Catholic Theological
Society of America

The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union invites contributions to a symposium focused on Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s consistent ethic of life on Sept. 17-18, 2022.  Our symposium, Life, Solidarity, Fraternity: The Consistent Ethic in Light of Fratelli Tutti, will explore the consistent ethic of life as a social ethic in the light of Pope Francis’s social teachings. Pope Francis has offered a comprehensive view of social ethics not only with solidarity, social friendship, and “a better kind of politics” as we read about them in Fratelli Tutti, but also with Laudato Si’ vision of integral ecology and the bold response to the pandemic described in Let Us Dream. The common ground between Pope Francis’s social teaching and the consistent ethic of life are the primary topic of the symposium.

Submissions are sought from current graduate students and recent Ph.D.'s in any applicable field.  Submissions from non-Catholic perspectives also are encouraged.

A complete call for papers with details and a tentative symposium schedule can be found at https://ctu.edu/consistent-ethic-2022-cfp/.  Direct questions to bernardincenter@ctu.edu.

REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.luc.edu/popefrancis/index.shtml

Loyola University Chicago reached out to the Head of Office of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Dr. Emilce Cuda, to lead a dialogue on the synodal process that Pope Francis has invited the Church to undertake.

Upon our suggestion, Dr. Cuda invited Pope Francis to personally participate in this dialogue. We are proud and excited to say that he accepted this invitation!

This historic encounter between the Pope and university students from North, Central, and South America will address salient challenges of our times. The Pope will dialogue with these university students, highlighting the contributions of students who are themselves migrants and children of migrants. The students will share concrete educational projects that seek to justly transform environmental and economic realities and the manifold ways their educational commitments can contribute to integrate and empower existential peripheries.

Loyola University of Chicago is honored to welcome Pope Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American Pope, and university students from across the Americas committed to social justice, serving others, and finding God in all things.

Please help us spread the word and encourage students to register for this unprecedented event and initiative among college and university students in the Americas. 

Primary Contacts at Loyola University Chicago:

Dr. Miguel Diaz, John Courtney Murray, S.J. University Chair in Public Service

Dr. Michael Murphy, Director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage

Dr. Peter Jones, Interim Dean of the Institute of Pastoral Studies 

Dr. Felipe Legarreta, Professor of Theology, Institute of Pastoral Studies 

Media Coverage:

https://www.vaticannews.va/es/iglesia/news/2022-01/francisco-convite-universidad-loyola-de-chicago-jovenes-migrante.html

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/01/26/pope-francis-loyola-chicago-university-students-americas-242289

https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/pope-francis-meet-college-students-virtual-dialogue-hosted-chicagos-loyola-university

Synodal Process: We are a listening Church
The Archdiocese of Seattle

CTSA member Jaisy Joseph, Assistant Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, Seattle University, serves on the Archdiocescan Pastoral Council of Seattle and has been working with Archbishop Etienne and their team to create resources and to be part of listening sessions.  Jaisy wishes to share their website and an intro video that that they developed.  (Link to video provided below.)

Let's journey together

Pope Francis is calling for the largest consultation of the human family in history, including all of us in Western Washington.  Watch Archbishop Etienne and others explain how local parishes, ministries, and lay people will host listening sessions to prayerfully read the signs of the times, interpret them in the light of the Gospel, and then discern how the Holy Spirit is calling the Body of Christ to accomplish our mission here and now.

See https://archseattle.org/about-the-archdiocese-of-seattle/archbishop-etienne/pastoralplanning/pastoral-plan/synod/

It is with great pleasure that we invite CTSA members to participate in the 11th World Forum on Theology and Liberation being held online June 6-9, 2022. The call for papers is now open and we welcome CTSA members to contribute. The link to the call for papers can be found below. 

We would like to thank the CTSA leadership for their continued support in this effort of collaboration and exchange. 

Call for Papers Link: WFTL 2022-Call For Contributions- 4 Languages

Sincerely,

Jaisy Joseph and Rufus Burnett, Jr.

CTSA Representatives to the World Forum on Liberation and Theology   

Today, the CTSA remembers longstanding member Francine J. Cardman.

May she rest in peace.

Francine's Profile at Boston College (View here)

Contribution to the CTSA convention in 1999:

"The Praxis of Ecclesiology: Learning from the Donatist Controversy" CTSA Proceedings 54 (1999): 25-37. 

July 24 - July 30, 2022

A graduate colloquium on Christ and the Holy Spirit in Aquinas and Bonaventure with Prof. Joseph Wawrykow. The Thomistic Institute’s graduate colloquia are intended to give a selection of emerging scholars from different PhD programs an opportunity to meet and work with other younger scholars that share their interests, and to benefit from the wisdom and formation of a senior scholar.

During this colloquium, students will have the opportunity to study the relationship between Christology and Pneumatology in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure, and the conversations that contextualized their views in the surrounding scholastic environment of the thirteenth century.

About the Speaker:

A professor at the University of Notre Dame, Joseph Wawrykow began his studies at the University of Manitoba, where he completed a Masters degree in 1980.  Subsequently, he completed his PhD with a Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship and a Whiting Prize Fellowship at Yale University under the direction of George Lindbeck.  Professor Wawrykow began teaching at Notre Dame in 1986, where he continues to teach and pursue research projects.  

Professor Wawrykow has taught a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in theology.  He regularly offers specialized research seminars for doctoral students on aspects of Aquinas’ thought such as grace and Christology and has directed many doctoral dissertations on Aquinas and other figures who shaped the theological development of the high medieval and scholastic West.  In 1999, he was designated a ‘Master Mentor’ by the Notre Dame Graduate School for his work with doctoral students, and his department has asked him to serve lengthy stints as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Graduate Studies (PhD).  In 2020, he was awarded by the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame The James A. Burns, C.S.C. Award for outstanding faculty mentorship.  

Professor Wawrykow’s first book, God’s Grace and Human Action: ‘Merit’ in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), plays an influential role in scholarly conversations about Aquinas’ theological anthropology. His Westminster Handbook to Thomas Aquinas (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005) provides an indispensable reference work for scholars and students of Aquinas. He has edited volumes, such as Christ among the Medieval Dominicans, co-edited with Kent Emery (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999) and The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, co-edited with Rik Van Nieuwenhove (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005). In addition, he has published numerous scholarly articles and invited essays.

This colloquium is open to current PhD students in philosophy, theology, and related fields. Attached to your application, please include a 500-word personal statement describing your current research and your reasons for applying to this colloquium.

Successful applicants will receive a full tuition scholarship and room and board for the duration of the conference. A limited number of travel scholarships are also available for select students who do not have access to institutional funding for travel.

Applications Close on March 31.

For more information and to apply: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events/graduate-colloquium-wawrykow 

July 17 - July 23, 2022

A graduate colloquium on Eucharistic Metaphysics with Prof. Gyula Klima. The Thomistic Institute’s graduate colloquia are intended to give a selection of emerging scholars from different PhD programs an opportunity to meet and work with other younger scholars that share their interests, and to benefit from the wisdom and formation of a senior scholar.

This colloquium will study the development of speculative accounts of the doctrine of the Eucharist, focusing on the medieval and early modern periods.  The mystery of this doctrine—in which the substance of bread and wine is believed to become the body and blood of Christ—has provoked reflection from a variety of theoretical perspectives for many centuries.  In addition to the questions it raises for systematic and historical theology, the doctrine of the Eucharist has also consistently given rise to metaphysical difficulties that have divided theological and philosophical schools of thought within the Western tradition.  This colloquium will study the development of this question and the significant theological and metaphysical questions it raises.  

About the Speaker:

A professor of philosophy at Fordham University, Gyula Klima has written on a wide variety of topics in medieval philosophy including logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. Completing his doctorate in Budapest in 1986, Professor Klima has held research and teaching positions in Europe (Budapest, Helsinki, St. Andrews and Copenhagen) and in the United States (Yale, Notre Dame, UCLA, Fordham). Since 1999 he has taught at Fordham University, where he was made a full professor in 2003. In 2009, he was made a Doctor of the Hungarian Academy, and since 2019, he has served as the director of the Research Center for the History of Ideas of the Hungarian Institute of Research. As the founding director of the Society of Medieval Logic and Metaphysics, Professor Klima continues to serve as editor of the Society’s proceedings. Recently, Professor Klima worked to establish the Society for the European History of Ideas and now serves as its founding director. He also serves as an editor for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy in the medieval philosophy subject area, and edits the series “Medieval Philosophy: Texts and Studies” for Fordham University Press and the series “Historical-Analytical studies on Nature, Mind and Action” for Springer. In addition to over one hundred scholarly articles, Professor Klima has produced over twenty edited volumes and scholarly monographs on a wide variety of topics in medieval philosophy.  

This colloquium is open to current PhD students in philosophy, theology, and related fields. Attached to your application, please include a 500-word personal statement describing your current research and your reasons for applying to this colloquium.

Successful applicants will receive a full tuition scholarship and room and board for the duration of the conference. A limited number of travel scholarships are also available for select students who do not have access to institutional funding for travel.

Applications Close on March 31.

For more information and to apply: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events/graduate-colloquium-klima

June 12 - 17, 2022

The Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship is a project sponsored by the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and by the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies that offers competitive fellowships for graduate students (and a few talented, upper-level undergraduates), drawing from across fields in the sciences, humanities, and from law.

Accepted fellowship recipients attend a one week program in Washington, D.C. that offers courses and seminars given by distinguished scholars focusing on some aspect of Catholic thought in relation to culture and public life.

This year’s Civitas Dei fellowship examines “The City of God in Modernity: Culture and Ecclesiology,” and will feature lectures that approach the question of the Church in relation to culture and society from different scholarly perspectives, drawing on resources from the Church’s experience during the patristic, medieval, and early modern periods. By participating in this fellowship, accepted students will be introduced to a wealth of scholarly resources on the Church’s life during these historical epochs, and encouraged to think critically about the application of these principles to the Church’s life in the present and future.

2022 Featured Speakers:

Prof. Carlos Eire (Yale University)

Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. (Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology)

Prof. Thomas Clemmons (Catholic University of America)

Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates in all disciplines. Successful applicants will receive travel funding as well as lodging for the extent of the fellowship and waived registration fee.

Applications are accepted until March 31.  

For more information and to apply: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events/civitas-dei-summer-fellowship-22

Please see below the USPS website for requesting free-at-home Covid-19 tests, four tests per order, one order per residential address.

https://special.usps.com/testkits

Remembering William (Bill) M. Shea who died on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Here is a link to Bill's contribution to the  CTSA's 32nd annual convention.  His presentation was titled "Seminary of Theology and Philosophy: Matthew Lamb's Five Models of Theory-Praxis and the Interpretation of John Dewey's Pragmatism". 

See: https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ctsa/article/view/2880/2505

May Bill rest in peace.