Catholic Theological
Society of America

The CTSA remembers and prays for longstanding member and member of the Board of Directors (1990 - 1992) Sr. Jamie T. Phelps, OP - d. 11/22/25. Awarded the Ann O'Hara Graff Award in 2010.

Eternal rest grant onto, Jamie, O Lord
and let perpetual light shine upon her.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Theological Contributions to the CTSA

Convener, “The Black Subject in the Post-Modern World: Africana Theologies in Dialogue”, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 61, 2006).

Convener, “HIV/AIDS and the Bodies of Black Peoples: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue”, Black Catholic Theology, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 60, 2005).

“A Response to Francis X. Clooney”, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 58, 2003).

Convener, “Contemporary Black/Womanist and Hispanic/Latino/a Theologies in America: A Dialogue—Session I”, Black Catholic Theology, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 57, 2002).

Presenter and Co-Convener, “Liberation and Communion as the Raison d’etre of Missio Ad Gentes”, Black Catholic Theology, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 56, 2001).

Panelist and Moderator, “Theological Anthropology from the Margins Part III. Discussion of the Impact of Race, Culture, Class and Gender on Theological Anthropology”,  Black Catholic Theology, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 53, 1998).

Convener, “Rivers of Nihilism, Streams of Hope: Theological Responses to Cornel West’s Race Matters”, Black Catholic Theology, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 50, 1995).

Respondent, “A Critical Response to D’Angelo’s Christology, with a Prolegomenon to a Womanist Christological Reconstruction”, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 49, 1994).

Methodology”, Black Catholic Theology: Methodology, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 46, 1991).

Convener, “D. Providence and Histories: African American Perspectives with Emphasis on the Perspective of Black Liberation Theology”, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 44, 1989).

Convener, “Women and Power in the Church: A Black-Catholic Perspective”, CTSA Annual Convention (Proceedings vol. 37, 1982).

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NEWS RELEASE by the Adrian Dominican Sisters (11/24/25)

Sister Jamie T. Phelps, OP, Theologian, Advocate for Social and Racial Justice, and Black Catholic Studies Pioneer, Dies at 84

November 24, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – With great sadness, the Adrian Dominican Sisters announce the death of Sister Jamie T. Phelps, OP, PhD, a theologian, preacher, social worker, social and racial justice advocate, and passionate promoter of Black Catholic Studies and the gifts of Black Catholics to the Church. She died at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan, on November 22, 2025.

In her early years of ministry, Sister Jamie served as an elementary school teacher and then psychiatric social worker. Her passion for racial and social justice and love of the gifts of Black Catholics to the Church led to years of engagement in advocacy for racial equality, theological studies, and the formation of Black Catholic leaders. She was a founding member of the National Black Sisters’ Conference and one of the founders of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies (IBCS) of Xavier University of Louisiana. Sister Jamie served as a consultor to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as they wrote their pastoral letter on racism and was a longtime active member of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA).

“The significance of Sister Jamie Phelps’ pioneering scholarship and strategic administrative ability cannot be overstated. She has made a substantive, radical, and creative difference in how we Black Catholics think of ourselves, think of God, think of Church, and think of Black theology,” said Dr. M. Shawn Copeland, Professor emerita, of Boston College’s Theology Department, who collaborated with Sister Jamie at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies and in the Black Catholic Theological Symposium (BCTS) for more than 45 years. Copeland continued: “Sister Jamie’s theological work is intellectually imaginative, demanding, passionate, and uncompromising; moreover, it is grounded in rigorous historical research, balanced in exposition and analysis, nuanced in judgment. She will remain a major force in the thematization of Black Catholic Theology.”

“Sister Jamie is one of our giants – a mother, a teacher, a scholar, and a faithful daughter of the Black Catholic Church,” Father Kareem R. Smith, President of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (NBCCC), wrote when offering prayers for Sister Jamie. “Through her witness, her voice, and her decades of service, she has helped shape our theological imagination and has strengthened our commitment to serve our people with courage and love. Many of us stand on her shoulders.” Father Kareem was taught by Sister Jamie at IBCS while a seminarian.

“The Adrian Dominican Sisters have been deeply blessed by Sister Jamie’s joyful, challenging, and transformative presence among us, calling us to fully live Gospel imperatives in our Dominican sisterhood,” said Congregation Prioress Elise D. García, OP. “She was a Dominican preacher through and through who played an indelible national leadership role in raising up Black Catholic Studies as an essential field of study for all Catholics. Her love and passion for the common good of all God’s people are an enduring legacy – calling us all to keep carrying on.”

In a December 2016 interview with The National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Report, Sister Jamie offered her own perspective on her life’s work. “As a Black Catholic Dominican and theologian, I have been gifted with a specific worldview that allows me to interpret the Gospel in a way that speaks to diverse cultures and racial-ethnic groups so that the meaning of the Gospel for their lives, their city and the world becomes evident,” she said. “My social identity as a doubly marginalized person in society gifts me with the perspective of oppressed and poor people.”

Sister Jamie was born on October 24, 1941, in Mobile, Alabama, to Alfred and Emma (Brown) Phelps. The family migrated to Chicago, where Sister Jamie was taught by Adrian Dominican Sisters in elementary school and graduated from the Josephinum Academy in 1959.

She entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation on September 8, 1959, and was received as a novice on August 4, 1960, taking the religious name of Sister Martin Thomas. She professed first vows on August 5, 1961, and final vows on August 5, 1966, becoming the first Black Sister in the Congregation.

Embracing the Dominican tradition of study, Sister Jamie earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Siena Heights College (University) in Adrian in 1969, a master’s degree in social work with a focus on group sequence, from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1972, a master’s in theology from St. John University in Minnesota in 1974, and a doctorate in systematic theology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1989.

In the first 10 years of her ministry, Sister Jamie taught at four elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago. On obtaining her degree in social work, she ministered as an Illinois State-certified psychiatric social worker, first at Mercy Hospital and then at Chicago Child Care Society in Chicago.

After earning the PhD in theology, Sister Jamie taught at the Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago from 1986 to 1998. During her tenure there, she founded and directed CTU’s Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program, which prepares lay people for ministry to Black Catholics. From 1998 to 2003, she held a visiting, then tenured professorship in Theology at Loyola University, Chicago. During the Spring Term of 2002-2003 academic year, she served as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theology at the University of Dayton.

While pursuing her doctoral degree, Sister Jamie participated in the first meeting in 1978 of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium, and little over a decade later, in 1991, played a decisive role in restructuring the BCTS as a national learned interdisciplinary professional society for Black Catholic scholars holding doctoral degrees in theology and related fields. The BCTS encourages the teaching, discussion, and analysis of Black Catholic religious and cultural experience in Church and society and supports the development and publication of Black Catholic theology. Sister Jamie served as Convener of the Symposium from 1992 to 2001.

Sister Jamie has been associated with the Institute for Black Catholic Studies since its inception in 1980, serving as a major consultant to the late Reverend Dr. Thaddeus

Posey, O.F.M., Cap., who was the founding Director of the Institute. The Institute for Black Catholic Studies is a degree program in pastoral studies offered during summer sessions at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. Since 1989, Sister Jamie served as a member of the Master of Theology degree faculty; from 1994 to 2000, she also was the Associate Director for the Institute’s graduate degree program; and from 2003 to 2011, she served as the Director of the Institute and Katherine Drexel Professor of Systematic Theology at Xavier University.

“The purpose [of the IBCS] was to provide education for Blacks and non-Blacks to do effective ministry in the Black Catholic community,” Sister Jamie explained in an August 2023 interview. To do this, she said, “you need to know the history and culture of that community and the social and cultural circumstances. … The fact that the Institute is still living suggests to me that this is something that God wanted to happen to guarantee an improved ministry in the Black Catholic community.” In 2022, the Adrian Dominican Sisters endowed a fund for student scholarships at the IBCS as an act of reparation for and acknowledgment of the Congregation’s past complicity in the nation’s history of racial injustice. It is named the Sister Jamie T. Phelps, OP, PhD Scholarship Fund.

After leaving Xavier University in 2011, Sister Jamie continued her ministry as a theologian, writer, and preacher. She was a Visiting Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame during the 2012-2013 academic year. During her retirement in Chicago, Sister Jamie continued her work in theological research, writing, and consulting. She has written and lectured extensively on African American Catholics, the nature and mission of the Church, religion, human rights, evangelization, and Christology. She is the editor of Black and Catholic – The Challenges and Gifts of Black Folk: Contributions of African American Experience and Thought to Catholic Theology and co-editor with Cyprian Davis, OSB, of Stamped with the Image of God: African Americans as God’s Image in Black. Sister Jamie continued her preaching and teaching roles when she moved into the Dominican Life Center at the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse Campus in 2019 and was active in the life of the Motherhouse community.

Sister Jamie has been nationally recognized with various honors, including:

• The Harriet Tubman Award, given in 1999 by the National Black Sisters’ Conference, honoring a member who “through her ministry is an advocate for Black people.”

• The Ann O’Hara Graff Memorial Award, given by the Women’s Consultation in Constructive Theology of the Catholic Theological Society of America, honoring a woman whose accomplishments include liberating action on behalf of women in the Church and/or broader community, in 2010.

• The “How Beautiful Are Their Feet” Award, given in 2016 at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, a national network of progressive African American faith leaders and their congregations.

• An honorary doctorate in 2016 from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, a graduate school in the Dominican tradition.

• Recognition as “Mother of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies” at the IBCS commencement in August 2023.

• Honored in March 2025 during the Catholic Theological Union’s Harambee celebration, which supports the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program.

Sister Jamie will be remembered during a visitation from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on December 2 in the gathering space of St. Catherine Chapel, followed by a Vigil Service at 7:00 p.m. in St. Catherine Chapel. A funeral Mass will be offered in St. Catherine Chapel at 10:30 a.m. on December 3. Prayers of Committal will follow in the Congregation Cemetery. Those who cannot attend in person may watch the Vigil Service and Funeral

Mass via livestream at https://adriandominicans.org/Live-Stream.

# # #

The Dominican Sisters of Adrian, a Congregation of about 350 vowed women religious and 180 Associates, traces its roots back to St. Dominic in the 13th century. The Sisters minister in 15 states, the Dominican Republic, Norway, and the Philippines. The Congregation’s Vision is to “seek truth, make peace, reverence life.”

Contact: Barbara Kelley, OP
Office of Communications
517-266-3591
bkelleyadriandominicans.org

ADRIAN DOMINICAN SISTERS
1257 East Siena Heights Drive
Adrian, Michigan 49221-1793
www.adriandominicans.org
Adrian Dominican Sisters 

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ANNOUNCEMENT THAT WAS MADE to THE BLACK CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM  (BCTS) LIST-SERVE (11/23/25). 

I wish to share with members of the BCTS the news of Sr. Jamie T. Phelps, OP transition to eternal life today.  She passed after recent knee surgery and a contracting sepsis which she never recovered from.  Her family, nieces, were with her at the time of her transition and her remaining brother had the opportunity to talk with her via phone, before her passing.  Last month, Sr. Jamie celebrated her 84th birthday.   

Those of us who dearly loved her and were grateful for her mentoring are experiencing profound sadness but we are assured that she is now being welcomed home by the holy ancestors from the BCTS and IBCS. - her spiritual director, Fr. Cyprian Davis, her sisters in religious life from IBCS and BCTS, Sr. Pat Haley & Sr. Thea Bowman  and so many others.  I am assured that she is now dancing and experiencing the joy of returning home and seeing her mother, sisters, brothers and other family members and dear loved ones.

We are grateful for the sacrifices she made as one of the founding members of BCTS, IBCS and as Founding Director of the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program at Catholic Theological Union.  A graduate from Catholic University of America where she received her PhD in systematic theology, she taught as a member of the faculty of Catholic Theological Union in the 1980s - mid 90s, as well as Loyola University of Chicago, Notre Dame University and Xavier University of Louisiana.  In her teaching, scholarship, writing and mentorship she sacrificed to continually respond to the needs of Black Catholics. Her scholarship as a systematic theologian who focused her research and writing in ecclesiology and the Black Experience has been invaluable for some many of us who continue to teach and research.  

She attended the first BCTS in 1978, later was instrumental in reconvening the BCTS in the 1980s to become its convener, and later in 1990, she became the first Black Catholic member of the board of trustees of the CTSA (Catholic Theological Society of America.  She is the author of numerous articles of ecclesiology and Black Catholic theology and religious experience, having edited the book Black and Catholic: The Challenge and Gift of Black Folk (Marquette University, 1997) and co-edited with Cyprian Davis Stamped With the Image of God: African Americans as God's Image in Black (Orbis, 2004).

The CBA warmly welcomes all members and friends to our annual reception in Boston, held in conjunction with the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting. Join us for an evening of collegial conversation, light refreshments, and networking on Sunday, November 23, from 8:00–10:00 p.m. (ET) at the Boston Marriott Copley Place – Grand Ballroom Salon F (110 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116, United States).

This year’s reception is offered in partnership with the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), reflecting our shared commitment to fostering dialogue and collaboration across the theological and biblical disciplines.

A brief 15-minute program will be held during the reception to highlight the CBA’s upcoming grant opportunities, initiatives, and events for the upcoming year. We look forward to reconnecting with colleagues, celebrating recent accomplishments, and welcoming new members to our community.

 

The service will be held in the Williams Chapel in Swartz (Andover) Hall, HDS, 2pm this Thursday. It will also be live-streamed at the link below. Frank Clooney SJ

Memorial Service for Professor Francis Fiorenza

When Thursday, November 20, 2025, 2 – 5pm Where Williams Chapel, Braun Room Sponsor Office of Academic Affairs, Religious and Spiritual Life Contact kgwhitacre@hds.harvard.edu Details Service from 2 pm to 3:30 pm in Williams Chapel with a reception to follow from 3:30 pm to 5 pm in the Braun Room. Link harvard.zoom.us…

Catherine of. Siena, Selected Letters. Selected, introduced and translated by Diana L. Villegas. Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2025.

The trade book is a book of meditations and spiritual exercises based on passages from Catherine’s letters, Growing in Love with Catherine of Siena.  Also Paulist, 2025

Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap., Jesus Being Jesus, The Catholic University of America Press, Nov. 2025.

Luke was a Gentile and physician. Though not one of Jesus’ initial Jewish disciples, Luke was a traveling companion of Paul. As with the Old Testament and the Gospels, Luke provides the theological and ecclesial significance of the historical events he is narrating. In so doing, he accentuates what the risen and ascended Jesus is doing through the Holy Spirit by means of the nascent church, primarily through Peter and Paul. Although the book is entitled the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit is the primary actor throughout its entirety.

Luke is traditionally believed to be the author of both the third Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles. As Luke, in his Gospel, first wrote "an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, concerning the truth of the gospel," so he now writes what has taken place after Jesus’ departure. Thus, the Acts of the Apostles is a continuation of a historical narrative. The Gospel contains what Jesus historically said and did until his Ascension into Heaven. Acts is the historical narrative of what followed upon Jesus’ ascension and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that gave birth of the Church, and the first preaching of the Good News.

If in Luke’s gospel account one finds Jesus becoming Jesus through his saving actions which culminate in his death and resurrection, in the Acts of the Apostles, one finds the risen Jesus being Jesus through the preaching and actions of the apostolic church. Jesus continues to enact his name, YHWH-Saves. Such saving words and actions are particularly within the evangelistic ministry of Peter and Paul.

https://www.cuapress.org/9780813240213/jesus-being-jesus/

In person / Virtual Event - Monday, November 3, from 5:30 - 7:00 pm [CT], the Cody Chair Loyola University Chicago, is hosting a conversation about Pope Leo's new letter on poverty, Dilexi Te. Panelists Dr. Susan Haarman, Associate Director and Service-Learning Program Manager at LUC's Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship; Dr. Hille Haker, Richard A. McCormick, S.J., Chair of Catholic Moral Theology; Dr. Claire Noonan, Vice President for Mission Integration at LUC; and Dr. Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership. Registration for zoom at https://lnkd.in/eE9-xyUc

The Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University are pleased to announce registration is now open for the forthcoming international Franciscan Studies conference:

‘Life and Love Transfigured: Exploring New Horizons in the Franciscan Tradition’

Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 April 2026

Durham, UK

The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different walks of life – academic and non-academic, religious and lay – who have a deep love for St. Francis of Assisi, the Franciscan tradition, and the abiding relevance of the Franciscan charism for the modern world.

Confirmed speakers / preacher include:

• Fr Casey Cole, OFM (Digital Evangelist and Creator of Breaking in the Habit podcast)
• Prof Richard Cross (University of Notre Dame, Indiana)
• Fr Dr Michael Cusato, OFM (Scholar-in-Residence, St. Bonaventure Friary, NY)
• Br Richard Hendrick, OFM Cap (Capuchin Franciscan Province of Ireland)
• Prof. Daniel Horan (St Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana)
• Dr William Hyland (University of St Andrews)
• Prof. John McCafferty (University College Dublin)
• Dr Darleen Pryds (Franciscan School of Theology, University of San Diego)

Further details, including the draft schedule and details of how to register can be found at https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/catholic-studies/about-us/events/the-third-international-franciscan-conference---april-2026/

The standard conference package including registration, refreshments, and conference meals is £150.  (A reduced student package is available at £115.)  Delegates are asked to book their own accommodation, as required. Details of some accommodation options are available on the website. 

Registration closes on Sunday 22 March 2026. Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Please direct any queries about this conference to the CCS Manager, Theresa Phillips – theresa.phillips@durham.ac.uk

Congratulations to Francis X. Clooney, S.J., CTSA Past President; Parkman Professor at Harvard Divinity School, who was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the Humanities and Arts class under Religious Studies. He now shares this honor with other Jesuits in the Academy’s history—John LaFarge, S.J., Walter Ong, S.J., Karl Rahner, S.J., John O’Malley, S.J., and George MacRae, S.J.  

"Professor Francis Clooney Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences", Harvard Divinity School, 4/28/25.  (Induction October 2025).

Congratulations to Mary Kate Holman on the Publication of Marie-Dominique Chenu: Catholic Theology for a Changing World (Notre Dame Press, 2025).  

Marie-Dominique Chenu demonstrates how this once condemned theologian influenced the major shifts of twentieth-century Catholicism and reveals the relevance of his thought for contemporary theology.

In 1942, historian Marie-Dominique Chenu was removed from his teaching position at Le Saulchoir, the French Dominican school of theology, and his groundbreaking new publication was placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books. Yet only two decades later, the Catholic hierarchy embraced many of his ideas at the Second Vatican Council. Although Chenu’s pioneering work helped to usher in a new era, his influence on the Catholic Church remains overlooked and underexplored.

Drawing upon extensive new archival research, Mary Kate Holman provides a captivating account of Chenu’s life and how his theology contributed to the church’s opening to the modern world and shaped the next generation of theologians. Holman presents the distinctive elements of Chenu’s theology, identifies his major contributions to contemporary Catholic theology, and proposes a constructive retrieval of his thought for a renewed ecclesiology in the twenty-first century.

On Tuesday October 7th at 4pm (CST), Catholic Theological Union presents the 27th Annual Louis J. Luzbetak Lecture on Mission and Culture. 

Kevin Considine, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Schreiter Institute for Precious Blood Spirituality, will present:

Orthopathema: A New Lens for Mission as Ministry of Reconciliation in the Decade to Come

The Lecture is Free and Open to the Public.  Please register on the event webpage to receive the Zoom Link