Boston College graduate Kenneth Hackett looks back on his time as United States ambassador to the Holy See (2013-2017) in his new book, The Vatican Code: American Diplomacy in the Time of Francis (Paulist Press, 2022). The Vatican Code offers an insider’s perspective on the role of an American ambassador to the Holy See as well as on the personalities and inner workings of the U.S. Embassy in the Vatican. Hackett graduated from BC in 1968. He had a 40-year career with Catholic Relief Services, including 19 years as president. In 2006, the University awarded him an honorary doctorate of humane letters. BC’s Church in the 21st Century Center will host a conversation with Hackett on October 20 at 6:30 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 110. He will talk about his global humanitarian work and his book. Copies of The Vatican Code will be available for purchase.
Insights from an ambassador to the Holy See
Posted in Alumni Authors
Tagged Catholic, Church in the 21st Century Center, humanitarianism
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Ocean Vuong
The Lowell Humanities Series will host best-selling writer Ocean Vuong on October 19 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Vuong’s latest work is Time is a Mother, deeply intimate poetry collection in which Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother’s death. Vuong is also author of the acclaimed novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, an evocative coming-of-age epistolary and lyrical work of self-discovery and diaspora, and the poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Vuong’s writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and the American Poetry Review. An associate professor in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Vuong is a recipient of the T.S. Eliot Prize, a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and many other honors. His appearance is cosponsored by the Boston College Fiction Days Series, Poetry Days Series, American Studies Program, Literature Core Program, Asian American Studies Program, and the English Department.
Digital Mindset
The digital revolution is here, changing how work gets done, how industries are structured, and how people work, behave, and relate to each other, according to the co-writers of the new book The Digital Mindset (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022). Award-winning researchers Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley demonstrate how readers can develop the digital skills needed to thrive in a world driven by data and powered by algorithms. Neeley received a bachelor’s degree from Boston College in 1991. She is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research Strategy at the Harvard Business School. Recognized by Business Insider as one of the top 100 people transforming business, Neeley also is the author of Remote Work Revolution.
The future of priesthood and ministry
A fresh conversation is needed around the formation of priests in order for ordained ministry to flourish going forward, according to the new book Priestly Ministry and the People of God (Orbis Books), co-edited by Boston College theologians Richard Gaillardetz, Thomas Groome, and Rev. Richard Lennan. Priestly Ministry and the People of God presents a collection of essays from a variety of voices—a cardinal, bishops, seminary rectors, ordained and lay ministers, and academic theologians—who have put forth their best hopes for the future of the priesthood. The essays are faithful to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the best of Catholic tradition, while also responding to the needs of the Church today, say the co-editors. Read more in BC News.
Shadows and Stars
Boston College graduate Chuck Abdella has published Shadows and Stars, a suspenseful, action-packed sequel to his fantasy novel The Sun and the Moon. In Shadows and Stars, high school sophomores Katelyn and Jena have a world to save—two worlds, to be exact—in time for softball playoffs and the spring semi-formal. Abdella is a history teacher and indie writer. He is the author of a four-book fantasy series, The Outcasts: The Lies of Autumn, The Darkest Forests, Whispers of Spring, and A Flicker of Hope.
Why Structural Racism Persists
Legal scholar Natsu Taylor Saito will talk about her book Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists on October 6 at 7 p.m. in Gasson, room 100. Saito is Regents’ Professor Emerita at Georgia State University’s College of Law. Her scholarship focuses on the legal history of race in the United States, the plenary power doctrine as applied to immigrants, American Indians, and U.S. territorial possessions, and the human rights implications of U.S. governmental policies, particularly with regard to the suppression of political dissent. This lecture is also the keynote address for the symposium, “Structural Racism in the United States: Engaging the Interstices of Migration, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, and the Legacies of Settler Colonialism,” which continues the following day. Saito’s lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by the Center for Human Rights and International Justice and the Forum on Racial Justice in America.
Synodality
Pope Francis has described synodality as the new model of Church. He said that “a synodal Church is a Church that listens…in which everyone has something to learn.” In this model, bishops should listen to the people of God, and what is heard should then find ecclesial channels and structures that link it to ecclesial reforms. Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Associate Professor of the Practice Rafael Luciani has written a new book about this approach titled, Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church (Paulist Press, 2022). It explores a new way of proceeding in the Catholic Church at all levels. This path calls for a reconfiguration in the relations, communicative dynamics, and structures of the current institutional model of the Church. Luciani’s book presents the new phase of deepening the ecclesiology of the people of God that began with the Second Vatican Council. Luciani has been appointed as an expert on the theological commission of the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. He also serves as a theological expert on CELAM (Latin American Bishops Council) and CLAR (Latin American Confederation of Religious men and women).
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Catholic Church, Pope Francis, School of Theology and Ministry, synod
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Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman
A conversation with Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman will take place September 28 at 7 p.m. in Robsham Theater*. Mouly and Spiegelman co-founded the groundbreaking comics anthology Raw. Together they also edited the New York Times-bestselling Little Lit series and the TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics. Mouly also is the publisher, designer, and editorial director of TOON Books, an award-winning imprint of comics for early readers. Spiegelman is an artist/illustrator and author who won the Pulitzer Prize for his Holocaust narrative Maus. This event coincides with the McMullen Museum of Art exhibition “Alternative American Comics, 1980–2000: Raw, Weirdo, and Beyond,” featuring works by Mouly and Spiegelman. Their appearance is cosponsored by the Lowell Humanities Series, McMullen Museum of Art, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy, American Studies Program, Literature Core Program, and the English, History, and Art, Art History and Film departments. This event requires a (free) ticket; visit the Lowell Humanities Series website for details.
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged comics, McMullen Museum of Art
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The Chicago underworld
Boston College graduate Chuck Hogan is the author of Gangland (Grand Central Publishing, 2022), a new thriller based on Tony Accardo, who led the mob in Chicago in the 1970s, and his right-hand man Nicky Passero. What Accardo doesn’t know is that Passero has a secret which has made his life impossible and has put him in the pocket of the FBI. Gritty and action‑packed, Gangland is a Shakespearean-esque drama of integrity, lost honor, and revenge. Hogan is a novelist, screenwriter, and television producer. His award-winning novel Prince of Thieves was adapted into the Academy Award-nominated film “The Town.” He talks about his work in this Q&A.
Catholic theological ethics
In his latest book, BC Vice Provost for Global Engagement James Keenan, S.J. offers an introduction to Catholic theological ethics through the lens of its historical development from the beginning of the Church until today. A History of Catholic Theological Ethics (Paulist Press, 2022) is a comprehensive study of every period in the history of the tradition, from the early Patristic period to the history of the Penitentials and Confessionals, to the founding of religious orders and universities, the emergence of scholasticism, the birth of modern casuistry, the Council of Trent and the subsequent moral manuals, to contemporary Reformers within the global Church. A History of Catholic Theological Ethics has been lauded as a “landmark achievement” and “tour de force” by scholars. Fr. Keenan is the Canisius Professor in BC’s Theology Department and directs the University’s Jesuit Institute. He has edited or written 25 books. He has published more than 300 essays, articles, and reviews in some 25 international journals. Fr. Keenan is founder of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Catholic Church, ethics, Jesuit author, Theology Department
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