The Jeanie Graustein Lecture on Environmental Justice

Saint Thomas More Chapel and Center at Yale

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The Jeanie Graustein Lecture on Environmental Justice

September 29, 2024 • Allen Ottaro, CYNESA

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Speaking from his experience as one of the leading African Catholic environmentalists active today, CYNESA founder Allen Ottaro will discuss how young Catholics around the world can effectively advocate for a just stewardship of Creation through the lens of Catholic social teaching and sacred tradition. Allen Ottaro is the Founder and Executive Director of the Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa (CYNESA). Based in Nairobi, Kenya, the organization currently has chapters in ten African countries. Allen is also a founding member of the Global Membership Council of the Laudato Si’ Movement. Since 2015, he has served as a member of the climate change working group of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

Professor Volker Leppin | Brother Sun, Mother Church: The Mysticism of St. Francis of Assisi

September 26, 2024

Yale Divinity School Professor Volker Leppin will open our series by exploring Saint Francis of Assisi’s (d. 1226) creation mysticism, its relationship with Church authorities, and its reception in his time. Leppin will also discuss its enduring influence on Catholic environmentalism under Pope Francis. Volker Leppin is the Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale Divinity School. Professor Leppin was trained in theology at Marburg, Jerusalem, and Heidelberg where he graduated with his doctorate in 1997. He held the chair in Church History at the University of Jena in Germany and a similar chair at the University of Tübingen, the most prestigious in Germany.

Live as a Scholar and a Believer | Carlos Eire ‘79 Ph.D.

September 15, 2024

Carlos Eire is the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University where he regularly offers courses on Christian mysticism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. He received his Ph.D. in History from Yale University and taught at St. John's University in Minnesota and the University of Virginia. A prolific scholar, Eire specializes in the social, intellectual, religious, and cultural history of late medieval and early modern Europe, with a focus on the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the history of popular piety, the history of the supernatural, and the history of death. He is the author of The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (2019) and They Flew: A History of the Impossible (2023).

Rev. Robert L. Beloin Lecture on Contemporary Theology | 2024 Focus: Black Catholicism

February 25, 2024 • Shannon Wimp Schmidt

Join Shannon Wimp Schmidt for her lecture: "Awake, O Sleeper: A Black Catholic’s Journey of Decolonizing and Reconstructing Faith". Shannon Wimp Schmidt is Parish Vitality Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Chicago, author and co-host of the podcast Plaid Skirts and Basic Black. Shannon holds a M.A. in Pastoral Studies from Catholic Theological Union. She has more than a decade of experience in youth and pastoral ministry and has served in various capacities, including director of RCIA, adult faith formation coordinator, diversity educator, interfaith ministry leader, and theology teacher. She co-authored "Fat Luther, Slim Pickin’s: A Black Catholic Celebration of Faith, Tradition, and Diversity" (Ave Maria Press, 2022) with Marcia Lane-McGee and is a regular contributor to FemCatholic and the National Catholic Reporter's Sunday Scripture video reflections. Her work has been featured on CatholicTV’s "This is the Day" and in "The Catholic Moment" and "Common Horizon". She is the founding member of Catholics United for Black Lives.