Dr. James Jay Carney will be the featured presenter at the Cyprian Davis Lecture at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, St. Meinrad, IN. His talk, “The Priest in Public: Case Studies from Catholic Africa,” will be held on Thursday, February 5, at 7 p.m. Central Time in St. Bede Theater.
Across the African continent, Catholic priests, bishops, and religious assume critical public and social leadership roles at both the local and national levels. This has not been without challenges. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote after the 2009 Second African Synod, the Church must navigate between the problematic alternatives of an “immediate engagement in politics—which lies outside the Church’s direct competence—and the potential for withdrawal or evasion present in a theological and spiritual speculation which could serve as an escape from concrete historical responsibility” (Africae Munus, 17).
This lecture analyzes three modern examples of African Catholic clergy engaging issues of human rights, constitutional reform, post-genocide reconciliation, and post-war reconstruction in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr. Carney will also consider what lessons these African “priests in public” can offer for the American Catholic context in the twenty-first century.
Dr. Carney is the Amelia B. and Emil G. Graff Chair in Catholic Theological Studies at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. His research focuses on modern Catholic history, leadership, and ecclesiology in the African Great Lakes region (e.g., DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya). He holds graduate degrees from Duke University Divinity School and the Catholic University of America and has previously served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Uganda and director of Creighton’s Christian Spirituality Program. He has authored, co-authored, and edited five books and over 25 articles and book chapters.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available at St. Bede Hall and in the Guest House and student parking lots. For more information, call Krista Hall at 812-357-6501 during business hours.
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