Chicago Studies

03/07/2026

The latest issue of Chicago Studies is here—Finding Christ Today: His Presence in Tradition, Formation, Sacrament, and Word.

Read about integrated faith formation, the meaning of tradition, the spiritual fatherhood of priests, and more in the latest issue of Chicago Studies at https://usml.edu/chicago-studies/current-issue/.

07/28/2025

In case you missed it, check out "Building a Church of Hope & Promise" (from Fall 2023/Winter 2024). Contributors include: Dr. Juliana Vazquez (editor), Rev. Msgr. Milam J. Joseph, Bishop Mark Seitz, Rev. Raymond J. Webb, Bishop Joseph Perry, and Dr. Paul Monson.

Read about a priest’s contribution to Plyler v. Doe, the perseverance of Venerable Augustus Tolton, humane immigration reform, & more

• In his 2023 Meyer Lecture at USML, Monsignor Milam Joseph recounts what he learned about the power of the Incarnation and the sacramentality of creation through his advocacy for the rights of undocumented children in Tyler, Texas, to public education, which helped advance justice for immigrants in the landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe.

• In his response to Msgr. Joseph’s remarks and from the perspective of his own advocacy for immigrants along the US-Mexico border, Bishop Mark Seitz emphasizes the responsibility of priests to affirm unequivocally the dignity of every person as the building block of the Church’s social teaching on immigration and the entryway into greater fellowship with God.

• In a second response to Msgr. Joseph’s remarks, Rev. Raymond Webb maps the scope of the immigration crisis, identifies problematic aspects of attempted solutions, and provides several suggestions for how we can move forward.

• Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Joseph Perry provides a biographical sketch of the first African American priest in the United States, Venerable Augustus Tolton (1854-1897), recounting how his indefatigable courage and pastoral charity helped him minister in a country and Church marked by systemic racism during the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras.

• Dr. Paul Monson chronicles the heroic sanctity of Fr. Tolton from a different angle—the other side of the Atlantic—as he recounts Tolton’s rejection by American seminaries, the placement of his formative education at the Urbanum and his priestly ordination at Rome, and the fact that it is sometimes those who fail in the eyes of the world that the Church honors the most.

Vol. 62.1 Fall 2023-Winter 2024

02/11/2025

In case you missed it, check out "The Holy Spirit at Work in the Church: Theoretical and Practical Dimensions" (from Spring/Summer 2023). Contributors include: Dr. Deborah Kanter, Fr. Raymond J. Webb, Dr. William Murphy, Jr., Dr. Michael Brummond, and Fr. Brian K. Carpenter.

Here's a preview:
• Building on his two previous Paluch lectures, Dr. William Murphy, Jr.’s dual contributions to the current issue examine how the Church’s social tradition can help transform our polarized culture and revitalize contemporary democracy.

• Dr. Deborah Kanter illustrates the positive impact of Mexican immigration on Catholic parishes in Chicago and how, in turn, these parishes served as spiritual and social refuges for several generations of Mexican American Catholics.

• Fr. Raymond Webb provides a detailed foray into the theological methodology of Pope Francis, showing how the Holy Father’s heuristic involves the balancing of opposed but not contradictory poles to resolve highly conflictual pastoral situations.

• Dr. Michael Brummond creatively applies Dulles’ models of the Church for a unique contribution to pneumatological ecclesiology.

• Fr. Brian Carpenter offers a provocative and cross-disciplinary essay on the Eucharist as the true sacrifice, proposing that the authentic self-gift of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is a foil to the false sacrifice described in Girard’s mimetic theory.

Read it here:

Volume 61.2

03/12/2024

Chicago Studies is pleased to feature Bishop Barron’s 2022 Cardinal Meyer Lectures on “Breaking through the Buffered Self” in its latest edition.

Originally given as the 2022 Cardinal Meyer Lectures at University of St. Mary of the Lake, these two encouraging and erudite articles explore the lasting significance of the true, the good, and the beautiful for opening minds and hearts to Christ in our postmodern milieu, marked as it is by religious disaffiliation and moral relativism.

The current volume also highlights other important voices and themes in evangelization and liturgy, such as:
• the impact of the deacon’s interior life on his ministry (Dr. David W. Fagerberg, University of Notre Dame)
• the connection between the liturgical movement and Catholic Action in the liturgical formation of youth (Dr. Kevin D. Magas, USML)
• the influence of social networks on evangelization in the early Church (Fr. Brendan Lupton, USML, responding to Bishop Barron’s Meyer Lectures)
• the importance of friendship, community, and witness in a secularized world (Dr. Patricia Pintado-Murphy, USML, responding to Bishop Barron’s Meyer Lectures)

We dedicate this issue of Chicago Studies to the memory of Reverend Martin Zielinski, who passed away in 2023 and who served for many years as a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, member of the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary faculty, and coeditor of Chicago Studies. The funeral homily written and preached by Reverend Larry Hennessey, a fellow diocesan priest, long-term seminary-faculty colleague, and close friend of Fr. Zielinski, closes out the volume.

Volume 61.1

04/25/2023

The latest issue of Chicago Studies is now available online: "Catholics Reflect on Judaism" It includes articles by Fr. David Neuhaus, Fr. Andrew Liaugminus, and Fr. John Pawlikowski, along with the 2022 funeral homily for Fr. Thomas A. Baima (to whom this issue is dedicated), which was written (and preached) by Fr. Emery de Gaál. Check it out!

Volume 60:2

02/20/2022

The latest issue of Chicago Studies is now available online: "The Splendor of the Catholic Social, Spiritual, and Theological Tradition." It includes articles by Dr. William Murphy, Fr. Peter Nguyen, S.J., Fr. Emery de Gaál, Dr. Angela Franks, and Dr. Elisabeth Rain Kincaid. Check it out!
https://issuu.com/chicagostudies/docs/cs_fall_2021_winter_2022_complete_issue