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Spring Lecture Series

2024: Navigating Difference, Celebrating Unity: The Promise of Synodality for a Polarized Church

Each 1-hour virtual lecture in this series will explore how the practice of synodality (encountering with love, listening with empathy, and discerning a faithful response) can help people respond to experiences of polarization in the Church.

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Speakers and LIM Alumni Responders

February 22, 2024 7:00 pm CT  
Rafael Luciani
 
Speaking on
Synodality:
An Antidote to Polarization
 
Rafael Luciani, S.T.D.
 
View a recording of this lecture»
Dr. Rafael Luciani is Venezuelan layman, with a Doctor in Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University; he conducted postdoctoral research at the Julius Maximilians Universität, Germany. He is a professor at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas and Extraordinary Professor at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. He currently teaches Ecclesiology, Latin American Theology, Vatican Council II and Synodality in the Church. He serves as Expert of CELAM (Latin American Episcopal Council) and Member of the Theological Advisory Team of the Presidency of CLAR (Latin American Confederation of Religious). He coordinates the Ibero-American Theology Project. He is co-coordinator of the Intercontinental Seminar Group Peter & Paul for the reform of the Catholic Church and is an Expert of the Theological Commission of the General Secretariat of the Synod. He has been appointed as Expert of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality. Amongst his many academic publications in several languages, his most recent book is Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church (Paulist Press).

 

Alumni Response
 
Milissa Else, M.P.S.

 

Milissa currently works for the Chancellor in the Archdiocese of Newark and serves as coordinator for parish strategies and small group ministry.  She is a also a board member of the National Community of Catechetical Leaders (NCCL Catholic). 
March 13, 2024 7:00 pm CDT  
Cynthia Bailey Manns
 
Speaking on:
Spirituality and Synodality: Holding Space for Conversations in the Spirit
 
Cynthia Bailey Manns, D.Min.
 
View a recording of this lecture»
 
 
 
 
Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns was appointed Delegate to the 2023 Synod of Bishops. She is the Adult Learning Director at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis and adjunct professor at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Dr. Bailey Manns was a delegate from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to the Continental Assemblies.
Becky Eldredge, M.P.S.
Alumni Responder
 
Becky Eldredge, M.P.S.
Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director passionate about inviting people closer to Christ.  She does this by accompanying people as they navigate deep waters of their faith lives through spiritual direction, writing, retreats, and as founder of Ignatian Ministries.  She is author of two award-winning books: The Inner Chapel and Busy Lives and Restless Souls.  Becky is part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans Spirituality Center teaching staff where she trains spiritual directors in the Ignatian tradition.  Learn more about Becky’s ministry at www.beckyeldredge.com.
April 11, 2024 7:00 pm CDT  
Francisco Castillo
Speaking on
Convivio in Synodality:
A U.S. Hispanic/Latino(a) Response to Polarization in Our Church
 
Francisco Castillo, D.Min.
 
 
Dr. Castillo is the Joe and Kelly George Visiting Professor of Pastoral Studies in the Loyola Institute for Ministry at Loyola University New Orleans. His research interests include Catholic social teaching, liturgical theology, theopoesis, liturgical and theological aesthetics, liberation theology, U.S. Hispanic/Latino(a) theology, catechetics, religious studies, comparative religion, religion and film and cultural identity.
Carolina Fierro-Amador, M.P.S.
Alumni Responder
 
Carolina Fierro-Amador, M.P.S.
Carolina Fierro-Amador is a cradle-Catholic, Mexican immigrant living in northeast Mississippi since 2002. She is the general manager in a small family-owned company and has served in the Saint James The Greater parish in Tupelo in a variety of ministries including English and Spanish as a Second Language, Hispanic Evangelization Committee member, Lector, Eucharistic Minister, pre-marriage talks, RCIA, Church History for eighth graders, and Confirmation preparation. She is married with four beautiful children in heaven and four wonderful children walking with her and her husband.

2023: Becoming a Listening Church: The Invitation to Synodality

The 1-hour lectures in this series explore how Pope Francis is calling us to practice synodality as a way of being church and the theological and practical implications involved in becoming a more synodal church. Recordings of the lectures are linked below.

Speakers and LIM Alumni Responders

February 9, 2023 7:00 pm CST  
Kristin Colberg, Ph.D.
Speaking on
Changing Church Culture:
A Synodal Church
 
Kristin Colberg, Ph.D.

View recorded lecture»

 
Dr. Kristin Colberg is an Associate Professor of Theology at Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary where she teaches classes in ecclesiology, theological anthropology, and theological method. 
Photo of Thomas F. Ryan, Ph.D.
Welcome

Thomas F. Ryan, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Ryan is the Interim Vice-President of Mission and Identity, Professor of Theology and Ministry, and Associate Dean of the College of Nursing and Health.
Grant Tregre, M.P.S.

 

Alumni Response
 
Grant Tregre, M.P.S.

 

Grant Tregre leads the Social Justice Ministry at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church a ministry that addresses the systemic social sins of racism, poverty, mass incarceration, and a host of other social concerns in the New Orleans metro area.
March 16, 2023 7:00 pm CDT  
Speaking on
Women’s Roles in the Church 
 
Susan Bigelow Reynolds, Ph.D.
 
View recorded lecture»
 
 
 
 
Dr. Bigelow Reynolds is an Assistant Professor of Catholic Studies in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Her research interests include the intersection of ecclesiology and lived Catholicism in contexts of diversity, marginality, and suffering. 
Welcome

Justin Daffron, S.J., Ph.D.

Fr. Daffron is Loyola's Interim President.
Alumni Response
 
Kayla August, M.P.S.
Kayla is a student at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Theology and Education with a focus on preaching. 
April 20, 2023 7:00 pm CDT  
Speaking on
Young Adult Involvement
 in a Synodal Church
 
Emily Jendzejec, Ph.D.

View recorded lecture »

 
 
Dr. Jendzejec is an Assistant Professor of Pastoral Studies in the Loyola Institute for Ministry at Loyola University New Orleans. She specializes in the intersection of Catholic theology, religious education, and young adult ministry.
Michelle Collins, PhD, CNM, RNC-EFM, FACNM, FAAN, FNAP
Welcome

Michelle Collins, Ph.D., CNM, RNC-EFM, FACNM, FAAN, FNAP

Dr. Collins is Dean of the College of Nursing and Health and is also a professor in the School of Nursing.
Marysa Alvarez, M.R.E.
Alumni Response
 
Marysa Alvarez, M.R.E.
Marysa has been a Young Adult Minister, Coordinator of Children’s Ministry, and Campus Minister. She is currently a high school religion teacher and Campus Minister and also serves on the Young Adult Council for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

2021: The Demand of Encounter Today

The three virtual lectures explored the demands on us of Pope Francis’s call to create a culture of encounter and intended to draw out theology’s public implications and so inspire people to work for the transformation of our Church and world with special attention to racial justice. View flyer »

Speakers

February 8, 2021    
"Encountering a Multiracial Democracy:
Some Notes for Catholics"
 
Craig A. Ford, Jr., Ph.D.
 
 
 
View recorded lecture»

Recording includes an address by Loyola's Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Kedrick B. Perry, Ed.D.
 
Dr. Ford is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College. He is a scholar-activist and, in his teaching, addresses questions of gender, race, sexuality and social justice. His current book project seeks to articulate a new theology of sex and gender for the Roman Catholic tradition.
March 15, 2021    
"Encountering Our History, Shaping Our Future: Latinas and the Church in the United States"
 
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, Ph.D.
 
 
 
View recorded lecture»

Recording includes an address by Loyola's Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Michelle Collins, Ph.D.
Dr. Imperatori-Lee is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College. Her research interests include Catholic ecclesiology, particularly the intersection of ecclesial identity with feminist and Latino/a Catholic thought. She is the author of Cuéntame: Narrative in the Ecclesial Present (Orbis Books, 2018), which elaborates a Catholic ecclesiology from a Latino/a perspective by exploring how narratives shape ecclesiology. 
April 12, 2021    
"Encountering Justice
in the Eucharist"
 
Thomas F. Ryan, Ph.D.
 
View recorded lecture»

With an Introduction by Justin Daffron, SJ, Vice President, Mission & Identity
Dr. Ryan is the Marjorie R. Morvant Professor in Theology and Ministry and Director of the Loyola Institute for Ministry. His research interests include the history of biblical interpretation, the history of spirituality, and the thought of Pope Francis. In addition to work on Aquinas's commentary on the Psalms, he is co-editor of Eerdmans' series The Bible in Medieval Tradition.