Our Summer and Winter Forum Series offer Catholic adults and young adults an opportunity to learn and grow in a comfortable, familiar environment..
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.
2023 Summer Forum Location
Majestic Moon Event Center, 1955 Locke St., Waterloo
Free and open to the public. No registration required.
Snacks provided. Bar service available.
Audience
This program is appropriate for adults and young adults in all levels 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.
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.
Tuesday, June 27. 6:30-8:00pm.
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Watch this space for additional Summer Forum programs.
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 live in Urbandale, Iowa
Dave Cushing is a member of the Waterloo Catholic Faith Formation Team and director of adult faith formation. Dave grew up in Dubuque and attended Sacred Heart Grade School and Wahlert High School. He has BA degrees in History and Sociology from Loras College and a Masters of Divinity degree from St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana. Since 1981 Dave has served in full-time parish ministry as director of faith formation and education at St. John Parish, Waterloo; St. Nicholas Parish, Evansdale; Queen of Peace Parish, Waterloo and St. Stephen the Witness Catholic Student Center, Cedar Falls and as pastoral associate for adult formation at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Waterloo. He was appointed director of adult faith formation for the Waterloo parishes in 2006. On the Faith Formation Team Dave specializes in adult formation, enrichment and spiritual growth.
Most Rev. Richard E. Pates is the retired bishop of Des Moines who was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Dubuque following Archbishop Jackels' resignation earlier this spring. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Bishop Pates attended St. Paul Seminary and the North American College in Rome. He graduated with a License in Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in 1968. He served the Minnesota Archdiocese in various capacities, including auxiliary bishop. He was installed as the ninth bishop of Des Moines in 2008 and served as bishop in Des Moines until 2019. Bishop Pates served on the US. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committees on Education, Evangelization, International Justice and Peace, Pastoral Practices, Women in Society and the Church, and World Mission, and on the Conference's Hispanic Affairs Subcommittee.
Charlotte Wells is emerita Professor of History at the University of Northern Iowa. She received her doctorate in Early Modern European history from Indiana University in 1990 and has published a variety of scholarly works on the political ideology of the Renaissance and Reformation. She joined the University of Northern Iowa History Department in 1993 and retired in 2020. At UNI she taught a variety of courses on the history of the Renaissance and Reformation Europe, The Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment, the Witch Craze in Europe and America, and Women in Early Modern Europe. Since her retirement from full-time teaching, Dr. Wells has been taking courses from the St. John's University School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota, whose faculty is involved in preparations for the synod. She worships at St. Stephen the Witness Catholic Student Center in Cedar Falls, where she coordinates the RCIA program.
[Last Update: 05.25.23]