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2015 Msgr. Philip J. Murnion Lecture of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative

The Murnion Lecture  “Is Common Ground Possible in the Pursuit of Racial Justice?”  was given by Rev. Bryan Massingale, STD, Professor of Theological Ethics, Marquette University.

The recent killings of unarmed African Americans has put the nation’s unfinished quest for racial equality at the forefront of public debate.  Yet these discussions are often racially polarized, and Catholic engagement with these discussions presents a muddled and muted witness.  This lecture examines the challenges of and possibilities for robust Catholic witness in overcoming our nation’s most enduring social divide.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”270″,”attributes”:{“class”:”media-image”,”height”:”50px”,”width”:”100px”}}]]Bryan N. Massingale received his doctorate in moral theology from the Academia Alphonsianum (Rome). He specializes in social ethics and teaches courses on Catholic Social Thought, African American religious ethics, liberation theologies, and racial justice. His approach to social ethics focuses upon the impact of religious faith as both an instrument of social injustice and a catalyst for social transformation.

He is the author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church (Orbis, 2010), which received a First Place book award from the Catholic Press Association.  He also has authored over eighty articles, book chapters, and book reviews.  These have appeared in both scholarly and pastoral journals such as Theological Studies, New Theology Review, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Philosophy and Theology, Journal of Religion and Society, U.S. Catholic Historian, Origins, U.S. Catholic, The National Catholic Reporter, Signs of the Times in the Americas, and Catholic Peace Voice.

His current research projects explore the contribution of Black religious radicalism to Catholic theology; the notion of “cultural sin” and its challenge to Catholic theological ethics; and the intersections of race and sexuality in both social life and Catholicism.

Click here for the video presentation of the 2015 Bernardin Award and Murnion Lecture [1]in its entirety.