On 25 October, Liverpool Hope University will be hosting the first in their series of lectures and seminars on Vatican II.

There will be four sessions in total, each focusing on one of the four Constitutions of Vatican II, which remains one of the most significant events in the Catholic Church in the 20^th Century. It is set to celebrate it’s diamond jubilee in 2025.

The lectures are as follows:

25 October: Dei Verbeum: Constitution on Divine Revelation(Prof. Em. Reimund Beiringer – Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium).

7 December: Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church(Prof Paul McPartlin – Catholic University of America).

17 January: Sacrosanctum Concilium: Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Prof Peter McGrail – Liverpool Hope University).

28 February: Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Dr Pat Jones – Durham University).

All of the events will be taking place at the Hope Park Campus. All the lectures will take place in FML 014, while the seminars will take place in AJB 058 and 059.

A little more about the lecturers can be found below.

Reimund Bieringer is a priest of the diocese of Speyer, Germany, and is Emeritus Professor of New Testament Exegesis at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

From 2012 to 2015 he served as the president of the European Association of Biblical Studies, Europe’s largest biblical scholarly association, and is currently the chair of the Flemish Bible Society.

Reimund's research focuses on the Letters of the Apostle Paul, especially the Second Letter to the Corinthians, and the Gospel of John, in particular the figure of Mary Magdalene and the question of anti-Judaism.

He brings a future-oriented hermeneutic to the historical-critical study of the Bible. Having authored and served as editor of numerous publications, in May this year he was presented with a collected volume published in his honour, edited by Ma Marilou S. Ibita, Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, Bénédicte Lemmelijn, Sarah Whitear, Kindness, Courage, and Integrity in Biblical Texts and in the Politics of Biblical Interpretation: Festschrift Reimund Bieringer (BETL, 333), Leuven - Paris - Bristol, CT, Peeters, 2023.

Mgr Paul McPartlan is a priest of the diocese of Westminster and Carl J. Peter Professor of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

He read Mathematics at Cambridge, trained for the priesthood at the English College in Rome, and then did his doctorate in theology at Oxford.

He specialises in ecclesiology, ecumenism, and the Second Vatican Council, and has written many articles and several books, e.g. The Eucharist Makes the Church: Henri de Lubac and John Zizioulas in Dialogue(1993), Sacrament of Salvation: An Introduction to Eucharistic Ecclesiology(1995), and A Service of Love: Papal Primacy, the Eucharist, and Church Unity(2016).

Paul was a member of the International Theological Commission for ten years, and of the international Catholic-Methodist dialogue also for ten years.

Since 2005, he has been a member of the international Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue. Recently, he co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies (2021).

Peter McGrail is a priest of the Archdiocese of Liverpool and is Professor of Liturgical Theology at Liverpool Hope University, where he is Subject lead for Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies and Deputy Head of the School of Humanities.

He chairs the Liturgical Formation Sub-Committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.

Peter's research brings a social-scientific approach to the study of the Catholic community in England - particularly regarding liturgy and religious education.

He has published widely in his field, and most recently he co-led the production of a Directory for Liturgy and Worship for Catholic schools in England and Wales.

Dr Pat Jones is a research associate in the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, currently completing a four-year project which examines cultural and systemic aspects of the child abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

Previously she completed a doctorate on the relationship between Catholic charities’ identities and practices and Catholic social teaching (CST) and did initial post-doctoral work on how CST could listen to, and learn from, the experience of women affected by prostitution.

Earlier, she began her career as a parish youth worker int his archdiocese, and then worked for ten years in the Pastoral Formation Team, latterly as Director of Adult Christian Education.

She then moved to be the first female assistant general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference, and afterwards, deputy director of CAFOD.

She has also worked in senior roles or in consultancy with other faith-based charities including Depaul International. She grew up in Liverpool and now lives in Nottingham.

You can still book your place at all four events. It can even be attended online if you cannot be there in person. You can do so by clicking here.