John L. Allen Jr., senior correspondent for National Catholic Reporter and senior Vatican analyst for CNN, will open the 2010-11 Nazareth College William H. Shannon Chair in Catholic Studies lecture series, "Envisioning and Shaping the Church to Come."
Allen will speak on "The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church" at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 at the college’s Shults Community Center, 4245 East Ave. in Pittsford. He also will speak on "All Things Catholic" at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at Nazareth’s Golisano Academic Center.
Allen is author of six best-selling books on Vatican and Catholic affairs, including The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church (2009); Opus Dei: An Objective Look behind the Myth and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church (2005); The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope was Elected and What it Means for the Catholic Church (2005); and All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks (2004).
Upcoming lectures in the series are Tim Muldoon, a Boston College theologian and writer specializing in young-adult issues, who will speak Nov. 11 and 12; Father Virgilio P. Elizondo, professor of pastoral and Hispanic theology at the University of Notre Dame, who will speak March 24 and 25; and M. Shawn Copeland, associate professor of systematic theology in the department of theology with a joint appointment in the program in African and African diaspora studies at Boston College, who will speak April 14 and 15.
For more details on the lecture series, visit www.naz.edu/events/shannon-lecture/schedule.
