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Our popular 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.PLEASE NOTE
This year's Forum presentations will be live in-oerson at
SingleSpeed Brewing Co., 325 Commercial St., Waterloo
Food and beverages available before an during the programs.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.
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2022 Summer Schedule
Tuesday, July 12. 7:00-8:30pm
“What We Are Learning in Ukraine About War, Violence and Self-Defense"
Presented by Dave CushingCatholic teaching has always affirmed an individual or a country's right to legitimate self-defense, but that teaching has also insisted self-defense must be proportionate to the threat and avoid unnecessary collateral damage. The Vatican's guarded--and some have said conflicted--response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine illustrates how difficult it has become to apply traditional "Just War" principles to international and national conflicts in the world today. In this discussion we will examine the complexities of the war in Ukraine and its implications for the use of violent self-defense in personal and domestic situations.
Learn More:
> Read "Why It's So Difficult to Figure Outr What the Vatican Thinks /About Ukraine" here.
> Read "Is the Just War Tradition in Crisis?" here.• • •Tuesday, July 26. 7:00-8:30pm.How the End of Roe Will Impact American Politics and the Pro-Life Movement
Presented by Dave Cochran
On June 24 of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an earlier ruling which said the right to abortion was guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Some observers called the Court’s decision the most far-reaching of any in this era. The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life said the decision challenges the whole world “to reopen a non-ideological debate on the place that the protection of life has in a civil society [and] to ask ourselves what kind of coexistence and society we want to build.” In this discussion, Dave Cochran will examine how the Court’s decision will impact U.S. politics and the pro-life movement.
Learn More:
> Read the statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life here.
> Read excerpts from the Court's decision here.• • •
Tuesday, August 23. 7:00-8:30pm.“The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church"
Presented by Fr. Jerry KopacekAt their fall meeting in November, 2021 the Catholic bishops of the United States approved a document reflecting on the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist and encouraging Catholics to renew their response to the Eucharist in the wake of the recent Covid pandemic. In this presentation Fr. Kopacek will outline the bishops' document, “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” which recalls that Eucharist “is nothing less than sharing in the very life of God" and reminds Catholics that “in the Eucharist, bread and wine are truly transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ."• • •
Learn More
> Read “U.S. Bishops Foster Eucharistic Devotion” here.
> Read the text of the bishops’ document here.
2022 Summer Forum Presenters
David Cochran is professor of political science and director of the Archbishop Kucera Center for Catholic Intellectual and Spiritual Life 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) and Catholic Realism and the Abolition of War (Orbis, 2014). David and his wife Christine have two sons and live in Dubuque.
Dave Cushing is a member of the Waterloo Faith Formation Team and director of adult faith formation for the Catholic Parishes in Waterloo. 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. Dave and his wife Mary Lou are parents of two adult children and are members of Queen of Peace Parish.
Fr. Jerry Kopacek is pastor of Holy Rosary Cluster in Howard County. Fr. Kopacek grew up and attended public schools in Britt, Iowa. He has a BA in political science and history from Iowa State University and a law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law. He earned his Masters of Divinity degree from St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. Fr. Kopacek has served on the faculty at Beckman High School in Dyersville and Newman High School in Mason City and as pastor or associate pastor at parishes in Dyersville, Mason City, Marion, Forest City, Lake Mills, Buffalo Center and Marshalltown. He served as pastor of St. Edward Parish in Waterloo from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2006 to 2014. He served as spiritual director of St. Pius X Seminary in Dubuque from 2014 to 2018. He was appointed pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Riceville; St. Bernard Parish, Alta Vista; Immaculate Conception Parish, Elma; Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Lourdes; and St. Peter Parish, New Haven in 2018.[Last Update: 06.26.22]