Spending time with a Cardinal

Our department at North Park hosted its annual Kermit Zarley Lectureship recently. This year we had the honor of hosting Cardinal Francis George, the Cardinal of Chicago. I was fortunate to have been seated next to him for dinner. We talked about Gospels scholarship and Brant Pitre’s book on the Eucharist. Of which he said, and I quote, “He tried a little to hard”. Sorry Brant, the Cardinal wasn’t enamored by the book. Cardinal George, who has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, gave a lecture on Catholic social teaching. It was interesting and well received.

In the picture from left to right: Bradley Nassif, Katie Maier-O’Shea, Mary Veeneman, Joseph Jones, Cardinal George, Joel Willitts, Charlie Peterson and Boaz Johnson. Brad, Mary, and Boaz are all part of our BTS department. Scot McKnight, who is also in our department, is not in the photo.