The current state of American Catholicism will be the focus of the annual Murray/Bacik Lecture on Catholic Studies at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, in The University of Toledo Law Center Auditorium.
Dr. Richard Gaillardetz, the Margaret and Thomas Murray and James J. Bacik Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies at UT, will give the lecture titled “The State of the Church 2011: Reflections on Contemporary American Catholicism.”
A scholar in Catholic studies, Gaillardetz said he hopes to offer a broad perspective on the state of the Catholic faith in his lecture. He will pay particular attention to some significant shifts and well-known controversies that have taken place in the Catholic Church in recent decades.
Gaillardetz, who has been chair of Catholic studies at UT since 2001, has accepted a position at Boston College as the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology, an endowed chair.
“I have had a wonderful experience here at UT,” he said. “I am fortunate to have had such wonderful colleagues in the Philosophy Department, and I have benefited much from relationships forged with representatives of other religious traditions with whom I have worked in the larger Toledo community.”
