Fr. Robert Aaron Wessman, a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, is the 1st-Vice-President (Vicar General) and Director of Formation for the Glenmary Home Missioners. He has a PhD from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) in Systematic Theology (2019). He serves as an at-large board member for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men Religious (CMSM) and is a guest lecturer at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. The religious order he belongs to, Glenmary, is a missionary society of apostolic life of the Catholic Church that conducts missions in rural, poor, and non-Catholic areas of the United States, primarily in the southeast and Appalachia. Visit glenmary.org for more information.
In this interview Fr. Wessman shares with us some thoughts from his recent book The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World.
This includes an exploration of the roots of polarization (including sociological and psychological aspects), and strategies for overcoming it (self-reflection, engaging with diverse viewpoints, and promoting understanding and curiosity as means to bridge divides).
To learn more about Fr. Wessman, you can check out his X (Twitter) page, or go to Glenmary Home Missioners.
Names mentioned in this interview:
Abraham Heschel, Ezra Klein, Chesterton, James Shaw, Josef Pieper, Martin Buber, Monica Guzman, Paul Mendes Flohr, Peter Coleman, Thomas Aquinas, Tim Alberta.
Books mentioned:
Leisure, the Basis of Culture (Josef Pieper)
One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity (Charles C. Camosy)
The Sabbath (Abraham Heschel)
The Four Cardinal Virtues (Josef Pieper)