Catholic Theological
Society of America

Catholic schools are essential for the mission of the Church. To support Catholic schools and universities worldwide, we just launched a new website at www.GlobalCatholicEducation.org with the support of the four major internaional organizations representing Catholic education in international fora (OIEC, IFCU, OMAEC, and UMEC-WUCT). 

The mission of the website is to inform and connect Catholic educators globally. It provides them with data, analysis, opportunities to learn, and other resources to help them fulfill their mission with a particular focus on the preferential option for the poor. The website also includes a blog that provides once a week short posts with links to resources that may be useful to Cathlic educators.

If you would like to be involved in this initative, please contact us at GlobalCatholicEducation@gmail.com. This is a volunteer-led initiative and we can benefit from all the help we can get. Thank you!

Nathaniel Marx, Authentic Liturgy: Minds in Tune with Voices (Liturgical Press, Nov. 2020). 

In October, Bloomsburgy Digital Resources launched its Library of Catholic Thought, a new module and part of our Theology & Religion Online research hub.   Library of Catholic Thought covers nearly two millennia of global Catholic thought, tradition, and culture, and explores scholarship from the Church Fathers to the present day.  It also includes The New Jerome Biblical Commentary: Second Revised Edition, which is digitally exclusive to Library of Catholic Thought. 

LibraryOfCatholicThought.pdf

The Edmundite Graduate Fellows Program for African American Scholars

Named in honor of the College’s founding Catholic order, the Edmundites, who began ministering with African Americans in Selma, Alabama, in the 1930s.  Edmundites have continued to work in solidarity with African Americans in the South to this day, committing resources to providing direct assistance to the poor of Alabama but more importantly working with the African American community in the Selma environs in the development of skills and the creation of jobs in some of the poorest counties of the United States.  The commitment of Edmundites to the work of racial justice finds its expression at Saint Michael’s College through Edmundites working at the college to end racism on campus and to promote a student body and faculty that is diverse and values and diversity.

This teaching fellows program seeks to attract African American scholars to complete their doctoral studies at Saint Michael’s College, thereby advancing the rich tradition and history of the Edmundites and the College serving underrepresented communities and scholars. It will also serve to enrich the Saint Michael’s community and student learning by bringing important research, perspectives, and voices to our campus and our classrooms.

A community committed to inclusion

As a small liberal arts institution in one of the least diverse states in the country, Saint Michael’s College is (continuously) challenged by a lack of diversity among its student body, staff and its faculty. A diverse faculty benefits the entire community and enriches the learning that takes place in and out of the classroom by introducing important underrepresented voices and different perspectives. Indeed, it is the obligation of a quality liberal arts institution to include those perspectives and voices as part of the educational experience.

In order to encourage scholars to consider Saint Michael’s College as a place to live and work to complete their important doctoral work, the College is offering the Edmundite Graduate Fellows Program for African American Scholars. This program will offer scholars in the final stages of their doctoral work, and who need only to finish the dissertation to complete requirements for the Ph.D. a welcoming community to begin their careers, a stipend of $20,000, housing, health benefits, and up to $3,000 toward relocation expenses. The academic areas where the fellows program is being awarded are: all disciplines considered.

Requirements

Fellows accepted to the program will be expected to teach one class and host one lecture each semester, usually in the fellow's general research area. Saint Michael’s College assumes that the fellow will participate in the intellectual life of his/her home department, as well as in the broader cultural life of the College. Our primary expectation, however, and the main focus of this fellowship, is the completion of the dissertation.

For more information contact:

Margaret Bass, PhD

Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion
mbass@smcvt.edu

smcvt.edu/edmundite-graduate-fellows-program

Every two years, the Research Unit Systematic Theology of KU LEUVEN hosts the international conference "Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology". The next LEST conference will take place at KU Leuven, 20-23 October, 2021. The topic is "DISSENTING CHURCH - Exploring the Theological Power of Conflict and Disagreement".

The Call for Papers is now live - Deadline 1 March, 2021:

https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/lest/lest-xiii/call-for-papers

Join the Jesuit Refugee Service's Virtual Event

Walking with Refugees for Forty Years
Thursday, November 12, at 6 p.m. (EST)

Tonight Jesuit Refugee Service is celebrating its 40th Anniversary with a Virtual National event that I hope you can all watch. The attached link to a 2-page flyer describes the event  The second page has sponsorship levels.  You should all feel comfortable signing up simply as friends (which we all are).  And if you're short of cash in this crazy time we're living in, just write me (ljodsj@yahoo.com) and I'll send you the link for the event.  I believe you will find it truly compelling.

Serving as the Director of Mission for JRS has been one of the most blessed experiences of my life.  If you spend an hour with "our refugees" tomorrow night, you'll share that blessing.

God bless.

Leo

For the last 40 years, Jesuit Refugee Service has walked with those who are forcibly displaced — working for a world where refugees and forcibly displaced people attain protection, opportunity, and participation. Join us as we recognize the work JRS has done over the last four decades, express our commitment to continuing to provide service to refugees, and honor those who’ve helped us along the way.

FEATURING

Madeline Albright

President-Elect Joe Biden

Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Comedian Jim Gaffigan and Writer, Director, and Producer, Jeannie Gaffigan

Rev. James Martin, S.J., Esteemed Author and Editor

Katie Ledecky, Swimmer and Olympian

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Immunologist and Director of the NIAID

Testimonies and performances from refugees

Rev. Arturo Sosa, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus

Performance by Grammy Award Winner Isabel Leonard

Special message from Pope Francis read by JRS International Director,

Rev. Tom Smolich, S.J.

We will honor in a special way the leaders of the Global Education Initiative – an ambitious international campaign to enable us to open the doors of our education programs to 250,000 refugees each year by 2020 – Rita Bennett, Molly Cashin, Margaret Green-Rauenhorst, and Madeline Lacovara.

See https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/WhctKJWJDWqvZhrdxqRJlNVLlcRKHNPBjhPWZsHJlHnWHnpfScKQsClsXtHCKFWFTxHpNkq?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

Click on this link to view the Event Recording

The CTSA hosted the event "Teaching and Doing Theology in Real Time: Summer, 2020, and Black Lives Matter" for its membership.  Recognizing time restraints that apply to the event and to encourage further dialogue, this Newsfeed post is a platform that may be used by the membership to continue the discussion.   While only members may post on the Newsfeed, the Newsfeed itself is available to the public for viewing.

Mary Jane Ponyik
Executive Director

Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations

CALL FOR PAPERS

The editorial board of Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, a peer-reviewed journal, invites submissions for its current and future volumes. SCJR publishes scholarship on the history, theology, and contemporary realities of Jewish-Christian relations and reviews new materials in the field, providing a vehicle for exchange of information, cooperation, and mutual enrichment in the field of Christian-Jewish studies and relations. 

Interested authors are encouraged to contact the editors in advance. Papers should be submitted through the journal’s website.

All papers will be subject to peer-review before acceptance for publication.

SCJR is included in the following indexes: ATLA’s Full-text Journal Index and Religion Database; EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (ASC), Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, and Humanities International Index; Index to Jewish Periodicals; ProQuest Religion Database; and RAMBI (Index of Articles on Jewish Studies).

Special CFP for Vol. 16 (2021)

SCJR invites the submission of articles that engage with the roles of guilt, sin, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation in Christian-Jewish relations applying—but not limited to—theological, historical, psychological, sociological, and contemporary perspectives. Articles that seek to strengthen Jewish-Christian relations by examining or proposing Jewish and Christian responses are especially welcome.
Articles may be submitted through September 1, 2021.

www.bc.edu/scjr

Here is a link to my recent reflection on the contribution of Pope Francis's encyclical Fratelli Tutti to the relations between Christians and Muslims.

https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/pope-francis-encyclical-and-solidarity-with-muslims

David Hollenbach, S.J.

Here is a link to an interview I gave to the Harvard Gazette on October 23, regarding Pope Francis' comments on civil unions. It was completed, however, before more recent information has come forward regarding the editing of the original documentary, etc.

Francis X. Clooney, SJ

Harvard University

CTSA Vice-President