Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture

Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan Lecture on Religion and Public Affairs

2003-2004 Flanagan Lecturer:

February 4, 2003 Richard L. Wood
University of New Mexico "Religious Congregations, Community Organizing, and Democratic Renewal" 4:00 PM, Rehm Library.

Wood specializes in political sociology and the sociology of religion, focusing on the institutional and cultural underpinnings of democratic life. His research has focused on community organizing efforts to advance substantive democracy in the contemporary United States, and on police-community interaction in urban America. His current research looks at faith-based community organizing nationally, both in its impact on the public sphere and its impact on religious congregations. He is author of Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (2002: University of Chicago Press).

The Bishop Flanagan Lecture Series honors the second bishop of Worcester, Bernard J. Flanagan, a member of the Holy Cross Class of 1928. Bishop Flanagan is remembered for his careful implementation of the reforms of the second Vatican Council. His pioneering leadership of ecumenical dialogue won him national respect, while his skills as a canon lawyer served the American church as he led the reform of the church's laws regarding marriage and annulment. His calm, reflective manner and his gentle pastoral touch made him an extremely popular leader of the Church of Worcester.

The annual Lecture on Religion and Public Affairs calls attention to Bishop Flanagan's leadership in public life. He was always ready to assist efforts at urban and regional economic development. He spoke out strongly in favor of civil rights and equal opportunity. He joined Protestant and Jewish leaders to establish the nation’s first interfaith draft counseling center during the Vietnam War. He was one of the first bishops to challenge the conduct of that war. He worked hard to keep his church united while insisting that the moral challenges of war, race and economic justice had to be faced. Later Bishop Flanagan spoke out on behalf of amnesty for Vietnam War dissenters. People of all faiths listened to Bishop Flanagan, and the church of Worcester avoided some of the deep divisions that beset the church in other areas of the country.

The Bishop Flanagan Lecture brings to Holy Cross each year scholars, pastoral leaders or leaders of important apostolic movements. Their presence stimulates discussion of important problems facing the American church. Students in many classes benefit from meeting with people who are leaders in the church’s intellectual, social and pastoral life. The Lecture also provides an opportunity for dialogue and examination of areas of collaboration between the local church and the College.

Past Flanagan Lecturers:

February 4, 2003     Mary Brabeck
                               Professor and Dean, Lynch School of Education
                               Boston College
                             "Radical Hope for Hard Times: The Role of the Catholic                                University in a Civil Society"

January 31, 2002 Rev. J. Bryan Hehir
                            President of Catholic Charities USA
former Dean, Harvard Divinity School
The Church and Public Life: A Pastoral Question
                7:30 p.m. Rehm Library, Smith Hall

February 9, 2001        Anthony Stevens-Arroyo
                                Professor, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
                                Anna Maria Diaz-Stevens
                                Professor, Union Theological Seminary
                             Merging Public Policy and Pastoral Praxis:
                                The Intellectual Agenda of Latino Catholicism

January 26, 1999       Father Roy Bourgeois
                                Maryknoll priest and author who worked in Bolivia and
                                Central America.
                             School of the Americas: A Question of Conscience

February 11, 1998      Kim Bobo
                                Founder and Executive Director
                                National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.
                             Justice for Workers in the Twenty-First Century

February 5, 1997        Sharon Daly
                                Deputy to the President for Social Policy
                                Catholic Charities USA
                             Poverty and Politics: The Role of the Church in Welfare
                                Reform

January 23, 1996        The Most Rev. Daniel P. Reilly
                                Bishop of Worcester, MA
                             The Role of National Episcopal Conferences in
                             International Affairs

January 30, 1995        Peter M. Steinfels
                                Senior Religion Correspondent
                             The New York Times
                                Leaving Democracy to the Devil: How Catholics
                             Abandoned Politics

January 25, 1994        Jean Bethke Elshtain
                                Centennial Professor of Political Science and Philosophy
                                Vanderbilt University
                             I Saw the Light: Religious Enthusiasm and the American
                             Tradition

January 27, 1993       The Most Rev. Peter A. Rosazza, D.D.
                                Auxiliary Bishop of Hartford, CT
                                Empowerment: Churches and Community Organizations

February 12, 1992      M. Shawn Copeland, O.P.
                                Assistant Professor of Theology and Black Studies
                                Yale University Divinity School
                                A Good Society: Educating the Imagination, Disciplining
                             the Heart