BOSTON — Renowned friar theologian Kenneth Himes, OFM, gave a presentation last week on the Second Vatican Council during St. Anthony Shrine’s celebration of the St. Francis season.
Kenneth’s Sept. 20 talk — “Vatican II Fifty Years After: The Mission of the Church and Its Role in Political Life” — focused on the effects of the second Vatican Council on the Church over the past five decades. The presentation was the second of 11 events the Shrine is holding during its Franciscan Intermezzo, which marks the period of time between the feast of the stigmata and the Transitus.
Ken is also scheduled to speak during Francis Week at St. Bonaventure University in Western New York on Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. in the university chapel. His talk, “Good Life Choice: The Formation of Conscience in the Catholic Franciscan Tradition,” will discuss how the Catholic-Franciscan tradition can guide voters this election year. Ken’s presentation is part of St. Bonaventure University Ministries’s year-long Faith, Politics and Culture series — events that discuss how faith integrates in the public square.
One of the nation’s leading scholars in Catholic social teaching and the relationship of religion and politics in the nation’s public life, Ken has published more than 75 essays in journals and books. The Siena College graduate has also co-authored a book with his brother, Rev. Michael Himes, which in 1994 received the first place award for theology books from the Catholic Press Association.
Ken is a past president of the Catholic Theology Society of America and has served as a visiting faculty member at several colleges along the East Coast. For several years, he also acted as theological consultant for the Office of Social Development and World Peace at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Currently, Ken teaches as an associate professor of theology at Boston College, serves on the editorial board of theJournal of Justice and Peace, and is a member of the Society of Christian Ethics.
— Maria Hayes is communications coordinator for Holy Name Province.