Reverend William Burton, O.F.M.

Reverend Bill Burton, OFM, a Roman Catholic Franciscan priest of the Sacred Heart Province, is a Biblicist. He received his M.Div. and M.A. in Theology from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, his Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and his doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University. In 2002, he received his MEd in Higher Education Administration from Loyola University, Chicago.

Father Burton has been a professor of undergraduate and graduate courses in Biblical Studies at Quincy University, Quincy, IL and undergraduate courses at DePaul University in Chicago. Father Burton is currently a professor of Biblical Theology at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

He has published several articles in The Bible Today and a DVD series on Catholic Biblical Study, The Biblicist Series: Volume One - Introduction to the Bible. He travels extensively throughout the Holy Land, Greece and Turkey, guiding pilgrims though the lands and books of the Bible.

Father Burton's Website »

Reverend John Cecero, SJ

Theme/Focus: Sexuality and Celibacy

Lecture Titles:

1. Sexuality & Celibacy:  paths to Flourishing as Catholic Priests
2. Disintegrated Sexuality
3. Homosexuality in the Catholic Priesthood
4. The Spirituality of Celibacy
   
   

Reverend John Cecero, SJ, a Jesuit priest and clinical psychologist, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Fordham University.  He is also Rector of the Jesuit Community and Director of the Center for Spirituality and Mental Health at Fordham.  Father Cecero maintains a research interest in personality assessment and the role of spirituality in mental health.  He published Praying Through Lifetraps:  A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Freedom (Resurrection press, 2002). More recently, Now You Know Media, Inc. produced his DVD series entitled Spirituality, Psychology, and Virtue:  A Christian Guide to a Flourishing Life.

Reverend Don Goergen, OP

Theme/Focus: Christian Contemplative Tradition

Lecture Titles:

1. The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist
2. The Holy Spirit:  Source of Contemplation
3. What Contemplation Is. What Contemplation is Not.
4. Learning to Live Contemplatively
   
   

Donld Goergen, O.P., is a Dominican priest, teacher, lecturer and author. He has published ten books and many articles. The most recent book is The Fire of Love, Encountering the Holy Spirit (Paulist Press). He has lectured and given retreats in Asia, Africa, Europe and throughout North America. He was previously the Provincial for the Central Province of Dominican friars and currently teaches at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO.

Reverend Goergen's Website»

 

      
Professor Ronald P. Olowin

Theme: Science and the Universe
Lecture Titles:

1. Cosmic Questions: Harvesting the Story of the Universe
2. Our Cosmic Canticle: Belonging and Relating to the Universe
3. On the Sacred Depths of Nature: Towards a Natural Theology
4. Cosmic Eschatology: Our TransHuman and PostHuman Futures

Professor Ronald P. Olowin joined the Saint Mary's College community in 1987 and is a Full Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Though trained in observational cosmology, where he studies the Large-Scale Structure of the universe by a detailed mapping of nearby clusters of galaxies, his varied interests span a variety of topics, from Archeo- and Ethno-Astronomy, Science and the Arts, to aspects of the Science and Religion dialog. Dr. Olowin is a member of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at Berkeley and also a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Theological Union, also at Berkeley. He is a member of the International Organizing Board of the Science Sectariat of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU); Chair of the International Executive Committee of the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena (INSAP) and President of the Robinson Jeffers (Poetry) Association. Professor Olowin is the author of over 40 articles in scientific journals and popular publications and is an internationally recognized scholar who has delivered papers in over a dozen countries and observed the heavens from all parts of the globe using some of the world's largest instruments.

 

      
Brian Robinette, PhD

Theme: Jesus and the Way of Paradox
Lecture Titles:

1. Strange Truth: Jesus and the Way of Paradox
2. Jesus and the Politics of Purity
3. Scapegoating and Crucifixion
4. Strange Victory: The Surprise of Easter

Brian D. Robinette, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. He received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame and his MA from Saint John's University (Collegeville, MN). He teaches and researches in the areas of systematic and philosophical theology, as well as spirituality. He recently published Grammars of Resurrection: A Christian Theology of Presence and Absence (Herder & Herder, 2009), which received two Catholic Press Association awards as well as the College Theology Society's Best Book of the Year Award. The work draws upon a variety of philosophical and theological resources to explore issues related to textual analysis, history, memory, embodiment, violence, forgiveness, aesthetics and spirituality. He teaches courses from the freshman to the graduate level and was honored recently to receive a teaching excellence award as well as a mentoring award from the College of Arts & Sciences. He has also served as the Undergraduate Program Director for the Department of Theological Studies.

Brian Robinette's website »

 

Rev. Theodore C. Ross, SJ

 
Theme:The Catholic Church in America
Lecture Titles:

1. Strangers in their own home - Immigration
2. Anti-Catholicism and Aculturation
3. Catholic School System and Liberal Movements 
4. Catholics and the Social Question

Rev. Theodore Ross, SJ, lectures in Historical Theology at Mundelein Seminary of the Archdiocese of Chicago and at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.  He is currently Assistant Professor of Church History at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati.

Father Ross’ special area of expertise is the Modern Church from 1800 to the era following Vatican II.  He has done extensive work and scholarship in the life and Theology of John Henry Cardinal Newman.  Father Ross has worked with many Newman scholars in a number of British Universities.  He gave two public lectures and a seminar at the International Newman Symposium at Oxford University to commemorate the centenary of the death of Newman.

Father Ross has lectured throughout the United States and other English-speaking countries.  The general themes of his presentations include a better understanding of the changes in the Modern Church since the Second Vatican Council as well as the preservation of authentic Catholic Tradition and identity in an age of rapid change.  His many audiences all agree that he is not only enlightening but very entertaining.

Father Ross entered the Society of Jesus in 1954 and was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1967.  His academic credentials include a Ph.L. (Philosophy) from West Baden College; M.A. (History) and M.A. (Theology) from Loyola University of Chicago and S.T.L. (Theology) from Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago.