Catholic Theological
Society of America

Good evening. Two weeks ago I requested, on behalf of the Centennial Committee, your responses to the Report on the June 9 evening session. I and the committee are very grateful for your response — thus far about 52 of you responded to us, almost 23,000 words. As I told the Committee at our meeting on September 22, your ideas are very interesting and timely, in part confirming what is in the Report and in part adding importance nuances. I was very taken also with the  personal insights in your statements - based on 50 or more years in the Society, or just one or two years, or some  length of membership years in between. We are thinking together on these issues, which is so very important. I would like very much to respond to each of you who did write, but I am a bit overwhelmed with it all at the moment, and have to let this note count for now. But let me assure you that the entire Committee has all your responses, and the Board will receive them too, and we are going to continue reading them. Finally, if you did not write, and would have time to write now, please do! I would love to receive another 50+. Peace, Frank (fclooney@hds.harvard.edu)

The WFTL officially invites CTSA members to register for our Webinar  “The Current Situation and Challenges for the Palestinian People and Palestinian Liberation Theology” – November 4, 2023

Registration and panelist information below:

Register here  by October 25th:

https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fumontreal.zoom.us%2Fmeeting%2Fregister%2FtZIpc-mrrz0uEtDkuwcRrd5g1ADJg66odDYR%23%2Fregistration&data=05%7C01%7Cbrandon.haskel-martinez%40umontreal.ca%7C9ea917a6c2bc4263defe08dbba07baf4%7Cd27eefec2a474be7981e0f8977fa31d8%7C1%7C0%7C638308314615109309%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XykljL8tRoENXIFiAmsVPwS5X3iW%2BOzj6k5tLZuqiNc%3D&reserved=0

On November 4, the WFTL will present a webinar entitled:

Current Situation and Challenges for the Palestinian People and Palestinian Liberation Theology, with 2 noted experts from Palestine:

• Dr. Mitri Raheb, A prominent figure in Palestinian theology, is the first president of Dar-al-Kalima University, in Bethlehem. He served as the pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem from 1987 until 2017. He was the President of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land from 2011-2016. Among his publications: Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes (2014). The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christianity in the Age of Empire. (2021).
• Varsen Aghabekian, an expert in right-based community practice, engaged in many NGOs working in policy development, on matters of Al-Quds/Jerusalem, education, youth, women and management. Among numerous positions, she was elected the Commissioner General for the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights in January 2016. Among her publications : Palestinian Christians: Emigration, Displacement and Diaspora (2017). Middle Eastern Women: The Intersection of Law, Culture and Religion (2020). The Saga of Survival: Armenian Palestinians, the British Mandate and the Nakba (2023)

This webinar’s objective is not only to learn from Palestine and Palestinian theology of liberation, but also to explore how to connect this Palestinian context with other decolonial, theological work across the world, as represented in the WFTL. Your participation is important. This event will be in English, with a Spanish translation. Don’t forget to register, by October 25!

 https://umontreal.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpc-mrrz0uEtDkuwcRrd5g1ADJg66odDYR#/registration

The Journal of Moral Theology invites submissions of papers on the topic of “Veritatis Splendor Three Decades On: Its Legacy for Our Times” for a special issue edited by Jana Bennett and Alessandro Rovati. The full CFP is available HERE.

The editors are interested in gathering contributions from scholars with different theological formations and diverse backgrounds who can reflect on the fruits of the encyclical’s theological proposal, address the tensions that it left standing, and extend or critique its logic in light of today’s debates.

The Australian Catholic University is proposing extraordinarily dramatic cuts across the humanities, including to philosophy and theology. Details can be found in the following locations: 

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/miles-pattenden-acu-lament-catholic-university/102856898

Australian Catholic University cuts humanities | Times Higher Education (THE)

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/14/australian-catholic-university-condemned-over-totally-indefensible-cuts-to-humanities-programs?fbclid=IwAR22MOqUocmNhcdy5NK9095y6LhwWKtstmP-E3OVd-7FmJYsfwmzTUiyHPc

ACU is currently in a two week consultation period about these changes. The relevant union encourages people to sign the following petition:

https://act.newmode.net/action/nteu/acu-senate-dont-make-staff-pay-acus-overspending

It is also possible to write to senate@acu.edu.au to express a view on these developments.

Very thankful for the work by many CTSA (and American Catholic Historical Association) colleagues represented in this new essay in the NCR on the impacts of clergy sexual abuse on communities of color in North America. 

Christine Firer Hinze

As Kristin Heyer noted in her Presidential Letter earlier this week, Volume 77 of the Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America is now published and can be found here. If you would like to order a print edition of the this year's Proceedings--or any previous volume of the Proceedings--you may do so here.

Thank you to all of this year's contributors for their work to make this year's volume of the Proceedings a reality.

At the suggestion of the Board, I will be providing some data about the readership of the electronic version of the Proceedings periodically throughout the year. Those updates will be posted here, on the CTSA Newsfeed. If you have questions or comments about or suggestions for the Proceedings, please feel free to reach me at proceedings.ctsa@gmail.com.

The Catholic Re-Visions Blog, affiliated with the Political Theology Network, welcomes proposals for content that critically engages the Catholic tradition and Catholic-adjacent questions and movements using a variety of approaches, re-(en)visioning what Catholicism is, implies, and does. 

Please share widely with your networks, as we hope to reach a wide range of scholars and activists both within and beyond the academy.

More information and details can be found here: https://politicaltheology.com/catholic-re-visions-call-for-content/

Proposals will be accepted through October 13, 2023.

I invite you to visit www.SpiritUnbounded.org and register for this lay-led synodal assembly via zoom or in-person in October in solidarity with the official synod in Rome.  Early-bird registration ends Sept. 15th.   There will be speakers from all 5 continents.  The 5 key themes are: Ministry, Authority, Ethics, Clerical Abuse and Justice for the Other.  Sr. Joan Chittister and former president of Ireland, Mary McAleese are keynote speakers.  In response to Frank's request for feedback re. the future of CTSA, this could be an opportunity for us to become involved in shaping the emerging Catholic Church.   

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings. I hope you all had a good summer, and that the new academic year, if you are teaching, is off to a good start.

I am writing to you now in my capacity as Chair of the Centennial Committee, and in follow-up to the Friday evening discussion we had in Milwaukee, “What Is the Future of the CTSA?”

All eleven groups at evening session had note-takers, and based on their input, Craig Ford, Jr. very ably prepared the attached report, an overview followed by the individual group reports. The Centennial Committee discussed the Report at our August 25 meeting, and strongly agreed that it was time to share the Report with all CTSA members. (We also expressed our great gratitude to Craig for his superb work.) The Report is attached.

As the next stage in this ongoing conversation, we earnestly request your feedback on the Report — elements and ideas that stand out, or that you strongly agree or disagree with, plus any ideas or questions you think are important but do not find in the Report. We hope you can help us to identify and highlight key points that should occupy our attention this year.

Please send your comments by email to me, as Centennial Chair, and I will collect them and share then with the Centennial Committee. If you can share your input by September 20, that would be ideal, since the Committee meets again on September 22.

Thanks very much, and on behalf of the Committee,

Frank

Major Themes Arising from the June 9, 2023
Evening Discussion on the Future of the CTSA

• You are invited to participate in a Zoom panel series, “Synodality at the Parish Level: A Time for Reform,” leading up to this October’s meeting of the Synod on Synodality. The series will run on Monday evenings, 6:00-7:30 p.m. PDT, from September 11 until October 9. It is co-sponsored by the Theology and Religious Studies Department of the University of Portland, the Master of Art's in Theology and Leadership Program at Gonzaga University, the Theology and Religious Studies Department at Saint Martin’s University, the office of the Vice President for Mission Integration at Seattle University, the Oregon Synod Committee, and Sacred Liturgy Ministries. CTSA members Catherine Punslan-Manlimos, Ramon Luzarraga, SimonMary Asese Aihiokai, Kevin Brown, and David Turnbloom have partnered with lay leaders from the Archdioceses of Portland and Seattle to plan this series.

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• Register for the series at this link: https://uportland.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jikZ0CKHTomwlKWeJKUgRQ#/

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• More information about each of the panels (listed below) and recordings of the panels after they take place can be found here: https://college.up.edu/theology/events-and-lectures/synodality.html

September 11: What is the Synod on Synodality?

September 18: Synodality: Opportunities for Lay Leadership at the Parish Level

September 25: Synodality and Radical Belonging

October 2: Learning from Synodal Communities

October 9: The Future of Synodality: A Renewal of Communion