{"id":13316,"date":"2026-02-03T15:38:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedsjp.org.uk\/?p=13316"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:45:45","slug":"3-feb-oscar-romero-lecture-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/2026\/02\/03\/3-feb-oscar-romero-lecture-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Feb – Oscar Romero Lecture 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\"image\nInspiration and Affirmation in Hard Times – St Oscar Romero to Pope Leo

By SPARK Social Justice<\/a><\/em>

Leeds Trinity University\u00a0<\/strong>

Wednesday, March 11 from 7 pm to 8:30 pm\u00a0<\/strong>

How does the life of St Oscar Romero inspire us today?

This is the title of the 2026 Romero Lecture, organised by the Romero Trust. They organise a short speaking tour each year with a guest speaker.

This year the talk will be given by Todd Walatka, Teaching Professor at Notre Dame University in Illinois.

The event is free to attend and doors will open at 6:30pm with the lecture starting at 7pm.

Although free, please register as spaces are limited.<\/strong>

\n Book now on Eventbrite <\/a>\nTodd Walatka<\/strong>\u00a0is director of LANACC at the Kellogg Institute and a teaching professor in the Department of Theology, where he specializes in contemporary Catholic systematic theology.\u00a0His research focuses on influential Latin American thinkers including Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez, Jon Sobrino, Juan Luis Segundo, and Archbishop \u00d3scar Romero, as well as the thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of the most influential European theologians of the 20th century.

\n\"Todd\nMuch of Walatka\u2019s work seeks to build bridges across theological divides and create dialogue between differing theological approaches.\u00a0He\u00a0has been a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow since 2019.\u00a0He took up his current position as the Assistant Chair for Graduate Studies in Theology in 2011.

Walatka\u2019s other research interests include ecclesiology, eschatology, theology and racism, and Jewish-Christian relations. He also works in the field of pedagogy and pedagogical formation. Two ongoing book projects explore the theme of mercy in liberation theology and the theological witness of Archbishop Romero.

Walatka received the\u00a0Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, CSC, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of Notre Dame in 2018, and has been active in\u00a0Latin American\/North American Church Concerns<\/a>\u00a0(LANACC). He earned an MTS in the history of Christianity and a PhD in systematic theology from Notre Dame.

\n\"\u00d3scar\n\u00d3scar Romero and Catholic Social Teaching

This book explores the life, mission, and writings of martyred Salvadorian archbishop St. \u00d3scar Romero in the light of contemporary work for justice and human development.

Many historians, theologians, and scholars point to St. \u00d3scar Romero as one of the most perceptive, creative, and challenging interpreters of Catholic social teaching in the post\u2013Vatican II period, while also recognizing the foundational importance of Catholic social teaching in his thought and ministry.

\nEditor Todd Walatka brings together fourteen leading scholars on both Romero and Catholic social teaching, combining essays that contextualize Romero\u2019s engagement historically and focus on the challenges facing Christian communities today. The result is a timely, engaging collection of the most rigorous scholarly engagement with Romero and Catholic social teaching to date.

Contributors: Ana Mar\u00eda Pineda, R.S.M., Michael E. Lee, Matthew Philipp Whelan, Jon Sobrino, S.J., Edgardo Col\u00f3n-Emeric, David M. Lantigua, Leo Guardado, Stephen J. Pope, Kevin F. Burke, S.J., Jos\u00e9 Henr\u00edquez Leiva, Meghan J. Clark, Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo, Rub\u00e9n Rosario Rodr\u00edguez, Peter Casarella, and Todd Walatka\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[542,46,424,457,185,543],"class_list":["post-13316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic-social-thought","tag-inspiration-and-affirmation-in-hard-times","tag-oscar-romero","tag-pope-leo-xiii","tag-romero-lecture","tag-sparksocialjustice","tag-todd-walatka"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19958,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316\/revisions\/19958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}