Catholic Theological
Society of America

Dear colleagues, 

A reminder that the 19th General Meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society (ITMS) is meeting June 19-22 at Regis University in Denver, under the theme, "The Calligraphy of Snow and Rock and Sky: Thomas Merton and the Spirit of Place." Early-bird registration ends May 15. ITMS meetings are marked by a wonderful spirit of fellowship, eclectic offerings (scholarship, poetry, journaling, film, prayer) reflecting Merton's capacious spiritual and theological vision. Please consider joining us!  

Chris Pramuk 

https://merton.org/2025/default.aspx

The CTSA remembers and prays for longstanding member Mary Gerhart, who died on Tuesday, April 22.

Eternal rest grant unto Mary, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon her.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Mary Gerhart's theological contributions to the Society include the following, which are accessible via the CTSA Proceedings.

M. Gerhart & Allan Melvin Russell. “Metaphoric Process”

“Theology, Science, and Gender: Advances in Feminist Consciousness”

“The Ironic Mode of Religious Imagination in Heinrich Boll”

Mary Jane Gerhart Obituary

The CTSA remembers and prays for longstanding member David W. Tracy, who died on Tuesday, April 29.

David Tracy was awarded the prestigious John Courtney Murray Award in1980.  He served as the CTSA's President in 1976 – 1977 and twice as a member of the CTSA Board of Directors (1974 - 1976 and 1977 – 1979).

Eternal rest grant unto David, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

David Tracy's theological contributions include the following available within the CTSA Proceedings:

Response to “Meaning and Characteristics of an American Theology”

“Evil and Hope: Foundational Systematic Perspectives”

Response to Professor Connelly-II

Presidential Address: “Grace and the Search for the Human: The Sense of the Uncanny”

“A Response to Gregory Baum”

“Why Orthodoxy in a Personalist Age?”

Call for Papers and Workshop Proposals

Life and Love Transfigured: Exploring New Horizons in the Franciscan Tradition

A Conference to Mark the 800^th Anniversary of the Death of St. Francis of Assisi

Tuesday 14^th to Thursday 16^th April 2026, Durham University, UK

To mark the 800^th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, the Centre for Catholic Studies (CCS) at Durham University will hold its third international Franciscan Studies conference. The Transitus of Saint Francis in 1226 completed the Poverello’s earthly life. Successive generations have interpreted and carried forward the witness and teachings of the Saint and his early followers. This conference seeks to celebrate and share the fruits of this legacy against new horizons, addressing contemporary challenges and concerns.

The aim of the conference will be to bring together people from different walks of life – academic and non-academic, religious and lay – who have a deep love for St. Francis of Assisi, the Franciscan tradition, and the abiding relevance of the Franciscan charism for the modern world. The conference will be held at locations in Durham itself as well as at Ushaw College, a former Roman Catholic Seminary a few miles outside of Durham.

The conference will consist of academic panels and plenary lectures by world leading scholars of the Franciscan tradition, as well as public talks by those working in contemporary Franciscan evangelisation, workshops on the Franciscan way of life and Franciscan ministry, ecumenical worship, and opportunities for fellowship and communal reflection.

The conference will have three main strands: (1) Franciscan theology and philosophy; (2) Franciscan history; and (3) Franciscan spirituality, aesthetics, and evangelism. The conference organisers welcome papers from researchers in fields including, but not limited to, Franciscan theology, Franciscan history, Franciscan science, Franciscan literary studies, Franciscan philosophy, Franciscan spirituality, the Poor Clare and wider female Franciscan traditions, the Franciscan Tertiary tradition, Franciscan ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, Franciscan art, poetry, and music, Franciscan education, Franciscan liturgical thought and practice, Franciscan economic and political philosophy, as well as Franciscan ministry and Franciscan contributions to peace studies, outreach, and pastoral-social work.

Confirmed speakers include:

Fr Casey Cole, OFM (Digital Evangelist and Creator of Breaking in the Habit podcast).

Prof. Richard Cross (University of Notre Dame, Indiana)

Fr Dr Michael Cusato OFM (Scholar-in-Residence, St. Bonaventure Friary, NY)

Prof. Daniel Horan (St Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana)

Dr William Hyland (University of St Andrews)

Prof. John McCafferty (University College Dublin)

Dr Darleen Pryds (Franciscan School of Theology, University of San Diego)

Prof. Lydia Schumacher (Kings College London)

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers. Panel proposals consisting of three speakers are also encouraged.

We also invite proposals for 90-minute workshops offering a space for delegates to come together to discuss issues or subjects important to Franciscans, e.g. ministry, outreach, issues relation to community life, the Franciscan voice in the church, etc.

Please submit proposals for papers or workshops (c. 200 words) via the form at https://forms.office.com/e/s06nt9CrNW by 30 October 2025 at the latest.

Contact for any queries: Dr William Crozier – william.e.crozier@durham.ac.uk

On May 8-May 9, 2025, The Schreiter Institute at Catholic Theological Union will convene Truth-Telling: Perils and Possibilities for Social Healing-- The Third Annual Symposium on a Praxis of Reconciliation.  The two day Symposium is free and bimodal (in person and on Zoom)  and please register so we can plan accordingly.

Register Here 

PRECIS: Truth-telling is essential for interpersonal and social healing from trauma and moral injury. It also is a perilous endeavor because if the disclosure of truth cannot be heard, believed, or understood by a listener then the wound will become worse and healing nearly impossible. The symposium looks at the perils and possibilities around various kinds of truth-telling in diverse contexts and through several mediums

KEYNOTE: Maka Akan Najin Black Elk (Oglala Lakota)

SYMPOSIUM PRESENTERS: 

• Chioma Ahanihu, SLW
• Kayla August
• timone davis
• David Matz, CPPS
• Karen Ross
• Jung Eun Sophia Park, SNJM
• Daniel Scheid
• Marvin Wickware

May 8-9, 2025

ONLINE + IN-PERSON
Catholic Theological Union
5416 S. Cornell Ave, Chicago IL 60615

Visit ctu.edu/events to register for this event and to learn more about our other upcoming events and programs.

You can also contact Kevin Considine: kconsidine@ctu.edu

Greetings all. I had this piece come out in America, the national Jesuit magazine. It’s my reflection as a Muslim on the passing of Pope Francis, and I thought you’d like to see it:

 https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2025/04/25/pope-francis-muslim-remembers-250472

 

Our colleague Frank Clooney, SJ, CTSA President during 2022-2023, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in the category of Religious Studies. The Academy was founded in 1780, and its list of members includes presidents, scientists and humanities scholars, artists and musicians. As it says at its website, “the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together ‘to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.’” Frank will be inducted into the Academy at a ceremony in October of this year.

April 24, 2025

Dear CTSA Colleagues and All Who Mourn the Passing of Pope Francis:

CTSA grieves the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis and expresses gratitude for his leadership marked always by dialogue, inclusivity, catholicity, a global vision, synodality, and the enduring communal search for truth. He encouraged a theology of encounter that fosters greater intimacy with the people, taking account of their joys and sorrows. Notably, he invited our particular interest in the condition of people who live amidst the peripheries of our world. Both his annual recent visit to prisoners on Holy Thursday, and his July 2013 trip responding to the cry of refugees in Lampedusa, bookended his ceaseless grace-filled vision, personal character, and spiritual depth. He encouraged theologians to be shepherds who take on the smell of the sheep, and to recognize the need today to envision the church as a “field hospital,” a place of healing for all who are wounded in body, soul, heart, and mind. Indeed, Francis often spoke of the Eucharist as not a prize for the perfect, but, as food and nourishment for those who need it. He envisioned the sacrament of reconciliation as an experience not of desolation but of consolation.

As a leader of theologians, Francis’ 2023 apostolic letter, Ad Theologiam Promovendam (“On Promoting Theology”) urged, “To promote theology in the future, we cannot limit ourselves to abstractly re-proposing formulas and schemes from the past. Called to prophetically interpret the present and to see new itineraries for the future, in the light of Revelation, theology will have to deal with profound cultural transformations, aware that: “what we are experiencing is not simply an era of change, but a change of era.”” (#1) and he further taught us, “A synodal, missionary, and “outgoing” Church can only correspond to an “outgoing” theology” (#3). In more recent remarks addressing theologians, and also signaling his theme for our current 2025 jubilee year, he preached that theology is a “significant and necessary ecclesial ministry . . .because it is part of our Catholic faith to explain the reason for our hope to all those who ask (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). And we know that hope is not an emotion or a feeling, but the very person of Jesus, who is himself “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6).” (Greeting of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Members of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology (INSeCT), Friday, 10 May 2024)

His deep understanding of the ministry of theology again showed a freshness in another recent set of remarks addressing theologians from around the globe. Francis shared “This is a journey you are called to undertake together, theologians of both sexes. Here I think of an episode in the Second Book of Kings. During the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem, a text came to light; perhaps it was the first edition of Deuteronomy, which had been lost. A priest and several scholars read it, as did the king. They sense its importance but did not understand it. So the king decided to give it to a woman, Huldah, who immediately understood its meaning and helped the group of scholars – all men – to grasp it (Cf. 2 Kings 22:14-20). There are things that only women understand, and theology needs their contribution. An all-male theology is an incomplete theology. We still have a long way to go in this direction.” (Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to Participants in the International Congress on the Future of Theology, 9 December 2024)

Francis once remarked that when he thinks about theology, he thinks about light, about light that illuminates faces, people, the color of our world, so that the light of Christ and his Gospel may shine ever more brightly. May his memory continue to light the way.

Rest in peace, Francis.

Y por favor, ruega por nosotros,

Nancy Pineda-Madrid

CTSA President

Sarah and Hagar in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Traditions

From their first appearances in the Hebrew Bible through innumerable (re)interpretations in subsequent millennia, the figures of Sarah and Hagar have provoked reflection on the life cycle, fertility, conception, and childbirth; resource allocation, inheritance, and enslavement; sustaining life in precarious environments; group solidarity and partition; sex, gender, and ethnicity; and imagined relations between human and non-human entities, gods, angels, and demons. Across historical epochs and geographic regions, Sarah and Hagar have been like mirrors in which individuals and communities have found meaning and support.

The project comprises an ongoing series of lectures and discussions, and is expected to culminate in the publication of an edited volume to complement previous work in Claudia D. Bergmann and Thomas R. Blanton IV., eds, Imitating Abraham: Ritual and Exemplarity in Jewish and Christian Contexts (Brill, 2025).

Thomas R. Blanton and Claudia D. Bergmann welcome participation in and contributions to the ongoing lecture series, and proposals for articles to be included in the planned volume. All those interested in the myriad ways in which the legacies of Sarah and/or Hagar are drawn upon in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and in literature, poetry, art, music, and media from antiquity to the present are welcome to participate in the project. To propose a lecture or article contribution for the project, please contact Claudia D. Bergmann (cdb@mail.uni-paderborn.de) or Thomas R. Blanton IV (tblanton@jcu.edu). More information (including Zoom links to upcoming sessions) available at tinyurl.com/sarahagar

UPCOMING SEMINARS:

Hagar in Biblical Texts

April 23, 2025, 1:30-2:30pm ET, Zoom

Papers by Claudia Bergmann and Thomas R. Blanton IV

Hagar in Islam

May 7, 2025, 1:30-2:30 ET, Zoom

Papers by Zishan Ghaffar and Semiha Topal

Below is Linh Hoang's letter to INSeCT.  Linh serves as both President of INSeCT and as the CTSA representative to INSeCT.

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                                                                            April 2025

Dear INSeCT Friends,

As we start this Easter season, we are visited by the death of Pope Francis. It is a moment of sadness for his death and also of joy as we reflect on his contribution to the Church. There are tributes coming from all sectors of the world about what he has done and what his legacy will mean. He is the “first Pope” in many different ways and all of that just enhanced his unique style of leadership in the universal church. In an whatsapp chat, many of you spoke about his contribution already and what his pontificate meant and will mean to the Church. I just wanted to send my own words to reflect on how he engaged with theologians and Catholic higher education around the world.  As theologians, we know that our engagement is threefold—to the academy, to society and to the Church. At times, our interaction with the Church may be strained but never forgotten. At our last general assembly in December 2024, we were invited by the Holy See to engage in a conversation about the future of theology. Many of us were involved with this conversation and left inspired by how the Pope directly addressed us.  We took this conversation further by making our research theme for the next three years about the future of theology through our own unique perspectives as theologians: The Future of Theology: Disrupting the Past and Generating a New Vision.

When Pope Francis first appeared on the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica, he asked the faithful people to pray for him. This humble act set the stage for his pontificate and the stance that the Church should take. The act of praying is grounded in a faith that seeks understanding. We know that clearly as seekers who want to understand through our faith rather than just settling on knowledge making.

As Pope Francis rests in peace, we pray for him. Then we continue to pray for the work that has been given to us to do. We ask for prayer to reflect on the future of theology within our academy, society and Church. We ask for prayer as we anticipate a new pontiff in the Church. We ask for prayer as we encourage each of our particular society’s engagement with INSeCT’s theme. And, we ask for prayer for each of us as we continue to do the mission given to us to do.

Peace and good,

 

Linh Hoang OFM  

President, INSeCT