Category Archives: Honors/Awards

Collaborating with USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture

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I’m more than a little excited to be partnering with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture! This center does some amazing work examining the intersection of religion, civic engagement, social change, personal and institutional thriving and more. I’ll be working with them on a variety of projects that connect to Catholicism, from Catholic sisters to formation to climate change. It’s an exciting collaboration that will include a trip to London and Oxford at the end of the month to meet with similar organizations and scholars and explore international collaborative opportunities. This will be my first trip to the UK and I’m thrilled to help make this important work happen.

Research Fellowship on Priestly Wellbeing

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I just got word that I will be one of a dozen or so researchers who will continue to analyze the data from the National Study of Catholic Priests, housed at The Catholic Project at the Catholic University of America! My project, tentatively titled “The Impact of Relationships with Bishops and Priests on Priestly Satisfaction: A Qualitative Analysis,” will explore the relationship between priests’ priestly satisfaction and their sense of connection to their bishop (or religious superior) as well as their fellow priests (or religious community). It is a fantastic dataset and I’m looking forward to discovering ways we might better support priests and, by extension, the whole Church. In addition to all this good stuff, I’m also excited that this research fellowship has collaborative components… looking forward to connecting, exchanging ideas, and laughing together!

I’ll let you know what I find!

Fellowship with Villanova University’s Center for Church Management

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Today was the day for myself and the eleven other fellows to submit our cases to the awesome folks at VU’s Center for Church Management.

The twelve case studies are meant to help alleviate financial pressures that hinder pastors’ ability to effectively lead their congregations. One of the ways the Center for Church Management chose to contribute here is to compile twelve different case studies (and supplemental teaching material) that will be used in their program as well as in other seminaries and business schools. For now these will be “in house” but if these become published as a text, I’ll let you know!

Thank you to the Center for Church Management for their consistently collaborative and professional approach and to the Lilly Endowment’s National Initiative to Address Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders for funding this important work!

Newly-Elected Secretary for ASR

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Here I am, booking my flight and room for the upcoming SSSR/RRA conference and I realized that I never posted that I was elected secretary for the Association for the Sociology of Religion! I first became acquainted with ASR in 2014 when it came to San Francisco while I was in grad school and I was one of the student workers at the registration desk. Soon I became involved in the membership committee, too (perfect job for my extroverted tendencies). Come 2022, I got to enjoy my first meeting (this past August) as part of the executive council. Looking forward to continued service!

2022 Catholic Media Award!

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Excited to share that my article in The Way of St. Francis, “Entering Lent from a Hermitage,” received a Catholic Media Award! It was awarded second place in the “Best Essay – Religious Order Magazines” category. The comments left by the awards committee are below:

Just a really smooth personable writer, with a very, very timely column. Great concepts – QuaranTeens and Blursday, being in Covid quarantine as a spiritual hermitage. Graceful writer, who really turns nice phrases with ease.

Named Laudato Si’ Fellow

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Thank you to the Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture (CCTC) at the University of San Diego for recognizing me and several others as Laudato Si’ Fellows. I’m looking forward to the award reception this evening as well as to meeting the other fellows who are involved in important climate change work. Thank you, CCTC, for encouraging work in this critical issue!

Essay on US Catholics and Climate Change

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Journal of Moral Theology - Wikipedia

As you might know, I gave a keynote address (shared with Cardinal Blaise Cupich) this summer at a Catholic climate change conference co-sponsored by Creighton University and the Catholic Climate Covenant. That address, “Responding to the Invitation: Fostering a Bolder Response to Laudato Si’,” has just been published in the Journal of Moral Theology. This was a great conference that generated a lot of needed momentum on responding to climate change. Please share the address with those looking to understand some of the obstacles to Catholic engagement in the climate change issue as well as some ways we might foment a more robust Catholic engagement here.

Register for Catholic Climate Change Conference

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Laudato Si'

It’s not too late to register for an amazing and free conference on Laudato Si’. The conference will run virtually July 13-15 and is co-sponsored by Creighton University and the Catholic Climate Covenant. I have the honor of sharing the opening keynote with Cardinal Blase Cupich. Whether you are new or a seasoned veteran of the climate change issue, there is something for everyone at this event. I hope you can join us!