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Past Speakers

            

 


John L. Allen, Jr.   
The Upside Down Church (2006-2007)

John L. Allen Jr. is, according to the London Tablet, the most authoritative Vatican writer in the English language. Since 1999, he has served as the prize-winning Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and a CNN analyst on Vatican affairs. He also appears on National Public Radio.

Allen is the author of three books on Vatican affairs: Conclave: The Politics, Personalities and Process of the Next Papal Election; All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks; and The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church. His most recent work is Opus Dei: An Objective Look behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. Allen is a graduate of the University of Kansas, with a master’s degree in religious studies.

What will it mean for the Church that Indonesia, Nigeria and Argentina are increasingly becoming the centers of intellectual and pastoral energy that France, Italy and Belgium once were? John Allen's lecture shared his insights into the global south, and examined what its ascendance means for Roman Catholicism on a global scale.

Helen Alvaré, JD   
Church, Laity and Family (2005-2006)

Helen M. Alvaré, who received her juris doctorate from Cornell University in 1984 and a master's degree in theology from The Catholic University of America in 1989, has joined the law school as an associate professor. Since 1987 she has worked at the National Conference on Catholic Bishops, first in the Office of General Counsel and later as the director of information and planning for the bishops' pro-life office. Alvaré also spoke for the American Catholic bishops in television, radio, print media and public lectures. Alvaré has testified on behalf of the bishops before federal congressional committees and lobbied members of Congress on federal legislation concerning abortion, health care and welfare reform. Alvaré previously worked as a staff attorney for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and as an associate at Stradley, Ronon, Stevens and Young in Philadelphia.

There is no need to wait for further evidence. The evidence is in. And it shows that our national experiment in unmooring the family from principles of natural reason and mutual solidarity has been a failure.

The Church has historically claimed an expert role in the debate over the family. It continues to do so, although more explicitly at the universal rather than at the local level. In recent times, this claim has drawn constant fire, particularly in the secular press where there deep suspicions are voiced concerning the Church's claims to expertise.

It turns out, however, that current empirical investigations are demonstrating more than ever how welcome the Church ought to be in the current conversations about the primary cell and bell-weather of modern society - the family. At the same time, the Church's participation raises questions important to the future of the Church and society: On what sources ought the Church rely for its contributions to the national conversation? How can the Church handle the internal divisions family issues tend to provoke? (now, and time out of mind....). What should the role(s) of the laity be, especially in this family arena?

Questions about the family are as neuralgic as they are unavoidable in every age. How the Church proceeds and what She says will have important implications both for the future of the Church and for society.

R. Scott Appleby, PhD   
Barefoot and Brown-Skinned: A Portrait of an Evolving Priesthood (2004-2005)

Appleby is Professor of History and the Director of Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Justice Anne M. Burke   

Establishing a Strategy for a Safe Environment (2004-2005)
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Burke served as a member and interim chair of the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Child and Youth Protection. The National Review Board was created two years ago to establish a safe environment for children and young people of the Church.

Simone Campbell, SSS   
Fear Based Politics - and an Antidote (2007-2008)

For many years the political rhetoric in the United States has been polarized, divisive and fear-based. This has driven people further and further apart, while making security and the War on Terrorism the basis of political campaigns. During this time, the United States has drifted further and further from the founding notion of the common good. Sister Simone Campbell will explore this fear-based reality from her inside Washington perspective and propose an alternative view based in the Gospel, the pain of our time and the challenge to a faith that lives hope.

Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK since 2004, is a religious leader, attorney and poet with extensive experience in public policy and advocacy for systemic change. In Washington, she lobbies on issues of peace building and economic justice. Around the country, she is a noted speaker and educator on these public policy issues.

Prior to coming to NETWORK, Simone served as the Executive Director of JERICHO, the California interfaith public policy organization that work s like NETWORK to protect the interests of people who are poor. Simone also participated in a delegation of religious leaders to Iraq in December 2002, just prior to the war. Since returning, she has spoken and written extensively on her experience.

Before JERICHO, Simone served as the general director of her religious community, the Sisters of Social Service. She was the leader of her sisters in the United States, Mexico, Taiwan and the Philippines. In this capacity, she negotiated with government and religious leaders in each of these countries.

In 1978, Simone founded and served for 18 years as the lead attorney for the Community Law Center in Oakland, California. She served the family law and probate needs of the working poor of her county.

M. Shawn Copeland, PhD   
Thinking Theologically about Race, Gender and Politics (2008-2009)

Patricia Crowley, OSB   

Can We Really End Homelessness in Chicago? (2004-2005)
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Since 1991, Crowley has been the Executive Director of Deborah's Place, a Chicago nonprofit serving women who are homeless. In 2003, Crowley helped to write Chicago's groundbreaking plan to end homelessness in 10 years.

John Dear, SJ   
Peace, Shalom, Salaam: Interfaith Nonviolence and the Children of Abraham (2007-2008)

Interfaith nonviolence is our future, John Dear will tell us. All the religions are rooted in nonviolence, even Christianity, and each one of us is called to work for a new world without war, poverty or nuclear weapons, a new world of nonviolence.

John Dear, S.J. will speak about the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other modern peacemakers and their legacy of nonviolence as our only hope, as the only way to look at the world, as the best political solution for each of us personally, nationally and globally.

John Dear, S.J. is a Jesuit priest, pastor, peace activist, organizer, lecturer, retreat leader, and the author/editor of 25 books on peace and justice. His most recent book is "Transfiguration." He is also a weekly columnist for the National Catholic Reporter.

Cathleen Falsani   
Surprised by God (2006-2007)

Cathleen Falsani is a religion writer for the Chicago Sun-times. In her critically acclaimed new book The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Falsani has been interested in "discovering God in the places some people say God isn't supposed to be" - interviewed more than thirty "culture shapers," from Elie Wiesel and Barack Obama to Anne Rice and Billy Corgan. Through her intimate, often surprising conversations with these public people, she discovered private folks whose spiritual lives mirror those of the rest of us, as they wrestle with faith, doubt, and how to live as a believer (or not). The God Factor paints a spiritual portrait of popular culture that shows, through the compelling voices of strangers with familiar faces, how society is changing and how faith, essentially, is not.

From the Holy See, the Caribbean and Northern Ireland to the West Wing, the Playboy Mansion and the dugout at Wrigley Field, for the last decade Cathleen Falsani, religion writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, has covered the intersection of religion and culture. Religion at its worst can divide us - into "evil doers" and heroes, Red States and Blue States, martyr and infidel - but it also has the power to unite us in the most profound ways. At a time when it is increasingly acceptable to discuss spiritual matters in public (and even at dinner parties), Falsani continues to chronicle our common search for meaning, transcendence, and the sacred. 

Kevin FitzGerald, SJ, PhD   
Stem Cell Research: Moral Gridlock or Medical Gain? (2009-2010)

Too often the opposing positions in the stem cell and cloning debate are presented in terms of the obviousness of their assertions made.  Considering the complex nature of these controversial issues challenging our society, the reality is much less clear and certain.  How might we best respond to the challenge of human embryonic stem cell and cloning research in the face of the uncertainties that pervade this issue?

Uncertainty is present in all aspects of this issue: scientific, medical, moral, religious, and political. From this scientific uncertainty FitzGerald then addresses fundamental philosophical questions raised by the new discoveries in stem cell science.  Finally, an ethical framework based upon insights from Catholic moral reasoning are applied to the stem cell and cloning controversy in order to suggest a constructive and concrete way forward that could be truly beneficial for all societies and cultures.

Father Kevin Fitzgerald, S.J., PhD is a Research Associate Professor in the Division of Biochemistry and Pharmacology of the Department of Oncology at the Georgetown University Medical Center's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and a Ph.D. in Bioethics from Georgetown University. His research interests have included the investigation of abnormal gene regulation in cancer and ethical issues in human genetics, including the ethical and social ramifications of molecular genetics research.

He is an expert on human cloning, cloning research, ethics of cloning, and genetic testing.

Michelle A. Gonzalez, PhD   

Standing at the Well: An Encounter and a Call (2003-2004)
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Gonzalez is an assistant professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., and specializes in United States minority, Third World and feminist theologies. A native of Miami, Gonzalez is a Cuban-American, the daughter of two Cuban exiles. She earned her doctorate from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif.

Rev. Andrew Greeley, STL, PhD   

Quest for Faith (2003-2004)
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Rev. Greeley, Catholic priest, sociologist and author, initiated Loyola University Chicago's new Chapel Series with his reflections titled, "The Quest For Faith." A professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona, Phoenix, Greeley shared his thoughts on the Catholic Church as it copes with sexual abuse scandals and the resulting crisis of faith that has caused among churchgoers. Greeley's newest books, Priests: A Calling in Crisis and Priestly Sins: A Novel About Catholicism in Crisis, were released in 2004.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP   
The Principle of Hope (2005-2006)

Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P. is known as the father of liberation theology, one of the most influential movements in contemporary theology. Born in Lima, Peru, in 1928, Gutiérrez grew up among the poor. After studying in both Rome and France, he returned to Peru to teach at the Catholic University of Lima but chose to live in the slums of the city rather than the more comfortable neighborhood surrounding the university. Gutiérrez drew international attention to the plight of the poor in Latin America when he challenged his church to work for liberation and justice by identifying and changing the social, political and economic structures that perpetuated oppression, rather than just following traditional acts of charity.

What is the specific contribution that the church makes to our world? The involvement of Christians, of course, includes many things: the rich record of discursive knowledge - or theoria - developed by philosophers and theologians across the centuries; the creative work - or poiesis - of artists who have expressed their Christian vision through architecture, painting, sculpture, poetry, music and dance; and the social commitment - or praxis - of so many prophets and disciples who generously devoted their lives to the poor in order to make the world a home for all. But the key thread and driving force that runs through all of these involvements is hope. Archbishop Oscar Romero put it well: "In the end, the main contribution which the church can offer our world is hope." Drawing on Romero's life and message, this lecture will focus on the nature of Christian hope, its cost, and how that hope may be sustained in these times.

Monika K. Hellwig   
Model of the Whole Person (2005-2006)

Dr. Monika Hellwig, who was scheduled to speak on this date, died suddenly in September 2005. Monika Hellwig was a pathfinder in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, in initiatives to open opportunities for women in higher education and theological scholarship, and in efforts to foster peace and justice through education. Most recently she was president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. Dr. Hellwig's life exemplifies what it means to be an effective Christian in the modern world. John Haughey, S.J. offered a reflection on the life and ministry of Monika Hellwig - how she lived her life as a whole person and her legacy to the Church.

Marcia Hermansen, PhD   
Cultural Worlds/Culture Wars: Islam, Christianity, and Culture in the 21st Century (2007-2008)

Christians and Muslims live their faith today in many cultures. While neither the Bible nor the Qur'an addresses "culture" directly, they both incorporate a broader concept of the “world." This diversity raises similar, important challenges for members of these religious traditions as well as for those who wonder about religion’s role in ‘culture wars.’  Beginning with the description of five typical patterns of Christianity’s interaction with the world in H. Richard Niebuhr’s classic study, Christ and Culture, Dr. Hermansen highlights corresponding debates and positions among Muslims, both in classical works and in contemporary America. She considers how Islam itself has become a polarizing element in 21st century American "culture wars."

Marcia Hermansen is Professor of Theology here at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches courses in Islamic Studies and World Religions. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Her book, The Conclusive Argument from God, was published in 1996.

Dr. Hermansen has also contributed numerous academic articles in the fields of Islamic Thought, Sufism, Islam and Muslims in South Asia, Muslims in America, and Women in Islam.

Michael Joncas   
Embarrassment of Riches or Cultural Wasteland? (2008-2009)

Thomas M. King, SJ   
Teilhard de Chardin, S.J: Intelligent Design and the Anthropic Principle (2006-2007)

King is professor of theology at Georgetown University. He is author of five books on Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., the latest being Teilhard’s Mass [Paulist Press, 2005] and is on the board of the American Teilhard Association.

The mystery of Creation continues to inspire and perplex the human mind and spirit. Today we hear of conflict between Religion and Science and even arguments in U.S. courts concerning Evolution and the Intelligent Design Movement.  How was this debate addressed over eighty years ago?

In the early twentieth century Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., a distinguished paleontologist and theologian, devoted his academic research, ministry and career to this question. This lecture will center on Teilhard’s understanding of how Christianity and Evolution belong together and suggest how he would have responded to the modern concepts of Intelligent Design and the Anthropic Principle.

Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD   

Spiritlinking Leadership for Troubled Times (2003-2004)
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Markham is the former president of the Southdown Institute in Aurora, Ontario, a treatment center that provides in-patient and out-patient care for clergy. Currently, she serves as special assistant to the president at Georgetown University, where she is also the director for leadership initiatives.

Ronald Modras, PhD   
Vision, Mission, Prayer: The Legacy of Ignatius Loyola (2006-2007)

Dr. Ronald Modras is a professor of theological studies at Saint Louis University where he has taught since 1979. He received a doctorate in theology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, where he studied under Professor Joseph Ratzinger, now better known as Pope Benedict XVI.

Dr. Modras has been involved in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue for over thirty years. For many years he served on the Advisory Committee to the National Council of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations.

He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and seven books, the most recent being Ignatian Humanism, A Dynamic Spirituality for the 21st Century. He has lectured at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Oxford University, and the University of Berlin.

The Jesuits have been scientists and theologians, poets and philosophers, explorers and missionaries, preachers and martyrs. How did seven college students begin all this? In the past 466 years Jesuit priests and brothers have lived an amazing story of serving the Church and the world in new, unexpected and often controversial ways. How does this legacy continue in the twenty-first century?

Richard John Neuhas   
How to live in the splendor of Truth in a world that denies that there is any such Thing (2003-2004)

Claire Noonan, MDiv   

Laying Down Our Lives: Leadership in a New Generation (2004-2005)
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Noonan currently serves as the Director of Ministry for the Jesuit First Studies Program at Loyola University Chicago.  She previously served as a chaplain with University Ministry at Loyola. She was formerly co-director of the Apostolic Volunteer Program and then program director at Call to Action, a national organization of Catholics promoting justice in church and society. She earned her M.Div. degree from the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, Calif.

David O'Brien, PhD   

What's Love Got To Do With It?: The Politics Of An American Catholic Vocation (2003-2004)
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O'Brien is a professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross where he specializes in the history of American Catholicism. Among his books are Public Catholicism: American Catholics in Public Life and Isaac Hecker: An American Catholic, named the best book on the history of Catholicism by the American Catholic Historical Association.

Dianna Ortiz, OSU   
Torture: Where is the Outrage? (2005-2006)

In Guatemala, while working with people who had been victimized by one of the most oppressive regimes of Latin America, Ortiz was abducted and forced to endure unspeakable horrors of torture. In the aftermath of her kidnapping and torture, Sister Dianna lost memory of her life before abduction, and since that time, she has battled both real and remembered demons in her struggle to heal.

The current situation in the United States is showing once again, that human beings have not learned much from History. This is a moral, ethical issue. Torture is an evil act that will take much more than words of condemnation; it will take everybody's peaceful but strong actions of outrage to eradicate torture, until we all create a torture-free world! Sister Dianna Ortiz has an indomitable spirit. She stretches human understanding of the capacity for a person of faith to find purpose, goodness and hope in the face of overwhelming odds. Forced to experience the depths of human depravity and evil, she has traveled the long journey upward to lead the world to recognize and unite to abolish the evils of torture. Through support, solidarity and organization, she follows her Ursuline commitment to educate average citizens and powerful leaders of government about this evil all too present in the world today.

Jamie T. Phelps, OP, PhD   
God's Power Acting In and Through Us Can Do Infinitely More than We Can Ask or Imagine (2004-2005)  

Dr. Jamie T. Phelps, O.P., Ph.D., is a Roman Catholic Sister who has been a member of the Adrian Dominican Congregation since 1959. She is director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies and professor of systematic theology at Xavier University of Louisiana. Dr. Phelps came to Xavier from a tenured appointment in systematic and constructive theology at Loyola University Chicago. Before Loyola, she completed a 12-year term as tenured professor of doctrinal and mission theology, and as director of the Augustus Tolton Lay Ministry Program at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. During the Spring term of the 2002-2003 academic year at the University of Dayton, Dr. Phelps served as the distinguished visiting professor of theology.

Timothy Radcliffe, OP, PhD   
"Blessed are the Peacemakers: the Challenge of Peace in the Church" (2007-2008)

In the United states the Church suffers wounds of division and incomprehension, which mar the witness of the Church to Christ's peace. In this lecture Timothy Radcliffe OP looks at how we can understand these and seek to overcome them.

Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. is a member of the community at Blackfriars, Oxford, and was Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001. He is the author of 4 books, the latest being “What Is the Point of Being A Christian?”

Thomas Reese, SJ   
Faithful Citizenship (2007-2008)

Red states and blue states. Obama or McCain? Catholics have voted for the winner in almost every presidential election since Franklin Roosevelt was elected. What are the "Catholic" issues in the 2008 election? What is the role of the Catholic bishops?

Thomas Reese is a Roman Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits. He was editor in chief of America Magazine from 1998 to 2005. While editor of America, he redesigned the magazine, hired the first woman editor, increased circulation, established a Web edition and published articles on a wide variety of issues facing the church and the world. He is a widely recognized expert on the U.S. Catholic Church and is frequently cited by journalists. He is author of numerous books including Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.

Susan Ross, PhD   
Steps Toward Reconciliation: Justice and the Voices of Women (2006-2007)

Ross is Professor of Theology and a Faculty Scholar at Loyola University Chicago where she currently serves as Director of the Ann Ida Gannon BVM Center for Women and Leadership.

She is the author of “Extravagant Affections: A Feminist Sacramental Theology” [New York: Continuum Press, 1998] and the co-editor of “Broken and Whole: Essays on Religion and the Body” [University Press of America, 1995].  Her latest book is “For the Beauty of the Earth: Women, Sacramentality and Justice," [Paulist Press, 2006].

Much has been made in recent years of the coming domination of the Christian churches by the global south, whose way of seeing the world does not reflect the liberal agenda of the west. Meanwhile, the churches of the global north are divided over issues having to do with sexuality. Yet in these discussions, little attention has been paid to the lives and experiences of the world's poor women. This lecture will ask how the divisions in the contemporary world might be better addressed by considering the lives of women and will draw on their experiences for new ways of envisioning justice and reconciliation.

Rick Ryscavage, SJ   
Global Migration: Challenging the Catholic University (2008-2009)

Peter Schraeder, PhD   
The Cross, the Crescent and the Ballot Box: Catholic and Islamic Perspectives on International Democracy Promotion (2008-2009)

Sr. Katarina Schuth, OSF, PhD   
Toward Building a Reconciling World (2004-2005)
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Sr. Katarina Schuth, OSF, PhD, a Franciscan Sister, currently holds the Endowed Chair for the Social Scientific Study of Religion at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. She has just completed a major book about the future of theological education.

Donald Senior, CP   
Finding the Bones of Jesus: What Difference would it Make? (2007-2008)
(Text in PDF format)

What does it mean that the Risen Christ is at the center of our faith? What is the meaning of resurrection for us? Do the gospels nourish and inform this faith today?

Don Senior is a Roman Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Passion – the Passionists. Of particular interest to him has been the connection between the theological and literary characteristics of each Gospel and the pastoral and missionary contexts of the early Church. Don’s familiarity with the history and landscape of the Middle East has prompted strong interest in the historical Jesus and the social and historical context of the New Testament.

Myles Sheehan, SJ, MD   
Recovering Our Traditions: End of Life Care from a Catholic Perspective (2005-2006)

Dr. Myles N. Sheehan, S.J. is Senior Associate Dean for Educational Programs at Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine. Dr. Sheehan is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 was listed as one of Chicago's Top Doctors.

Dr. Sheehan was named a 1999-2001 Faculty Scholar with the Project on Death in America; his project focused on improving the care of the dying in the American Catholic community. Dr. Sheehan currently combines an active ministry with medical students with his responsibilities in curriculum development, educational administration, teaching, and patient care.

What does it mean to die well in the Twenty-first century and how does our Roman Catholic tradition influence our perspective and choices on issues related to medical care, the use of life sustaining technology, and a happy death? In this presentation, Fr. Myles Sheehan, S.J., Senior Associate Dean at Loyola's Stritch School of Medicine and a physician specializing in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics will consider a focus on some of the essential questions in end of life care and Catholic tradition. Emphasized will be a need to balance what is common, expected, and usual outcomes with the pernicious influence caused by over attention to unusual cases and undue attention to dilemmas.

Rev. Bob Silva   
A Time for Humble Courage (2004-2005)
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Rev. Bob Silva is the President of the National Federation of Priests Councils.

 

Peter Steinfels, PhD    
Prophets & Scribes: Catholics, Intellectuals and the Pursuit of Wisdom (2003-2004)
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Steinfels is a columnist for The New York Times. After serving as senior religion correspondent for The New York Times from 1988 to 1997, Steinfels now writes the "Beliefs" column on religion and ethics for the Times. He is the author of A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America. Steinfels graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 1963 and earned a Ph.D. in European history from Columbia University.

James & Evelyn Whitehead   
Nourishing the Spirit: Religious Studies and the Study of Religion in China Today (2006-2007) 

Kevin Willmott   

Film and the Prophetic Witness (2004-2005)

Kevin Willmott is an Assistant Professor in the Film Studies Department of Kansas University. He grew up in Junction City, Kansas and received a B.A. in Drama from Marymount College. After graduation, he returned home to work as a peace and civil rights activist, fighting for the rights of the poor, creating two Catholic Worker shelters for the homeless and forcing the integration of several long standing segregated institutions. He attended graduate studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, receiving several writing awards and his M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing. He is a prolific screenwriter and has also written for television. Most recently Willmott authored Colored Men about the Houston riot of 1917. He also adapted The Watsons Go to Birmingham for CBS, Columbia Tri-Star, and Executive Producer Whoopi Goldberg. His current film, CSA: The Confederate States Of America, is about the United States had the South won the Civil War. It is scheduled for release in the Summer of 2005.

Garry Wills   
The Rosary (2005-2006)

Wills is an author and historian and currently an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University. In 1993, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, and has written publicly acclaimed books such as Why I Am a Catholic (2002) and Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit (2000).

Christine Wiseman, PhD   
Learning, Justice and Faith: Higher Education in the Jesuit Catholic Tradition (2008-2009)