Margaret O'Brien Steinfels to deliver 12th annual Mooney lecture at Fairfield University

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels to deliver 12th annual Mooney lecture at Fairfield University

The Catholic Studies program at Fairfield University will present noted writer/commentator Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture, for the 12th annual Christopher F. Mooney, S.J., Lecture in Theology, Religion and Society on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m. at the University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The lecture, entitled "Vatican II Americans: The Middle of the Journey," is free and open to the public.

Steinfels has been an intriguing voice on a variety of social and political issues for more than 30 years. Prior to her work at Fordham, she spent 15 years as the editor of Commonweal, an independent bi-weekly journal of political, religious and literary opinion edited by Catholic laypeople since 1924. She also co-directed "American Catholics in the Public Square," a three-year project of the Commonweal Foundation. The project published two volumes of essays, "American Catholics & Civic Engagement: A Distinctive Voice," and "American Catholics & American Culture: Tradition and Resistance."

In 2002, Steinfels made history when she was one of only two American lay Catholics selected to address the U.S. bishops on the clerical sexual abuse crisis at a Dallas meeting.

"Peggy Steinfels is a distinguished American journalist and woman of letters, and one of the major lay Catholic leaders in the United States today," said Paul Lakeland, Ph.D., Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., professor of Catholic Studies. "Throughout her career she has securely occupied the radical center; moderate and constructive in her proposals, she is trenchant and to the point in identifying cant on both the right and the left. There is no better commentator on American Catholic life today."

In addition to editorials, articles and reviews in Commonweal, Steinfels' writing has appeared in America, Catholic World, Los Angeles Times, New York Times Review of Books, New Republic, Christianity and Crisis, Church, Jewish Forward, Psychology Today, Washington Post Book Review and many other national publications. She has also served as a commentator on several television and radio news programs.

Steinfels is the author of "Who's Minding the Children? The History and Politics of Day Care in America" (Simon & Shuster, 1974). Her most recent essays include "An Editor's View of Kosovo" in "The Sacred & the Sovereign" (Georgetown University Press, 2003), and "John Paul II & Social Justice" in Boston College Magazine.

Steinfels was editor of the Hastings Center Report, the leading journal of bioethics from 1974 to 1980 and served as executive editor of Christianity and Crisis from 1981 to 1984. She was founding editor of Church magazine and was editorial director at the National Pastoral Life Center.

Steinfels holds a B.S. from Loyola University Chicago and an M.A. from New York University. In 2003, she and her husband, New York Times "Beliefs" column writer Peter Steinfels, were awarded the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal and the University of Dayton's Marianist Award.

The Fairfield University Catholic Studies program is sponsoring Steinfels' lecture. For more information, call Administrative Coordinator Carolyn Arnold at (203) 254-4000, ext. 3415.

Posted On: 10-17-2005 10:10 AM

Volume: 38 Number: 74