CUA Law Professor Lucia Silecchia spoke at the conference What's Really Going On? The Root Causes of the Current Crisis held by The Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America on March 26, 2019. She also spoke at a Church in Crisis: A Panel Discussion in Chicago held by The Catholic University of America on April 11, 2019.

Church in Crisis

Church in Crisis: A Panel Discussion in Chicago

In 2018, scandals rocked the Catholic Church and spread distrust among the faithful. When reports surfaced from Chile and Pennsylvania, Catholics grieved for victims and families who suffered from sexual abuse, and the community was appalled to learn of the cover ups. As more states open investigations, Catholics are pained by the possibility of the scandal being even more widespread and want to know how they can help. As a community, we look for answers and yearn for reform and healing.

During Cardinal Weekend 2018, we hosted a powerful discussion on campus. Now we bring the conversation to Chicago.

University President John Garvey will make introductory remarks and highlight key University initiatives. Then a panel of faculty experts will contextualize the crisis, discuss its impact, and lead a question-and-answer session about how the University can help the Church move forward.

What's Really Going On? The Root Causes of the Current Crisis

The Catholic University of America will host a day of talks, which will constitute the third of a series of planned conferences on the Church's current crisis. The sessions for this day are devoted to a deeper analysis, presenting competing views of the role of sexuality and of clericalism. These sessions are complemented by a panel of experts in organizational behavior, who help analyze the present crisis in these terms. Finally, a discussion roundtable of Catholic journalists from across the spectrum explore how these deeper analyses might be better reflected in the media narratives about what is really going on.