Location: Saint Xavier University, 3700 W. 103rd St.

University of Notre Dame Professor Lawrence Cunningham, Ph.D., will discuss the core mission of Catholic higher education as part of Saint Xavier University’s 2007-08 Catholic Colloquium lecture series.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Butler Reception Room, located in the Warde Academic Center. Following the lecture, Cunningham will answer questions from the audience.

In his lecture, titled “The Catholicity of Catholic Universities: A Second Look,” Cunningham will draw on recent discussions centering on the Vatican document Ex Corde Ecclesiae. An Apostolic Constitution issued by Pope John Paul II, the document describes the general identity and mission of Catholic universities and provides guidelines to help fulfill this vision.

Cunningham is the Rev. John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at Notre Dame’s Department of Theology. He won three Catholic Press Association awards for religious writing in 1987, 1999 and 2000. His most recent book is A Brief History of Saints. He has edited or written 16 other books. He is also co-editor of the academic monograph series "Studies in Theology and Spirituality" and serves as an associate editor for a number of scholarly journals.

The lecture is the last in a four-part series over the 2007-08 academic year focusing on the roles and responsibilities of a Catholic university to its students, faculty and staff members as well as the local community and broader Catholic Church community. The Catholic Colloquium lecture series explores the implications of current theological thinking about contemporary moral issues that have arisen since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

“Lawrence Cunningham will be an excellent and engaging final speaker for this year’s Catholic Colloquium series,” said Sister Susan Sanders, R.S.M., Ph.D., vice president for University Mission and Heritage at Saint Xavier. “Our nationally renowned scholars have helped us examine the important role Catholic universities can and do play in the formation of our community.”

Sanders and Michael O’Keeffe, Ph.D., associate professor of religious studies at Saint Xavier, organized the Catholic Colloquium series.

The series is sponsored by the Office for University Mission and Heritage. For more information about the lecture series, please contact Kathy Mareska at (773) 298-3981 or mareska@sxu.edu or visit www.sxu.edu.