CSTM Faculty News

André Brouillette, S.J., associate professor of systematic and spiritual theology, was invited to Ireland to do some research and present a dual lecture, “Pilgrimage by Land or Sea: Portal to Spiritual Awakening and Eco Awareness,” with Irish filmmaker Dónal Ó Céilleachair at the Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE), Dublin, on June 24, 2024. He also had the chance to meet pilgrimage scholars and tour some important Irish sites. In addition, in the realm of spirituality and history, a book chapter and an article came to light: “St. Teresa of Avila and the Challenge of Shaping Female Holiness,” in Imaging Jesuit Sanctity, edited by Alison C. Fleming and Thomas Worcester, S.J. (Saint Joseph’s University Press, Philadelphia: 2024), 77-106, and “El martirio de los jesuitas de América del Norte: la mística apostólica de san Jean de Brébeuf,” Manresa 96 (2024), 257-266.

Vicente Chong, S.J., visiting assistant professor of systematic theology, published the essay “The Art of Sammy Chong as a Revelatory and Symbolic Mediation of a Servant God” in Theology and Media(tion): Rendering the Absent Present, edited by Stephen Okey and Katherine G. Schmidt (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York: 2024), 210-223.

Daniel J. Daly, associate professor of moral theology, inaugurated the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health at the Catholic Health Assembly on June 6, 2024, in San Diego. He is the founding executive director of the center. Although he will run it full time, he will retain his current appointment at the Clough School. Professor Daly published an article, “Exemplarist Medical Ethics,” in the Journal of Medical Ethics 50 (2024), 447-451. Finally, he published a chapter titled “Pathways of Holiness: Institutions, Moral Formation, and the Virtues” in a Festschrift volume for James Keenan, Bothering to Love: James F. Keenan’s Retrieval and Reinvention of Catholic Ethics, eds. Christopher P. Vogt and Kate Ward (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY: 2024), 59-70.

Rev. Brian Dunkle, S.J., associate professor of historical theology, gave a paper, “Nature’s Private Senses’ (Exam. 6.26): Nature as Exemplar in Ambrose’s Hexameron,” at the International Patristics Conference, Oxford, England, on August 8, 2024.

Angela Kim Harkins, professor of New Testament and professor ordinaria, delivered an invited plenary paper titled “Jesus as the Son-of-David: A Solomonic Messianism?” at The Old Testament in the New Testament conference, hosted at the Angelicum in Rome, Italy, on June 20. She published the essay “Prayer, the Divine, and the Human Self at Qumran” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: New Insights on Ancient Texts, edited by Alex P. Jassen and Lawrence H. Schiffman (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). Dr. Harkins is also pleased to announce that the volume Experiencing the Shepherd of Hermas (2022), which she edited with Harry O. Maier, is now available in paperback from De Gruyter Press.

Dr. Franklin T. Harkins, professor of historical theology and professor ordinarius, published an essay titled “The Victorine School” on pages 234-82 in The Bible and Western Christian Literature: Books and the Book, Volume 1: Late Antiquity to Late Medieval, edited by Ian Christopher Levy (T&T Clark: London, 2024).

Callid Keefe-Perry, assistant professor of contextual education and public theology, has been selected as a 2024-2025 Religion and Global Affairs Fellow for the Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs. Their research theme this year is “Religion, Nationalism, and Internationalism,” and they’ve asked Professor Keefe-Perry to be a part of their conversations given his research. He will be presenting some of his work there and collaborating with some phenomenal scholars of religion and politics.

Richard Lennan, professor ordinarius of systematic theology, presented a keynote address to the College Theology Society’s annual conference in Denver in June. The topic was “Paradoxical Flourishing: Theology as Embraced Vulnerability.” He also published “Dislocation as Graced Opportunity: Theology for a Synodal Church,” Theological Studies 85 (2024), 400-417, and “Australia’s Plenary Council” in Witnesses to Synodality: Good Practices and Experience, edited by Jos Moons (Paulist, Mahwah, NJ: 2024), 105-117.

Rafael Luciani, extraordinary professor of CSTM ecclesiastical faculty, recently received a doctor honoris causa in theology by the Dominican faculty of theology at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO, USA. He continues his global ecclesial leadership as peritus (theological expert) for the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops during the second session of the Assembly in October 2024, and afterward at the beginning of the third phase of the Synod through the end of 2025. He also continues to be the co-coordinator of an intercontinental project, the Peter and Paul Seminar. Among his most recent publications are the following. Written by him in German: “Von bischöflicher und synodaler Kollegialität zu synodaler Ekklesialität in Lateinamerika und der Karibik,” in Julia Knop, Matthias Remenyi, Matthias Sellmann, and Tine Stein (eds.), Synode als Chance. Zur Performativität synodaler Ereignisse, Quaestiones Disputatae, 337 (Herder, 2024), 312-336. In English: “The Heart of the Current Reception of the Ecclesiology of the People of God. New Paths in the Theology and Practice of Sensus Fidei,” Synodality in Europe (LIT Verlag: Zürich, 2024), 257-276. In Spanish: “Hacia una vinculación corresponsable del ejercicio episcopal a la luz del sensus fidelium del Pueblo de Dios,” in César Kuzma (ed.), El laicado en una Iglesia sinodal. Corresponsabilidad, participación y misión (San Pablo, Madrid, 2024), 138-163; “La reconfiguración de las identidades y las relaciones de los sujetos eclesiales en una Iglesia Pueblo de Dios,” Revista Teologia 143 (2024), 39-75. And in Italian: “Divenire una chiesa sinodale. Tensioni, conflitti, consensus,” Credere Oggi 44 (2024) 99-120 (co-authored with Serena Noceti) and his most recent book, with Pope Francis’s preface: In cammino verso una chiesa costitutivamente sinodale (Editrice Queriniana: Brescia, Italy, 2024). 

Catherine Mooney, associate professor of Church history, traveled to Schio, Italy, in July to doresearch in the Saint Josephine Bakhita archive. Bakhita was enslaved as a child in Sudan andlater made her way to Italy and freedom. She is part of Professor Mooney’s current book projecton saints and the quest for racial justice.

Hosffman Ospino, professor of Hispanic ministry and religious education, published a chapter on Christian initiation, faith formation, and synodality in a book released in Spain. The work is currently being translated into Portuguese and Italian. He was part of a select group of thought leaders invited to a national convening on faith and giving, organized by the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving at Indiana University. He presented a paper on synodality during the annual meeting of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACTHUS) and was one of the session speakers at the National Eucharistic Congress, celebrated in Indianapolis in July. Nuevo Momento, a national initiative for which Professor Hosffman serves as director and principal investigator, formally launched this summer. He wrote an article in America magazine describing in detail the vision for the project: The moment for the Hispanic Catholic Church in the United States is now. He is also a co-principal investigator of Haciendo Caminos, which hosted a successful national vocations summit in Chicago with nearly 100 college-age Latina/o Catholics discerning a calling to pursue graduate education to serve as ministers in Hispanic communities.