Summer Forum Series
(Formerly "Summer At The Cellar")

A Continuing Enrichment Opportunity
for Adults and Young Adults

Our popular Summer and Winter Forum Series offer Catholic adults and young adults an opportunity to learn and grow in a comfortable, familiar environment in downtown Waterloo. 

We choose presenters from among pastors, pastoral leaders and academic leaders on both the local and diocesan level.  We ask them to address a variety of interesting and important social, political, moral and theological issues which shape the lives of Catholics in the Church today.

Presenters and participants alike appreciate the relaxed and informal atmosphere which contributes to a stimulating combination of presentation and discussion.  Food and beverages are available before, during and after the presentations.  Forum programs are open to the public.  No pre-registration is required.

Forum programs are normally held at COR, the Waterloo parishes' downtown hospitality center at 220 East 4th Street.  [Click here for map]

Our Summer and Winter Forum programs are made possible in part by a grant from the Archbishop Kucera Center for Catholic Intellectual and Spiritual Life at Loras College.

Audience
This program is appropriate for adults and young adults in all thresholds of faith formation.
> Click here to learn more about the thresholds of faith formation.

Take-Away
Adults and young adults who participate in this opportunity will:
• learn more about important issues which affect our lives as Catholic Christians.
• have an opportunity to dialog with distinguished pastoral leaders, theologians and academics.
• appreciate the challenges and opportunities of a changing Church in a changing world.

•   •   •

Special Summer Forum Program
Thursday, August 30. 7:00-8:30pm
Church Hall (lower level). St. Edward Parish, Waterloo

"The Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church"

Open Forum Panel and Discussion

Recent events have re-focused attention on the crisis of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.  Although most of the instances of abuse recently revealed occurred in the past, the pattern of sexual abuse in the past still raises serious moral and spiritual concerns for Catholics in the Church today.  Here is an opportunity for Catholics to share their feelings, concerns and questions about what Pope Francis has called "an absolute monstrosity, ... radically against everything that Christ has taught us."   A panel of pastoral ministers will help put the crisis in perspective and respond to people's concerns.

                                                                          Forum Panelists
• Fr. Jerry Kopacek, pastor of Holy Rosary Cluster in Northcentral Iowa, and former spiritual director
   at St. Pius X Seminary in Dubuque.
• Mary Pedersen, director of adult faith formation for the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
• Dr. Len Froyen, former professor and chair of the UNI Department of Educational Psychology; a
   retired Catholic deacon and former director of the Archdiocese of Dubuque's Permanent Diaconate
   program.
• Joan Hoffmann, former Victim's Assistance Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Dubuque.

•   •   •

2018 Summer Schedule

Thursday, June 28
"The Myth of Religious Freedom in America"

Presented by Dr. Harold Wohl

One of our most cherished myths is that the history of the United States is a history of religious freedom; we take for granted that the Founding Fathers desired to separate church and state, and many contemporary political arguments center around the issue of religious liberty.  But what if religion was actually intimately intertwined with the state for most of American history? What if U.S. religious history is really a history of religious conflict, coercion and control?  Dr. Wohl, professor emeritus at UNI, will examine these questions in this presentation and promises that the answers will be surprising.

Wednesday, July 11
“'Who Says?' The Search for Truth in the Modern Era"

Presented by Dr. Mary Ducey

One of the victims of our current political climate seems to be truth, so much so that some people are calling our age ‘post-truth’.  Yet this has not been caused by politicians, but has been a long time in the making.  In this discussion Dr. Ducey will explore some of the causes of our culture’s abandonment of the idea of truth, what the philosophical discipline of epistemology (the study what distinguishes justified belief from opinion) can teach us about truth, and what we can do going forward to determine what is true and what is not in the post-modern age.

Tuesday, July 17
“Why People Love or Hate Pope Francis--
Examining the Differences in the Catholic Church Today"

Presented by Dr. Jacob Kohlhaas and Stacia McDermott

For some Catholics, the five-year tenure of Pope Francis has been a welcome breadth of fresh air in the Catholic Church. For others, it has caused anxiety about the meaning and nature of Catholicism itself. These differing reactions to the Pope help reveal important divides within American Catholicism. Stacia McDermott, Director of Spiritual Life at Loras College, and Jake Kohlhaas, Assistant Professor of Moral Theology, will discuss their own experiences of divisions within Catholicism as they evaluate the present shape of American Catholicism and discuss their hopes for the future.

Tuesday, July 24
Special Young Adults Program
"A Fresh Look at Jesus for Those in Their 20s and 30s"

Presented by Kevin Feyen

Tuesday, August 7
"Viewing the 2018 Mid-term Elections
Through the Eyes of Catholic Social Principles"

Presented by Tom Chapman

Over the past 150 or so the Catholic Church has articulated a body of teaching which applies the Church's moral and spiritual values to social and public life.  These principles of Catholic Social Teaching begin with the dignity of the human person and the right of individuals to life, family, community and participation in public life for the benefit of the common good.  Tom Chapman, executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, will discuss how the Church's Social Teaching might shape how an individual views the issues which will arise in the November, 2018 mid-term elections.
> See a summary of Catholic Social Teaching here.

Tuesday, August 21
“Catholics and Lutherans: Where We Agree and Disagree
on Sacraments and Grace"

C

•   •   •

About Our Presenters

Tom Chapman is the executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, the public policy voice for the Catholic bishops of Iowa.  Tom is a native of Spirit Lake and a graduate of Briar Cliff University in Sioux City. He worked as a reporter for KMEG-TV and on the staff of Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City before coming to the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines in 1991. He served as director of communications, editor of The Catholic Mirror and chancellor for the Des Moines diocese before being appointed executive director of the Catholic Conference in 2007. Tom is a member of the boards of the Iowa Mediation Service and the Iowa Alliance for Choice in Education. He and his wife Paulette have three children and live in Urbandale, Iowa.

Mary Ducey  is professor of philosophy at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids where she teaches Greek Philosophy, Ethics and Critical Thinking.  Dr. Ducey has a BA degree from Maryville College, an MA degree from St. Louis University and a PhD from the Catholic University of America, where she specialized in the thought of Aristotle and Aquinas.  She taught at St. Louis University and the Catholic University of America prior to joining the Mount Mercy faculty in 1994.  Dr. Ducey moderates a website on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and is involved in Circle of Support and Accountability for ex-offenders adjusting to life outside of prison.  Dr. Ducey is a member of All Saints Parish in Cedar Rapids, where she serves on the Faith Formation Commission.

Kevin Feyen  is director of the Archdiocese of Dubuque's Faith Formation Office.  Kevin has been in professional in ministry for over 20 years. His ministry has spanned from directing retreats for Confirmation teens, organizing Archdiocesan ministry events, and speaking to audiences all over the country. He has been a regular presenter at the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) and will be delivering a workshop at this year's National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry. Kevin is very serious about his faith, but believes that serious faith requires a lot of laughing. He brings fresh joy and critical humor to his experiences of his Catholic Faith. While he has a strong passion for ministry, his primary mission is to be a supportive husband and father. He lives in Dubuque with his wife Laura and their two children.

Jacob Kohlhaas is Assistant Professor of Moral Theology at Loras College in Dubuque, where he teaches courses in Christian values, social justice, and sexual ethics. Jake is a native of Algona, Iowa, and a graduate of Wartburg College in Waverly.  He has an MA from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a PhD from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.  His doctoral dissertation explored the relationship between sexual ethics and parenthood in modern Catholic thought and argued for expanded conception of parenthood which would incorporate traditional models of kinship and contemporary research on children’s needs. He has written and presented on sexual ethics, environmental ethics, ecclesiology, and ecumenism.  Jacob and his wife Kelly are the parents of two children and are members of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Dubuque.

Martin Lohrmann is assistant Professor of Lutheran Confessions and Heritage at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque where he teaches courses in Christianity in the Modern World, Foundations of the Church, Lutheran Confessions, and Spiritual Practices.  He is a native of Washington state, who earned a BA from Valparaiso University and a MDiv from Wartburg Theological Seminary.  He earned his PhD from The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.  Prior to joining the Wartburg faculty in 2014 he taught courses at The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Reformed Episcopal Seminary, and La Salle University. In addition to his work in religious history, Martin enjoys spending time with family and friends, making music, traveling, and reading.  He lives in Dubuque with his wife Carrie and three children

Dr. Harold Wohl is professor emeritus of history at the University of Northern Iowa.  Dr. Wohl was born in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the American Army of Occupation in post-World War II Germany.  He received a doctorate in colonial American intellectual history from the University of Iowa in 1956.  That fall he accepted a position at the State Teachers College of Iowa (later renamed the University of Northern Iowa) where he taught and researched early American intellectual history and Jewish history for the next forty years.  Dr. Wohl helped establish UNI’s exchange program with Russian universities and was the first American to teach American Studies in Russia. Since his retirement in 1996 Dr. Wohl has remained actively involved in the intellectual life of the Cedar Valley; he is a popular instructor in UNI’s Lifelong University program and has presented many public lectures for a variety of organizations.