MISSION AND MINISTRY | How can we engage in dialogues of mutual respect and understanding in a world marked by conflict, isolation, and distrust? This year’s Mission Day speaker will address this topic as Loyola Marymount University’s annual celebration brings the community together to contemplate on, and rededicate to, the university’s core values.
On Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, at noon in Sacred Heart Chapel, Julie Hanlon Rubio, professor of social ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, explores the theme “Finding Common Ground in a Polarized World: Possibilities and Perils.” Is finding common ground possible? Is it worthwhile? And how does LMU’s mission and identity shape how we approach these questions?
All are welcome. A lunch reception will follow in the Sculpture Garden. RSVP here.
Rubio is among the most visible public theologians in the U.S. Catholic Church today, speaking regularly at universities, seminaries, diocesan convocations, parishes, and gatherings of religious educators. Her articles have appeared in America, the National Catholic Reporter, catholicmoraltheology.com, and the Washington Post, reaching diverse audiences. Her 2016 book, “Hope for Common Ground: Mediating the Personal and the Political in a Divided Church” (Georgetown University Press), suggests that there is a way beyond red versus blue for Catholics. Drawing on Catholic social thought, she explores ways to bring Catholics together across the political spectrum, and demonstrates that common ground does exist in the local sphere between the personal and the political.
Past Mission Day speakers include: Very Rev. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., then-superior general of the Society of Jesus; Terezinha Cecchin, R.S.H.M., the general superior of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary; renowned poet Dana Gioia; Christine Firer Hinze, professor of theology and director of the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University; Ken Miller, a cell biologist at Brown University and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; among others.
