Sponsors of the Declaration
names D-F





Professor James Dallen

Father Dr James Dallen is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, Gonzaga University, Spokane. He obtained a BA in philosophy and the social sciences from St. Mary's College, KY (1965), STB (1968), MA in Systematic Theology (1969) and STD (1976) at Catholic University of America, Washington DC with a special emphasis on sacramental/liturgical theology. He became assistant professor (1982-1984), associate professor (1984-1994) and then professor (1994-2007) at Gonzaga University, Spokane. In line with his liturgical interests he has held editorial consultancies for North American Liturgy Resources (1971-1977); Pastoral Arts Associates (1977 ); Arise and For Priests Only (spirituality newsletters; 1999-). He is liturgy editor for Corpus Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion and has undertaken Commissions/consultations for Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, International Committee on English in the Liturgy and Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.
Prof Dallen is a prolific writer who has published many articles, reviews and abstacts. His books include: Liturgical Celebration: Possible Patterns (Washington, DC 1969); revised edition (Cincinnati 1971); Worship in a New World (Cincinnati 1972); Praising His Mercy (Cincinnati 1973); Liturgical Celebration: Patterns for Lent (Cincinnati 1973); Liturgical Celebration: Patterns for Advent and Christmas (Cincinnati 1974); Liturgical Celebration: Patterns for Easter (Cincinnati 1975); The Mass Today (Phoenix 1976); Infant Baptism Today (Phoenix 1979); The Funeral Liturgy (Old Hickory 1980); Gathering for Eucharist: A Theology of Sunday Assembly (Old Hickory 1983); Remembering the Mother of Jesus in Parish Life and Worship (Old Hickory 1985), The Reconciling Community: The Rite of Penance (New York 1986); Removing the Barriers: The Practice of Reconciliation (with Joseph Favazza, Chicago 1991); The Dilemma of Priestless Sundays (Chicago 1994), which received an award from the Catholic Press Association in 1995. Prof Dallen is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the North American Academy of Liturgy and Societas Liturgica.

 

Professor Gabriel Daly

Dr Gabriel Daly OSA is Professor in the Irish School of Ecumenics, an Academic Institute of Trinity College, Dublin, in Ireland. He lectured at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, before moving in the 1980s to teach at the newly-founded School of Hebrew, Biblical and Theological Studies in Trinity College, Dublin. He was actively involved in the foundation of the Irish School of Ecumenics (now an Academic Institute of Trinity College Dublin), where he remains a member of the teaching faculty. An internationally-acknowledged expert on Roman Catholic Modernism, his recent contributions to theology have been in the area of creation and ecological ethics. The relationship between Christian faith and its cultural expression has been a key interest of Gabriel Daly's throughout his career.
Among his publications we find: Transcendence and Immanence: a Study in Catholic Modernism and Integralism (1980); Asking the Father: Book on the Prayer of Petition and The Prodigal Father: Approaching the God of Love (both in 1982); Creation and Redemption (1988); and Medievalism: A Reply to Cardinal Mercier (1994). Photograph to follow.

 

Professor Charles DeCelles

Dr Charles DeCelles has been Professor of Systematic Theology, Christology and World Religions at Marywood University, Pennsylvania for over 20 years . He obtained a BA from University of Windsor, an MA from Marquette University and an MA from Temple University, and PhD from Fordham University. His recently published articles include: "The Dialogue of Science with Religion: God Did Not Create the Universe in Six Days---Or Did He?" Social Justice Review (2010); "St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina: Final Years at San Giovanni Rotondo," The Catholic Leader (2010); "Defending the Divinity of Jesus Christ: Responding to a Contemporary Challenge," The Priest (2010). He has contributed articles to The Priest over a number of years and is a member of the Catholic Academy of Sciences in the USA

 

Dr M Daly-Denton

Dr Margaret Daly-Denton holds a BA and a BMusic from the National University of Ireland, an MTheol (Liturgy) from St Paul's College Maynooth, a PhD in Biblical Studies from Trinity College Dublin and her LTCL in organ performance. Her early career was as a church musician with an academic and practical involvement in liturgy. An internationally published composer of liturgical music, she also served for over twenty years on ICEL, the International Committee on English in the Liturgy. More recently she undertook graduate studies at Trinity College Dublin, supervised by Prof. Sean Freyne, completing her PhD on the early Christian reception of the psalms in 1997.
Dr Daly-Denton published two books: Psalm-Shaped Prayerfulness: A Guide to the Christian Reception of the Psalms (Dublin 2010 & Collegeville 2011) and David in the Fourth Gospel: The Johannine Reception of the Psalms (Leiden 2000). Samples of her articles are: “When in Our Music God is Glorified” The Word is Flesh and Blood: The Eucharist and Sacred Scripture (ed. by Vivian Boland and Thomas McCarthy, Dublin 2012, pp. 54-64); “Drinking the Water that Jesus Gives: A Johannine Eucharistic Symbol?” Pages 345-365 in A Wandering Galilean (ed. by Zuleika Rodgers, Leiden 2009, pp. 345-365); and “Early Christian Writers as Jewish Readers” in Review of Rabbinic Judaism 11(2008) pp. 181–99).
Over the last fifteen years Dr Daly-Denton has taught in Trinity College Dublin, The Church of Ireland Theological Institute, The Milltown Institute, The Kimmage Mission Institute, The Newman Institute in Ballina Co Mayo, St Patrick’s College Maynooth and The Mater Dei Institute. She has also worked as a writer and tutor for the distance learning programmes of The Priory Institute. She currently teaches on the MA in Ecology and Religion programme at All Hallows College, Dublin City University.

 

Prof David DeCosse

A graduate of Harvard University in English and American Literature (1982), Dr DeCosse has a master's in journalism from Columbia University (1988), a master's in theology from Fordham University (1993) and a doctorate in theological ethics from Boston College-Weston Jesuit School of Theology (2002). He is Adjunct Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Santa Clara University, Calefornia, and Director of the  Campus Ethics Programs, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, at the same university (2002-present).
DeCosse began his career as a reporter in New York state, publishing articles in America, The San Jose Mercury News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other newspapers. He was the newsroom manager of Ascribe Newswire (1999-2002). He also worked at Doubleday Books, where he managed Image Books and edited frontlist titles such as: But Was It Just? Reflections on the Morality of the Persian Gulf War, The Lonely Man of Faith, Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children and Conscience, Consensus, and the Development of Doctrine by Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Recent articles in academic periodicals include:"The Danish Cartoons Reconsidered: Catholic Social Teaching and the Contempor ary Challenge of Freedom of Speech" in Theological Studies 71 (2010 101-132; "Freedom of the Press and Catholic Social Thought: Reflections on the Sexual Abuse Scandal in the Catholic Church in the United States" in Theological Studies 68 (2007) 865-899; "Authority, Lies, and War: Democracy and the Development of Just War Theory" in Theological Studies 67 (2006) 378-394; "Rahner's Ethics and the Pacific Rim" in Rahner Beyond Rahner: A Great Theologian Encounters the Pacific Rim, ed. Paul G. Crowley (Lanham 2005) 133-35; "Authority, Democracy and the Iraq War" in Heythrop Journal 45 (2004) 227-233; "Beyond Law and Economics: Theological Ethics and the Regulatory Takings Debate" in the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 23 (1996) 829-849.

 

Professor Marianne M Delaporte

Dr Marianne M Delaporte is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, USA. She studied at University of Chicago (BA, Religion and Humanities, 1990), Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley, CA (MA History of Religion) and Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ. (PhD Medieval Church History). She is very active in the West Coast branch of the American Academy of Religion, serving as chair for the Christian History section and is also an active member of the American Society of Church History. Her work on Carolingian hagiography has led to an interest in understandings of masculinity in the Carolingian court as well as a desire to study the Biblical exegesis of the time.
Her publications include: "Site Visits and Civic Engagement: Encountering and Engaging a More Diverse Vision of "the Civic" co-authored with Hans Wiersma (in Spotlight on Teaching, AAR, Oct 2010.); several articles in Westminster Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2008; "He Darkens Me with Brightness: the Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius in Hilduin's Vita of Saint Denis" in Religion and Theology: A Journal of Contemporary Religious Discourse (13:3 and 4), 2006.
She is co-author of "Hell as a Residual Category" in Companion to Sociology of Religion (Blackwell, 2001).

 

Prof Paul Dinter

Paul E. Dinter served as Catholic Chaplain at Columbia University from 1973 – 1988 during which he received his PhD in Biblical Studies from Union Theological Seminary. In the years since, he has taught at Fordham University, Mount St. Mary’s College, the Maryknoll School of Theology, Marymount Manhattan College (where he also directed the privately funded college program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility), Mercy College (at Sing Sing Correctional Facility) and Manhattan College where he is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. The author of Beyond Naïve Belief: Bible and Adult Catholic Faith (Crossroads 1994), The Changing Priesthood: from the Bible to the 21st Century (Thomas More 1996) and The Other Side of the Altar: one man's life in the Catholic Priesthood (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2003), he has written for Cross Currents, Commonweal, and America as well as on the subject “The Evolution of the Soul: A Thought Experiment” in The Global Spiral (April 2008), the on-line publication of The Metanexus Institute.

 

Dr Donal Dorr

Donal Dorr is an Irish missionary priest, theologian, and social activist. Ordained in 1961, he obtained his doctorate in theology in Maynooth University, Ireland, in 1964. Some years later he engaged in intensive training in group work and more recently he has trained as a therapist. Having lectured in philosophy in Cork University for three years, he went on to teach theology in various colleges in Ireland, including Maynooth University, and, in the 1970s, in the National Institute for Moral and Religious Education, attached to the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In the early 1980s he was the holder of the Cardinal Conway Research Fellowship in the Theology of Development, in Maynooth University. From the late 1980s he was a consultor to the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace and a researcher and resource-person for the Irish Missionary Union. The main focus of his work has been on empowering grassroots activists in Africa and Ireland in working for justice and care for the environment, in training religious leaders and activists in leadership skills, and in running spirituality workshops for people who are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives. Donal Dorr is the author of the following eleven books: Spirituality and Justice (1986), The Social Justice Agenda (1992), Integral Spirituality, Mission in Today's World (2000), Divine Energy (1996), Remove the Heart of Stone (1978), Time for a Change, The Spirituality of Leadership (2004), Spirituality: Our Deepest Heart's Desire (2008), Conversion and Holiness: The Teaching of John Wesley (2012) and Option for the Poor and for the Earth (2012).

 

Professor John Downey

Dr John Downey (PhD Marquette) is Professor of Religious Studies (Foundational Theology & Political Theology) at Gonzaga University where he has taught for 20 years. Before coming to Gonzaga he taught in the Program in Religious Studies at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He also served as Director of Education and Staff Theologian at the University of Illinois Newman Foundation. Other faculty appointments include Spokane Falls Community College, Mount Mary College, Cardinal Stritch College, and Marquette University.
Among his publications we find: Beginning At The Beginning: Wittgenstein And Theological Conversation (1987); Love's Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz (1999); Missing God?: Cultural Amnesia and Political Theology (with Jürgen Manemann and Steven T. Ostovich, 2006); Finding Saint Francis in Literature and Art (ed. with Cynthia Ho & Beth A. Mulvaney, 2009).

 

Dr Thomas Doyle OP

Father Dr Thomas Doyle OP Father Dr Thomas Doyle OP is a church lawyer who has researched and publicised the issue of children abused by clergy in the Catholic Church. He holds a BA (1966) and an MA (1968) in Philosophy from the Aquinas Institute of Philosophy, Illinois. In 1971 he received an MA in political science from the University of Wisconsin and another MA in theology from Aquinas Institute of Theology, Iowa. He went on to a Master of Church Administration from Catholic University of America in 1976 and an MA in Canon Law from the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario (1977). He has a Pontifical Licentiate in Canon Law from St. Paul University in Ottawa, granted in 1977, and a Pontifical Doctorate in Canon Law from Catholic University of America, granted in 1978. He is also a fully certified addictions counsellor, having trained at the Naval School of Health Sciences in San Diego and the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma.
Between 1974-1978 he was 'Advocate and Defender of the Bond' in the Matrimonial Tribunal for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 1978 he became Tribunal Judge in the same Matrimonial Tribunal. From 1981 to 1986 he served at the Vatican embassy in Washington D.C. as the staff canon or church lawyer. Then in 1986-1990 he served as Tribunal Judge and Special Assistant to the Archbishop, Archdiocese for Military Services, USA. He served as an Air Force chaplain from 1986 to 2004, becoming a full-time active duty officer and chaplain in 1990. While at the Vatican Embassy in Washington he was drawn into the problems of the sex abuse crisis and in 1985 was coauthor of a comprehensive report sent to every bishop, which identified sexual abuse as a compulsive, lifelong psychosexual disorder, not a moral weakness. Since then he has been a consultant and expert witness in several hundred civil cases throughout the US, Canada, Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. He has been involved as a supporter and advisor to victims in several more countries.
Among several published books and articles are: Sexual Abuse and the Culture of Catholicism: How Priests and Nuns Become Perpetrators by Thomas P. Doyle & Myra L. Hidalgo (2007); Sex, Priests, and secret codes: The Catholic Church’s 2000-Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse, Thomas P. Doyle, A.W.R. Sipe & Patrick J. Wall (2006); and Survivors of Predator Priests, Thomas Doyle and J. M. Handlin, (2005).

 

Dr Anneke Driessen

Dr Anneke Driessen studied Church History at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. She obtained the doctorate at the University of Amsterdam. Credentials to follow.

 

Antonio Duato

Dr Antonio Duato Gómez-Novella is editor of Iglesia Viva and webmaster of www.atrio.org, both in Spain. He has a degree in Philosophy (Comillas University 1953), Theology (Gregorian University in Rome 1957) and Political Science (La Sapienza University in Rome 1962). Married with two children. Since 1971 he is the coordinator and editor of the magazine on Christian thought Iglesia Viva. He was co-founder of the Foundation ÉTNOR - on the Ethics of Commerce and Companies -of which he was secretary and manager from 1994 to 2002. Since 2001 he is the promoter and moderator of www.atrio.org. His atest publications include : "Married Priests" in Concilium No. 340 (April 2011); "250 editions of Living Church (Iglesia Viva): lights and shadows of a journey" in Iglesia Viva No. 250 (April-June 2012).

 

Prof John Esposito

Dr John L. Esposito is University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies, and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, USA. He earned his MA in Catholic Theology at St. John's University, New York and PhD in Religion at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
Esposito is Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Islamic Studies Online and Series Editor: Oxford Library of Islamic Studies, Editor-in-Chief of the six-volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic WorldThe Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam (a Book-of-the-Month Club selection), The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, The Islamic World: Past and Present, and Oxford Islamic Studies Online. His more than forty five books include The Future of Islam, Islamophobia and the Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (with Dalia Mogahed), Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (a Washington Post and Boston Globe best seller), The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?, Islam and Politics, Political Islam: Radicalism, Revolution or Reform?, Islam and Democracy (with J. Voll). His writings have been translated into more than 35 languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Bahasa Indonesia, Urdu, European languages, Japanese and Chinese.
Professor Esposito is President of the American Academy of Religion and an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations, he is a former President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, and member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and the E. C. European Network of Experts on De-Radicalisation.

 

Dr Annette Esser

Dr Annette Esser is Founder and Director of the Scivias Institute for Art and Spirituality in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. She studied for her I. und II. Staatsexamen in Catholic theology, Art and Geography (1976-1987), obtained her STM at Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1995 and PhD in Theology, with a dissertation on feminist spirituality, at Radboud University, Nijmegen, 2007.
From 1984 onwards she has had a number of teaching posts including Feminist Theology at Münster University 1989 and Pedagogics of Religion at Aachen University 2003-2004. Following up her special interests, she herself has taken courses in Art Therapy, Bibliodrama and Psychodrama. Since 1987 she has been German co-ordinator, editor and vice-secretary of the "European Society of Women in Theological Research" (ESWTR) and has been involved since 1991 with NGO-Organization Religions for Peace (RfP) as Leader of the Cologne/Bonn Group and as a Member of the German Board and of the European Governing Board.
Her publications include:with Luise Schottroff (ed.), Feminist Theology in a European Context, Mainz - Kampen 1993 (= Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, Vol. 1); with Anne Hunt Overzee & Susan Roll (ed.), Re-Visioning Our Sources. Women’s Spirituality in European Perspectives, Kampen 1997; with Susan Roll & Brigitte Enzner-Probst (ed.),  Women, Ritual and Liturgy, Kampen-Louvain 2001 (= Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, Vol. 9); with Andrea Günter and Rajah Scheepers (ed.), Kinder haben – Kind sein – Geboren sein.  Philosophische und theologische Beiträge zu Kindheit und Geburt, Königstein / Taunus 2008; with Katharina von Kellenbach & Annette Mehlhorn (ed.), Feminist Approaches to Interreligious Dialogue, Louvain 2009 (= Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, Vol. 17) ; with Sylvia Grevel & Alison Jasper (ed.), Feminist Theology and Visual Arts, Louvain 2011 Peeters (= Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, Vol. 19). She has also had many articles published on Feminist Theology and Spirituality.

 

Professor Juan Antonio Estrada

Dr Juan Antonio Estrada Diaz SJ is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Granada, Spain. He obtained a BA in philosophy at the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid. (1970). He has an MA in theology from the University of Innsbruck (1973), and a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Moreover, in 1978 he graduated in Philosophy from the University of Granada and obtained a Doctorate in Theology from the University of Granada in 1980. He has taught as a visiting professor at Colleges and Institutes of the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico; University José Simeon Cañas (UCA) in San Salvador, Managua's Central American University, Catholic University of Asunción, Rafael Landivar University (Guatemala); Xaveriana University (Bogotá), Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Santiago de Chile), Catholic University of Chile (Santiago de Chile). He has also been a visiting professor at different faculties and colleges in Lima, Panama, Mexico, USA, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.
He is the author of numerous works on theology and philosophy, as well as articles in professional journals.
Dr Estrada has published the following books: La Teoría crítica de Max Borkheimer (1990); Dios en las tradiciones filosóficas; Aporías y problemas de la teología natural (1994); Dios en las tradiciones filosoficas; De la muerte de Dios a la crisis del sujeto (1996); La imposible teodicea. La crisis de la fe en Dios (1997); Razones y sinrazones de la creencia religiosa (2001); Imágenes de Dios. La filosofía ante el lenguaje religioso (2003); Por una ética sin teología. Habermas como filósofo de la religion (2004); Religiosos en una sociedad secularizada (2008).
He continues to be active as a researcher. As part of the research group "Anthropology and Philosophy", he participated in the research project "The task of thinking to the challenge of nihilism" (2005-2008) and "Conflict or alliance of civilizations? Values of the new knowledge-society in the face of crisis, globalization and multiculturalism" (2007-2010).

 

Prof René van Eyden

Professor Emeritus of Dogmatic Theology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, with specialization on Women and the Church. Author of numerous articles including the classic ‘Women Ministers in the Catholic Church?’ (1968) and 'The Creation of Womanhood: a Hierarchical Construction' (2001).
On 2 November 1996 René van Eyden gave the keynote address to the 1500 participants of the Acht Mei Beweging in the Netherlands during which he called on Catholics to raise their voices: 'Keeping Mum or Speaking Out?' (1996).
Van Eyden trained generations of theologians in the Netherlands, leading to relevant doctoral theses. One remarkable project studied in detail how the reports by the Pontifical Commission On Women in Society and in the Church were derailed and suppressed by Vatican interference (1974-1976). Read a summary of the research here.
Interviews with Professor van Eyden have been recorded in the Henry Nouwen Oral History Project, University of Toronto Libraries 2005.

 

Prof Seán Fagan

Dr Seán Fagan studied at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, a recognised college of the National University of Ireland, and the Gregorian University in Rome (Doctorate in Moral Theology, 1955). His career oscillated between being Professor of Moral Theology at Milltown (1955-1960; 1973-1983; 1995-1999) and administration in the Marist Generalate in Rome (General Secretary, 1983-1995).
The combination of academic study, leadership and spiritual direction - he gave 160+ retreats - made him a master of applied theology. From 1956 to 2007 he wrote numerous articles for encylopedias, dictionaries and periodicals mainly on questions of Christian conscience, e.g. in Doctrine and Life (44 articles), Religious Life Review (36 articles) and the New Dictionary of Theology. He reviewed 142 books for 8 different periodicals. He translated 8 books and contributed 12 chapters to books shared with other authors.
Professor Fagan also published best-selling books: Has Sin Changed? (republished by 5 publishers in Ireland and the USA, 1977-1988 sold 90,000 copies); Does Morality Change? (3 publishers, 1997-2002); and What Happened to Sin? (Columba Press Dublin, 2008).
Professor Fagan's unusual ministry saw him involved as moderator, facilitator and translator to 25 provincial or regional chapters of religious around the world and 18 international general chapters. He was a council member and financial director of SEDOS in Rome, the international union of 100+ missionary religious congregations (1987-95). He conducted a special ministry to gay and lesbian people, in Ireland and Wales, for 30 years. Since the mid-60s he spoke in 30+ radio and TV programmes. Lectures and retreats took him to Ireland, England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Korea, Japan, Brazil, Zimbabwe and the Sudan. In 2005, 12 colleagues wrote a book in Professor Fagan's honour: Quench not the Spirit: theology and prophecy for the church in the modern world (Columba Press, Dublin).

 

Professor José Ignacio González Faus

Dr José Ignacio González Faus is Professor of Theology and Director of the Research Institute «Cristianismo y Justicia» at the University of Barcelona, Spain. He has a PhD in Theology from Innsbruck University. He is dedicated to the promotion and defense of freedom and justice within the framework of an integral vision of the human person. His published works include La humanidad nueva. Ensayo de cristología (1974), Acceso a Jesús (1979), El proyecto hermano. Visión creyente del hombre (1989), Ningún obispo impuesto (1992) and Where the Spirit Breathes. Prophetic Dissent in the Church (1989).

 

Dr Teresa Forcades i Vila

Sister Dr Teresa Forcades i Vila is a Catalan Benedictine nun born in Barcelona in 1966. She studied medicine at the University of Barcelona. In 1992 she moved to USA where she completed a residency in medicine at the University of New York and earned the title of Specialist in Internal Medicine (1995). After obtaining a scholarship from the University of Harvard, she moved to Cambridge where she obtained the MA in theology in 1997. She entered the Monastery of St. Benet during that same year. In 2004 she obtained a PhD in Public Health from the University of Barcelona. Five years later, in 2009 she received a DrTheol from the Faculty of Theology of Catalonia.
Dr Forcades understands feminism as a form of liberation theology. She agrees with the principle of the defence of life as a gift from God that must be respected from conception until natural death. She has questioned whether it can be morally right to violate the mother's right to self-preservation and self-determination in order to save the life of the child. She believes that the right to self-preservation so conceived is as substantial and absolute as the right to life; in fact, the right to self-determination is the right to spiritual life. It is what allows people to recognize human life as something more than biological.
Among her books we find : Pablo encadenado : cartas desde la prisión romana - Paul in Chains: Letters from a Roman Roman Prison (with Richard J. Cassidy and Anna-Marie Richard 2004); La Trinitat avui - Trinity today (2005); Les crimes de les grands companies farmacèutiques - The crimes of big pharmaceutical companies (2006); La teologia feminista en la història - Feminist theology in history (2012); Una nova imatge de Déu i de l'ésser humà - A New Image of God and the Human Being (2012).

 

Dr Benjamin Forcano

Dr Benjamin Forcano is a Moral Theologian, author of many books. He obtained a BA of Theology from the University of St. Thomas in Rome and an MA from the Alfonsianum. He was professor of moral theology at centers like Claretianum, Rome; the Claretian Theologate in Salamanca; the School Religious Life and the Diocesan Seminary in Madrid, as well as the Javierana and University of Santo Tomas in Bogotá, Colombia.  He was co-editor of the Misión Abierta magazine between 1976 and 1988. Dr Forcano came into conflict with the Vatican over his views on sexual ethics. With some companions he was forced to leave the Claretian Order to which he belonged. He continues to work for reform in the Catholic Church as laid down in the Second Vatican Council. Among his books we find: La familia en la sociedad de hoy: Problemas y perspectivas (1975); Leonardo Boff: Teologia de la liberacion, textos basicos, proceso en Roma, entrevistas, situacion actual(1997); Nueva Etica Sexual (2000); Por Que El Terrorismo? (2004); Otra perspectiva más tuya (2006).

 

Professor Manuel Fraijó

Dr Manuel Fraijó is Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Religion and the History of Religions at the National University of Online Education (UNED) in Spain. He obtained a PhD in Theology and Philosophy from the University of Tübingen (1975) and later a PhD in Education from the Open University. For some years he was professor of fundamental theology at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas and the Faculty of Theology of the University of Granada. He also gave courses as a visiting professor of philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Because of his support for Hans Küng he was dismissed from his teaching post in 1979. He took up teaching posts at secular universities, especially the National University of Distance Education (UNED) of which he directed the Department of Philosophy and Moral and Political Philosophy. In 2003 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the same University.
Among his publications we find: Jesús y los marginados. Utopía y esperanza cristiana (Cristiandad, Madrid 1985); El sentido de la historia. Introducción al pensamiento de W. Pannnenberg (Cristiandad, Madrid 1986); Realidad de Dios y drama del hombre (SM, Madrid 1986); Fragmentos de esperanza (EVD, Estella 1992); Satán en horas bajas (Sal Terrae, Santander 1993); Filosofía de la religión. Estudios y textos (Trotta, Madrid 1994); Cristianismo e Ilustración (Univ. Pont. Comillas, Madrid 1995); El futuro del cristianismo (SM, Madrid 1996); El cristianismo. Una aproximación (Trotta, Madrid 1997); A vueltas con la religión (EVD, Estella 2000); Dios, el mal y otros ensayos (Trotta, Madrid 2004); Fundamentalismo y violencia (with others, UNED, Córdoba 2004); ¿Hay lugar para Dios hoy? (with others, PPC, Madrid 2005);Pensar el final: la eutanasia (éticas en conflicto) (with others, Univ. Complutense, Madrid 2007).
Prof Fraijó is a member of the Spanish Society of Religious Sciences and on the editorial boards of several journals as Intersticios, Filosofía/Arte/Religión (Universidad Intercontinental de México) and of Endoxa.

 

Prof Sean Freyne

Dr Sean Freyne is Director of the Centre for Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, and Emeritus Professor of Theology at Trinity College, Dublin. He studied in Dublin (BA), Maynooth (BD), Pontifical Biblical Institute Rome and Jerusalem (LSS), St Thomas University Rome (DrTheol) and as a Research Fellow at the Institutum Judaicum, University of Tübingen. In 1982 he received an MA at Trinity College Dublin, honoris officii. Before his appointment to Dublin (1980) he taught at the Pontifical University of Maynooth, Ireland; Loyola University, New Orleans; University of Queensland, Brisbane.
His publications include: The Twelve, Disciples and Apostles. An Introduction to the Theology of the First Three Gospels (London 1968); Galilee from Alexander the Great to Hadrian, A Study of Second Temple Judaism (Notre Dame 1980); The World of the New Testament (Wilmington 1980); Galilee, Jesus and the Gospels. Literary Approaches and Historical Investigations (Dublin 1988); 'Galilee and Gospel. Selected Essays', in Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 125, ed. Professor M. Hengel(Tübingen 2000); Texts, Contexts and Cultures. Essays on Biblical Topics (Dublin 2002); Jesus, a Jewish Galilean. A New Reading of the Jesus Story (London and New York 2004).
Professor Feyne is a past President of the Irish Biblical Association, and member of the Irish Theological Association, the Catholic Biblical Association of America, the Society for the Study of the New Testament, the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Society of Oriental Research and the European Association for the Study of Judaism.
Prof Sean Freyne died on 4 August 2013.

 

Prof Jojo Fung SJ

Dr Jojo Fung SJ from Malaysia is Assistant Professor at the Loyola School of Theology in the Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1978 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1980. His academic record includes: BA in Theology, Urbaniana University, Rome; MA in Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City; MA in Social Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies, London; Licentiate in Sacred Theology, Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley and PhD in Contextual Theology, Association of Theological Colleges, Chicago.
In Malaysia, he has worked in three diocesan apostolates: Campus Ministry, the Indigenous ministry, the ministry of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. Then he went to the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) as a lecturer and became coordinator of the Pastoral Renewal Program and Assistant to the director for Academic Affairs for Pastoral Leadership for Mission. In 2013 he has been doing field research among the Karen People in Northern Thailand. He is also a regional Chaplain to the International movement of Catholic Students.
Prof Fung's most recent publications include: “Toward A Paradigm Shift In Mission Amongst The Indigenous Peoples In Asia”, FABC Papers No. 105, Hong Kong: Federation Of Asian Bishops’Conferences, 2002; “Rethinking Missiology In Relation To Indigenous People’ Life-Struggle”, Mission Studies 20 (April, 2003), 29-54; Ripples On The Water: Believers In The Indigenous Struggle for A Society of Equals, Plentong, Malaysia: Diocesan Communication Center; “The 'Subversive Memory' of Shamanism”, in Art Leete and R. Paul Firnhaber, eds., Shamanism in the Interdisciplinary Context, Florida, USA: Brown Walker Press, 2004, 268-89; “Millstones amid Milestones,” East Asian Pastoral Review, vol. 41, no. 2, (2004), 191-217; “Murut Shamanism,” “Semai Shamanism,” in Mariko N. Walter & Eva Jane Neumann Fridman, eds., Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, Vol. I & II, Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2004, 824, 827; “A Theological Reflection On ‘The Baptism Into The Deep’ and Its Missiological Implications For The Asian Catholic Church”, Mission Studies 20 (June, 2005), 227-247; “An Appraisal of the Eight Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences Synod on Family Life”, Vol 43, no. 3 (2005), 289-295; Garing The Legend: A Decorated Hero A Renowned Shaman, Sabah Museum, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: Percetakan Kolombong Ria, 2006; “A Theological Interface with Pieris and Sobrino”, East Asian Pastoral Review, vol.45, no. 2 (2008), 181-187; “Global Food Crisis: A Theology of Sustenance,” East Asian Pastoral Review, Vol. 45, no. 4 (2008), 373-383; “Be Priest in/of Dialogue,” CANews, Vol.38, no. 10 (October, 2009), 27; “An Asian Liberation Theology of Sacred Sustainability: A Local Theology In Dialogue with Indigenous Shamans,” Asian Horizon Vol. 4, no. 2, (December, 2010), 401-415; “Newness and Boldness of Approaches For Effective Evangelization and Missiology,” Asian Horizon Vol. 5, no. 4 (December, 2011), 778-795; “The Menace of Corruption: An Accursed Malaise and A Systemic Evil”, Asian Horizon Vol. 6, no. 1 (March, 2012), 41-59; “A Corruption-Ridden World: Think Global, Respond Local, as a Filipino Church”, Landas 24:1 (2010), 35- 55; “Vatican As An Ecclesial Pentecost”, Asian Horizon Vol. 6, no. 3 (September, 2012) 552-569.