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 important social, political, moral and theological issues which shape the lives of Catholics in the Church today.
2025 Summer Forum Location
Majestic Moon Event Center, 1955 Locke St., Waterloo [map]
Free and open to the public. Handicap Accessible. 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.
Thursday, June 26. 6:30-8:00pm.
Thursday, July 10. 6:30-8:00pm.
• • •
• • •
David Cochran is professor of political science at Loras College in Dubuque. He grew up in Texas and earned his MA and PhD degrees from the University of Maryland. He has taught at Loras since 1996, and offers a range of courses primarily in the areas of political thought and American politics. His primary research interests are in religion and politics, multiculturalism and democracy, and the morality of war, topics on which he frequently publishes, lectures and leads workshops. He is co-author with his father, Clarke Cochran, of Catholics, Politics and Public Policy (Orbis, 2003) and author of The Catholic Vote--A Guide for the Perplexed (Orbis, 2008), Catholic Realism and the Abolition of War (Orbis, 2014) and The Catholic Case Against War—A Brief Guide (Notre Dame Press, 2024). Dr. Eochran served for many years as director of the Kucera Center for Catholic Intellectual and Spiritual Life at Loras.
Dave Cushing is a member of the Faith Formation Team and director of adult faith formation for the Catholic Parishes in Waterloo. 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. Dave has served as a member of the Lay Formation Board, the Archdiocesan Faith Formation Commission, and the Evangelization Committee for the Archdiocese's 175th Anniversary and currently serves on the Board of the Iowa Catholic Conference.
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. He attended Wartburg College in Waverly and earned an MA from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a doctorate in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where he served as Graduate Assistant and Adjunct Faculty member. In addition to the theology of parenthood he haswritten and presented on sexual ethics, environmental ethics, ecclesiology, and ecumenism. He is the author of Beyond Biology--Rethinking Parenthood in the Catholic Tradition (Georgetown University Press 2017) and co-author with Mary Doyle Roche of Modern Catholic Family Teaching--Commentaries and Interpretation (Georgetown University Press 2024). Jacob and his wife Kelly are the parents of two children and live in Dubuque.
David Pitt is Associate Professor of Theology at Loras College in Dubuque. He is a native of Peterborough, Ontario, and received his BA degree from St Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario. Dr. Pitt earned his MA degree in liturgical music from St John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and his Ph.D. degree in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame. He teaches classes in liturgical and sacramental theology and liturgical music at Loras and serves as organist at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque. His special interests focus on how church tradition informs contemporary pastoral practice, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, the liturgical year and liturgical music. He co-edited A Living Tradition--Essays on the Intersection of Liturgical History and Pastoral Practice (Liturgical Press, 2012) and is the author of over sixty essays, articles, and book reviews.
Matthew A. Shadle is the Academic Assessment Coordinator at the University of Iowa. He earned his MA and PhD in theology from the University of Dayton in Ohio. He previously served as a professor of Catholic ethics at Loras College in Dubuque and Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. He was also formerly an instructor in the Archdiocese of Dubuque’s diaconate formation program and was involved in young adult ministry. His academic work has focused on the development of Catholic social teaching and its intersection with both fundamental moral theology and the social sciences, with a special focus on war and peace, the economy, and immigration. He is the author of The Origins of War--A Catholic Perspective (Georgetown, 2011) and “No Peace on Earth--War and the Environment” in Green Discipleship--Catholic Theological Ethics and the Environment (Anselm Academic, 2011).
[Last Update: 07.02.25]