A webinar discussion with Russell Hittinger (Lumen Christi Institute), Tracey Rowland (University of Notre Dame, Australia), and Fr. Thomas Esposito, O.Cist. (University of Dallas), moderated by Fr. Andrew Summerson (University of Toronto; Lumen Christi Institute). Originally recorded May 7, 2023. Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute, The Collegium Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, First Things, and The Portsmouth Institute for Faith and Culture. -- From his role as a key peritus at the Second Vatican Council, a professor in Germany, to his tenure as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger was a part of almost every Catholic theological conversation in the latter half of the 20th century. As pope, he brought his lifetime of learning to bear on his preaching, encyclicals, and continued publishing. In this webinar, our panel looks back upon Pope Benedict’s theological vocation and offers perspectives on his enduring legacy and witness.

A panel discussion with Herschella Conyers(University of Chicago Law School), Darren Davis (University of Notre Dame), andBrandon Viadyanathan (Catholic University of America), moderated by Judge Thomas More Donnelly (Cook County). This event is part of the Lumen Christi Institute's Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network. --- National conversation about racial bias in law enforcement has become increasingly polarized over the last year. Some deny the existence of any widespread discrimination, while others see systemic racism as an inextricable part of American criminal justice, and call for defunding or even abolishing police forces. Professor Brandon Vaidyanathan says that racial bias in the criminal justice system is more complicated. A number of factors, including personal prejudice, laws and policies with racist origins, and broader cultural disparities that reflect the history of American racial discrimination, all contribute to a system that is neither irredeemably racist nor free from racial bias. Recognizing this complex interplay of problems, says Vaidyanathan, can help us move toward solutions. Join Brandon Vaidyanathan, Herschella Conyers, and Darren Davis for a conversation moderated by Cook County Judge Tom Donnelly, as they discuss race in contemporary American criminal justice and a path to equality in a fractured nation. This event is cosponsored by the Institute for Human Ecology, and was originally broadcast as a live webinar June 23, 2021.

An online panel discussion with Professor Grant Kaplan (Saint Louis University), Carly Osborn (University of Divinity), and Fr. Steve Grunow (Word on Fire), moderated by Cynthia Haven (National Endowment for the Humanities). While social media has become a source of meaning and identity formation for many, its dangers have become clear in recent years, from promoting disinformation to algorithm-aided polarization. Despite these dangers, can social media be a medium for the Gospel? Does a model for discipleship within social media exist? René Girard’s theory of mimesis or imitation provides a powerful diagnostic for analyzing aspects of human behavior and culture that contribute to the current media climate, including rivalry, escalation, and scapegoating. It also points towards the fragile possibility of positive mimesis: imitation of Christ. This panel draws together Girard scholars and Catholic media experts to explore how Girard’s analysis can inform our understanding of the current media climate and how we might approach social media as a space for evangelization and conversion. Originally broadcast May 27, 2021

A webinar conversation with Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago), David Tracy (University of Chicago), and Sandra Schneiders, IHM (Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University), moderated by Willemien Otten (University of Chicago). The Crisis of Mysticism (Herder & Herder, 2021), by Bernard McGinn is the first book in English in seventy years to give a full account of the struggle over mystical spirituality that tore the Catholic Church apart at the end of the seventeenth century, resulting in papal condemnation of some mystics and the decline of mysticism in Catholicism for almost two centuries. Join Professors McGinn, David Tracy, and Sandra Schneiders for a conversation on "The Crisis of Mysticism," moderated by Professor Willemein Otten. Originally broadcast May 6, 2021. This event was co-sponsored by the Collegium Institute, the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, and Herder & Herder.

A webinar discussion with Jennifer Frey (University of South Carolina), Russell Hittinger (Lumen Christi Institute), and Fr. Michael Sherwin, OP (University of Fribourg). Originally broadcast as a live webinar May 1, 2021 The president in his inaugural address quoted Augustine of Hippo’s definition of a people as “a multitude defined by the common objects of their love.” This surprising event offers us the occasion to consider Augustine’s definition and its implications for our understanding of life in society: what role do our loves play in fashioning us as people? Can disparate loves divide a people? What does Augustine think we should love in order to belong to the people who inhabit the City of God? Join us for a moderated conversation between Profs. Russell Hittinger, Michael Sherwin, O.P., and Jennifer Frey on Augustine and the loves that form a People. This event is cosponsored by America Media.

A webinar conversation with Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado (University of Scranton), and Juan Soto (Gamaliel), moderated by Peter Casarella (Duke University). Originally delivered May 11, 2021. Part of a Lumen Christi Institute webinar series on Hispanic Theology. Latinx Theology has always had a dual focus on the beauty of the symbols of Popular Catholicism and the cry of the poor in urban settings. In this session, one of the premier Latina voices on beauty and justice, Dr. Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, will have a discussion with a long-time community activist in Chicago about the application of this dyad to the concrete setting of Latinx Catholic life in the city of Chicago. The ongoing discussion of the proposed restoration of St. Adalbert’s will serve as a case study for thinking about how “God lives in the city” (Pope Francis).

A webinar conversation with Claudia Herrera (ACHTUS) and Jose Matos Auffant (St. Mary's University). Originally delivered May 4, 2021. Part of a Lumen Christi Institute webinar series on Hispanic Theology. There are complex dynamics to account for when examining the intersectionality of religious identity, social context, and the lived experience of young Latinx in the U.S. Current research shows that almost half of Catholics in the United States self-identify as Hispanic, and that more than half of those Hispanic Catholics are young. To better understand the religious dynamics of young Latinx, we first must identify those who are affiliated as Catholics and examine how they understand their relationship with the faith. This requires a process of listening, reflection and participatory-action. There is a large group of young Latinx who self-identify as Catholics and no longer affiliate nor participate in a local church or any form of pastoral activity. In some cases, their faith identity and daily practice as Catholics is a pilgrimage where the Church is the streets, their home, and other everyday spaces, and the practices of their everyday life represent Catholicism. This conversation aims to provide both practical and theological insight emerging from the particularities of pastoral and research work with young Latinx and their familias/comunidades. There is a great need to open concrete spaces in which young Latinx are listened to and are affirmed as active agents in the sharing of the good news of the Gospel.

A webinar lecture with Miguel Romero (Salve Regina University). Originally delivered April 27, 2021. Part of a Lumen Christi Institute webinar series on Hispanic Theology. In the 16th century, there was a subtle shift in the way the Spanish Dominican interpreters of Thomas Aquinas spoke about the anthropological and moral significance of our rational faculties. Historical and textual markers, indicating both the origin and development of this interpretive shift, present amid the fierce engagement of the Spanish colonial debates. Much has been written on the specific topic of those debates: i.e., the allegations concerning the rational status and moral aptitude of the Amerindian peoples and, by extension, the justice or injustice of the Spanish colonial enterprise in the Americas. However, it is difficult to find any scholarly work on the subject of the Spanish colonial debates: i.e., the anthropological and moral questions relevant to persons who seem to “lack the full use of reason.” Bearing that distinction in mind, between the topic and subject of the debates, this presentation for Lumen Christi is focused on persons who actually (and not allegedly) lack the full use of reason. Key interpretations, appropriations, and arguments about Aristotle and Aquinas—in the writing of John Mair, Francisco de Vitoria, and Bartolome de las Casas—will be retraced to show how Aquinas’s way of thinking about the intellectual dignity and inalienable contemplative aptitude of persons who “lack the use of reason” came to be displaced from the main currents of Thomistic theological discourse.

"Globalization from the People: Fratelli Tutti and the Latino Social Teaching of Pope Francis" A webinar lecture with Prof. David Lantigua (University of Notre Dame). Delivered April 20, 2021, as part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology, presented by the Lumen Christi Institute. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a flash point for globalization as a sign of the times, revealing the best and worst of our interconnected human family. Released during the pandemic, Pope Francis’s Fratelli tutti speaks directly to the political crisis of globalization, following the worldwide financial and ecological crises addressed in the previous two social encyclicals of the twenty-first century. Despite the public conversation about Fratelli tutti, very little attention concerns the Latino theological and political imagination of Pope Francis’s social teaching. This talk examines the new encyclical of the first Hispanic Pope from the global South as someone formed in a teología del pueblo. Among the relevant topics raised in Fratelli tutti, we will explore the peculiar relationship between neoliberalism and universal human rights, and the providential role of popular movements for promoting global solidarity in sharp contrast to populism.

While Saints Ambrose and Augustine never define Christian holiness, this was the pursuit that fueled all of their writings, all of their sermons, and directed their everyday lives. By examining the writings of these two pillars of the Western Church, today's talk seeks to show how Ambrose and Augustine understood holiness and what that might mean for our lives today. Originally presented as a live webinar April 17th, 2021. Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the Bollandist Society as part of a webinar series on the saints.

Language matters, and it matters much when sharing the best of our faith convictions with one another. Without language there is no communication, understanding or community. Sharing faith in the United States of America in an increasingly Hispanic church demands that we take questions associated with language seriously. Nearly fifteen million Catholics in the U.S. are Spanish-speaking immigrants. Many are raising their children “in Spanish.” Even though the vast majority of Hispanics are U.S. born and English-speaking, Spanish constantly shapes their cultural and religious imagination. In this presentation, we will reflect on the intersectionality of language, culture and religious identity among U.S. Hispanic Catholics at the time of sharing the faith and reflect theologically. To teach Catholic doctrine “en español,” literally or metaphorically, is an invitation to embrace the many creative ways in which God calls us to be church in the twenty-first century. This lecture with Professor Hosffman Ospino (Boston College) was originally presented as a live webinar lecture April 13, 2021. This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology, made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.