Mercyhurst University welcomes Daniel P. Horan, OFM, Ph.D., as guest speaker for the 51st annual Sister Maura Smith Earth Day Lecture on Thursday, April 22, at 7 p.m., when he will discuss “Urgent Explorations of Global Climate Change and the Consistent Ethic of Life.” The event is free and open to the public via Zoom.
Father Dan is a Franciscan friar of Holy Name Province in New York and the Duns Scotus Professor of Spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he teaches systematic theology and spirituality. He is also a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, and the author of hundreds of articles and more than 12 books, including All God's Creatures: A Theology of Creation (2018) and Catholicity and Emerging Personhood: A Contemporary Theological Anthropology (2019). He has two new books arriving later this year: A White Catholic’s Guide to Racism and Privilege and The Way of the Franciscans: A Prayer Journey Through Lent. He is also the co-host of The Francis Effect podcast.
This year marks the sixth anniversary of Pope Francis’s promulgation of Laudato Sí, the encyclical letter on “Care for our Common Home.” And yet, when it comes to Catholic attention to important life issues in the United States, global climate change and other ecological crises often fail to rise to the level of concern or attention that other prolife subjects typically do. In his presentation, Father Dan draws on the consistent ethic of life principle to show how the Catholic tradition ought to recognize global climate change as the most important life issue today, for it threatens the very conditions of all life on this planet.
Father Dan’s talk is sponsored by the Office for Sustainability, the Office for Mission, and the Evelyn Lincoln Institute for Ethics and Society. To attend the lecture, please register online and a Zoom link will be sent to you.