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The Joseph William & Madeline Eberle Klein Lecture Series

The Joseph William & Madeline Eberle Klein Series

The Joseph William and Madeline Eberle Klein Fund was established for the explicit purpose of supporting educational events and materials specifically directed toward greater inclusion in the Roman Catholic Church of those groups of persons currently disaffected from it including, but not limited to the LGBTQ community, or gender, racial or political minorities.

Past Event Recordings

Whether you missed a webinar, want to watch it again, or share it with others, you can find them here.

Spring 2023 Events

  • Dr. Robert Bullard, Texas Southern University

    Dr. Robert Bullard is often referred to as the father of environmental justice. Dr. Bullard is currently Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy and Director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University. Dr. Bullard will discuss environmental justice including the disproportionate effects of environmental hazards on communities of color and connections to Ladauto Si.  

    Co-Sponsored with the Criminal Justice Department, Institute for Environmental Stewardship, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Political Science Department, and Sociology Department. 

    March 29, 2023, 7pm

  • Dr. Alice Chen, Keynote Speaker

    Alice T. Chen, MD is a board-certified internal medicine physician and a national leader in physician advocacy, community organizing, and public health. Dr. Chen grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area as the younger daughter of Chinese-American immigrants. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University and went on to attend medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College. During medical school, she volunteered for the Red Cross as a case worker for low-income families in Lower Manhattan who lost their livelihoods in the aftermath of 9/11. There, she witnessed the shame felt by people who suddenly could no longer provide for their families, and also experienced how one-on-one interactions and real assistance can restore hope and dignity. She then completed her residency in internal medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where rotations through county hospitals and a world-class tertiary care center displayed every day the inequities of the healthcare system and their profound impact on patient lives.

    March 2, 2023, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Fall 2022 Events

  • Dr. Kristin Heyer, Professor of Theology, Boston College

    Immigration is often framed in terms of crisis management, rather than by addressing underlying economic, political and cultural contributing factors. In the US context in particular, political rhetoric has often masked complicity, abetted human rights violations and betrayed the nation’s founding principles. Focusing solely on economics or fear-based approaches too often dehumanizes newcomers.

    Dr. Heyer will explore contributions that Scripture, the Catholic social tradition and Pope Francis offer the immigration dialogue in light of these realities. Resources from Christian ethics challenge dominant, instrumentalist frameworks and offer a counternarrative of kinship.

    Wednesday, September 28, 7pm

    Watch Recording Here

  • Mary Beth Powers, Catholic Medical Mission Board

    Ms. Mary Beth Powers is the Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Medical Missions Board (CMMB). For more than 100 years and with a strategic priority of women and children, CMMB has worked to strengthen and support communities through healthcare programs and initiatives, the distribution of medicines and medical supplies, and the placement of volunteers. 

    With Field Offices in Haiti, Kenya, Peru, South Sudan, and Zambia, CMMB’s work extends to some of the most remote and underserved corners of the world. Ms. Powers will discuss CMMB’s work and lived values such as dignity of work, subsidiarity, and preference for the poor.

    Co-Sponsored with the Institute of Clinical Bioethics

    Tuesday, October 25, 7pm

    Watch Recording Here

  • Dr. Daniel Castillo, Associate Professor of Theology, Loyola University Maryland

    Dr. Daniel Castillo, Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland, will briefly surface several of the dynamics at work with the contemporary planetary eco-social emergency such as overconsumption, anti-Black racism, ecological degradation and social inequality. Following this context he will discuss the Christian ethical call and responsibility of hearing and responding to the cries of the earth and poor. 

    Co-Sponsored with Institute of Environmental Stewardship, Department of Theology & Religious Studies

    Thursday, November 10, 7pm

    Watch Recording Here

Spring 2022

  • February 24, 2022, 7PM, Zoom

    Dr. Kelly Schmidt, Washington University in St. Louis, and Ms. Rashonda Alexander, Descendant of Jack & Sally Queen, Jesuit Alum.

    Dr. Kelly Schmidt and Ms. Roshanda Alexander will discuss the stories of communities enslaved to the Jesuits and the legacies of their enslavement. Their presentation will include historical, modern-day, and personal impact and relevance of enslavement and the Catholic Church.

    View Recording

Fall 2021

  • November 16, 2021

    In this presentation, Dr. Jerry Beyer, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, Villanova University and author of Just Universities, Catholic Social Teaching Confronts Corporatized Higher Education, will discuss how Catholic Social Teaching principles like respect for human rights, solidarity and social justice affect university worker justice programs, admissions, financial aid, retention, diversity and inclusion policies and stewardship of resources.

    Co-Sponsored with The Francis A. Drexel Library

    View Recording

  • November 4, 2021

    In this presentation, Dr. Williams, Distinguished University Chair and Professor of History and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, will explore the Struggle for Black equality through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching with a special emphasis on Ignatian Values and the principles of Jesuit Education.

    Co-Sponsored with Center for Inclusion and Diversity

    View Recording

  • October 21, 2021

    In this presentation, Dr. Alexandre Martis, Assistant Professor of Theology at Marquette University and Saint Louis University's Mader Visiting Professor of Bioethics, will present on global healthcare inequalities. He will discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic affects low-income neighborhoods and countries as well as explore ethical challenges and responsibilities.

    Co-sponsored with The Institute of Clinical Bioethics

    View Recording

Spring 2021

  • March 4, 2021

    The 2021 SHP/IDEPEL Conference on Thursday, March 4, focuses on equitable leadership strategies that “care for the whole person” (cura personalis) by examining policies and practices that impact the social and emotional well-being of community members.

    Keynote Speaker and journalist, Trymaine Lee, will share his Pulitzer Prize-winning work on social justice issues (i.e., criminal justice, natural disasters) that impact the social and emotional well-being of everyday people.

    K-12, higher education, and health-specific breakout rooms will delve deeper into equitable leadership strategies, including conversations around Jesuit perspectives and practical actions.

    Co-sponsored with the School of Health Professions, the Interdisciplinary Doctor of Education Program for Educational Leaders, and the Faith-Justice Institute’s Joseph William and Madeline Eberle Klein Fund.

  • March 24, 7 P.M.

    Ms. Kate Shields, CEO of Vault Communications, will present on the call to empathetic leadership in the Catholic Jesuit tradition. She will further highlight its imperative in the current COVID-19 context.

    Named a 2020 Most Admired CEO by the Philadelphia Business Journal, Kate has nurtured a core values-driven, talent-centric culture at Vault, which has been recognized as one of the fastest growing marketing communications firms in the country by Inc. magazine.

    Co-sponsored with the Haub School of Business Dean's Office Innovation Speaker Series, Women's Leadership Initiative and Beta Gamma Sigma.

    View Recording

  • February 5, 2021, 5 P.M.

    Ms. Danielle Vela, Director of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion at Jesuit Refugee Services, and author of Dying to Live: Stories from Refugees on the Road to Freedom, will highlight Jesuit Refugee Services’ work of accompaniment through sharing stories about the refugee experience and of the forcibly displaced.

    Ms. Vela’s presentation seeks to bring to light the refugee experience and create a culture of welcome for all refugees and migrants.

    Co-sponsored with The Refugee and Immigrant Working Group, Latin American and Latinx Studies, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Beta Gama Sigma, and International Relations Program.

    View Recording

Fall 2020

  • September 24, 7pm online

    Molly McCully Brown is an acclaimed poet and essayist and will perform a reading followed by a Q&A.

    Her published books include: The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and FeeblemindedIn the Field Between Us, and The Places I’ve Taken My Body. Brown has been the recipient of the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship and the Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship from the Oxford American magazine. Her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The Paris Review, Tin House, Crazyhorse, The New York Times, Pleiades, The Yale Review, Blackbird, and elsewhere.

    Sponsored by The Faith-Justice Institute’s Joseph William and Madeline Eberle Klein Fund and the English Department

  • Norma Pimentel is a Sister with the Missionaries of Jesus. As Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, she oversees the charitable arm of the Diocese of Brownsville on the U.S.-Mexico border, providing oversight of the ministries and services, including the Humanitarian Respite Center.

    Sr. Norma has received national and international attention for her advocacy. During her talk, Sr. Norma will share her personal story as a child of Mexican immigrants growing up in Brownsville, Texas. She will also discuss the urgency of the work that she and her sisters are engaged in with immigrants and refugees, and her perspective about the crisis at the border, and the Catholic Church’s response..

    Co-sponsored with The Latin American and Latinx Studies Program.

    View Recording

  • Dr. Robert Vischer, Dean and Mengler Chair of Law at the University of St. Thomas Law School, is a scholar on the intersection of law, religion, and public policy. Dr. Vischer keenly articulates religious and moral dimensions of professional identity.

    Author of Conscience and the Common Good: Reclaiming the Space between Person and State and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Morality of Legal Practice: Lessons in Love and Justice, he will discuss topics such as civil friendship, justice and the common good in our current context of an election year.

    Co-sponsored with the SJU Law Alumni Endowment and Political Science and Theology Departments.

    View Recording

  • Dr. Martina Giselle Ramirez, Loyola Marymount University, is the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Professor of Biology at Loyola Marymount University. Recognized for her scholarship and mentorship, she has also dedicated her career to empowering and advocating for those at the margins.

    Author of Happier as a Woman: Transforming Friendships, Transforming Lives, Dr. Ramirez will speak of her spiritual journey of self-discovery, relationships and self-love.

    Co-sponsored with The Office of Teaching and Learning, The Alliance, Beta Gamma Sigma and The Faculty Senate Trans Working Group.

    View Recording

Spring 2020

  • Journalist Dawn Araujo-Hawkins will be joined in conversation by Sr. Alison McCrary, SFCC, a social justice movement lawyer, and Lezley McSpadden, Michael Brown’s mother, to discuss acts of bias, racial profiling, excessive sentencing practices and more.

    Co-sponsored with the SJU Law Alumni Endowment, Justice and Ethics in the Law, and the Center for Inclusion and Diversity.

  • A guided discussion with members of SJU’s El Salvador Delegation and members of the Jesuit community about the influence and legacy of the Jesuit Martyrs over lunch.

    Co-sponsored with the Jesuit Community, The Latin American and Latinx Studies Program, and The Office of Mission Programs.

  • A conversation with Dr. Emilio Travieso, S.J., about Jesuit education in Haiti with the Foi et Joie Haïti organization.

Fall 2019

  • Fr. James Martin S.J., author and editor-at-large for America Magazine, challenges Catholics to encounter and experience the lives of people on the margins of the Church, particularly the LGBT community. He is also a frequent commentator in the national media about contemporary issues in the Catholic Church, and the intersection of faith and culture. Fr. Martin will be speaking about how, through respect, compassion, and sensitivity, we can create a welcoming, inclusive space for all in the Catholic Church.

  • In November, 2018, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the statement, Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism. Dr. Shawnee Daniels-Sykes, Professor of Theology and Ethics at Mount Mary University, will join our campus community for a day of programming about Open Wide Our Hearts, systemic racism, overcoming unconscious racial bias, and the path forward.

  • Christiana Zenner, Ph.D., associate professor of theology, science and ethics in the Department of Theology at Fordham University, lectures nationally and internationally on the intersection of fresh water ethics and ecological theory, religious ecologies, and developments in the earth sciences. She will speak about the ecological turn in Catholic Social Teaching and the interconnectedness of access to water and justice in global economies. She will also suggest what needs to be done to improve access to safe water throughout the world.

  • “Moving Beyond Belief: poems and stories in conversation with Catholicism” will feature poetry readings by Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marie Howe. A discussion will follow about writing through a Catholic lens, the transformative power of poetry, and giving voice through poetry to groups that are living on the margins of the Church.

    Co-sponsored with The Alliance and The English Department

Spring 2019

  • In celebration of Women's History Month, Sr. Mary Scullion, President and Executive Director of Project HOME, will be speaking in the Foley Center on Wednesday, March 27th from 7-9 pm about her journey as co-founder of Project HOME, the historical contributions of women as champions of peace and social justice in the Catholic Church, and how the role of women in the Church could evolve.

  • The panel discussion will be comprised of leaders from organizations such as HIAS, Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and St. Thomas Aquinas Center, who are providing services to refugees and immigrants.

  • Rev. Daniel R. Joyce, S.J. will moderate a panel discussion in response to the PA Grand Jury Report released in August 2018, which detailed the outcome of one of the broadest inquiries into Church Sex Abuse in United States history. Dr. Kathy Sprows Cummings, Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame will be joined by a local attorney and therapist, who will share their professional perspectives on the PA Grand Jury Report and the abuse of children by clergy.

Fall 2018

  • Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, is world renown for her tireless work against the death penalty, especially in our national dialogue on capital punishment. Moreover, Sr. Helen has been instrumental in shaping the Catholic Church’s newly vigorous opposition to all executions as announced recently by Pope Francis. Join us for an evening presentation with Sr. Helen.

    View Recording

  • Fr. Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, Los Angeles, California, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world. Faith, compassion and unconditional love call us to find kinship with one another. In this lecture, Fr. Boyle will discuss his recent book, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship. Fr. Boyle’s compelling stories witness to the challenges and joys of life on the margins and how radical kinship can break down barriers and transform our world.

    View Recording