Ft. Howard Theater, Bemis International Center
St. Norbert College
De Pere, WI 54115
United States
American Catholics constitute, at best, only 7% of Catholics in the world. Most Catholics implicitly assume that Catholic life in the rest of the world looks much like it does in the U.S. Even where we sense it must be different, we've had few resources to access how it is different, and tend to frame our reading of their practice by means of our own categories of political and ecclesial discourse.
In this presentation, Thomas M. Landy, director of the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross and founder of Catholics & Cultures, will introduce worldwide research that aims to answer a simple question, "What's it like to be Catholic in different cultures around the world?" The talk will highlight aspects of ordinary, lay Catholic life in six countries on four continents, looking at how people celebrate, what the public and private roles of the faith are, and what moral and social problems they see as preeminent.
The lecture is free and open to the public.