Five members of the CTSA took part in a project initiated by the Migrants and Refugees section of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development in 2022. Through one-on-one and small group conversations in major cities throughout North America, they listened to those who occupy the margins of society and the church. This roundtable discussion introduces their methods, discusses what they learned from their dialogue partners, and identifies implications for theological construction. Dr. Bradford Hinze (Fordham University) will convene this selected session, and Dr. Meghan J. Clark (St. John’s University) will moderate. Panelists include Fr. Stan Chu Ilo (DePaul University), Fr. Darren Dias (University of St. Michael’s), and me. See the CTSA Convention Program for details.

The College of Philosophy and Letters will host a one-day conference about the North American Working Group’s report on this project. Our conversations will be shaped by dialogue with three panels: one made up of Working Group members, another of Saint Louis University faculty, and a third of local lay ecclesial ministers. All are welcome. Click here for more information.

Time listed is subject to change.

Across its great diversity, the Christian Church relies on vast numbers of “church workers” – in pastoral, service and support positions – in its mission of proclaiming and living the Gospel. The volatile cultural, economic, and political contexts surrounding this work today lay bare serious social and ethical challenges to familiar ways of organizing this “Church Work.” Our panel opens with a short presentation on the struggle against institutional exploitation of such workers – especially women – in the Roman Catholic Church. Responding panelists will consider how such exploitation and numerous other factors drive alternative forms of service out of the traditional confines of ministry. Religious and secular laity, even some clerics, carry the Gospel to their work in prisons, community organizations, advocacy groups, etc., without averting to "church," engaging new ethical challenges along the way. Presentation by Phyllis Zagano (Hofstra University), responses from Cesar (CJ) Baldelomar (Boston College), Milton Javier Bravo (Fordham University), and Jennifer Owens-Jofré (Seminary of the Southwest).

Time listed is subject to change.

Part of the panel named above, my presentation will take place during this year’s ACHTUS Colloquium, focusing on the notion of the Latinx Catholic theologian as listener.

We live in a time of socio-historical transition on political, cultural, and ecological fronts. What is our role as teachers of theology and religious studies in this time? What pedagogical strategies can we employ in our classrooms in order to create liberative spaces where, together with our students, we can engage the critical questions of our time and envision a new future of justice and flourishing? Join us in a panel discussion, hosted by eight teacher-scholars (Jaisy Joseph, Salih Saligyan, Michael Walker, Jennifer Quigley, Mary Emily Duba, Kyle Brooks, Kyle Lambelet, and me) who will share their own practices of liberative pedagogy and open a discussion of what it means to teach in this time of crisis and open a time of collaborative discussion.

rev. abby mohaupt and I will co-present at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion this fall. We will share this paper, the abstract for which follows.

Climate change and immigration are difficult topics, made more volatile when put in conversation with religion. However, two feminist scholars have created a mobile classroom for students to learn from people who have migrated to the US and people experiencing the effects of climate change. The classroom centers lived experience and solidarity, inviting students to learn in the public sphere as we move from a Texas seminary to the US/Mexico border.

We go to the border because we have been invited. We listen to stories of people and meet the land itself. We walk with students as they discern how they will respond. We invite students to become aware not only of the teachings of the religious and secular  traditions to which they belong, but also to introduce them to contexts that can acquaint them with right orientation of the heart and right action on immigration and climate change.

June 6-9, 2019
Catholic Theological Society of America
Pittsburgh, PA

Drawing on the work of dialogue partners from Chicana feminist literature and Latina theology, this paper explores the possibility that anger can be an experience that clarifies a just course of action.   It will provide support for the claim that righteous anger not only is an appropriate response to injustice, but can also clear a path toward right action toward ecclesial change. In doing so, this paper will focus on the systemic sexual abuse of children at the hands of Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania.

June 6-9, 2019
Catholic Theological Society of America
Pittsburgh, PA

This paper details two popular Catholic practices—las caminatas por la paz (the peace walks) y las Misas en el barrio (neighborhood Masses)—that witness to the reality of the Kin-dom of God.  Drawing on two winters of field research in an East Los Angeles Catholic parish, I highlight the tensions between the work of a parish that has partnered with their local police department for over thirty years, in the hopes of bringing gang violence in their neighborhood to an end, and the fatal violence that police department perpetrated against a 14-year-old boy in August 2016.

American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit; Liberation Theologies Unit; and Practical Theology Unit
See AAR Program Book for location of panel.

image: Fr. Mark Chavez, SJ, Our Lady of the Whole World

San Francisco Theological Seminary
San Anselmo, CA