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One of Dr. Mark Yenson’s desires for academics serving in Catholic higher education, in Canada and abroad, is to convey greater confidence that faith-driven learning is a “gift to our society that we need to hold on to and to promote.”
“We give something distinctive in the student experience in the way we invite participation and inclusion and in the way we talk through difficult issues across perspectives,” said Yenson, the interim vice-president and academic dean of King’s University College in London, Ont.
Yenson shared this conviction and elucidated how theology serves the Church and wider society in his Canadian context during the recent International Congress on the Future of Theology hosted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education. He was one of the three North American presenters and he engaged with theologians from Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, South America and Eastern Churches in discussing global theological challenges.
Yenson contributed by enlightening attendees about working for a smaller Catholic school affiliated with a major secular institute, in his case Western University. While there are enriching opportunities in such an environment, the man who joined the King’s teaching staff in 2010 acknowledged a particular “ongoing challenge.”
“I think theologians speak from the margins because of a general model of education that is looking at job training (and) professional preparedness. Theology… (sometimes) it's hard to place theology in that model,” said Yenson.
The professor who received both a Master of Divinity and a PhD in Theology from the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto also granted that the role theologians play is “not necessarily understood even within the Church.”
One of the central functions theologians can perform, said Yenson, is that of a communicator with the public both inside and outside the Church. This ability can be particularly valuable when dialoguing about complex societal matters such as the ongoing efforts of the Canadian Catholic community and the nation as a whole to walk in truth and reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples.
His peers from around the world expressed interest in Yenson’s observations on this topic, which has attracted attention from beyond Canadian terrain.
“I tried to convey in my presentation that the work of reconciliation is not just an add-on or a political agenda,” said Yenson. “The work of reconciliation is the work of the Church, right? Based on the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit. So, there's a wider theological idea of reconciliation that calls us to embody that socially.”
Additionally, he warned that “we've got to be historically responsible and to be careful about temptations to denialism or minimization.”
An opportunity to listen and be heard, akin to the Synod on Synodality, was among the most valuable fruits of this congress, said Yenson.
“It was a signal from the Dicastery for Culture and Education, saying ‘we in Rome, the Holy See, the Roman Curia want to hear you, listen to you, help you and to be able to help each other mutually.' ”
Another gift was the connections forged among theologians from around the world. Yenson is keeping in touch with academics he met from the United States, Nigeria, Australia and the Philippines.
This forum also gifted Yenson with an opportunity to meet Pope Francis where he thanked the pontiff for his 2022 pilgrimage of penance to Canada.
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)
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