Elon University’'s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society hosts the award-winning journalist for a discussion of the pope’s recently concluded U.S. visit and the issues facing October’s Vatican Synod on the Family.
David Gibson: “Pope Francis’ U.S. Visit: What Did We Learn and What Can We Expect Next?”
McBride Gathering Space, Numen Lumen Pavilion, 7 p.m.
On Monday, Oct. 5, award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker David Gibson will visit Elon to speak about landmark events in the Catholic Church.
Gibson is a Catholic Affairs journalist for the Religion News Service and has contributed to several leading newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Boston magazine and Fortune. He has served on the Catholic News Service editorial staff and has been named the nation’s top religion reporter several times by the Religion Newswriters Association.
In addition to his numerous articles on religion, Gibson has also co-written documentaries on early Christian and Jewish history for CNN and worked on a 2011 History Channel special on the Vatican.
Gibson’s visit comes between two important events in the Catholic Church – Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in late September and the Synod on the Family in Rome, Oct. 4-25.
Francis will have visited New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. and have met with many government officials, including President Barack Obama. He will have toured major U.S. landmarks in each of the three cities. Francis will also become the first leader of the Catholic Church to address a joint session in Congress during his Apostolic Journey.
The Pope plans to acknowledge the rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States and will give his Papal Mass in Washington in Spanish. Gibson’s lecture at Elon also falls during Hispanic Heritage Month. Gibson intends to comment on the Pope’s relationship with and messages to the Hispanic community during his lecture.
Shortly after Gibson’s visit at Elon and the U.S. Papal Tour, bishops from all corners of the world will converge in Rome for the Synod of Bishops on the Family. The group of bishops will help provide insight and counsel to Pope Francis on many pressing questions facing the Church, including those surrounding birth control, divorce and remarriage, abortion, and the place of gay Catholics in the church.
The assembly that will form in Vatican City this October marks the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops. The theme will be “the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world.”
Professor Brian K. Pennington, director of Elon’s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, said he is excited about this opportunity for Elon and its neighbors to get a balanced and informed assessment of Francis’s transformational papacy.
“David Gibson is one of the best religion journalists writing in the US today, period,” Pennington said. “His long and close association with Catholic leaders and Catholic issues has given him a perspective few possess.”
– Information provided by Elizabeth Zimmerman ’17