HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2012 Program - Alumni Association ...

Rev. William M. Lies, C.S.C., ’93 M.Div., Ph.D.
The Leo and Arlene Hawk Director of the Center for Social Concerns
Biography
Rev. William M. Lies, C.S.C., is the executive director of the Center for Social Concerns at
the University of Notre Dame. In July 2002 he succeeded Rev. Donald P. McNeill, C.S.C., who
helped found the center in 1983. Lies also has a concurrent appointment in the Department
of Political Science. Lies (pronounced “lease”) has his doctorate in political science from the
University of Pittsburgh. His focus is in Latin American politics and issues of church and state.
His current research focus is on the growth of evangelical Protestantism in Latin America and
its impact on the Catholic Church’s relationship to the state.
A native of Little Falls, Minn., Lies earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minn. He entered the Congregation of Holy Cross, Notre Dame’s
founding religious community, in 1987. He earned his master of divinity degree from Notre Dame in 1993, and was ordained a
year later at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus. He studied and worked in Chile and has served Latino communities in
the U.S. as an associate pastor in California and a pastor in Pittsburgh.
The Center for Social Concerns grew out of two previous initiatives at Notre Dame: the Center for Experiential Learning and
the Office of Volunteer Services. It is one of the most comprehensive community-based learning and research centers in higher
education, with a wide array of courses, publications, and conferences inspired by gospel values and Catholic social teachings.
Lecture
Putting the “Catholic” in Catholic University: Integrating Catholic Social Tradition
Throughout the Catholic University Curriculum
Integrating Catholic social tradition into departments and colleges throughout a college or university requires creativity and
innovation, and presents a challenge. This lecture considers what makes a university Catholic and, further, the importance of
integrating Catholic social tradition toward maintaining our Catholic character. The Center for Social Concerns of Notre Dame is
used as a case study of how such integration can take place. It also will serve to point out challenges to that integration.
62 The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2012 Program
Categories
Church, Education, Notre
Dame