MINNESOTA
The Wild Reed
Paul Lakeland, author and director of Fairfield University’s Center for Catholic Studies, will be visiting Minnesota at the end of the month to speak on “Pope Francis and the Liberation of the Laity.”
I first met Paul at the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform’s 2010 Synod of the Baptized, “Claiming Our Place at the Table.” I was an organizer of this event while Paul was its keynote speaker. His talk at Synod 2010 was entitled “The Call of the Baptized: Be the Church, Live the Mission.” It was an excellent presentation, the transcript of which can be found here.
Now Paul is returning to Minnesota where he will be speaking on what Pope Francis has to say about the role of the laity in the world and the responsibilities the baptismal priesthood places on each of us who are baptized in Christ’s name. On Wednesday, April 30, Paul will be speaking at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Minneapolis (details here). Then on Friday, May 1, Paul will be at Christ Church Newman Center in St Cloud (details here). Both speaking engagements are free and open to the public.
Along with serving as the director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Fairfield University, Paul Lakeland is active in the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Theological Society of America, and the Workgroup on Constructive Christian Theology. His two most recent books, both winners of Catholic Press Association awards, are The Liberation of the Laity: In Search of an Accountable Church and Catholicism at the Crossroads: How the Laity Can Save the Church.
Following, with added links, is an excerpt from chapter five of Lakeland’s Catholicism at the Crossroads. This excerpt deals with understanding the Catholic church’s sex abuse scandal, and I believe it’s timely to share given all that is happening in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in relation to this scandal.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.