at the ITI with my family. Being sensitive to the needs of families, the ITI wisely and mercifully has no expectations that families can move out of their apartments for the summer as the single students do. No, the families remain in their place, working and living and surviving the summer heat as we are able. But it is this distinction in the kinds of students at the ITI; the variety in the ways of Christian life represented in the student body, that is a great strength of the school. How fitting for the families to remain! We represent the stability of Christian life and are blessed to be images (however imperfectly) of the Heavenly Home towards which we are all striving. So also, the single students represent and remind us of our pilgrim state, that “we have here, no lasting city” (Heb. 13:14). This life is a journey.
I could go on about the various ways each kind of group can and does benefit the overall life of the school, expounding on the evident graces we have from having student-seminarians, religious and priests; or the great meeting of East and West, but this will lead us way from the final purpose of this little reflection. Now is not the time because all of these benefits are, as it were, suspended, while the vast majority of the student body is away. Indeed, the whole Institute feels as though it is an empty reed, and even outside summer programs do little to enliven the place. There is a kind of hope filled expectation in the air as the Institute awaits the return of her students, who are the purpose and life of the school.
What a humbling thing to be a part of this! All our generous donors and dedicated faculty and staff are all here for the students. While this is true anywhere, at the ITI this takes on a special importance and significance. First of all, because we are a school of theology. Here we study the most important of all the sciences, and consequently are entrusted with the greatest responsibilities. Moreover, we stand out from other theological schools because we have a special mission as found in the four pillars of our Institute. The ITI is a kind of focal point for dialogue and the meeting place for the various parts of the Catholic Church. It is as a microcosm of the global Catholic Communion. Consequently, our ability to succeed, to learn from one another and with one another, to grow in charity together, and, in short, act as reed of God, can portend either success or greater struggle for the whole of the Church here on earth.
Therefore, while certainly always at least tacitly acknowledged in the midst of the busy academic year, it is the summer where we experience so keenly how the students comprise the “that for the sake of which” of the school. All things at this Institute are and should be ordered to her students. For, if the Institute is a reed of God, then we students in turn are as the breath of God; and if we are as the breath of God, then we must bring the life and light of God into the world. This is a great and wondrous thing, indeed.