Speaking about The Church

I am available to give individual talks in parish and/or diocesan settings. My speaking fees are generally $1000 for an individual address and $1500-1750 for a one day multiple-presentation workshop. The fee for presentations given over more than one day will be negotiated on an individual basis.. Queries regarding speaking engagements can be made by clicking on the "Contact" tab on the home page of my website and sending me an e-mail.

Transforming Our Days: Cultivating a Spirituality of the Ordinary in a Technological World
Our modern culture is dominated by the role of devices: cell phones, I-pods, laptops, DVRs, X-Boxes and the like.  Although these and a myriad other devices offer us many benefits, they also create distinct challenges for cultivating a spirituality that allows us to live in the presence of God in our ordinary lives.  This presentation will consider ways in which we might successfully navigate in a technologically driven world while learning to discover "God's rhythms" in daily life.
 
A Daring Promise: Toward a Countercultural Theology of Christian Marriage
In today's consumer-oriented, upgrade culture, committed Christian marriage has become a radical, counter-cultural act.  This presentation will briefly consider the challenges which our contemporary culture presents for healthy Christian marriage.  We will then explore some neglected insights from our Christian tradition that might help us respond to those challenges.
 
Going Beyond the 'Pearly Gates' vs. the 'Lake of Fire': New Reflections on a Catholic Understanding of Our Final Destiny

Catholics of a certain age may recall traditional Catholic teaching on "the four last things."  This presentation will explore what contemporary Catholic theology offers us today regarding a much more positive and inspiring understanding of our final destiny.
 
Suffering, Evil and Tragedy: Theological Resources for Responding to the Most Pressing Pastoral Challenge of Our Time

One of the most difficult pastoral and theological challenges of our time concerns the reality of suffering, evil and tragedy.  Too many Christians offer inadequate "Hallmark Card" responses to a difficult theological question.  This presentation will look to our tradition for some resources to help us more adequately deal with the "problem of evil" today.
 
Toward a Theology of Ordered Ministry

Since the Second Vatican Council we have seen a new flourishing of lay ecclesial ministries and the recovery of the permanent diaconate as complements to the traditional ministry of the priest.  What is needed today is a consistent theology of "ordered ministry" that stresses what is unique about the ministries of the ordained while still allowing for a positive role for lay ecclesial ministry.
 
For the Love of the Game: Toward a Theology of Sport and Sports Fandom

Sports plays a significant role in our contemporary cultural context.  Some see sports as a sign of social dysfunction and point to the role of excessive violence, greed and corruption in modern sports.  This presentation will consider these problems but then suggest that there is a healthy theological understanding of sports and sports fandom that needs to be given more attention than it has so far, particularly in the church.
 
Does the Theology of the Laity Have a Future?

Many believe that one of the most significant contributions of Vatican II was its theology of the laity.  Since the council we have seen the flourishing of lay ecclesial ministry and various forms of lay spirituality.  However, some have criticized these developments for failing to attend to the council's teaching about the laity's primary obligations in the secular world.  This presentation will first explore the council's teaching and its uneven implementation since the council and then consider where we need to go from here.
 
A New Council: Do We Need a Vatican III?

We are now almost five decades removed from the opening of Vatican II.  We are therefore at a good vantage point to consider both the contributions and limits of the Second Vatican Council.  But where do we go from here?  Should our primary task be to continue the implementation of the teaching of Vatican II or is it time for us to contemplate the possibility of a new ecumenical council?
 
Re-Imagining Catholic Identity Today

This presentation will explore the so called crisis of Catholic identity and consider how we might be faithfully Catholic while avoiding the twin temptations of Catholic fundamentalism and consumer Catholicism.
 
Shopping for God: The Challenge of Living an Authentic Christian Life in a Consumerist Society

The greatest challenge to authentic Christian faith in North America today is not secularism or relativism, it is consumerism.  We live in a society in which religious experience, doctrine and even the sacraments are being appropriated and packaged in ways that undermine the transformative power of the Christian faith.  This presentation will sketch out the broad outlines of the  cultural challenges and then propose some pastoral strategies for responding to these challenges.
 
New Models for Episcopal Leadership in a Global Church
The Catholic church has always remained committed to the need for the office of the bishop to preserve the church's unity and the integrity of its apostolic faith. However, it is legitimate to wonder whether in the global church of the twenty-first century a new vision of church leadership is needed, one that remains faithful to our tradition but which is also open to the unique demands of our time. This presentation will review basic Catholic teaching regarding the office of the bishop and then propose some models for a new vision of episcopal leadership.
 
The Catholic Church: European Export or Global Church?
The Catholic church has grown dramatically in the southern hemisphere. In this presentation I will explore how the emergence of the church of the global south is challenging all of us, north and south, to re-imagine what it means to be a catholic church.
 
Does the Papacy Have a Future
Few realize it, but the papacy is one of the oldest continuous democratic institutions (popes are, after all, elected by the college of cardinals!) in western civilization. In the minds of some, the papacy is a hopelessly outdated relic from a medieval past; for others it is an object of intense and unswerving devotion. Many in the ecumenical movement see the papacy as a stumbling block to the reunion of the churches. In this presentation I will consider both the historical development of the papacy and various calls for papal reform before exploring a possible new future for the successors of St. Peter.
 
Becoming a Community of Holy Conversion
We live in a time in which public discourse is dominated by the politics of demonization. Unfortunately, many of these demonizing tendencies have been imported into the life of the church. Our church desperately needs a theology of dialogue or, if you will, "holy conversation" to help us become the community God wishes us to be.
 
Why Vatican II Did not Fail
Here I explore all of the reasons why, a few weeks before the opening of Vatican II, there was every reason to expect the council to be a complete failure. The reasons why Vatican II did not fail, against all reasonable expectations, have much to teach us about our church today.