Msgr. Paul McPartlan will speak at Saint Meinrad’s Thomas Lecture
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Msgr. Paul McPartlan will present the annual Thomas Lecture on Philosophy and Theology at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, IN. The lecture will be held on Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 7 p.m. Central Time in St. Bede Theater. This year’s lecture is titled “Vatican II, Synodality, and Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue.”
Msgr. McPartlan is a priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster (UK) and professor emeritus of systematic theology and ecumenism at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He currently serves as the rector of Mater Ecclesiae College and as a professor in St. Mary’s University School of Theology, London.
He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained a priest in 1984. He earned his doctorate from the University of Oxford and served for four years in a London parish.
After holding a postdoctoral research fellowship at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, from 1993-1995, he was appointed to the faculty of Heythrop College in the University of London, where he taught systematic theology for 10 years. He taught at Catholic University of America from 2005-2023, where he held the Carl J. Peter Chair of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism. He served as acting dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies in 2014-15.
Msgr. McPartlan served for two terms on the International Theological Commission (2004-2009, 2009-2014). He has participated in international Anglican-Roman Catholic and Roman Catholic-Methodist dialogue, and he has been a member of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church since 2005.
He is the author of The Eucharist Makes the Church: Henri de Lubac and John Zizioulas in Dialogue (1993, 2006), Sacrament of Salvation: An Introduction to Eucharistic Ecclesiology (1995), A Service of Love: Papal Primacy, the Eucharist, and Church Unity (2016), and over 100 articles and book chapters on ecclesiology and ecumenism.
The Thomas Lecture is made possible by an endowment established in honor of the late George and Mary Thomas and the late Fr. Kieran Conley, OSB. The lecture provides an opportunity for students and faculty at Saint Meinrad to explore issues in philosophy and theology.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available at the St. Bede, Guest House, and student parking lots. Saint Meinrad operates on Central Time. For more information, call Krista Hall at 812-357-6501 during business hours.