A Limerick priest who has made history by taking up the position of president of the European Society for Catholic Theology, and become the first Irish person elected to the post, has said he hopes to see it grow membership across Europe during his time in office. Fr Eamonn Conway who is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, has succeeded Professor Lieven Bouve of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
The Society, which was set up twenty years ago, already has some eight hundred members in some thirty European countries, including Ireland.
Professor Conway, who himself joined the Society in 1991, said that under his presidency it would seek to build on its growing membership and in particular would try to attract more members in Spain, Italy, Portugal and eastern Europe.
He said his election as president was an honour and that he values the opportunity the Society provides “to advance scholarship, share ideas, dialogue and time with fellow theologians.”
Professor Conway said the Church was increasingly relying on theologians and he wanted to ensure that resources that can rival those available to other disciplines are made available to them through newly established scholarship programmes.
He warned that the context for education across Europe was changing because of “expenditure cutbacks and the need for more flexible learning programmes, particularly suitable to adult learners.”
And he said he hopes his Society would be able to assist faculties of theology across Europe to respond to this changing context through effective networking, online where appropriate.”
“There are no quick-fix solutions to the problems facing the Church and societies, especially here in Ireland and the European Society for Catholic Theology will continue under my leadership, honestly and credibly, to provide a forum for open and respectful theological dialogue,” said Prof. Conway.
The issues facing today’s Church called, he continued, “for scholarly reflection, patient study and a disposition of openness and goodwill even regarding viewpoints and perspectives with which we might not all agree.”
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