Friday, October 30, 2015

Towards Ecological Conversion

Fr Sean McDonagh

Earlier in 2015 Pope Francis issued his encyclical Laudato Si. This papal study of environmental issues precedes the 2015 UN Climate Change conference, which is due to take place in Paris from 30th November to 11th December. To mark these events, we have invited Fr Sean McDonagh SSC to give the second lecture in our autumn series. 

Sean McDonagh is an Irish Columban Father who has earned an international reputation as an eco-theologian. He has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the links between the values of justice and peace, environmental sustainability and faith. 

In his books and lectures, he has voiced his deep concern about a number of ecological issues, including access to clean water and an adequate diet in the developing world, nuclear power, genetic engineering, loss of biodiversity and the extinction of species.

His published work includes Patenting Life? Stop! Is corporate greed forcing us to eat genetically engineered food? (2003), The Death of Life: the horror of extinction (2004), Climate Change: the challenge to all of us (2006), and Fukushima: the death knell for nuclear energy? (2012). Fr Sean is also patron of Christian Ecology Link and writes a weekly column in Catholic broadsheet The Universe.  

The title of his lecture in the Central Catholic Library will be:  “Laudato Si: does it contain new teaching on the environment?”

The lecture takes place at 6.30pm on Tuesday 3rd November and all are welcome.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Celebrating St Kevin's Church with Adrian Kenny

Adrian Kenny
The Church of St Kevin in Dublin's Harrington Street marks its 150th anniversary this year. For the first lecture in our autumn series, we have invited author Adrian Kenny to talk about this church and the ancient Dublin parish which surrounds it.

Adrian has researched and published a history of St Kevin's. He is a member of Aosdána, and his previous books include both fiction and autobiography, ranging from the novel The Feast of Michaelmas and  the memoir Istanbul Diary to the short story collection Portobello Notebook. Adrian has also translated and edited for Raven Arts Press Eachtra Tomás MacCasaide, a text preserved in an 18th-century Irish manuscript.

Adrian's lecture takes place at 6.30 pm in the library on Tuesday 13th October. All are welcome.