Online Public Lectures on Reconciliation

Given the positive response to the Forum for “Justice, Reconciliation and Forgiveness” in July 2020, the Centre organized a monthly lecture series in related themes from September to December 2020. The speakers explored justice and reconciliation from the perspective of Pope Francis, Bible and Asian resources, and how spirituality relieves us from suffering as well as how it helps us to see our lives on earth from a wider vision of ecology.

Pope Francis’ Global Vision for Justice and Reconciliation
Sep. 19, 2020 (English) Replay Video   Download PPT 

The social and spiritual message of Pope Francis calls for all actors, individual and corporate, to engage into a form of radicalness in both thought and deeds. Francis has progressively elaborated a “mission statement” that articulates objectives to be prioritized, not only by Christian organizations but also by social, economic and political structures. These objectives should not be separated from methodological insights that aim at enabling their implementation. This article develops a hermeneutical reading of Francis’ encyclicals, apostolic exhortations and other documents so as to facilitate their appropriation and reinterpretation by an array of actors and traditions. Such reading insists on the fact that the objectives and methodology being proposed by Pope Francis are, at the same time, radical, systemic and open-ended, and, by way of consequence, organized into a “vision” that is to be shared, enriched and furthered.

• Speaker: Prof. Benoit Vermander SJ
• Respondent: Prof. John Lagerwey (Research Professor of Centre for Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Asian Christianity and Chinese Classics: Doing Theology Dialogically
Oct. 17, 2020 (Mandarin) Replay Video   Download PPT

Is dialogue possible in today’s society? Is dialogue aimed at convincing the other party? Or to test the truth? In this lecture, Prof Benoit Vermander, SJ explained in depth the types and meaning of dialogue, and bring out main insights in the style of dialogue of Asian theology: dialogue is the transformation of the interlocutors, and therefore the transformation of reality itself.

• Speaker: Prof. Benoit Vermander SJ
• Respondent: Fr. Edward Chau King Fun (Director of the Philosophy Division of Holy Spirit Seminary College)

Suffering and Redemption in Personal Spiritual Growth
Nov. 14, 2020 (Cantonese) Replay Video    Download PPT

Speakers:

• Dr. Yuen Hiu Tung, Doris (Research Associate of Centre for Catholic Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• Dr. Ho Yuk Ying, Irene (Honorary Research Fellow of Centre for Catholic Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Ignatian spirituality and Ecology
Dec. 14, 2020 (Mandarin) Replay Video

• Speaker: Fr. Francis Xu
• Respondent: Br. William Ng, OFM