"Race and the Church in the Americas" was the topic of the annual Hispanic Innovators of Faith

The panel discussed the ways that today's American Catholic Church has already been transformed by Black Catholics, Afro-Catholics, and Latinos Catholics.

The annual Hispanic Innovators of Faith lecture occurred the last week of January. The topic of the lecture was “Race and the Church in the Americas," moderated by Dr. Maria Cecilia Ulrickson (The Catholic University of America). Panelists included Dr. Nichole Flores (assistant professor of Religious studies at the University of Virginia) and Dr. Michelle Maldonado (Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Scranton). 

The panel began with comments on the place of race in the USA today, and specifically in the US Catholic Church.  Dr. Ulrickson discussed [ADD INFO HERE]. Dr. Maldonado discussed the 2018 USCCB (The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) pastoral letter on racism “Open Wide Our Hearts" and pressed for future research and action recognizing the Church's historic and current complicity in racism. Dr. Flores reflected on the range of Latinos' responses to the 2020 presidential election as a way to expand the audience's notion of what it means to be Latino in America, including within the Church. 

The panel reflected on the place of liturgy in future Latino ministry, the expansive place of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the American Church, and the ways that today's American Catholic Church has already been transformed by Black Catholics, Afro-Catholics, and Latinos Catholics.

More than 30 people attended the lecture. The panel was sponsored by The School of Theology & Religious Studies, the Center for Cultural Engagement, and the Institute for Latin American and Iberian Studies.