Catholic Theological
Society of America

The CTSA prays for and remembers longstanding member Joseph A. Bracken, S.J.  

Eternal rest grant unto Joseph, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace. Amen.

Fr. Bob Hurd, S.J., Xavier University, wrote to a CTSA member the following:

We just got word from our Jesuit infirmary near Milwaukee that our prime Jesuit theologian/philosopher/writer, Fr. Joe Bracken, died this morning. He was 94 years old.

Joe kept up his interest in Whitehead and “process philosophy” long after he retired from Xavier’s theology department and the Brueggeman Center and was a great inspiration for all of us somewhat younger Jesuits. He was also rector of the University Jesuit Community for many years and a great lover of racquetball and tennis.

You may also read about Fr. Bracken at the Jesuits Midwest website page, where he is quoted as saying "Being a Jesuit has been such a blessing in my life. It has allowed me to pursue an occupation that isn’t immediately profitable, but one which I believe has value through advancing knowledge as well as faith.”

Funeral is set for April 26 at the St. Camillus Jesuit Retirement Center in Milwaukee; burial of cremains at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

Dear CTSA Colleagues,

I am glad many of you (69) had the opportunity to participate in the two listening sessions the USCCB team held with theologians last month. I now write with an opportunity for wider dialogue with other theologians across North American guilds in light of the synod (room for up to 600 participants across two sessions).  Nancy Pineda-Madrid and I have been meeting with our counterparts in other Catholic theological guilds across North America again this year, and together with them we invite your participation in one of two cross-guild synodal dialogues next month. These will not be occurring within the structures of the synod on synodality consultation, but participants will engage questions in small groups that revisit some of the guiding questions of the synod on synodality in light of our own "successes and distresses" of teaching and studying theology in the church today. Please register via the link below for the session you wish to attend:

Interguild Synodal Dialogue
Time: May 6, 2024 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
https://bccte.zoom.us/j/97119609180
Meeting ID: 971 1960 9180

Interguild Synod Dialogue II
Time: May 8, 2024 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
https://bccte.zoom.us/j/93136893002

Here are the participating guilds: Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, Academy of Catholic Theology, Black Catholic Theological Symposium, Canadian Theological Society, College Theology Society, Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and CTSA. 

Thanks for considering our invitation to dialogue.

Kristin Heyer, CTSA President 2023-2024

“Synodality as Field Hospital” is the theme for the Second Annual Schreiter Institute Spring Symposium on a Praxis of Reconciliation.  The global Church is entering into a culmination of a unique synodal process meant to renew global Catholicism and create a “listening Church”. The presenters and attendees at this symposium will explore together how this synodal process can help bring about Pope Francis’ image of the Church as an authentic “field hospital” that tends to the wounds of creation in global and local contexts.

This unique gathering will convene scholars, theologians, artists, and practitioners in a public conversation about the challenges and possibilities for renewing the Catholic Church into a Field Hospital, through the Synodal process, that authentically attends to the healing of trauma and moral injury in God’s creation.

MARIA CIMPERMAN, RSCJ,  will provide the keynote presentation on May 9th. The final session on May 10th will be an opportunity for all presenters and attendees to participate in a synodal “Conversation in the Spirit”

The Symposium can be attended in person or on Zoom.  To Register or to find out more information: https://ctu.edu/event/schreiter-institutes-spring-symposium-on-a-praxis-of-reconciliation-synodality-as-field-hospital/?

A great student opportunity to work with the Vatican. Master's Degree required. Applications due April 22.

Preparing the Future Research Fellowship on the Vatican’s engagement on peace, development, human rights, and ecology

September 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025. 

This fellowship provides an opportunity for a qualified candidate to contribute to the work of the Holy See on peace, development, human rights, and ecology. 

The fellow will be a research associate of the University of Notre Dame’s Rome Global Gateway and do research either with the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development or Caritas Internationalis (CI). 

This fellowship is co-sponsored by Notre Dame’s Rome Gateway and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, with the generous support of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities.   

It is part of a wider effort to develop a new generation of lay women and men to serve the Catholic Church in its mission of transforming the social order in light of the Gospel.

For more information and to apply:  https://jobs.nd.edu/postings/34187

CTSA Spring 2024 Virtual Event - Recording now available.
"Is Peace Possible in a World of Violence?"
Monday, April 8, 2024

Moderator:  Susan Reynolds, Candler School of Theology

Panel:  Heather M. DuBois, Boston College
              Lilian Ehidiamhen, Katholic University of Leuven
              Eli McCarthy, Georgetown University

In light of the violent conflicts around the world, what resources might the Catholic theological tradition offer to conversations about peacebuilding? Our panelists will draw on their expertise in just peace, conflict transformation, trauma studies, and nonviolent communication to help the CTSA membership think together about the role of our work in the face of global conflict and violence.

Recording: Now posted within Members Resources (CTSA Home Page); see bullet "Recorded Event Videos".  The link will navigate members to a website page where they may view recorded event videos.  Note: Members will be required to login to access the website page.

Mary Frohlich, The Heart at the Heart of the World: Re-visioning the Sacred Heart for the Ecozoic Era

Chris Pramuk and William Hart McNichols, All My Eyes See: The Artistic Vision of Fr. William Hart McNichols

Antonio D. Sison, editor: Deep Inculturation: Global Voices on Christian Faith and Indigenous Genius

Join us for an interdisciplinary scholarly colloquium organized by the Académie Cor Iesu in Paray-le-Monial, France, from Monday, June 23 – Saturday, June 28, 2025 to celebrate the 350th Anniversary of the Apparitions of the Sacred Heart.

Beginning on December 27, 1673, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, a cloistered nun of the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial, reported experiencing the extraordinary graces of mystical visions in which she believed that the Risen Lord revealed to her his Sacred Heart and commissioned her with making known his “heart which has loved humankind so much … as to be consumed in its desire to show them his love.” 

Although images of the Sacred Heart and pious devotions have abounded within and without the Catholic world for the past three and a half centuries, very little attention has been paid either to the history, spirituality, or theology of the “heart” of God before the 17th century, how the image has been received and has impacted the subsequent Catholic tradition, how the image is understood and received in ecumenical and interreligious contexts, or even how the image has impacted and been understood in scientific or cultural circles. 

We welcome to this colloquium scholars from all disciplines, the leaders of institutions or religious congregations with a legacy of devotion to the Sacred Heart, as well as formation personnel who may have an interest in revisiting the tradition of this devotion and seeking to find ways of articulating it in a contemporary idiom.  Attendance may be active or passive, and, for those seeking active participation, we are seeking scholarly papers that relate to the following broad categories: “The Heart of God in the Biblical Tradition”; “The Heart of God in the Theological and Spiritual Tradition before and after the Apparitions in Paray-le-Monial”, “The Heart of God in Art, Literature, and Theatre”, “The Heart of God in Science and Health Care”, “The Heart of God in Other Christian Traditions”, and “The Heart of God in non-Christian Religious Traditions.”

The colloquium is limited to no more than thirty people. Space is limited as the town will be full for the closing celebrations for the anniversary year, so to secure your place please contact us for an application form.  A non-refundable deposit of $400 will be required on or before June 15, 2024. If you are interested in presenting a paper, please submit a 500-word proposal no later than December 15, 2024. 

The participation fee of $2,000 includes single accommodation at a local classic European-style hotel and all meals from dinner on Monday, June 23 through breakfast on Saturday, June 28.  Meals will feature some of the great food and wine of the Burgundy region where Paray-le-Monial is located.  Each day will feature the opportunity to participate in the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. The days will also include guided visits to the sacred sites of the town by Dr Robert White and local experts. All other meals, flights and transportation costs to be organized and paid for by each participant. 

Please contact the director of the colloquium, Dr. Robert White, at robert.white@coriesu.com for more information or to register. To learn more about the Académie Cor Iesu, please visit our website.

The CTSA has been asked to send delegates to an upcoming Synodal conversation convened by an ad hoc USCCB sub-committee (Peter Casarella of Duke University, Kristin Colberg of St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, and Alessandro Rovati of Belmont Abbey University). They have been tasked by the USCCB Synodal Coordinating Committee with producing a brief report that summarizes the reflections of theologians in the United States on the Synod’s Interim Stage. The point of the departure is the Synod’s Synthesis Report, which makes reference to selected theological topics throughout. 

Like the listening sessions in which our members participated last May and June at the invitation of Bishop Daniel Flores, the committee has also invited members from other North American theological guilds and will be following the listening session model (no recording of the sessions). They note that "together with the responses of the canonists, these gleanings will be integrated into a final USCCB interim report in preparation for the next session of the Synod in Rome," and that "other larger groups working on more generic questions like Ecumenical Concerns, Participation, Vocations, and Social Justice are also following this model within the same, very limited time frame." The session will be held Monday March 11, 7-9 pm ET, and Bishop Flores, head of the Synodal Team at the USCCB, will join as a participant in the session. With their apologies for the last-minute nature of the invitation (they received the task quite late in the game and then initially recruited smaller numbers but now have space for more) they strongly encourage your participation. To do so, please fill out the  registration form by Friday, March 8^th: (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScW1ZnJJe2HEuLtC4Wnlqp_nNPHjNSDKMMbxqkLxTeqdSxA9w/viewform). 

 Thank you for considering bringing your theological expertise to bear in this way at this important juncture in the life of our church. 

Celebrated Australian theologian Anthony Kelly RSsC passed away on March 4, 2024.  The author of over 20 books dealing with fundamental topics in systematic theology as well as sacraments, ethics and ecology, he also wrote poetry and hymns.  He was President of Yarra Theological Union (1980-1985, 1994-1997) and of the Melbourne College of Divinity (1984-1985). He was member of the International Theological Committee from 2004-2014. His intelligence was matched by his humor and his humanity, and he left a lasting mark on theology in Australia and beyond. (I was privileged to know Tony, but this notice is posted on behalf of CTSA member Catherine Cornille, a longtime close friend of Tony)

Longtime CTSA member James L. (Jake) Empereur, SJ, died in the early morning hours of February 24, 2024, at St. Camillus Jesuit Community, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was 90 years old. Jake taught and published in the fields of liturgical and sacramental theology and Christian spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and Graduate Theological Union for twenty-four years and then ministered and taught in the Diocese of San Antonio for twenty-seven years, where he had an instrumental role in the restoration of the historic San Fernando Cathedral. His numerous publications included La Vida Sacra: Contemporary Hispanic Sacramental Theology (with Eduardo Fernandez); Spiritual Direction and the Gay Personality; The Liturgy That Does Justice (with Christopher Kiesling); Models of Liturgical Theology; and Worship: Exploring the Sacred. (Written by Bruce T. Morrill, S.J.)

May Jake's soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.