List of Conference Participants
Organizers
Charles Camosy
Charlie Camosy is Associate Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University, where he has taught since finishing his PhD in theology at Notre Dame in 2008. He is the author of four books. Too Expensive to Treat? (Eerdmans) was a 2011 award-winner with the Catholic Media Association, Peter Singer and Christian Ethics (Cambridge) was named a 2012 “best book” with ABC Religion and Ethics, and For Love of Animals (Franciscan) was featured in the “Beliefs” section of the New York Times. His most recent book, Beyond the Abortion Wars (Eerdmans), was published in Spring of 2015. In addition to serving as an adviser for Faith Outreach office of the Humane Society of the United States, Camosy received the 2012-13 Robert Bryne award from the Fordham Respect Life Club, and was also selected for the international working group "Contending Modernities" which attempts to bring secular liberalism, Catholicism, and Islam into dialogue about bioethics. He is the founder of the Catholic Conversation Project, on the board of the College Theology Society, and advises the ethics committee of the Children's Hospital of New York.
Mary Ellen Konieczny
Mary Ellen Konieczny came to Notre Dame as an Assistant Professor in 2008 after teaching at Concordia University of Chicago. She earned an M.Div. from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in 1985 and received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 2005. Prior to studying Sociology she worked in ministry and administration for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. Mary Ellen’s research interests revolve around religion, family, and public politics. She has a particular interest in exploring how culture and social processes in local contexts intersect with discourse and politics in the public sphere. Her book The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics (OUP 2013) is an ethnography of liberal and conservative Catholic parishes that examines how religion and family life support and shape Catholic Americans’ moral and political polarization. Her second book project, Service before Self: Organization, Cultural Conflict, and Religion at the US Air Force Academy, is an organizational culture case study exploring polarization in US religion broadly.
Panelists
J. Matthew Ashley
Matthew Ashley has worked in Catholic education for over thirty years, first as a high school teacher (math, physics and theology) and, for the past twenty-one years, as a member of the theology department at the University of Notre Dame. For the past five years he has been the Chair of that Department. He earned a B.S. in philosophy and physics from St. Louis University, a Master of Theological Studies from the (then) Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has written and lectured on German political theology, Latin American liberation theology, religion and science, and Christian spirituality, Ignatian spirituality in particular. His most recent books are A Grammar of Justice: The Legacy of Ignacio Ellacuría, co-edited with Kevin Burke, SJ and Rodolfo Cardenal, SJ, and Take Lord and Receive all my Memory: Toward an Anamnestic Mysticism, 2015 Père Marquette Lecture.
Tricia Bruce
Tricia Bruce is an associate professor of Sociology at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, and author of Faithful Revolution: How Voice of the Faithful Is Changing the Church (Oxford, 2011). Her second book (Oxford, forthcoming) explores the use of “personal parishes” in response to cultural, ideological, and ethnic diversity among U.S. Catholics. Along with Drs. Gary Adler and Brian Starks, she co-leads the American Parish Project, a multiyear research initiative sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California. She also co-leads, with Drs. Jerry Park and Stephen Cherry, a national study of Asian and Pacific Islander American Catholics commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat of Cultural Diversity.
Brian Flanagan
Brian P. Flanagan is Assistant Professor of Theology at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. His research interests include ecclesiological method, communion ecclesiology, and the work of Jean-Marie Tillard, O.P. He wrote Communion, Diversity, and Salvation: The Contribution of Jean-Marie Tillard to Systematic Ecclesiology (London: T & T Clark, 2011) and published articles in Horizons, Ecclesiology, and Theological Studies on topics in ecclesiology, interreligious dialogue, and liturgy.
Most Rev. Daniel Flores
Bishop Daniel Flores has served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville since 2009. He studied at the University of Dallas, and Holy Trinity Seminary, completing a BA in Philosophy and a Masters of Divinity. In 1988 he was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Corpus Christi. He completed work on doctoral dissertation in Sacred Theology at the Angelicum in 2000. In 2006, he was appointed and ordained as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Presently, Bishop Flores serves as committee member on several USCCB Committees, as well as, Chair of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church.
Nichole Flores
Nichole Flores is an instructor in the Department of Theology at Saint Anselm College. Her research emphasizes the contributions of Catholic and U.S. Latino/a theologies to notions of justice, emotion, and aesthetics as they relate to the common good within plural socio-political contexts. Her published work appears in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics (JSCE) and Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics: Conversations in the World Church, and her theological writing has been featured in America Magazine and on the Washington Post On Faith Blog. She also writes for the Catholic Moral Theology blog, Millennial Journal, and Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church Forum. She earned her A.B. from Smith College, her M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and will receive her Ph.D. from Boston College this May. In August, she will transition to a new role as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
David Gushee
Dr. David P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University. Widely regarded as one of the leading moral voices in American Christianity, he is the author or editor of 20 books and hundreds of articles in his field, including Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, Kingdom Ethics, The Sacredness of Human Life, and, most recently, Changing Our Mind. Dr. Gushee has always accompanied his scholarly production with church work (First Baptist Church, Decatur), activism (human rights, creation care, LGBT acceptance), opinion writing (Washington Post, Huffington Post, Baptist News Global), board service (Public Religion Research, Sojourners), and domestic and global media consultation. He has lectured on every continent, with endowed lectures scheduled in New Zealand and Holland in 2015. Dr. Gushee has been married to Jeanie for 30 years. They are the parents of two daughters and a son, and will very soon be grandparents of a beautiful baby boy. They reside in Atlanta.
Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C.
Elected in 2005 as the University of Notre Dame’s 17th president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. has devoted himself to fostering the University’s unique place in academia, the Church, our nation and the world. A philosopher trained in theology and a member of Notre Dame’s Department of Philosophy since 1990, Fr. Jenkins holds undergraduate and advanced degrees from Notre Dame and a doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford University. As president, Fr. Jenkins has been committed to combining teaching and research excellence with a cultivation of the deeper purposes of Catholic higher education. While pursuing academic distinction, he has brought renewed emphasis to Notre Dame’s distinctive mission, rooted in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the University’s founding community, to educate the whole person – mind, body and spirit – to do good in the world.
Hosffman Ospino
Hosffman Ospino, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Education at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry where he is also the Director of Graduate Programs in Hispanic Ministry. His research and writings explore how the conversation between faith and culture shapes Catholic educational and ministerial dynamics. Hosffman was the principal investigator for the National Study of Catholic Parishes with Hispanic Ministry (2011-2014), whose main report was published as Hispanic Ministry in Catholic Parishes (Our Sunday Visitor, 2015). He has edited and authored several books on Hispanic ministry, including Hispanic Ministry in the 21st Century: Present and Future (2010) and the upcoming Hispanic Ministry in the 21st Century: Urgent Matters (2015). He is currently working on two books on multicultural congregations. Hosffman currently serves as an officer of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS).
Michael Peppard
Michael Peppard is a scholar and teacher whose work brings to light the meanings of early Christian sources in their social, political, artistic, and ritual contexts. Currently Assistant Professor of Theology at Fordham University (New York), he received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University, with prior degrees from Yale Divinity School, its Institute of Sacred Music, and the University of Notre Dame (PHIL/THEO ’98). His first book, The Son of God in the Roman World, was a recipient of the 2013 Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise (University of Heidelberg). More than a dozen scholarly journals have featured Dr. Peppard’s articles, one of which received the 2014 Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award from the Catholic Theological Society of America. He frequently offers commentary on current events for venues such as Commonweal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, along with PBS, NPR, and CNN.
Julie Hanlon Rubio
Julie Hanlon Rubio is Professor of Christian Ethics at St. Louis University. Her research brings together Catholic social teaching and Christian theology on marriage and family. Her articles have appeared in Theological Studies, the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Horizons, INTAMS, the Journal of Political Theology, and Josephinum. She is the author of Family Ethics: Practices for Christians (Georgetown University Press, 2010) and A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family (Paulist Press, 2003). Her new book, Between the Personal and Political: Catholic Hope for Common Ground will be published by Georgetown University Press in 2016.
Christian Smith
Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society, Principal Investigator of the National Study of Youth and Religion, the Science of Generosity Initiative, and the Parenting and the Intergenerational Transmission of Religious Faith Project. Smith worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1994 to 2006. Smith holds an MA (1987) and PhD (1990) in Sociology from Harvard University and has studied Christian historical theology at Harvard Divinity School and other Boston Theological Institute schools. Smith’s BA is in sociology (1983) from Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts. Before moving to UNC Chapel Hill in 1994, Smith taught at Gordon College. Smith is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books, including The Paradox of Generosity; The Sacred Project of American Sociology; Young Catholic America; Souls in Transition; What is a Person?; Lost in Transition; Soul Searching; Passing the Plate; Moral, Believing Animals; The Secular Revolution; American Evangelicalism; and The Emergence of Liberation Theology. Smith’s scholarly interests focus on American religion, cultural sociology, adolescents, generosity, sociological theory, and philosophy of social science.
O. Carter Snead
Professor Carter Snead is the William P. and Hazel B. White Director of the Center for Ethics and Culture and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He is an internationally recognized expert in Public Bioethics. His research explores issues relating to neuroethics, enhancement, stem cell research, abortion, and end-of-life decisionmaking. He has authored over forty journal articles, book chapters, and essays. He is also the editor of two book series for the University of Notre Dame Press – Studies in Ethics and Culture and Studies in Medical Ethics. Professor Snead teaches Law & Bioethics, Health Law, Torts, and Constitutional Criminal Procedure. Professor Snead has provided advice on the legal and public policy dimensions of bioethical questions to officials in all three branches of the U.S. government, and in several intergovernmental fora. Prior to joining the law faculty at Notre Dame, Professor Snead served as General Counsel to The President’s Council on Bioethics, where he was the primary drafter of the 2004 report, “Reproduction and Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies.” Professor Snead received his J.D. from Georgetown University and his B.A. from St. John’s College (Annapolis, MD).
Erin Stoyell-Mulholland
Erin Stoyell-Mulholland is a senior undergraduate student studying theology at the University of Notre Dame. After graduation, she will be working for Students for Life of Illinois doing donor development. She is currently a Sorin Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Culture and was formerly the president of Notre Dame Right to Life. She is also a Resident Assistant in Lewis Hall.
Susan Crawford Sullivan
Susan Crawford Sullivan is an associate professor of sociology at the College of the Holy Cross. She earned a B.A. in mathematics at Duke, an M.P.A. at Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in sociology at Harvard. Her research interests lie at the intersection of sociology of religion, poverty, and family. Her book, Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty (University of Chicago Press 2011), won the 2012 American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Book Award (Sociology of Religion section) and the 2012 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. She has recently published a co-edited volume: A Vision of Justice: Engaging Catholic Social Teaching on the College Campus (Liturgical Press, 2014). Dr. Sullivan has published articles in Sociology of Religion; Review of Religious Research; Journal of Catholic Higher Education; Journal of College Student Development; and others. She has published articles on Catholic social teaching and community-based learning, as well as the role of institutional mission statements in promoting student community engagement. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Sullivan held a number of nonprofit positions, including working for Catholic Charities.
Elizabeth Tenety
Elizabeth Tenety is engagement and community editor for America magazine, as well as contributing editor to the Washington Post's Inspired Life site. She recently served as editor for the Women & Religion project at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs. Previously, Tenety worked as editor of the Washington Post's religion website. She studied theology and government at Georgetown University and received her master’s degree in reporting and writing from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She and her husband are the parents of two young boys.
Amy Uelmen
Amy Uelmen is a Lecturer at Georgetown Law School where her scholarship and teaching focus on the intersection between legal theory, Catholic social thought, religious values and professional life. She also teaches a summer course in professional ethics at Sophia University Institute near Florence, Italy. From 2001-2011, she served as the founding director of Fordham’s Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work, developing programs and scholarship on integrating religious values and law practice. She holds a B.A. in American Studies and a J.D. from Georgetown University, and an M.A. in Theology from Fordham University. In progress is an S.J.D. doctoral thesis on the tort law obligations of bystanders. A member of the Focolare Movement since childhood, Amy currently lives in the women’s Focolare community house in Bethesda, Maryland. She is especially active in the Focolare’s projects for inter-religious dialogue and serves as a consultant for the “Economy of Communion” project.
Michael Sean Winters
Michael Sean Winters is a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter where his blog “Distinctly Catholic” appears. Winters’ blog has won the Catholic Press Association Award in the category “best individual blog” for three of the four years that award has been given. In addition, Winters is the U.S., correspondent for the international Catholic weekly The Tablet, based in London, and is a frequent commentator on issues related to Catholicism at NPR, PBS and other media outlets. His essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications. Winters is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at Catholic University, where he helps coordinate conferences and handles media relations. He is the author of Left at the Altar: How the Democrats Lost the Catholics and How the Catholics Can Save the Democrats (2008, Basic Books) and God’s Right Hand: How Jerry Falwell Baptized the American Right and Made God a Republican (2012, Harper One).
Delegates
R. Scott Appleby
Scott Appleby is the Marilyn Keough Dean of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Appleby, a professor of, is a scholar of global religion who has been a member of Notre Dame's faculty since 1994. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1978 and received master's and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Chicago. From 2000-2014, he served as the Regan Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Appleby also directs Contending Modernities, a major multi-year project to examine the interaction among Catholic, Muslim, and secular forces in the modern world. Appleby is the author or editor of 15 books, including the widely cited volumes of The Fundamentalism Project (University of Chicago Press) and The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation. Recently, Appleby co-edited The Oxford Handbook on Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding. He also serves as lead editor of the Oxford University Press series "Studies in Strategic Peacebuilding."
Mary Baudouin
Mary Baudouin has worked as the Provincial Assistant for Social Ministries of the Jesuits, first with the New Orleans Province and current with the newly formed United States Central and Southern Province (UCS). She serves as an associate for the Jesuit Social Research Institute of Loyola University New Orleans, where she helps to lead Catholic dialogues on immigration and the child migrant crisis and corporate dialogues with a private prison company on human rights. She has spent most of her ministry working in social justice ministry in the Catholic Church – through Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. She also served as a consultant with a number of faith-based organizations in the areas of strategic planning, board development, and grant-writing. She is a native of New Orleans where she raised her three children with her husband Tom Fitzgerald.
Jana Bennett
Dr. Jana Bennett is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, where she teaches moral theology. She is the co-editor of the blog catholicmoraltheology.com, which fosters conversation and dialogue of often deeply divisive moral theology questions. She is the author of Water is Thicker than Blood: An Augustinian Theology of Marriage and Singleness (Oxford, 2008), and Aquinas on the Web? Doing Theology in an Internet Age (Continuum, 2012). She co-authored Free to Leave, Free to Stay: Fruits of the Spirit and Church Choice (Cascade, 2009), about what it means to stay in communion, or leave a Christian tradition on the basis of doctrine. She has two manuscripts in process: one on Catholic states of singleness, and another on hearing loss and contemplation. She is married to philosopher Joel Schickel, is mother of three children, and teaches in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program at her parish.
Margaret Brinig
Margaret “Peg” Brinig is the Fritz Duda Family Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. She is the quintessential interdisciplinarian, melding her expertise with law and social science in empirical studies of families, social capital, and social welfare legislation. Prof. Brinig is best known for her expertise in family law. She sits on the executive council of the International Society of Family Law, and published Family, Law, and Community: Supporting the Covenant (University of Chicago Press, 2010), which offers a distinctive study of legal reform from the perspective of family dynamics and social policy. Prof. Brinig is also collaborating with another colleague, Dan Kelly, on a Law, Economics, and Business seminar. Law students and graduate students from other departments will have the opportunity to read, discuss, and comment upon seminal scholarship by leading academics while earning course credit for participating in the seminar. Prof. Brinig is a Fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives at Notre Dame, and works closely with the Institute’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Program. She continues to conduct groundbreaking research with colleague Nicole Garnett on the negative impact of Catholic K-12 school closures on poor neighborhoods.
Julia Brumbaugh
Julia Brumbaugh is an associate professor of Religious Studies at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, with a background in Catholic and feminist theologies. Her work, both as a teacher and scholar, centers on the ways that communities and individuals negotiate the search for truth and wisdom within, and sometimes among, religious traditions. She lives with her husband and sons.
John Cavadini
John C. Cavadini is a member of the Department of Theology, having served as Chair of the Department from 1997-2010 and led the Department to a top-10 ranking in the recently released NRC rankings of doctoral programs. He is also the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the Institute for Church Life. His main areas of research and teaching are in patristics, with a special focus on the theology of St. Augustine, and on the biblical spirituality of the Fathers of the Church. He has published extensively in these areas, as well as in the theology of miracles, the life and work of Gregory the Great, catechetical theology, and the theology of marriage. As Director of the Institute for Church Life, he inaugurated the Echo program in catechetical leadership, the ND Vision program for high school students, and the seminar "What We Hold in Trust" for trustees and presidents of Catholic colleges and universities, among others. In November 2009, he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to a five-year term on the International Theological Commission and was also created a member of the Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, classis civilis, by Pope Benedict. He has served as a consultant to the USCCB Committee on Doctrine since 2006.
Patrick Clark
Patrick M. Clark is an associate professor of Moral Theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Scranton. His research interests include Catholic social teaching, virtue theory, martyrdom and moral exemplarism. Originally from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Duke University, a Master’s degree in Theology from Boston College, and a doctoral degree in Moral Theology from the University of Notre Dame. His articles have appeared in The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, The Josephinum Journal of Theology, Theology Today and The Journal of Moral Theology. His most recent book, Perfection in Death: the Christological Dimension of Courage in Aquinas, will be released this Fall by Catholic University of America Press. Patrick lives in Scranton with his wife and six children, and is a member of a local Melkite Catholic parish.
David Cloutier
Dr. Cloutier graduated from Carleton College and Duke University, and is associate professor of theology of Mount St. Mary’s University, where he teaches courses in moral theology, Catholic social ethics, and marriage and sexual ethics, as well as directing a year-long seminar for tenure-track faculty across the University on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. He is the author of Love, Reason, and God’s Story: An Introduction to Catholic Sexual Ethics (2008), and Walking God’s Earth: The Environment and Catholic Faith (2014), as well as The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age, forthcoming in fall 2015 from Georgetown University Press. He is editor of catholicmoraltheology.com, and blogs regularly at dotCommonweal. Outside theology, he does music ministry, follows baseball, and serves on the Board of Directors at the Common Market, Frederick's consumer food cooperative.
Shawn Colberg
Shawn Colberg is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Saint John's University and School of Theology. He received his PhD in the History of Christianity from the University of Notre Dame in 2008, a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 2000, and a B.A. from Saint Olaf College in 1997. He has published articles in Nota et Vetera, Archa Verbi, Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte, and New Blackfriars. Shawn has a book manuscript on the theology of divine reward in the thought of Aquinas and Bonaventure under review at CUA Press, and he is preparing a new monograph on early modern Catholic understandings of human freedom and justification. He teaches widely in the history of Christian thought, serving the graduate and undergraduate programs at Saint John's. He is married to Kristin Colberg, Assistant Professor of Theology at Saint John's, and he has two daughters, Mary Clare and Catherine.
Holly Taylor Coolman
Dr. Coolman is an assistant professor of theology at Providence College (Providence, RI), with interests in Thomas Aquinas, theology of law, and theologies of the Jewish people.
Kim Daniels
Kim Daniels is a co-founder and senior advisor to Catholic Voices USA, a national organization that works to bring the positive message of the Church to the public square. She served both Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Archbishop Joseph Kurtz as spokesperson for the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Kim is also an attorney whose practice has focused on religious liberty and pro-life matters. She frequently speaks and writes on Catholic issues, and was a contributor to Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak For Themselves (OSV, 2012). Kim is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School, and she and her husband have six children.
William D’Antonio
William V. D’Antonio earned a BA from Yale University (1948), a Masters Degree from the University of Wisconsin (1953), and in 1958 a Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology from Michigan State University. After Yale, he taught Spanish at the Loomis School in Windsor, CT. After two years at Michigan State, he joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame, where he served as Chair of the Department from 1966-71. He moved to the University of Connecticut in 1971 as Professor and Chair. In 1982 he became the Executive Officer of the American Sociological Association, where he served until his retirement in 1991. In 1993 he joined the sociology faculty of Catholic University as a visiting Research Professor; he is currently a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at Catholic University. He is the co-author of eleven books and co-editor of four. He has an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, and was a Fulbright Senior Fellow in Italy in 2004. He married Lorraine Giorgio in 1950; they have six children, 13 grandchildren, and 9 great grandchildren.
Dana Dillon
Dana L. Dillon is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Providence College. She received her Ph.D. from Duke University; both her Master of Divinity and her undergraduate degree came from the University of Notre Dame. Her research interests center around virtue ethics and action theory, but her teaching covers a broad range of moral theology, social ethics, and interdisciplinary courses, many of which demand commitment to dialogue across significant differences, including divergent deeply held values. She is a contributor to the CatholicMoralTheology.com blog and a participant in the Catholic Conversation Project.
Greg Erlandson
Greg Erlandson is the President and Publisher of the Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division. Our Sunday Visitor is a not-for-profit Catholic company that publishes OSV Newsweekly and other periodicals, trade books, parish resources and religious education curricula for parishes and schools. Before becoming president and publisher, Erlandson had served first as the editor of OSV Newsweekly and then as Editor in Chief at Our Sunday Visitor Publishing. He previously worked as a correspondent in the Rome bureau of Catholic News Service, where he covered the Vatican from 1986 to 1989. He also served as news editor for the National Catholic Register when it was based in Los Angeles. He is co-author of the 2010 book, Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal. Erlandson is past president of the Catholic Press Association. He is a consultor for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. In 2014 he was one of six international experts appointed by the Council of Cardinals to the Vatican Media Committee to propose reforms for the Vatican’s diverse media operations.
Rev. John Fitzgibbons, S.J.
The Rev. John P. Fitzgibbons, S.J. is president of Regis University. He most recently served as the associate provost for faculty development at Marquette University. He served as vice president for administration and interim dean of the College of Professional Studies at the University of San Francisco from June 2007 to June 2009. He was appointed superior and director of novices at the Novitiate of the North American Martyrs in St. Paul, Minn., from 2001-2006. Father Fitzgibbons taught English at Creighton University from 1996 to 2001 and at Marquette University from 1993 to 1996. Father Fitzgibbons holds a Ph.D. in English from Loyola University Chicago; an S.T.M. in moral theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; an M.Div. from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology; an M.A. in English from the University of Chicago; and a B.A. in philosophy and English from Saint Louis University. A native of Omaha, Neb., he entered the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus in 1973 and was ordained a priest in 1985. He continues to be active in research scholarship, especially in the relationship of religion and culture.
Richard Garnett
Professor Richard Garnett is a Professor of Law and concurrent Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He teaches and writes about the freedoms of speech, association, and religion, and also about constitutional law more generally. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding the role of religious believers and beliefs in politics and society. His current research project, Two There Are: Understanding the Separation of Church and State, will be published by Cambridge University Press. Professor Garnett is regularly invited to share analysis and commentary in national print and broadcast media, and he contributes to several law-related blogs, including the Mirror of Justice blog, which recently marked its 11th anniversary, and of which he is co-founder. He is the founding director of Notre Dame Law School’s new Program on Church, State, and Society, an interdisciplinary project that focuses on the role of religious institutions, communities, and authorities in the social order. Professor Garnett is closely involved with a number of efforts to improve and strengthen Catholic schools and to reform education policy more generally.
Stephen Grimm
Stephen R. Grimm is associate professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. He leads the Varieties of Understanding project, a multiyear research initiative, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation, exploring how humans understand and aiming to produce models for an integrated understanding of the world by drawing together insights from philosophy, theology, and psychology. His work has appeared in, among other places, The British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, Mind, and Philosophical Studies.
Jessica Keating
Jessica Keating is the Program Director of the Office of Human Dignity & Life Initiatives at the Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, where she Masters of Divinity from Notre Dame in 2013. As program director, Jessica is particularly interested in the retrieval of philosophical and theological resources that can help articulate a persuasive vision the dignity of life in the public realm, a vision which begets witness. In this way, the Office of Human Dignity & Life Initiatives seeks to heal divisions among Catholics in the United States, especially those which undermine the internal unity of Church's social teaching. Before moving to South Bend, Jessica spent five years teaching high school theology at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Carol Ann MacGregor
Carol Ann MacGregor is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Loyola University in New Orleans. She is working on a book manuscript rooted in her dissertation work that suggests the closing of K-12 Catholic schools is an important lens for understanding broader cultural and organizational shifts in contemporary American Catholicism. She is also finishing fieldwork for a second book project on moral and citizenship formation practices at Catholic high schools. For this project she has interviewed over a hundred students, parents, teachers, and administrators at six Catholic high schools around the country. In a separate line of collaborative research she focuses on religious non-affiliation particularly as it relates to civic life. Her work has appeared and in the American Sociological Review, Social Science Research, Research in the Sociology of Work, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and Poetics.
Rev. Mark Massa, S.J.
Father Mark S. Massa, S.J. was educated at the University of Detroit, the University of Chicago and Harvard University. He received his M.Div. from the Weston School of Theology in 1980. After ordination he lived for a year in North Cambridge (St. John the Evangelist). At Fordham University, Fr. Massa was the first holder of the Karl Rahner, S.J., Chair in Theology, and directed the American Studies program for 12 years; in 2001 he founded the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies and served as its director until 2010. He currently serves as Dean of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, where his research as Professor of Church History focuses on the Catholic experience in the United States in the 20th century. He is the author of seven books, including Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team, which won the AJCU/Alpha Sigma Nu Award for Outstanding Work in Theology for 1999-2000.
William C. Mattison III
Bill Mattison is an Associate Professor of Moral Theology and the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the School of Theology & Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America. He is author or editor of six books, including Introducing Moral Theology: True Happiness and the Virtues (2008); Searching for a Universal Ethic: Multidisciplinary, Ecumenical, and Interfaith Responses to the Catholic Natural Law Tradition (2014); and, forthcoming, Virtue, Happiness, and the Sermon on the Mount.
James McCartin
James P. McCartin is director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture and associate professor of Theology at Fordham University. He is the author of Prayers of the Faithful: The Shifting Spiritual Life of American Catholics (Harvard University Press, 2010), a study tracing how prayer underwent significant shifts alongside larger transformations in twentieth-century American society and culture. He is currently at work on two research projects: a book on U.S. Catholicism and sexuality since 1830 and a study of U.S. Catholicism and the ethics of dying in the 1970s. McCartin has been a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, and he has received research support from, among other places, the American Historical Association and the Louisville Institute. He previously taught at Seton Hall University and the College of the Holy Cross.
Michael McGillicuddy
Michael received his master’s degrees in sociology and social work at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his bachelor’s degree in theology from Christian Brothers in Memphis. He has experienced immersion in Latin America and has participated in parish domestic violence advocacy. He is winding down a 30-year career as a financial planner and pressing forward with a dual 12-year career as a psychiatric social worker. He is in awe at the resilience psychiatric patients display in spite of almost insurmountable odds. His journey has involved five years with LaSallian Brothers. He marched with Martin Luther King. He co-founded Peaceful Solutions, a consistent ethic initiative based on Joseph Bernardin’s prophetic message. Just like the seamless garment, Peaceful Solutions didn’t catch on. His influences are Peter Berger, Jonathan Haidt, and the late Jeff Gros, FSC. Lessons learned: Culture war non-combatants are isolated. Culture war combatants are wounded. We lack cultural competence in alternate worldviews. His blessings have been innumerable. At the top of the list is Mary, 40 years a soul mate, his three sons, and two granddaughters.
Most Rev. Wm. Michael Mulvey
Wm. Michael Mulvey was ordained the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi on March 25, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI named him bishop on January 18, 2010. Bishop Mulvey was born August 23, 1949 in Houston Texas, the second of six children, to Daniel H. Mulvey Jr. and Marjorie Jane Patterson Mulvey. He completed all of his education at Catholic schools, including St. Theresa and St. Cecilia in Houston and St. Thomas High School in Houston. He graduated from St. Edward's Catholic High School in Austin in 1967 and St. Edward's University in 1971 with a BBA. He attended seminary at the North American College in Rome from 1971-1976. He earned his bachelor's degree of Sacred Theology from St. Thomas University (Angelicum) in 1974 and licentiate (master's degree) in Sacred Theology from Gregorian University in 1976. Bishop Mulvey was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Austin by Pope Paul VI in 1975 in St. Peter's Square.
Timothy O’Malley
Timothy P. O'Malley is director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy in the Institute for Church Life and a concurrent assistant professional specialist in the Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame. He teaches and researches in the area of liturgical and sacramental theology, theological aesthetics, as well as liturgical catechesis and preaching. He is the author of Liturgy and the New Evangelization: Practicing the Art of Self-Giving Love (Liturgical Press, 2014). He is presently working on a monograph entitled On Praise: Cultivating Liturgical Desire in a Secular Age. Dr. O'Malley also takes seriously the public vocation of the theologian, traveling throughout the United States giving talks on the liturgy and the sacraments, as well as catechesis. He is also the editor of Church Life: A Journal for the New Evangelization, as well as Oblation, a blog on liturgy intended for young adults.
Amanda Osheim
Amanda C. Osheim, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Practical Theology and Endowed Professor of the Breitbach Catholic Thinkers and Leaders Program at Loras College in Dubuque, IA. Her recent publications include two essays on Evangelii Gaudium: “On Our Pilgrim Way,” for America magazine and “The Primacy of Grace: The Joy of the Gospel and the People of God” for Church Life. She is an editor and contributor at Daily Theology, and her current project, under contract with Liturgical Press, is A Ministry of Discernment: The Bishop and the Sense of the Faithful.
William Purcell
Bill Purcell has been the Associate Director for the Catholic Social Tradition at the Center for Social Concerns, as well as a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame since the summer of 2005. Bill also co-directs the Catholic Social Tradition Minor at the University. He teaches community-based learning courses on poverty and various social issues. For 6 years Bill was the Director of the Office for Peace and Justice at the Archdiocese of Chicago. Before going to Chicago in 1999, he spent three years as the Education Specialist for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development at the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington, D.C. Bill received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Divinity at the University of Notre Dame. He has been published numerous times, and is on various local and national committees for social justice issues. Bill is married to Angie, and has three children.
Maura Ryan
Maura Ryan is the John Cardinal O'Hara, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, Fellow of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. Ryan's primary interests are in the areas of bioethics and health policy, feminist ethics, and fundamental moral theology. She co-edited a book on global stewardship with Todd David Whitmore in 1997 and authored Ethics and Economics of Assisted Reproduction: The Cost of Longing (Georgetown Press, 2001). A co-edited volume, A Just and True Love: Feminism at the Frontiers of Theological Ethics (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006). She has served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Christian Ethics, the editorial boards of the Religious Studies Review and Ethics and Behavior, the St. Joseph County Healthcare Advisory Consortium and the ethics committee for Hospice of St. Joseph County. Ryan served as Associate Provost at Notre Dame from 2001-2004. She received her Ph.D. and M.Phil. from Yale University, her M.A. from Boston College, and B.A. from St. Bonaventure University.
Rev. Kevin Sandberg, C.S.C.
Father Kevin is an assistant director of the Center for Social Concerns and director of Graduate Student Initiatives and Faith Education at the University of Notre Dame, where he also oversees the Common Good Initiative. He has directed the Center’s immersion seminars in Hispanic ministry and education. His research interests include pedagogies of compassion, Christian humanism, and the neglect of listening and its restoration through religious education. He is a board member of the Religious Education Association: an Association of Professors, Practitioners, and Researchers in Religious Education. Prior to pastoral ministry as a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Father Kevin was a trust officer with the Northern Trust Bank and a financial economist with the U.S. Treasury Department. He was the founding director of Young Adult Community at St. Clement Church in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Father Kevin received his B.A. (economics) and M.Div. from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. (theology) from the Graduate Theological Union/Jesuit School of Theology, and his doctorate from Fordham University.
Rev. Kenneth Simpson
Fr. Ken Simpson is the Pastor of Saint Clement Parish in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Before coming to St. Clement he worked with college students for 25 years; first at Niles College Seminary of Loyola University as Dean of Formation and Vice Rector and Lecturer in Theology, and then in campus ministry as Director of the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1978 and served as associate pastor at the then largest parish in the Archdiocese, Saint Michael in Orland Park. Fr. Simpson's wide variety of interests and involvements include spiritual direction, parish renewal and organization, ministerial formation and Catholic education. He has served firefighters throughout his ministerial career as a Firefighter/EMT/Chaplain. He also serves as a Dean in Vicariate ll and on a number of archdiocesan advisory councils. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Mundelein Seminary and a Masters in Spirituality from the University of San Francisco.
Thomas Tweed
Thomas A. Tweed is Harold and Martha Welch Professor of American Studies and Professor of History at Notre Dame. He is also Faculty Fellow in the Institute of Latino Studies and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Tweed’s research includes six books, including Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami (Oxford), which won the American Academy of Religion’s book award, and an historical study of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which appeared in 2011 as “America’s Church”: The National Shrine and Catholic Presence in the Nation’s Capital, 1917-1997 (Oxford). America’s Church also received the annual book award by the American Academy of Religion. Tweed is currently president of the American Academy of Religion, the largest learned society for the academic study of religion in the world.