Theology Day 2013: Responsibility, Leadership and Change: The Challenges of an Adult Church

Document Type

Presentation

Streaming Media

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

We read in the Gospel that “unless [we] become like children, [we] will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” But Saint Paul writes that “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childlish ways.” What does it mean to live like an adult in the church? How do we do that while heeding Christ’s call to become like children? What are the pressures, both in our history and in ourselves, that work against our participating in the church as adults the way we do in other areas of our lives? As the socio-economic and educational level of Catholics in the U.S. has risen in the last century, as more Catholics have positions of professional responsibility outside of the church, the tensions between living as a child and as an adult in the church have risen, affecting our expectations of things like the exercise of authority, the role of laity, transparency and accountability.

Dr. Cahoy has served as dean of Saint John’s School of Theology· Seminary since 1999. He completed his masters and doctoral work at Yale University, and served as chair of the Department of Theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University before beginning his tenure as dean.

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