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The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union

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The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union

The Bernardin Center was established in 1997 to continue the legacy of the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.

“Will you join me in becoming a living sign of Christ’s loving presence so that all who are lonely or hurt, abused or abandoned, vulnerable or alienated might experience His love? Together we can do this.”

~ Cardinal Joseph Bernardin

The Bernardin Center for Theology and Ministry was established in 1997 with the blessing of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to foster understanding in areas such as recon

ciliation and peacemaking, interreligious dialogue, the consistent ethic of life, leadership development for the Church, Catholic Common Ground, and young adult programming. Cardinal Bernardin advocated for certain issues of church and society that were of particular concern to him as a pastor and person of faith. The Bernardin Center for Theology and Ministry explores these signature issues through its strategic vision, public outreach, and educational initiatives. The Bernardin Center sponsors theological research, public lectures and seminars, and topical conferences that help foster understanding of the issues closely associated with Cardinal Bernardin's legacy. These issues include:

Reconciliation and Peacemaking

Interreligious Dialogue (especially Jewish and Muslim)

Consistent Ethic of Life (healthcare and pastoral care of the gravely ill)

Leadership Development for the Catholic Church

Catholic Common Ground Initiative

Young Adult Programming

03/24/2026

What is synodality, and what does it mean for me? For my community? My parish?

The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union invites you to join us on April 9th at 6pm, online or in-person, as we learn more together about synodality, experience a synodal conversation, and discover how this call to participation in the Church’s mission invites everyone to a new relationship their faith and one another.

Our conversation will feature CTU’s own Ellen Romer Niemiec alongside Deacon Geert De Cubber of the Diocese of Ghent in Belgium.

Registration helps us keep in touch with you and is required for in-person participation.

Click here to register: https://ctu.edu/event/from-rome-to-home-bringing-synodality-to-our-communities/

03/12/2026

Once thing that came up multiple times in our Episode 14 podcast conversation is a sense of scarcity mindset that pervades conversations about gender inequality and the struggles to identify a healthy masculinity. On either end of the gender spectrum, there is the false belief that providing concerted support to one identity necessarily means taking support away from another.

This can be particularly challenging in Catholic spaces where masculine imagery and language for God becomes entangled with the unhealthy aspects of masculine identity.

's own Dr. Karen Ross provides ample encouragement and resources for those seeking to imagine a different way.

Listen to Episode 14 for more (and while you're at it, maybe you go and sign up to take a whole class with Karen?? 📝)

03/06/2026

One of the most hot-button issues within our current culture is the oft-invoked "crisis of masculinity."

The situation is dire: Men are falling behind at school, in the workplace, and in the home. Cases of depression, loneliness, addiction, and su***de are at all-time highs. The multiple waves of feminist advancement have earned for women significant increases in academic, interpersonal, and career success and safety, combatting longtime domination by men ... But we have yet to embrace as a culture a new understanding of masculinity that brings men out from under that domination as well. Meanwhile, our society increasingly valorize men who take the will to power to its worst ends.

Our Catholic faith calls us to something else through the example of Jesus, and the church has a unique opportunity to provide spaces that allow men to explore new ways of relating to each other and to themselves.

Episode 14 of the podcast is spearheaded by Bernardin Scholar Patrick Brown. Our guest expert is Dr. Karen Ross. Karen is a professor of feminist and sexual ethics and Director of the Pathways program at Catholic Theological Union.

Listen to the full episode now 🎙️

02/23/2026

Many contemporary religious communities have increasingly prioritized climate action as a calling and a responsibility. Yet the classical teachings of Western traditions on the created world can hinder undertaking the climate action we need now.

Join the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program online or in-person at 6:30pm CT on Monday, March 9th for a lecture from Mara H. Benjamin, 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, Irene Kaplan Leiwant Professor, and Chair of Jewish Studies at Mount Holyoke College, titled “Dominion, Stewardship and Other Ways of Being Earthling.” This lecture will explore different ways Jewish sources imagine human beings in the created world and examine how the urgent work of responding to ecological crisis generates new questions for, and approaches to, religious traditions.

The Spring Shapiro Lecture takes place during the Annual Hayim Perelmuter Conference. Conference participation is closed, but the Shapiro Lecture is free and open to the public.

Register here: https://ctu.edu/event/spring-shapiro-lecture-mara-benjamin-phd/

02/18/2026

Join the Catholic-Muslim Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union for an Interfaith Iftar Dinner on Sunday, March 1st. We’ll hear from a panel of speakers on the role of faith during times of crisis.

Doors open at 4:30pm, with the program beginning at 4:45pm.

Event is in-person only, and registration is required. Please RSVP before February 22 using the link here: https://ctu.edu/interfaith-iftar-dinner/

02/17/2026

The recording of the Winter 2026 Shapiro Lecture, "Rewilding the Tree of Life: Jewish Law and Theology in the Time of Climate Change,” given by Rabbi Ariel Evan Mayse is now available to watch on our YouTube channel!

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abEliV4SNeQ

02/04/2026

Every single one of us is creative. Even during dry spells, writer's block, seasons of difficulty, times of illness, we are each still contributing to the library, the gallery, the portfolio of our lives.

Hear more wisdom from Cameron () in Episode 13 of the podcast 🎙️

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FULL TEXT:

"I really want to broaden our definition of creativity to simply being human. If you think about... the decisions you make, the physicality of the places you go, the roads, on the bus or on the train, you're really carving out a life for yourself with every decision you make and experience you have. There's a magnificent phrase... la bibliotheque interieure - your interior library - that you're building... as you move your way through your life." - Cameron Bellm

01/29/2026

Our podcast fills a variety of niches: It's both a hub of academic conversations that advance scholarship, and a ministerial project, preaching - as the CTU mission statement calls us - “Christ’s good news of justice, love, and peace.” It's also a creative project. Like writing, painting, singing, and other forms, there is an art to have a good conversation.

This intersection of academia, spirituality, and creativity is the topic of this month’s episode.

Our Bernardin Scholar cohost is Marissa Papula, Director of Campus Ministry at Loyola Marymount University, writer, and 25-26 Fellow with the Christian Century Narrative Project.

Our guest this episode is Cameron Bellm, writer of poems and prayers. She holds a PhD in Russian Literature, and her new book, "The Sacrament of Paying Attention," is forthcoming.

Cameron and Marissa both work for the Jesuit Media Lab, a multidisciplinary incubator for creatives inspired by Ignatian spirituality.

We talk in this episode about everything from writer’s block to the troubles of contemporary digital brand, and how these dry spells and moments of discernment are chances to tune in to the Spirit moving and making within each of us.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎨✏️

01/26/2026

How might deep engagement with Jewish law and theology help us respond to the rapidly mounting threats of global climate change and ecological degradation?

Join the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program online at 8:00pm CT on Monday, February 2nd for a lecture from Rabbi Ariel Evan Mayse, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, titled “Rewilding the Tree of Life: Jewish Law and Theology in the Time of Climate Change.”

Grappling with the full range of Jewish religious literature - from Bible and Talmud to mysticism, poetry, and philosophy - we shall consider how these sources can help us address such problems through developing a capacious approach to environmental ethics, education, and activism.

At the same time, we will engage deeply with Pope Francis’s remarkable environmental legacy, most visible in his landmark Laudato Si, and will put his writing into dialogue with Jewish legal and theological traditions. In doing so, Rabbi Mayse will make an argument for the need to “rewild” both religious and secular education in our day. Rather than examining environmental problems from within highly curated fields of knowledge or parochial lenses, we ought to approach scholarship and teaching as taking place within an ecotone: the fertile transitional realm between different ecosystems or communities that is a marshy site of complexity, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration across boundaries and differences.

This lecture is taking place on Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish New Year for the trees, and so is a perfect opportunity to think about how as humans we live in relationship with nature and the environment.

Register here: https://ctu.edu/event/winter-shapiro-lecture-rabbi-ariel-evan-mayse-ph-d/

01/07/2026

Though the Christmas season is officially over, one unique characteristic of our liturgical year is how quickly it moves from Christmas into Lent. As we see during Advent, Ash Wednesday is another moment of return for many Catholics for whom the outward sign of faith - ashes on the forehead - provides a sense of belonging and continuity, even when other forms of spiritual involvement wane.

In Episode 12 of the , Bernardin Scholar prompts ministers listening to consider how we can make a habit of responding to these return moments, all throughout the year.

Listen to the full episode now 🎙️

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas from the Bernardin Center 🎄

If you haven't listened to our holiday episode yet, perhaps we can keep you company as you travel to and from loved ones' homes this week. Wishing you blessings of safety, warmth, and joyful community as we celebrate the birth of Christ, God among us.

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Text: "It's not 'lets not sing Jingle Bells.' Let's find where God is already present in the jingling and the bells...

Christ is already in Christmas. We don't have to 'put him back,' because he's already there, native in these things that are secularized and accessible.

Then the sociological question is, 'Okay, this is why people come back during this time, so then what can ministers do to capitalize on that in a way that isn't harmful or manipulative... How do we take a cue even from the things we consume?'"

Listen now 🎙️

12/24/2025

The podcast is back!

And there’s no more perfect way to celebrate our return to the airwaves over the holidays than to have a conversation about the holidays as a significant moment of return for all kinds of people.

During Advent and Christmas, Catholic churches around the country see an increase in participants. What is it about this time of year that inspires people to go back to church? And is going to church the best or even only way of interacting with this “reason for the season?”

Bernardin Scholar Paul Jarzembowski has written two books on this very topic. He’s joined in this episode by fellow Bernardin Scholar James Luisi, high school educator at Jesuit Dallas. They discuss the messages - both secular and expressly religious - that seem to touch hearts of all ages the most this time of year and, for our holiday episode, debate what makes a really good holiday episode of any kind.

Mid-episode, you’ll hear excerpts from a conversation Paul and our Media Fellow Madison Chastain had with CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate out of Georgetown University, who provided key insight into the nuances of holiday participation, from the impacts of immigration to post-COVID quarantine trends.

We hope this episode finds you well and, from all of us at the Bernardin Center and Catholic Theological Union, wish you and yours a very merry Christmas.

Listen now wherever you find your podcasts 🎄

Address

5416 S. Cornell Avenue
Chicago, IL
60615

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday	8:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

(773) 371-5432

Website

https://ctu.edu/bernardin-center/

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