Season of Creation Lecture Series
Season of Creation Online Speaker Series:
What Must Be Done? Vincentian Family Perspectives on Love and Justice for Creation
Sundays in September: September 12, 19, 26, 7:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom
The talks in this series will focus on the Vincentian call to action and Catholic understandings of love and justice. Each talk will begin and end with prayer and include time for questions and comments from attendees. Registration is required (see the form below) and will provide access to the live presentations as well as their recordings following the end of the series.
Presenters and Presentations
Sept. 12: Love and Justice for Creation: Taking it to heart
Our current world reality requires a change of heart on our part as humans. Only this will guide us in the choices we make and can ripple out beyond us as individuals to lead to actions taken on all levels: personal, family, faith groups, neighborhoods, cities, states, and nations. Let us join together in this first session to see where we are in this global reality, to discern what we may be called to in our circumstances, and to look with hope at some ways we can contribute to a healthier future for all who live in our common home called Earth.
Presenter: Sr. Mary Jo Stein is a Daughter of Charity, who has been blessed to serve in the Southeast and Midwest areas of the United States, in Bolivia and at her Motherhouse in Paris, France, in various forms of ministry, including biology and French instructor, hospital nurse, family practice nurse practitioner in the community health realm, interpreter/translator and formation director for new members in the Daughters of Charity. Sr. Mary Jo applies her experiences in international, intercultural settings and her background in biology and healthcare to join the ever-widening circle of care for all of creation who calls this planet our home.
Sept. 19: Answering Pope Francis’s Call to Ecological Conversion
This talk will focus on what Pope Francis means by “ecological conversion,” and will reflect on the ways that the call to care for creation expands our understanding of the virtues, practices, and actions that are essential to Catholic Christian discipleship today.
Presenter: Prof. Christopher P. Vogt holds a Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from Boston College. He is an Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University in New York City, where he teaches courses on fundamental moral theology, healthcare ethics, and Catholic Social Teaching. His recent publications include Death and Dying (in T & T Clark Handbook of Christian Ethics, 2021), Laudato Si’: Social Analysis and Political Engagement in the Tradition of Catholic Social Thought (in Integral Ecology for a More Sustainable World, 2020), and Mercy, Solidarity, and Hope: Essential Personal and Political Virtues in Troubled Times, Journal of Catholic Social Thought (2017).
Sept. 26: In the Beginning . . . Love of Creation as Love of Creator
In the act of creation, the Creator is revealed. The fullest expression of that truth is in the Incarnation–Jesus becoming part of the created order. This presentation will consider the biblical encouragement of a respect for creation from a Vincentian point-of-view
Presenter: Fr. Patrick J. Griffin, CM, a native of Brooklyn, New York, was ordained a Vincentian priest in 1979. Afterwards, he pursued a degree in Biblical Studies, taught at various universities and seminaries, and ministered in Rome and Paris for the Vincentian community. In 2014, Fr. Griffin returned to St. John’s University in New York as the Executive Director for the Vincentian Center for Church and Society.