About Us

The year 1989 marked the beginning of ministry activity at Resurrection Centre. The concept of the Centre was proposed to the Provincial Council (Ontario-Kentucky Province) by the Community’s Steering Committee as a response to the proposals and recommendations of the C.R. General Chapter of 1987. Father Frank Ruetz C.R. was appointed Director of the Centre and he was soon joined by the retiring provincial superior, Father Fred Scinto C.R. The present staff is comprised of four persons: two are C.R. religious and two are lay people. Father Frank and Father Fred are still aboard, and they are ably assisted bay Barbara Diemert, executive secretary and Office Manager for more than ten years, and Charles Van Alphen, Catholic educational leader and resource person, assisting Catholic schools and parishes work together to forge a flourishing faith community.

Resurrection Centre For Lifelong Learning

From the outset the underpinnings and focal point of the entire Centre’s ministries has been God’s Word, respecting the myriad ways that Word manifests itself in today’s world. The most influential people impacting the direction and vision for the Centre have been Bogdan Janski and Pope John Paul II of found memory. In the early stages of the Centre we found an amazing congruence between John Paul’s pastoral exhortations and a compatriot of his, a young gifted and visionary layman Bogdan Janski, the C.R. Community’s primary founder more than 170 years ago. In 1836 on the feast of Pentecost, Janski assembled his small but exuberant gathering of confreres and calling upon the Holy Spirit, spoke of his vision and mission for his fledgling community:…” The regeneration of Catholicism in the Polish nation.” Today, already well into the new millennium,  John Paul’s persistent appeal right up to the time of his passing has not changed: he identfies his missiona and mnistry unequivocally..." to promote a “new evangelization”... to help people all over the world to hear the good news  again for the first time.” Armed with these pastoral directives we at the Centre have approached all our ministry endeavors determined to create an environment in which the laity will be disposed to hear and respond to God’s Word. Happily, over the past 16 years we have witnessed the wisdom of this pastoral priority; lay people tell us again and again of their experienceof the power of God’s Spirit empowering them to become ministers of the Word and prophets to the world. Manifest evidence of this has been the continuing interest and enthusiasm of several thousand people committing themselves to gathering weekly in small groups. Here they spend about an hour and a half reflecting prayerfully on the current Scripture readings while searching for its meaning and relevance in today’s world and their personal lives. And to assist them in this process through these years, they use a six page weekly resource called “Celebrating the Word” created and published by the Centre’s staff.

In a nutshell, Resurrection Centre is about people. It is about people who want to make a difference for others—their families, their schools, their parishes, their workplace. The Centre is about people and empowerment and prophetic ministry. It is about everything embodied in the vision and spirit of the C.R. founding fathers. To this end the staff of Resurrection Centre happily commites their time and energy.

About the Author

The author and publisher of "Celebrating the Word" is Frank J. Ruetz C.R., Ph.D. He is a priest in the Congregation of the Resurrection (Ontario-Kentucky Province) and is Director and CEO of Resurrection Centre for Lifelong Learning, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.