LITERATURE + LECTURES

The University of St. Thomas presents A Postracial America?: The Church’s Contribution to Racial Justice in the 21st Century. This year’s Rev. William J. Young Lecture will be given by Rev. Bryan Massingale, STD, (pictured) professor of theology at the Marquette University. The lecture will take place Monday, October 18th at 7pm in the Scanlan Room of the Jerabeck Center. Immediately following the lecture, the Friends of the Doherty Library will host a reception in the Doherty Library lobby. Refreshments will be served.

Rev. Massingale is an expert on social and religious ethics from the standpoint of Catholic social thinking and with a particular emphasis on racial justice. He has authored over sixty articles, book chapters, and book reviews. These have been published in journals such as Theological Studies, New Theology Review, Philosophy and Theology, Origins, U.S. Catholic, The National Catholic Reporter, Signs of the Times in the Americas, and Catholic Peace Voice. His most recent work was a major document for Catholic Charities USA, entitled Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good, which was released in January of 2008. He is currently finishing a book on racial justice and the Catholic response for Orbis Books.

Given the very recent controversy over racism regarding the firing of an administrator in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the charges of racial profiling regarding the controversial Arizona law dealing with undocumented aliens, Rev. and Prof. Massingale’s talk could not be timelier. In particular, he will elicit the contributions of Catholic social teaching in terms of providing moral direction on an issue that all too often sheds more heat than light.

Sponsored By Young Social Justice Institute, St. Martin De Porres Society & The African-American Vicariate of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.