The Voice Of AIDS

FAIRFIELD — The Reverend James Keenan, SJ, professor of theological ethics at Boston College, will present the 2006 Bellarmine Lecture, “Listening to the Voices of HIV/AIDS,” on Thursday, March 30, at 8 pm. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the dining room of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University.

The Bellarmine Lecture series brings distinguished Jesuit scholars in a variety of disciplines to deliver public lectures at the university, providing the community with a chance to hear and interact with Jesuit scholars. The series is part of programming sponsored by the Aloysius P. Kelley, SJ, Center for Catholic Studies at Fairfield.

Father Keenan has written extensively on Catholic morals and virtues, most recently in his latest book, The Works of Mercy: The Heart of Catholicism (Sheed and Ward, 2004). In his compelling book, Father Keenan considers mercy as God’s principal way of loving people and as people’s way of loving one another. He explores this concept through several works of mercy from praying for others to visiting prisoners.

Father Keenan has long been involved with both Church and secular initiatives involving health and heath care. He was a consultant to the National Catholic Conference of Bishops for the Revision of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Institutions, and he was a group leader of the United States’ Surgeon General’s Task Force on Responsible Sexual Conduct.

He has served on the editorial board of Theological Studies since 1991 and he was a member of the board of directors of the Society of Christian Ethics from 2001 until 2005. He edits the series Moral Traditions at Georgetown University Press and the Boston College Church 21 series at Crossroads/Herder and Herder.

For more information, call 203-254-4000, extension 2492.