Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning

Location

Mother Rosalie Hill Hall Warren Auditorium

Free

Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning
Presented by Massimo Faggioli, PhD

A reception will follow. This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP by emailing cctc@sandiego.edu.

Every change of pontificate – from John Paul II to Benedict XVI to his successor – constitutes an important element in the broad theological and cultural landscape of Catholicism. These last two changes of pontificate have also nourished the journalistic and political dispute about Vatican II, its history and its legacy, and not only the historiographical and theological debate. For 21st century Catholics and theologians interested in understanding contemporary Catholicism in the light of Vatican II the intellectual undertaking is far from accomplished yet. One or another interpretation of Vatican II is always – explicitly or implicitly – part of the agenda of Catholicism: to understand Vatican II is essential in order to understand where Catholicism is going.

Massimo Faggioli, PhD worked in the "John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies" in Bologna between 1996 and 2008 and received his PhD from the University of Turin in 2002. He has studied theology at the Karl-Eberhards-Universität Tübingen (1999-2000) and has been invited to work as a post-doctoral researcher in the Faculté de Théologie et Sciences Religieuses at the Université Laval, Québec (Spring 2002).

He moved to the US in 2008, where he was visiting fellow at the Jesuit Institute at Boston College between 2008 and 2009. Dr. Faggioli is now assistant professor in the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul (Minnesota). He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and their little daughter. He writes regularly for Italian and American newspapers and journals on the Church, religion and politics.