Bridge Building across the World Church Kristin E. Heyer
Recognizing the need to dialogue from and beyond local culture and interconnect within a world Church, Boston College Canisius Professor of Theological Ethics James Keenan, S.J., co-founded Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTEWC) with Professor Linda Hogan of Trinity College Dublin. Fr. Keenan was later named Boston College Vice Provost for Global Engagement and is now leading efforts to enlarge BC’s international presence and impact. Continuing Fr. Keenan’s work, BC ethicists Professors Kristin Heyer and Andrea Vicini, S.J., currently co-lead CTEWC along with a colleague at Dharmaram College in Bangalore, India, Shaji George Kochuthara, C.M.I.
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Catholic ethicists and to amplify the work of colleagues in the Global South, Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church is now concluding its 15th year of vital bridge-building initiatives. Spanning 80 countries, the network fosters cross-cultural, interdisciplinary conversations about critical ethical issues that impact the world Church. It does so by cultivating the exchange of ideas via its online platforms and book series and supporting new as well as isolated scholars in theological ethics. Through its monthly newsletter and its visiting professors program, CTEWC supports colleagues who have been marginalized and expands the traditionally Western born of a desire to connect
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c21 resources | spring/summer 2022
focus of the field of theological ethics. It has helped center and empower the voices of those in the Global South via its African and Asian scholarship programs along with regional and international conferencing (in Padua, Manila, Trento, Nairobi, Berlin, Krakow, Bangalore, Bogotá, and Sarajevo). As founder James Keenan, S.J., puts it, “Our network is based on the simple assumption that we ethicists need to be better connected. We also realized during our years of work that we had to extend our network to those literally on the margins, to those whose voices have not been heard, and whose insights have not been recognized.” For example, given the noticeable absence of
