Father Bryan Massingale to speak at Loyola’s 30th Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation

Loyola University Maryland will hold the University’s 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation with the Rev. Bryan N. Massingale, STD, author and professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. in McGuire Hall. The event will also be livestreamed. 

The convocation, “Racial Justice Then and Now: Honoring the Past, While Looking to the Future,” will be moderated by Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D., founding director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace & Social Justice and associate professor of communication and African and African American studies at Loyola.

“We’re honored to welcome one of America’s most distinguished voices in theological and social ethics, Fr. Massingale, who will bring insight and illumination to our faculty, staff, and students,” said Rodney Parker, Ph.D., chief equity and inclusion officer at Loyola. “Fr. Massingale will not only further our understanding of racial justice but join us in recognizing the important and ongoing work of justice.”

At the convocation, Fr. Massingale will offer new perspectives on the historical and contemporary challenges of racial justice and explore how education can be used to combat racism and promote reconciliation and justice.

Fr. Massingale is a priest in the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee. In addition to his role as professor at Fordham University, Fr. Massingale holds a senior fellowship at the University’s Center for Ethics Education. He is the president of the Society of Christian Ethics, former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and former convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium.

He has written two books and more than 170 articles, book chapters, and book reviews. His monograph “Racial Justice and the Catholic Church” received a First Place Book Award from the Catholic Press Association of the U.S. and Canada. Fr. Massingale also wrote a major document for Catholic Charities USA, “Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good.”

He frequently addresses issues of racial and sexual justice in outlets including National Public Radio, ABC News, PBS NewsHour, the Associated Press, HuffPost, and Canadian public radio. He earned a Doctor of Sacred Theology in moral theology in Rome at the pontifical institute for moral theology.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation is free and open to the public. To learn more and register, visit www.loyola.edu/mlk.

The convocation is co-sponsored by the office of the president, office of equity and inclusion, Messina, African and African American Studies, and the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, & Social Justice.

About the Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation
The Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation, celebrating its 30th year, is an occasion for Loyola and the Baltimore communities to launch the spring semester and the new year by coming together for shared inquiry into the issues of social justice, politics, spirituality, and the legacies of race and racial justice in America. The convocation, which is sponsored by Loyola University Maryland’s office of equity and inclusion, is a signature event for the University. Past speakers have included Octavia Butler, Spike Lee, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay, and Michelle Alexander.