Latino Leadership Lecture Series

The Latino Leadership lecture series highlights the growing Latino influence in the US, and the role the Catholic faith plays in the lives of Latin-Americans. This lecture series is sponsored by the Latino Leadership Program at the Center for Catholic Studies. For further information on the program or this lecture, contact Ms. Laura Stierman, Director, Latino Leadership Program at (651) 962-5864 or ljstierman@stthomas.edu.

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Latino Theology and its Critique
of a Multicultural Church

First in the Series

Peter Casarella, Ph.D. Professor of Catholic Studies, DePaul University 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 O'Shaugnessy Educational Center University of St. Thomas 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul Free and open to the public.

Dr. Peter Casarella, who also directs DePaul's Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, was recognized for his outstanding service to the Hispanic Theological Initiative in 2007 and is active in the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the U.S. He has a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University, where he also earned his master's and bachelor's degrees.  "It has often been assumed that the idea of a multicultural [Catholic] Church would be particularly inviting to Latinos and to Latino scholars," Casarella commented.  "A new generation of Latino scholars, however, is challenging older models of thinking about diversity.  [They] promote a pastoral theology that recognizes the authentic witness of U.S. Latino Catholics as an intrinsic good in the church and addresses [their] daily needs more adequately." Casarella will examine these debates and discuss some of the assumptions that have guided these discussions.

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