The University of Dallas continued its celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council on Wednesday October 16 with a panel discussion on the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. The Second Vatican Council met from 1963 1965 and is hailed by many Catholic theologians and historians as the most significant event in Church history in the past century. The event, co-sponsored by the Department of Theology and the School of Ministry, offered the university community the opportunity to hear from a panel of nationally renowned scholars on how this central document, which describes the nature and structure of the Church, continues to effect the life of the Catholic Church.
The first panelist, Fr. Roch Kereszty, O.Cist. of the Theology Department described the reception of the document over the past fifty years. This reception has included both positive developments and exaggerated developments, the "confusion and the renewal", Fr. Kerestzy explained. His presentation also highlighted the importance of the Trinitarian structure of the Church. Dr. Dan Luby of the School of Ministry discussed the impact that the treatment of the role of the Laity in the Church in chapter 4 of Lumen Gentium has had on Catholicism. His presentation focused on the universal call to holiness, the development of lay ecclesial ministry, and mission of the laity to act as "leaven in the world" as key developments. Dr. Bruce D. Marshall Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University's discussed the themes of ecumenism and interfaith relations in Lumen Gentium and two other key documents published by the council. His presentation described the challenge, laid out by the fathers of the council, of holding together the apparently contradictory ideals of valuing the dignity and truth that is to be found in other Christian denominations and non-Christian religions while at the same time upholding the unique nature of the Roman Catholic Church.
The event was well attended by a number of students, faculty and members of the university community who participated in a discussion with the panelists and a reception after the presentation. This panel conversation was the third collaboration between the Department of Theology and the School of Ministry as a part of the ongoing celebration of the council.
The University of Dallas has announced a new director of civil rights, Luciana Milano. Milano, who has a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard College and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, began her new role on Oct. 12.
+ Read More“This is the first time we’ve had a scholarship in honor of a great Catholic intellectual — and now, within the last year, saint,” said President Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA ’82 MA ’83, by way of introducing the St. John Henry Newman Scholarship in Philosophy recently endowed by alumnus Matthew Hejduk, MA '98 PhD '06, and his wife, Julia Hejduk, Ph.D. Julia was a colleague of Hibbs during his time at Baylor University, where she teaches in the Classics Department.
+ Read MoreMichelle Cortez-Gonzales, MFA ’20, was a Fort Worth ISD high school teacher with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Texas at Arlington when she decided to go back to school to get her master’s. At the recommendation of a friend, she visited UD, and knew immediately from the wooded area around the Art Village, the architecture of the buildings, and the faculty members she met that UD was the place for her.
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