Catholic Theological
Society of America

The next Theology and Liberation World Forum will take place from May 1 to 4, within the World Social Forum, then from June 6 to 9. You are cordially invited to participate online. You can find information on the forum and register (for it free of charge) at the following address: https://www.wftlofficial.org/

We invite you to join us! From a perspective of justice, eco-justice, peace and liberation, theologians from the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia, and participants from the grassroot movements, will meet and exchange, in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. Translation available online for most of activities. Join us and be part of the conversation!

The AAR has a 4-pt Webinar on Inclusive Pedagogy that may be of interest to CTSA Members. If you are also an AAR member, you will get a certificate at the end of completing the 4 webinars (which are recorded and can be completed at one's convenience!). I do not know if non-AAR-members can get the certificate but they do seem to be able to register and view the webinar.

https://www.aarweb.org/AARMBR/Resources-/Certificate-in-Inclusive-Pedagogy.aspx

The CTSA remembers long standing member Rev. Msgr. John F. Porter who died this morning, April 8, 2022.   John and his sister, Sr. Ann Porter, O.P., faithfully attended the CTSA annual convention.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Eternal rest grant unto John, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

The Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, UK and the University of Notre Dame’s London Global Gateway are delighted to announce a Call for Papers for the third Catholicism, Literature and the Arts conference:

Catholicism, Literature, and the Arts III

The Poetics of Liturgy and Place

An International Interdisciplinary Conference: 12-14 July 2022 in person in London, UK

The theme of The Poetics of Liturgy and Place will be engaged by speakers, artists, and poets, and by musical performance, inviting reflection on the Catholic tradition’s contribution to ‘place-making’ through the arts.

Keynote Speakers:

Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury)

Timothy Schmalz (Canadian sculptor)

Robin Jensen (University of Notre Dame)

Romana Huk (University of Notre Dame)

Paul Hills (Courtauld Institute of Art)

Valentin Gerlier (University of Chester)

Special Events will include:

·         live sculpting by Timothy Schmalz

·         poetry reading by Hilary Davies

·         performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time

·         visit to the National Gallery

Call for Papers

We invite proposals for 20 minutes papers from across the disciplines engaging visual art, literature, and music in relation to the theme of Poetics of Liturgy and Place.  We also consider papers relating to Catholicism, Literature, and the Arts more broadly.

Please submit 80- to 150- word proposals at https://tinyurl.com/CLA3cfp by 16 May 2022.

Registration

Standard package: £150. Reduced rate for students/those on low income: £120. Prices include conference fee, refreshments, and two lunches.  For more information, including a draft programme, and to register please visit https://tinyurl.com/CLA3conference or call (0) 191 334 1656.  Deadline for registration: 26 June 2022. 

Please direct any queries to theresa.phillips@durham.ac.uk 

IBCS SUMMER SESSION 2022

JUNE 26 - JULY 15, 2022

MASTERS of THEOLOGY PROGRAM

The IBCS Master of Theology Program (Th.M.) is the only graduate theology program in the USA taught from a Black Catholic perspective. Its curriculum is interdisciplinary; courses focus on Black approaches, critiques, and contributions to systematic and pastoral theologies, youth and pastoral ministry, aesthetics, philosophy, and education. Established in 1980 in historic New Orleans on the campus of Xavier University of Louisiana, the IBCS is dedicated to academic learning, prayer, worship and community-building. The Th.M. program forms students for theologically and culturally competent service as ordained, religious or lay ecclesial ministers in the Black community and church. The IBCS welcomes graduates seeking on-going study, graduate students of other programs and ministers who desire to enrich their general theological studies by exploring the Catholic theological tradition and its particular meaning for the social and spiritual experiences of Black people in the U.S. and beyond.   

Call 504/520-7691or check the IBCS website: https://www.xula.edu/ibcs/ for more information and or the application.

CTSA Member Kristin Colberg will present A Conversion of the Whole Church: Reflections on the Synod on March 24, 7 p.m. (ET) in hybrid format at John Carroll University.  

See jcu.edu/academics/catholic to obtain the zoom into the event.

The Msgr. John Mary Fraser Centre for Practical Theology at Regis College at the University of Toronto, invites you all to our free and virtual March lecture by Prof. Darren Dias, O.P. (University of St. Michael's College, Faculty of Theology). His lecture is entitled, "Lacombe's Ladder: Catechism and Colonialism in the First Nations Context." The date and time of the event is: Tuesday March 22, 2022; 7:00-8:30 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Saving Time; Toronto time). You can find more details and the registration page here: https://frasercentre.ca/event/tbd-darren-dias/

We hope to see you all at the event! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email: fraser.centre@utoronto.ca

CTSA member Robert L. Faricy, S.J. died on March 4, 2022. 

A reflection of his life by the Jesuits USA Midwest Province follows:

March 9, 2022                                                       Death of Fr. Robert L. Faricy, S.J.   

Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of our brother, Fr. Robert L. Faricy, S.J., who died on March 4, 2022 at St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was 95 years old. May he rest in peace.

Bob was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on August 29, 1926. He was very proud of growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and spending his summers at Steamboat Lake where his family operated a resort.  He attended St. Mark's Catholic grade school and St. Thomas Military Academy in St. Paul before graduating from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1949 with a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering. Bob served in the U.S. Navy for one year (1949-1950). He entered the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Missouri, on August 8, 1950 and became part of the Wisconsin Province when it was created in 1955. He had the usual course of Jesuit studies at St. Stanislaus Seminary and St. Louis University. During Regency, Bob taught Math at Marquette High in Milwaukee (1956-1959). He studied Theology in Fourvière, Lyons, France. He was ordained at St. John's Cathedral in Lyons on September 1, 1962. After tertianship in Flanders, Bob completed a doctoral program in Theology at the Catholic University in Washington, DC. His dissertation topic was "Teilhard de Chardin and Christian Effort." He pronounced his final vows on August 15, 1967.

Bob began his long career as a professional theologian by teaching for five years at the Catholic University of America (1966-1971). In 1971 he moved to the Gregorian University in Rome, where he taught until he was named Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology in 2000. Bob combined teaching and writing in Rome with an extensive, in practice world-wide, ministry of lectures and workshops in spirituality and charismatic renewal. He continued his spirituality ministry when he returned from Rome to reside in the Marquette University Jesuit Community as a writer and researcher in 2000. Bob was able to return to Rome often when he taught courses at Regina Mundi Institute (2002-2005). In 2012 declining health led to his being missioned to St. Camillus to pray for the Church and the Society.

Bob was very proud of growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and spending his summers at Steamboat Lake where his family operated a resort. He was a proud 1949 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and was honored to serve his country in the Navy (1949-1950).  

He was a smart, talented, and complex man who did not avoid important, controversial matters. He was fluent in Italian and French. During his almost thirty years in Rome, Bob was known as a demanding and effective professor. Although Bob's doctoral dissertation was on the Theology of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, he later turned his focus to Spirituality and Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He co-authored more than 40 books about prayer with Sr. Lucy Rooney, S.N.D., Luciana Pecoraio, or Frank Sullivan, S.J. Throughout his Jesuit life, Bob was a strong promoter of Spirituality -- including time spent as director of tv programming at EWTN (1987-1988). 

Bob helped establish the Heart of Jesus Community in Rome. Hearing of his death, some members wrote these tributes: 

“Thank you for being an exemplary instrument of the Lord, exercising the charisms of the Holy Spirit in your priesthood and teaching us to use them for the common good.” 

 “You have been a Father different from all the others. You knew how to give love, laughing and joking.”

Bob lived his life with passion and a certain exuberance. He was a man of strong convictions, action-oriented and always on the move. He found the diminishments of old age very challenging. But he turned peacefully towards the good and gracious Lord whom he loved. 

Suffrages: As we remember with gratitude all that God has done through his life of service to God and God's people, we are reminded of our privilege and obligation to offer Masses and prayers for his eternal repose. All members of the USA Midwest Province and those applied to it are to offer one Mass intention for Bob. Members of the St. Camillus Jesuit Community will offer one additional Mass intention. All will wish to remember Bob in their prayers and Masses.

Mass of Christian Burial: 

Monday, March 28, 2022

11:00 a.m.

St. Camillus Jesuit Community

10201 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Wauwatosa, WI 53226-3541

Burial:

Mount Olivet Cemetery in Milwaukee. 

Condolences:

St. Camillus Jesuit Community

c/o George E. Winzenburg, S.J.

10201 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Wauwatosa, WI 53226-3541

gwinzenburg@jesuits.org

------

Yours in Christ,

Glen Chun, S.J.

Socius

Authored by John Moriconi, S.J., with input from Patrick Burns, S.J. and George Winzenburg, S.J.

“The Great Waters of the Kingdom of Matter”: Faith, Religion, Science, and Reality

Registration:   https://forms.gle/BToEkKJ6o9ta7jBF8

Deadlines: Registration for in-person attendance: March 18th.

      Registration for virtual attendance: March 23rd. 

Conference: Saturday, March 26, 2022

Sponsored by 

Lumen et Vita 

The Graduate Journal of Theology

School of Theology & Ministry

Boston College

www.bc.edu/lumenetvita

www.facebook.com/lumenetvita

Remote and virtual attendance and presenting are possible.

The three best papers (as determined by a panel of judges) will each be awarded $400.  

Prizes are generously funded by the Science for Seminaries initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion.  Boston College’s School of Theology & Ministry received this grant under the leadership of Professor Jessica Black and Professor Dominic Doyle.  

More information can be found here: https://www.scienceforseminaries.org/school/boston-college-school-of-theology-and-ministry/

This conference has also been generously supported by a grant from the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium, of which Boston College School of Theology & Ministry is a member.

More information on the BTI can be found here: https://www.bostontheological.org 

Keynote Speakers:  

Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar

School of the Environment & Yale Divinity School

Yale University 

https://environment.yale.edu/profile/tucker

Dr. Michael Ferguson, Ph.D.

Instructor in Neurology, Harvard Medical School

Lecturer on Neurospirituality, 

Harvard Divinity School

Neurospirituality Research Director, 

Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics 

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston

https://neuromichael.com

“In the new humanity which is begotten today the Word prolongs the unending act of his own birth; and by virtue of his immersion in the world’s womb the great waters of the kingdom of matter  have, without even a ripple, been endued with life. No visible tremor marks this inexpressible transformation; and yet, mysteriously and in very truth, at the touch of the supersubstantial Word the immense host which is the universe is made flesh. Through your own incarnation, my God, all matter is henceforth incarnate.”

-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, “The Mass on the World” in Hymn of the Universe  (1961) 

Faith, Religion, and Science are lenses for viewing reality.  Although religious belief and science have long been constructed as being in tension and conflict in Western society, they also work together cooperatively, with mutually-informing perspectives despite different commitments, frameworks, burdens, strengths, limitations, methods, or goals.  These tensions and differences in method, however, speak to one another creatively and lead to a greater understanding of reality.  Christian theologians have described Faith, Religion, and Reason as aspects of the human experience that assist in the pursuit of truth, and ultimately the search for God.  Theologians such as Teilhard have poetically and analytically tried to incorporate the perspectives of science into their theologies.  On the other hand, scientists such as Francis Collins (former director of the Human Genome Project and 2020 Templeton Prize Winner) have tried to reconcile personal religious faith with their research.  Following such prominent examples of dialogue between these two human areas of inquiry,  we seek further conversation and collaboration between these two methods and modalities for encountering reality.  Faith, Religion, and Science are embodiments of different human capacities that have much to learn from one another with their own particular perspectives.  Sometimes there have been misguided or mistaken attempts to combine them.  Lumen et Vita seeks to engage and promote learning (in theoretical realms of theology and science and in practical realms such as the social sciences and pastoral practice), dialogue, and collaboration in exploring how these lenses might be used in conjunction to further true knowledge of humanity, creation, and, ultimately, the Divine.   

A tentative schedule:

• (Continental) Breakfast until 9:30

• 1st Keynote: Dr. Tucker: 9:30-10:30

• Break: until 10:45

• First set of two panels (concurrent): 10:45-12:00

• Lunch: 12-1

• Second set of two panels (concurrent): 1:15-2:30

• 2nd Keynote: Dr. Ferguson: 2:45-3:45

In addition to Twitter and Instagram, the CTSA is on LinkedIn.  Follow the CTSA at https://www.linkedin.com/company/catholic-theological-society-of-america!