Three Top Speakers Set for SA Church
Coming to South Africa this year: (from left) Fr Carlos Mendoza Álvarez OP, Fr Bryan Massingale, and Prof Massimo Faggioli.
The Jesuit Institute will bring three top speakers to South Africa this year, including one who will speak on the theme of “Suffering, Resistance and Hope in an Era of Violence”.
Dominican Father Carlos Mendoza Álvarez
This will be the theme of this year’s Winter Living Theology, to be delivered by Dominican Father Carlos Mendoza Álvarez, a professor and researcher in the Department of Religious Studies at Iberoamericana University in Mexico City.
Fr Mendoza has published widely in specialised journals and has authored seven books.
He will be in South Africa from May 25 to June 30.
“In the last few years, Fr Mendoza had been accompanying people whose loved ones have disappeared in kidnappings in Mexico. This has led him to work and reflect on the question of suffering, resistance and hope in a time of global violence,” said Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, director of the Jesuit Institute.
“We thought that the question of how a good God can allow suffering and how those who suffer can hold on to hope is an important and relevant theological question for South Africa today.”
Fr Mendoza will present the Winter Living Theology in Johannesburg (June 9-11), Pretoria (June 8), Durban (June 2-4), Cape Town (June 16-18), Port Elizabeth (May 26-28), Manzini in eSwatini (June 6) and Gaborone: in Botswana (June 25).
Fr Bryan Massingale
Meanwhile, Fr Bryan Massingale will return to South Africa in July 2020. He will guest lecture at St Augustine College and will offer some public lectures during this time.
Fr Massingale delivered the Winter Living Theology in 2018 on the theme of “Racial Justice”, and returned to South Africa last year for further lectures.
He is a professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University in New York, and the author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church (2010).
More details of Fr Massingale’s visit will be announced at a later stage.
Prof Massimo Faggioli
The Jesuit Institute will host Italian-born and US-based Prof Massimo Faggioli from Villanova University in Philadelphia from August 9-16.
Prof Faggioli is professor of Church history, administration and the papacy. A prolific writer, he is a regular columnist for the US Catholic journal Commonweal and La Croix International in France, as well as a contributor to the Italian Catholic magazine Jesus and the Huffington Post website.
He will deliver some lectures and do day-workshops during his time in South Africa on the subject of Vatican II and the pontificate of Pope Francis.
The Jesuit Institute hopes that Prof Faggioli will be able to offer lectures in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
Dates and venues are to be confirmed.
“We hope that these scholars will make a valuable contribution to the Southern African Church and help us reflect on the pertinent theological issues we face in the country and in the Church,” Fr Pollitt said.
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