The Place of Episcopal Discernment in the Synodal Journey

All sessions meet in McKenna Hall, Rooms 215/216, unless otherwise noted.

John C. Cavadini is Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he also serves as McGrath-Cavadini Director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. He teaches, studies and publishes in the area of patristic theology and on its early medieval reception. He has served as a consultant to the USCCB Committee on Doctrine since 2006 and served a five-year term on the International Theological Commission (appointed by Pope Benedict XVI). He received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from The Catholic University of America in 2022 and is the recipient of the 2022 Faculty Award for outstanding service to the University of Notre Dame. In 2018 he received the Monika K. Hellwig Award from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities for Outstanding Contributions to Catholic Intellectual Life. 

Bishop Daniel Flores has served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville since 2009. He studied at the University of Dallas, and Holy Trinity Seminary, completing a BA in Philosophy and a Masters of Divinity. In 1988 he was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Corpus Christi. He completed work on doctoral dissertation in Sacred Theology at the Angelicum in 2000. In 2006, he was appointed and ordained as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Presently, Bishop Flores serves as a committee member on several USCCB Committees as well as chair of the Committee on Doctrine.

Cardinal Grech serves as Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops and is Bishop Emeritus of Gozo. He completed his primary and secondary studies at the Victoria Lyceum in Gozo, and studied philosophy and theology in the seminary of Gozo. Following priestly ordination in 1984, he pursued higher studies in Rome, obtaining a licentiate in Utroque Iure at the Pontifical Lateran University and a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). Upon return to his home country, he exercised his ministry at the Cathedral of Gozo, at the national shrine of Tá-Pinu and served as pastor in the parish of Kercem. He held the offices of Judicial Vicar of the Diocese, member of the metropolitan tribunal of Malta, teacher of canon law in the seminary and member of the College of Consultors, the Presbyteral Council and other diocesan commissions. In 2020 he was appointed as Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops. He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in November 2020.

Nicholas J. Healy is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Culture at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Eschatology of Hans Urs von Balthasar: Being as Communion (Oxford University Press) and, together with David Schindler, Freedom, Truth, and Human Dignity: The Declaration on Religious Freedom (Eerdmans Publishing). His edited volumes include Being Holy in the World: Theology and Culture in the Thought of David L. Schindler (Eerdmans Publishing) and Ressourcement after Vatican II: Essays in Honor of Joseph Fessio, S.J. (Ignatius Press). Recent articles have addressed the theology of the Eucharist, the nature and sacramentality of marriage, the interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae, and the theological anthropology of Henri de Lubac and Thomas Aquinas. He is an editor of the North American edition of Communio: International Catholic Review and a founding member of the Academy of Catholic Theology.

Dr. Jennifer Newsome Martin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She will direct the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at Notre Dame beginning July 1, 2024. She is a systematic theologian with areas of interest in 19th and 20th century Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox thought, trinitarian theology, theological aesthetics, religion and literature, French feminism, ressourcement theology, and the nature of religious tradition. Her first book, Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Critical Appropriation of Russian Religious Thought (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015), was one of ten winners internationally of the 2017 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. She is co-editor of An Apocalypse of Love: Essays in Honor of Cyril O’ Regan (Herder & Herder, 2018) and the second edition of the Blackwell Companion to Catholicism (forthcoming 2024). Over twenty articles and book chapters have appeared in such venues as Modern Theology, Communio: International Catholic Review, The Newman Studies Journal, International Journal of Systematic Theology, and in a number of edited volumes and collections of essays. She serves on the editorial board of Religion & Literature, Theological Studies, and the University of Notre Dame Press, as well as steering committees of the Hans Urs von Balthasar Consultation of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Christian Systematic Theology Unit in the American Academy of Religion.

Dr. Msgr. Paul McPartlan is a priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster (UK). From 2006 until recently, he was the Carl J. Peter Professor of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism at The Catholic University of America. He served two terms on the International Theological Commission (2004-2009; 2009-2014) and chaired the subcommissions that produced the documents, Theology Today: Perspectives, Principles and Criteria (2011) and Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church (2014). He has participated in international Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, and was for ten years a member of the international Catholic-Methodist dialogue (2002-2012). Since 2005, he has been a member of the international Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue. He is the author of The Eucharist Makes the Church: Henri de Lubac and John Zizioulas in Dialogue (1993), Sacrament of Salvation: An Introduction to Eucharistic Ecclesiology (1995), A Service of Love: Papal Primacy, the Eucharist, and Church Unity (2016), and many articles on ecclesiology, ecumenism, and Vatican II. He recently co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies (2021).

Bishop Rhoades was appointed Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend in 2009. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and Bachelor (STB) and License (STL) degrees in Sacred Theology and a License degree in Canon Law (JCL) from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Bishop Rhoades was ordained a priest in 1983 and served as an associate pastor, pastor, and Hispanic ministry director in the Diocese of Harrisburg. In 1995, he was appointed to the faculty of Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary and became Rector there in 1997. He was ordained a Bishop on December 9, 2004 and served for five years as Bishop of Harrisburg until being transferred to the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend where he was installed as Bishop on January 13, 2010.

While serving as Bishop of Harrisburg, Bishop Rhoades was President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. He has served on numerous committees and boards, including past Chair of the USCCB Committee on Health Care; past Chair of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth; and past Chair of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine. He has served as a past member of the Board of Directors of Catholic Relief Services, of the USCCB Subcommittee on the Catechism, and of the Boards of Trustees of Mount Saint Mary’s University, Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, Saint Vincent Seminary, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, and Ave Maria University. Currently, Bishop Rhoades serves as Chair of the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty, as a member of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, as a member of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, and as a member of the USCCB Administrative Committee. Bishop Rhoades also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Our Sunday Visitor and as a member of the Foundation Board of Catholic Relief Services and of the Board of Directors of the National Eucharistic Congress. He is the Episcopal Moderator of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Prof. Anna Rowlands is the holder of the St. Hilda Chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice. She is a political theologian who works at the interface of political and social theory and Christian theology. Her original training was in the social and political sciences, followed by postgraduate degrees in theology. She has worked for two decades on the political philosophy of Gillian Rose, with additional interests in Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil. These interests coincided with research over the last 15 years in two other areas: the study of forced migration and the ethics of migration, and the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching. She has published in all these areas. Her key publications include: Towards a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The T&T Clark Reader in Political Theology, edited with Elizabeth Phillips and Amy Daughton (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Contemporary Migration (forthcoming 2024) edited with Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh. She is currently working on a new book on Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil and Gillian Rose.

Prof. Christopher Ruddy is an associate professor of historical and systematic theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Divinity School, he received his doctorate in systematic theology from Notre Dame. His interests include ecclesiology, the history and theology of Vatican II, and the thought of Joseph Ratzinger. He is the author of two books, The Local Church: Tillard and the Future of Catholic Ecclesiology and Tested in Every Way: The Catholic Priesthood in Today’s Church (both Crossroad/Herder & Herder). His articles have appeared in America, Commonweal, First Things, Irish Theological Quarterly, Theological Studies, and The Thomist. New York natives, he and his wife Deborah have four sons: Peter, Luke, John, and Joseph.

"The Role of a Synodal Bishop," Cardinal Mario Grech

"Theology of the Bishop in the Communio Theology of Vatican II," Nicholas Healy, Ph.D. 

"The Sensus Fidei as an Element in Episcopal Discernment: The ITC on Sensus Fidei and Sensus Fidelium," Rev. Dr. Msgr. Paul McPartlan, D.Phil

"Ecclesial Tradition as an Element in Episcopal Discernment: Vatican II on The Source and Transmission of Revelation," Christopher Ruddy, Ph.D.

"Catholic Social Teaching as an Element in Episcopal Discernment," Anna Rowlands, Ph.D.

"Development of Doctrine as an Element in Episcopal Discernment," Jennifer Newsome Martin, Ph.D.

"Co-Responsibility in the Communio Theology of Vatican II," John Cavadini, Ph.D.

Most Rev. Samuel Aquila Archbishop, Archdiocese of Denver
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Most Rev. François Beyrouti Bishop, Diocese/Eparchy of Newton of the Melkite Catholic Church
Most Rev. John Michael Botean Bishop, Romanian Eparchy of St. George
Most Rev. Earl Boyea Bishop, Diocese of Lansing
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His Eminence Daniel DiNardo Cardinal, Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
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