The Hank Center for The Catholic Intellectual Heritage
The Hank Center is delighted to welcome Pope Leo XIV as the first pope from the United States. Augustinian priest, Robert Francis Prevost, born in Chicago, is a creative bridge-builder, tested leader, well-travelled global citizen—and a great dinner companion as well! We pray for the new shepherd of the Church and that, through his leadership, the Church may flourish in holiness and be of profound service to the world.
The Hank Center for The Catholic Intellectual Heritage
Spring 2025 Event Calendar
Check here for information about all of our Spring 2025 events and to access our events calendar for the semester! Click on individual events to access their landing pages.
News and Events
Annual Cardinal Bernardin Lecture
Video now available: Cardinal Bernardin Common Cause Lecture featuring Bishop Mark Seitz
Watch the 2025 Annual Cardinal Bernardin Common Cause Lecture featuring Bishop Mark Seitz, entitled "Images and Likenesses: Immigration, Dignity, and the Soul of America." The Hank Center welcomed Most Rev. Mark J. Seitz, Bishop of El Paso and Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, to deliver the annual Cardinal Bernardin Common Cause lecture.
Watch Now
Events
Panel and Reception at the North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting
May 24 | 4:00-6:00 PM Lewis Towers, Water Tower Campus
This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicea, the first ecumenical council of the Church. Convened by the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine I, the council’s legacies are as contentious as they are historically and theologically signficant. Seventeen centuries later, what does it mean to teach Nicea? How do we approach it as simultaneously an historical document, a creed, a confession of faith, a cultural artifact, and an eccesial event? The Hank Center is hosting special panel session and reception to end the NAPS annual meeting. This event is free & open to the public.
Learn More
Events
Flannery Abroad: A Conference in Celebration of Flannery O'Connor's Centenary
June 6-8, 2025 | 7pm CST Fordham University London, 2 Eyre St Hill, London, EC1R 5ET, United Kingdom
Flannery O'Connor famously didn't like to travel. Nonetheless, in the tradition of the previous International Flannery O'Connor Conferences, we are taking O'Connor abroad in honor of her 100th birthday and to celebrate O’Connor’s influence on European writers, thinkers, and artists. Sponsored by Fordham's Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, Loyola Chicago's Hank Center, Georgetown University, The Flannery O'Connor Trust.
Learn More
Events
"How Catholics Encounter the Bible" | Book Review Panel with Michael Peppard at the 2025 CBA Annual Meeting
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Panel 7–8:30pm; Reception 8:30pm
Lake Shore Campus, Loyola University Chicago
The Hank Center is delighted to host a panel of scholars discussing Michael Peppard's recent book, "How Catholics Encounter the Bible" as the first plenary session of this year's Annual Meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association at Loyola University Chicago. All are welcome to join for the discussion and the reception that follows. The panel will also be supplemented with two opportunities to visit a display of medieval and early modern manuscripts curated and presented by Loyola's Archives and Special Collections.
Read MoreVideos
"Images and Likenesses: Immigration, Dignity, and the Soul of America" featuring Bishop Mark Seitz
The Hank Center was excited to welcome Most Rev. Mark J. Seitz, Bishop of El Paso and Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, to deliver the annual Cardinal Bernardin Common Cause lecture.
"Ancient Pilgrim or Armchair Traveler: the Curious Case of P. Lond. III 854," Patricia Rosenmeyer
The plenary lecture from the Pleasures of Pseudepigraphy conference explores a papyrus dating to sometime in the late first or early second century CE in which a man named Nearchos writes a letter to his friend Heliodoros, describing a trip up the Nile to visit some of the most famous sacred sites in Roman Egypt. The Hank Center was proud to sponsor this conference.
“Is Catholicism's 'Woman Problem' a History Problem?” Teilhard Lecture featuring Dr. Bronwen McShea
The Hank Center was honored to welcome the Spring, 2025 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. Fellow in Catholic Studies, Dr. Bronwen McShea, to offer this year’s Teilhard lecture, titled, “Is Catholicism's 'Woman Problem' a History Problem?"
Happy Anniversary Pope Francis from The Way Forward 2025
Participants in "The Way Forward 2025, An Ecclesial Gathering," send messages of prayer and appreciation to Pope Francis on the 12th anniversary of his pontificate.
Laudato si' @ 10: Pope Francis and Caring for Our Common Home Today | Panel
The Hank Center has supported the annual Climate Change Conference from its inception and is proud to host a special panel entitled 'Laudato si' @ 10: Pope Francis and Caring for Our Common Home Today.'
'Make me what thou wilt': On Conversion and Surrender | 2025 Newman Lecture: Abigail Favale
This year’s St. John Henry Newman lecturer was Dr. Abigail Favale of the McGrath Center at the University of Notre Dame. Her story brings to life the wrenching tumult of conversion--a conversion that began after she entered the Church and began to pry open its mysteries.
Our Community
Hank Center Fellows Highlight
We are proud to highlight and celebrate the accomplishments of our Hank Center Fellows. Introducing Jane Wageman, an MFA candidate in fiction writing at Bowling Green State University, where she currently works as the managing editor for Mid-American Review. Her thesis project, a novel titled The Mind is a Real Thing, follows the story of a large Catholic family in the Midwest. The novel begins with a relatively minor car accident that serves as a catalyst for the family to consider questions about knowledge and uncertainty. Learn more about Jane and her research, as well as all of our other past and present Hank Center Fellows:
Read More
Faculty Seminar
The Hank Center has been tasked by the university to offer an innovative seminar for faculty and administrators on the mission of the university and its commitment to social justice.
Learn More
Recommended Reading
Each month CCIH will recommend new and notable books that integrate, interrogate, and celebrate the Catholic intellectual and artistic tradition.
Read More
Remembering Pope Benedict
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a leading theologian of the 20th century and the first pope to resign from office in nearly 600 years, died on December 31st at the age of 95. The Hank Center has compiled some of the remembrances of Pope Benedict which focus not only on his life, but also his legacy.
Learn More