Chicago Studies Fall/Winter 2023

The Church in the World: Evangelization and Liturgy Editors’ Corner—Fall 2022/Winter 2023

By Dr. Juliana Vazquez, Ph.D. and Dr. Melanie Barrett, Ph.D./S.T.D. We dedicate this issue of Chicago Studies to the memory of Reverend Martin Zielinski, who served as coeditor of Chicago Studies for the past several years. A well-respected member of the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary faculty, Fr. Zielinski was equally dedicated to parish ministry and the intellectual life, as a scholar of Church history who specialized in American church history. He passed away earlier this year after waging a valiant war against cancer. We include his funeral homily, given by Fr. Lawrence Hennessey, at the conclusion of this volume.

The first four essays of this volume were presented publicly for the 2022 Albert Cardinal Meyer Lecture Series at the University of St. Mary of the Lake. The Most Reverend Robert Barron, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, presented the first two lectures. Both focus on the theme of breaking through the buffered self. Invoking the classical doctrine of the circumincession of the transcendentals, Bishop Barron explains how truth, goodness, and beauty can function dynamically to evangelize Catholics in the contemporary milieu.

The next two essays offer a constructive response to Barron’s proposals. Reverend Brendan Lupton, President of the Pontifical Faculty at USML, whose research expertise lies in the area of patristic theology, responds to Bishop Barron by garnering insights learned from the social networks in the early Church that promoted Christian evangelization. Dr. Patricia Pintado-Murphy, an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at USML who is also a trained theologian, expounds upon the necessity of friendship, community, and personal witness if evangelization efforts are to be successful.

The final two essays are authored by experts in the discipline of sacramental theology. Dr. David Fagerberg, who recently retired from the theology faculty at the University of Notre Dame, evaluates how the permanent diaconate can bear fruit, both personally for the deacon and socially for his ecclesial community, through renewed attention to the interior life. Dr. Kevin Magas, an Assistant Professor at USML who teaches in the areas of dogmatic theology and liturgical studies, investigates how the twentieth-century liturgical movement and Catholic Action share the common goal of the transformation of all things in Christ, bringing together liturgy and life and responding to the needs and concerns of young Catholics.

A funeral homily written and preached by Reverend Larry Hennessey, a fellow diocesan priest, long-term seminary-faculty colleague, and close friend of Fr. Zielinski, closes out the volume.