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One of the most important ideas in Catholic Social Teaching of the last half century is the “preferential option for the poor.” It is a phrase that describes the Church’s ethical positions in the world, but it also conveys important theological notions about God. Though utilized across a range of magisterial texts of recent memory, the idea finds its most substantial development from theologians on Latin American soil. It is no wonder then that the preferential option is a crucial idea that runs through the encyclicals of Pope Francis. This seminar will elaborate an understanding of the phrase, “preferential option...

Listen to the panel discussion as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music. To view photos of the discussion, visit Lumen Christi's Facebook page. To read the National Catholic Reporter's coverage of the event, click here. A reception and panel discussion on the occasion of the publication of American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame's Father Ted Hesburgh by Fr. Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C. Copies of the book will be available for purchase by the Seminary Coop Bookstore. According to the great University of Chicago President Robert...

To view photos of the master class, visit Lumen Christi's Facebook page. Open to current students and faculty. Copies of the readings will be provided for registrants. Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) was one of the most prolific and controversial Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. Responses to his work have ranged from the effusive to the dismissive. Instead of favoring any such one-sided judgments, however, I invite participants in this seminar to focus on two tasks that require considerably more scholarly effort. First, there is the task simply of understanding Balthasar—that is, making sense of his claims, their historical...