Dead Man Walking: The Journey

Helen Préjean, CSJ began counseling death row inmates in her native Louisiana in 1981, and continues this ministry today. She has accompanied five men to execution. She also works with murder victims. families and founded a group in New Orleans called Survive. Her 1993 bestseller, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the U.S., was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and the movie version in 1996 gained a best actress Oscar for Susan Sarandon, who portrayed Préjean. The book is now being made into an opera which will premiere in San Francisco in October. Préjean was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 and again in 1999. Through these events, the movement to abolish the death penalty has gained momentum in the U.S. and around the world. Sr. Helen furthers the movement internationally through Hands Off Cain, a Rome-based organization, and through Amnesty International. In the U.S. she works with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Friday, 7:15 PM

Friends of God and Prophets: Toward Inclusive Community

Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ finds in the communion of saints a transforming source for church life and mission. The non-violent power of the Spirit forms living and dead human persons, along with the natural world, into one community of memory and hope. Owning our identity as holy sinners, we are called to make present the face of divine compassion in the historic struggles for dignity on the part of those excluded by sex, race, class, or other prejudice. Johnson draws upon her 1998 book, Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints. She is also on the eco-feminist panel (page 2). She is Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, and former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. She has served as consultant to the U.S. Bishops. Committee on Women, a theologian on Vatican-sponsored dialogues between science and religion, and between Christianity and world religions. She is on the core committee of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative founded by Cardinal Bernardin. Other books are She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (1992), and Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit (1993).

Saturday, 10:30 AM

Dreaming a New Dream

George . Tink. Tinker sees today's global economic system rooted in the same value system which directed the European colonization of the Americas and the oppression of indigenous peoples. It is a system that chooses profits over people, whites over people of color, and the Northern minority over the vast majority populations of the South. Tinker challenges us to find sources of wisdom that will create a new vision for future generations. A Lutheran minister with a Ph.D. in biblical studies, Tinker teaches American Indian cultures and religious traditions at the Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colo. He is active in the American Indian Movement and shares liberation theology insights internationally as a member of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians. He is committed to liberation both of oppressed Indian peoples and of white Americans and Europeans, the historic colonizers and oppressors.

Sunday, 9.15 AM.