Catholic Heritage Series

From Woe to Wonder: Thoughts on the Potential of Catholic Imagination

Dr. Karen Eifler
Director of Collegium and Professor Emerita, University of Portland

Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 4:00 PM-5:30 PM
Le Roux Room, Student Center
Public reception at 3:30pm

Far from a static repository of dusty mandates from days long past, Catholic Intellectual Tradition invites us to lean into our bruised, blessed world with an imagination that is 100% honest AND attuned to endless occasions of grace. With a little help from poet Mary Oliver, this talk offers glimpses of our capacity to embrace joy and flex our flagging hope muscles.

Bio note: Karen Eifler directs Collegium, a national colloquy on faith and intellectual life designed to nurture faculty of all disciplines to grasp their vital, distinctive contributions to the world and to Catholic higher education. She just concluded a mostly joy-filled career at the University of Portland, where she taught teachers for 26 years and ran the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life & American Culture. Recent essay collections include Why Theology Needs Ted Lasso and Schitt’s Creek, and Near Occasions of Hope: A Woman’s Glimpse of a Church That Can Be.

Fall Catholic Heritage Lecture: Toward a Synodal Spirituality of Unity in Diversity

Dr. Allan Figueroa Deck, SJ
Loyola Marymount University

Tuesday, October 22 at 4pm
Le Roux Room, STCN 160 (or Zoom option available)

The synodal reform of the Church under the energetic leadership of Pope Francis is his signature legacy for the Church and the world. He speaks of synodality as spirituality and as the way forward for the Church in the Third Millennium.  What is synodality, and how can it be understood as an applied spirituality conducive to the attainment of communion in diversity for Christians as well as for the whole human family? Father Deck will explore these questions from a variety of angles.

Jesuit Father Allan Figueroa Deck currently serves as Distinguished Scholar of Pastoral Theology in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). Previously he held the Casassa Chair of Social Values at LMU. He earned doctorates in Latin American Studies at Saint Louis University and in Theology at the Gregorian University. In addition to teaching at Loyola Marymount he has lectured widely on Ministry, Faith and Culture, Intercultural Competence, and Latino/a Theology and Spirituality. Father Deck is the author or editor of nine books and more than sixty chapters in collections of scholarly articles or journals. In addition to teaching, research and writing.  He was first director of Hispanic Ministry for the Diocese of Orange and has served in leadership positions in many church-based, non-profit organizations. He was a co-founder and first president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) as well as of the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM). He was the founder and first director of the Instituto Hispano of the Jesuit School of Theology (JST) of Santa Clara University. Father Deck was selected to be the founder and first executive director of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church which oversees and facilitates the relationship of the bishops with all racial/ethnic groups, refugees and migrants for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCC). He also currently serves as Assistant to the Provincial of the Western Province of the Society of Jesus and on the boards of Mt. Saint Mary’s University, Homeboy Industries, and the Loyola Institute for Spirituality (LIS). His most recent publications are Francis, Bishop of Rome: The Gospel for the Third Millennium, New York: Paulist Press, 2016, and a collection of Spanish-language reflections for each day of the year titled 365 Días con los Santos, Chicago: Loyola Press, 2021.

Accessing the Imagination for Hope and Healing

James Heft, SM, University of Dayton

Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Le Roux Conference Room, Student Center

We live in a world of polarization, violence and human fragility. Destructive behavior of all kinds, both inside and outside the Church, fuel these tragic times. Can Catholic thought and practice offer hope, healing, inclusion and reconciliation? What particular resources, intellectual and moral, can a Catholic and Jesuit university offer our divided and weary world?

Fr. James L. Heft S.M. (Marianist) is Scholar in Residence at the University of Dayton, and Founder and President Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies (IACS) at USC. His recent books include Empty Churches: Non-Affiliation in America, 2021 and The Future of Catholic Higher Education: The Open Circle, 2021.

Email ICTC@seattleu.edu to request the video password.

Report from Rome: Did the church listen to women and LGBTQ Catholics at the synod?

Heidi Schlumpf, National Catholic Reporter Senior Correspondent

Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Public Reception and Talk, Le Roux Room, STCN 160

Heidi Schlumpf is NCR senior correspondent. She was previously NCR's executive editor and a national correspondent. As national correspondent, she did in-depth coverage on the influence of money in the church, sex abuse, politics, women's issues, racism and young people in the church. 

Ms. Schlumpf has three decades of experience covering religion, spirituality, social justice and women's issues, having previously served as managing editor of U.S. Catholic magazine and as a reporter at Chicago's archdiocesan newspaper and secular newspapers in California and Wisconsin. Her work has been published by CNN Opinion, Sojourners and Huffington Post. She taught journalism as an associate professor of communication at Aurora University in Illinois.

Jesus and the Peripheries: What do the Gospel stories of Jesus reaching out to those on the margins say about reconciliation?

Fr. James Martin, SJ, Jesuit priest, author, and Editor at Large at America Magazine

Monday, May 8, 2023
Zoom

Rev. James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, author and Editor at Large at America, the national Catholic magazine.

His most recent book is titled Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity (HarperOne). He is a frequent commentator in the media about issues of religion and spirituality and is known for his appearances on The Colbert Report and his robust social media presence.

Father Martin is the author of several award-winning books. Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life, (HarperOne, 2011), was named as one of “Best Books” of 2011 by Publishers Weekly.

Father Martin is also the author of:

• The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life,
• My Life with the Saints,
• Seven Last Words;
• The Abbey;
• Jesus: A Pilgrimage;
• Together on Retreat: Meeting Jesus in Prayer;
• Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints;
• Searching for God at Ground Zero;
• In Good Company: The Fast Track from the Corporate World to Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience;
• This Our Exile: A Spiritual Journey with the Refugees of East Africa.

Besides articles in Catholic publications like America, Commonweal, U.S. Catholic, Catholic Digest and The (London) Tablet, Father Martin has written for, among other places, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, O Magazine and other newspapers and websites, including Slate.com, The Huffington Post and The New York Times and The Washington Post’s websites. He has commented on religion and spirituality in the national and international media, and he has appeared on all the major radio and television networks, and in venues as diverse as National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” NPR’s “Weekend Edition” and “All Things Considered,” PBS’s “Newshour,” Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” and Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” as well as ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, The History Channel, the BBC, Voice of America and Vatican Radio. Father Martin maintains an active presence on his public Facebook page and also on Twitter.

Besides his editorial, publishing and media work, Father Martin has been invited by Catholic dioceses and archdioceses to address gatherings of clergy and laity, has spoken at colleges and universities across the country, has taught at Boston College’s Summer Institute, and leads seminars and directs retreats at retreat houses. On Sundays, he assists at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City.

A Spirituality of Racial Metanoia

Fr. Bryan Massingale, STD, Fordham University

Thursday, February 9, 2023
Le Roux Room, Student Center

The rise of white Christian nationalism poses an intersectional threat to the well-being of the Black and LGBTQ communities, and to democracy itself.  Inspired by the thought of Pope Francis, this presentation outlines the conversion process needed by both individuals and society for authentic racial justice and reconciliation.

Bryan N. Massingale is the James and Nancy Buckman Professor of Theological and Social Ethics, as well as the Senior Ethics Fellow in Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education. Professor Massingale is a leader in the field of theological ethics and is an expert in Catholic Moral Theology, Catholic Social Thought, African American Religious Ethics, Racial Justice, Liberation Theologies, Race and Sexuality. His current research projects explore the contribution of Black religious radicalism to Catholic theology; the notion of "cultural sin" and its challenge to Catholic theological ethics; and the intersections of race and sexuality in both social life and Catholicism. He is a past Convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.  In addition to his academic pursuits, Professor Massingale strives to be a scholar-activist through serving faith-based groups advancing justice in society.  He is a noted authority on issues of social and racial justice, having addressed numerous national Catholic conferences and lectured at colleges and universities across the nation. Read Professor Massingale’s complete biography and select list of publications here.

Email ICTC@seattleu.edu to request the video password.

The Current Challenges to the Catholic Church and the Ways to Meet Them

Dr. Peter Phan, Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University

Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Public Reception and Lecture: Rolfe Room, ADAL

The lecture analyzed three current challenges to the Catholic Church, especially in the United States, to the task of threefold reconciliation, namely, with creation, with humanity, and with God, and discuss the various ways to promote this reconciliation. For the first challenge, reference was made to Pope Francis's Laudato Si'; for the second, to his Fratelli Tutti, and for the third, to his Evangelii Gaudium.

Peter C. Phan, a native of Vietnam, emigrated as a refugee to the USA. in 1975. He obtained three doctorates, the Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Universitas Pontificia Salesiana, Rome, and the Doctor of Philosophy and the Doctor of Divinity from the University of London. He was also awarded the honorary Doctor of Theology from Chicago Theological Union and the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the College of Our Lady of the Elms. He began his teaching career in philosophy at the age of eighteen at Don Bosco College, Hong Kong. In the United States, he has taught at several universities and now is at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where he is currently holding the Ignacio Ellacuría Chair of Catholic Social Thought. He is the first non-Anglo to be elected President of the Catholic Theological Society of America. In 2010 he was given the John Courtney Murray Award, the highest honor of the Catholic Theological Society of America. His publications range far and wide in theology. They deal with the theology of icon in Orthodox theology; patristic theology; eschatology; the history of mission in Asia and liberation, inculturation, and interreligious. Read Dr. Phan’s full bio here.