Aquinas Lecture 2023
Info about the speaker:
Sr Nathalie Becquart XMC specialises in youth ministry and evangelisation. For 25 years she was involved in youth ministry, and served as Director of the National Service for the Evangelisation of Youth and Vocations of the French Bishops' Conference from 2012 to 2018. In 2019 she was appointed consultor to the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church, followed by another appointment by Pope Francis as undersecretary to the Synod in 2021, hence becoming the first woman holding a vote in the Catholic Synod of Bishops.
She graduated from the HEC School of Management, Paris in 1992, with a Master's in Entrepreneurship, and she obtained a double canonical Baccalaureate degree in Philosophy and Theology in 2006 from the “Centre Sèvres-Facultés Jésuites de Paris,” supplemented by training in Sociology at the EHESS (2004-2006). In 2019-2020 she specialised in Ecclesiology, doing research on Synodality at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. In December 2021 she was appointed a member of the Dicastery for Communication. Sr Becquart, a lecturer and speaker, is the author of numerous publications on synodality and synods, young people and youth ministry, vocations and religious life, the Church and mission.
Aquinas Evening
The Mission of Young People in a Synodal Church
09th March 2023 at 19:00
at ĊAK, Birkirkara
Q&A on Campus
Young People and the Church
10th March 2023 at 10:30
at UM Msida Campus - LC217
Women in Theology
Women in the Life of the Church
10th March 2023 at 19:00
at UM Chaplaincy
Aquinas Lecture 2022
Aquinas Lecture:
Stories of a Belgian Jesuit-Palliative Care Physician accompanying Persons requesting Euthanasia
Rev. Prof. Marc Desmet SJ
17th May 2022 at 19:00 at the Embassy of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Valletta
Second Lecture aimed for Students:
In search of Meaning at End-of-Life Care: Experiences of a Belgian Jesuit-Palliative Care Physician
Rev. Prof. Marc Desmet SJ
18th May 2022 at 18:00 at the South Auditorium, Mater Dei Hospital
Aquinas Lecture 2021
THE ABSTRACT
We stand at a certain epochal threshold. The old is coming to an end and the new is beginning at a dramatic rate. It is therefore crucial to rethink the identities that unite us and that determine who we are. This is only possible if we do not fall behind the achievements and insights of our history. The theological, philosophical, cultural and political identities, which have grown out of our past, must not become a criterion of exclusion for the others. We owe each other recognition and respect. The greater the differences between “us” and “the others” seem to be, the greater the identity that precedes all differences must be thought of. We need a global identity that allows us to preserve and live our specificities. We need a concept of God that challenges us to fight for the dignity of all people. And we need an identity that knows where we come from, an identity that can therefore lead us confidently into the future.
On 16 March 2021, the Għaqda Studenti tat-Teoloġija held the annual Lecture in honour of St Thomas Aquinas in collaboration with the Faculty of Theology. Around 70 people attended the virtual lecture. Prof. Dr Karlheinz Ruhstorfer from the University of Freiburg delivered a lecture titled ‘Identity reloaded: Philosophy, religion and politics facing new challenges’.
THE SPEAKER
Professor Dr Karlheinz Ruhstorfer was born on 9 May 1963 in Simbach am Inn, Bavaria. Between 2006 and 2013, he was Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Landau. From 2013 to 2017 he was Professor at the University of Dresden. Since 2017, Prof. Ruhstorfer holds the chair of dogmatics at the University of Freiburg. He is chairman of the German Section of the European Society for Catholic Theology and since 2019, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Theology in Freiburg. Prof. Ruhstorfer is married and father to three children.