Symposium Celebrates the Significance of ‘Lumen Gentium’

Nearly 50 years ago, the Second Vatican Council published Lumen Gentium, a document referring to the Christian Church as a light for the world and the source of salvation. The participation of Catholic bishops from around the world in the Second Vatican Council was the first realization of the Christian Church as the World Church.

To capture and honor this historical moment, a free intercontinental symposium, Celebrating the Power of Lumen Gentium, will be held on campus from Tuesday, Sept. 16, to Thursday, Sept. 18.

The symposium will bring together scholars from the United States and from countries such as Ghana, India, St. Lucia and Chile to share the concerns and insights of churches from around the world.

“Keynote speakers, women and men, Catholics and Protestants, laypeople and members of the clergy will address issues and concerns about a Church which—in the Lumen Gentium Dogmatic Constitution of the Church—is described as being in Christ like a sacrament of a very closely-knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race,” said the Rev. Elochukwu Uzukwu, C.S.Sp., who is the Rev. Pierre Schouver C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Mission.

The three-day event will feature a series of presentations including topics such as Perspective of the Asian Features and Lineaments of the Emergent World Church and A Church to Move the Humanization of Africa: A Personal Yearning.

The symposium will conclude on Thursday, with a noon Eucharistic celebration in the University Chapel of the Holy Spirit.

Celebrating the Power of Lumen Gentium, which is open to the public, is sponsored by the Rev. Pierre Schouver C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Mission, Spiritan Campus Ministry, the Center for African Studies and the Department of Theology.

For more information, contact the theology department at 412.396.6530.