Cathal BarryThe new director of Trinity College Dublin’s Loyola Institute has called for a renewed vision of what it means to be Catholic
The new director of Trinity College Dublin’s Loyola Institute has called for a renewed vision of what it means to be Catholic in society today.
Professor Siobhan Garrigan, Loyola Professor of Catholic Theology, said Catholics “need to start articulating a vision full of all the positive elements of the Church.
“Catholics need to become better at talking about the riches that are in the Church. It’s about becoming a more attractive Church,” she told The Irish Catholic.
“Being Catholic should be about being open, critical, sacramental, loving witnesses to God’s presence in our world,” she said.
Prof. Garrigan heads the first Irish chair in Catholic theology at TCD. Establishing the new chair required a change in the TCD constitution, because theology in the Catholic tradition had previously been banned at the Elizabethan foundation.
The new Loyola Institute is an academic unit within the Confederal School for Religions, Peace Studies and Theology at TCD and offers teaching and research in all aspects of theology in the Catholic tradition.
Paying tribute to the “wonderful role” the Irish Jesuit province played in providing “substantial support and resources” for the new institute, Dr Garrigan singled out Provincial, Fr Tom Layden SJ. “His leadership has been hugely helpful,” she said.
Education
The former Yale University lecturer said the aim of the Loyola Institute was to “provide good quality education and access to people interested in studying theology”.
In addition to teaching and research, Dr Garrigan said the institute would also participate in inter-
disciplinary ventures “to ensure theology remains relevant in society today.
“It will equip people to be part of the Church as it enters the new positive and hopeful phase that is on the horizon in Ireland.
“Access to theology in the Catholic tradition has been long overdue at
Trinity,” she said.