asia-pacific catholicism and globalization...

Asia-Pacific Catholicism and Globalization Conference 1

Australian Catholic University Melbourne June 28-30, 2017

Asia-Pacific Catholicismand Globalization Conference

2 Asia-Pacific Catholicism and Globalization Conference

Conference Sponsor:The Institute for Religion, Politics and Society at the Australian Catholic University

About the Institute

Bringing together leading researchers from around the world, the Institute for Religion, Politics and Society at Australian Catholic University (ACU) explores the political, sociological, legal and economic dimensions of religion.

Through international collaborations and cross-disciplinary research, the Institute addresses contemporary issues of religion, political conflict and solidarities while also examining contributing factors to happiness and well-being.

Who we are: A dynamic, global research centre

The Institute for Religion, Politics and Society engages eminent scholars from around the globe. As an interdisciplinary hub, the Institute draws on each researcher’s specific area of expertise to examine how religion interacts with principal social structures, and how public religions respond to globalisation and social change.

Truly international in its focus and reach, the Institute’s many collaborations involve scholars from Wayne State University, Harvard University, the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, Diego Portales University in Santiago, Chile, and the University of Potsdam in Germany.

Our mission

The Institute for Religion, Politics and Society examines religion as a dynamic political and social force shaping the world around us. Looking at the interplay between religion and major social structures — including the economy, politics and law — the Institute pursues the big questions: what makes societies succeed? How can societal success be translated into individuals flourishing? What are the essentials for happiness?

To find out more visit: irps.acu.edu.au/


Background to the final conference of the Project on Asian Pacific Catholicism and Globalization

This will serve as the capstone conference of a three year research project co-sponsored by the Institute for Religion, Politics and Society (IRPS) of Australian Catholic University, Melbourne and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs of Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

The project, co-directed by José Casanova, Professorial Fellow, IRPS, ACU and Professor of Sociology and Theology, GU, and Peter Phan, Ignacio Ellacuría Professor of Theology, GU, has gathered fifteen prominent scholars of Catholicism (theologians, historians and social scientists) to study the interrelations between the development of Catholicism in Asia and three distinctive phases of globalization in the Asia Pacific Region from the 16th century to the present. By globalization we simply mean in very general terms the increasing connectivity of all the peoples and cultures of the earth and the accompanying growth in the planetary consciousness of global humanity. A central assumption of the project is that the Catholic Church has served as an important carrier of processes of globalization while being continuously transformed by those global processes.

The project has been organized around three workshops. In the first workshop in Melbourne, in May 2016, we examined the inculturation and growth of Asian Pacific Catholicism in two distinct historical phases of globalization: a) the early modern “first globalization,” initiated by the Iberian colonial expansion and carried primarily by the Jesuits and other missionary orders, which contributed to the first extensive and sustained interreligious and intercultural encounter between European and Asian peoples and cultures from the 16th to the 18th centuries; and b) the modern Western hegemonic phase of globalization, from the end of the 18th century to the 1960’s, which brought the incorporation of Oceania into ever more expanding global economic, political and cultural networks. It brought also a new phase of expansion of Catholicism in Asia and the Pacific, this time carried by new missionary and teaching male and female religious orders, accompanying the French colonial mission civilisatrice and the expansion of Anglo-Saxon (Irish and American) Catholicism that also accompanied first the British and then the American global imperial expansion. Since the 1920’s, earlier in the case of the Philippines, one can also witness the formation of

native post-missionary national Catholic churches throughout the region which were to play various roles in independence movements and in processes of post-colonization.

The second workshop in Washington, DC, in November 2016, examined the role of Catholicism as a “public religion” in various Asian Pacific contexts and its interactions with other majority and minority religions.

A third workshop in Manila, in March 2017, examined the dynamics in the incipient formation of Pan-Asian Pacific Catholic ecclesiastical institutions, pastoral networks, theologies, and identities from Vatican II to the present and their relations with the global center of Catholicism in Rome and with other regions of global Catholicism, as well as with regional processes of globalization throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The final conference in Melbourne, in June 2017, will serve to present the research findings of the project to the general public and to discuss the final drafts of the scholarly papers in preparation for their publication in an edited volume.

Besides its primary research and academic purpose, the project was also conceived as a way of enhancing and strengthening academic and scholarly networks among Catholic universities across the Asian Pacific region, as well as with other Catholic institutions throughout the world. Most of the scholars participating in the project teach in Catholic universities. Australian Catholic University can play an important role as a crucial node in the development of such a regional and global Catholic network.

In addition all the scholars participating in the project are also Catholic intellectuals and pastoral agents (priests, religious brothers and sisters, or engaged laity) committed to serve the Church in the Modern World in its task of global evangelization and human fraternization. In this sense we also hope that the project can serve the self-reflection of the People of God as it confronts the challenges of contemporary processes of globalization and for that reason we appreciate very much the participation and the guidance of Church Fathers from the Asia Pacific region.

The project team will produce a publication to disseminate their findings. If you are interested in finding out more about this please contact Professor José Casanova [email protected]


Conference ScheduleWednesday, 28 June 20176 - 7.30pm Philippa Brazill Lecture Theatre

Introduction & Welcome Professor Pauline Nugent (Provost and Acting Vice-Chancellor, ACU)

Keynote address: Vatican II and the Asian/Pacific Church: Unfinished Agenda

Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, S.J., Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao, Philippines

Thursday, 29 June 20179 - 10.30am Christ Lecture Theatre

Chair: Dr. Joshua Roose (Director, IRPS, ACU)

Why Globalization and Asian Pacific Catholicism Professor José Casanova (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

Respondent: Professor Des Cahill (RMIT University)

10.30 – 11am Morning Tea

11am – 1pm Christ Lecture Theatre

Chair: Dr. Robert Dixon (Pastoral Research Office, ACBC)

Catholicism in Korea Fr. Denis Kim, S.J. (Sogang University, Seoul)

Catholicism in Japan Professor Kevin Doak (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

Catholicism in China Professor Richard Madsen (University of California San Diego)

Catholicism in Vietnam Professor Peter Phan (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

Respondent: Fr. Jerome Cusamano, S.J. (Sophia University, Tokyo)

1 – 2.30pm Lunch break (attendees will find many cafes and eating spots nearby)

2.30 – 5pm Christ Lecture Theatre

Chair: Dr. Dina Afrianty (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, IRPS, ACU)

Catholicism in India Fr. Délio Mendonça, S.J. (Gregorian University, Rome)

Catholicism in Indonesia Fr. John Prior, SVD (Candraditya Research Centre, Flores, Indonesia)

Catholicism in Australia Dr. Robert Dixon (Pastoral Research Office, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference)

Catholicism in the Pacific Islands Fr. Philip Gibbs, SVD (Divine Word University, Papua New Guinea)

Respondent: Fr. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD (Yarra Theological Union)

5.30 – 7.30pm Philippa Brazill Lecture Theatre

Chair and Moderator: Dr. Edmund Chia (School of Theology, ACU)

Panel on Asian/Pacific Catholicism and Interfaith Dialogue Professor Peter Phan (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

Fr. John Prior, SVD (Candraditya Research Centre, Flores, Indonesia)

Sr. Elizabeth Delaney, SGS (General Secretary, NCCA)

Keynote address: Interreligious Dialogue in Asia/Pacific Region

Archbishop Felix Machado (Vasai, India)


Friday 30 June 201710am – 12pm Christ Lecture Theatre

Chair: Professor Peter Phan (Georgetown University, Washington, DC)

Vatican II and the Formation of an Asian/Pacific Church

Church in the Philippines Fr. Jose Mario Francisco, S.J. (Ateneo University, Manila)

Women in the Church Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB (Institute of Women’s Studies, St Scholastica, Manila)

The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Dr. Edmund Chia (School of Theology, ACU)

The Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania

Fr. Philip Gibbs, SVD (Divine Word University, Papua New Guinea)

Respondent: Archbishop Julian Leow (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

12 – 1.30pm Lunch break (attendees will find many cafes and eating spots nearby)

1.30 – 3.30pm Christ Lecture Theatre

Chair: Fr. Jose Mario Francisco, S.J. (Ateneo University, Manila)

From a Globalization of Indifference to a Globalization of Fraternity

Asian theologies Professor Peter Phan (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

Asian Migrations and the Church’s Pastoral responses Dr. Gemma Cruz (School of Theology, ACU)

Catholicism and Public Life in India Sr. Evelyn Monteiro, SCC (Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth Pontifical Institute, Pune, India)

Education and Human Integral Development Br. Anthony Rogers, FSC (Former Executive Secretary, Office of Human Development, FABC)

Respondent: Professor Joseph Camilleri (La Trobe University, Melbourne)

3.30 – 4pm Afternoon Tea

5 – 7pm Philippa Brazill Lecture Theatre

Chair and Moderator: Dr. Gemma Cruz (School of Theology, ACU)

Panel on Challenges of Globalization in Asia/Pacific Region

Professor José Casanova (Georgetown University, Washington DC)

Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB (Institute of Women’s Studies, St Scholastica, Manila)

Fr. John Prior, SVD (Candraditya Research Centre, Flores, Indonesia)

Fr. Phillip Gibbs, SVD (Divine Word University, Papua, New Guinea)

Keynote address: The Catholic Church and the Challenges of Globalization in Asia/Pacific

Archbishop Peter Loy Chong (Suva, Fiji)


José Casanova is one of the world’s top scholars in the sociology of religion. Awarded the Theology Prize from the Salzburger Hochschulwochen in recognition of life-long achievement in the field of theology, he is professor of Sociology at Georgetown University and heads the Berkley Center’s Program on Globalization, Religion and the Secular. He has published works on a broad range of subjects, including religion and globalization, migration and religious pluralism, transnational religions and sociological theory. His Public Religions in the Modern World (1994) –translated into five languages including Arabic and Japanese –has become a classic in the field. [email protected]

Peter C. Phan came to Georgetown University in 2003 and currently he holds the Ignacio Ellacuría Chair of Catholic Social Thought and is the founding Director of Graduate Studies of Ph.D. program in Theology and Religious Studies. He has earned three doctorates: S.T.D. from the Universitas Pontificia Salesiana, Rome, and Ph.D. and D.D. from the University of London. He has also received two honorary degrees: Doctor of Theology from Catholic Theological Union and Doctor of Humane Letters from Elms College. His research deals with the theology of icon in Orthodox theology, patristic theology, eschatology, the history of Christian missions in Asia, and liberation, inculturation and interreligious dialogue. He is the author and editor of over 30 books and has published over 300 essays. [email protected]

Kevin Doak holds the Nippon Foundation Endowed Chair in Japanese Studies at Georgetown University where he is also Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. His major publications include A History of Nationalism in Modern Japan: Placing the People (Leiden, 2007) and Xavier’s Legacies: Catholicism in Modern Japanese Culture (University of British Columbia Press, 2011). He has also translated Miracles (MerwinAsia, 2016), a novel by Japan’s leading Catholic novelist Ayako Sono that follows her investigation of the miracles attributed to St. Maximilian Kolbe. Doak’s current research is on Catholicism in modern Japan, and he is currently completing a book, “Kotaro Tanaka and World Law: Rethinking the Natural Law Outside the West” (under contract with Palgrave Macmillan). [email protected]

Dr Robert (Bob) Dixon is the recently retired Foundation Director of the Pastoral Research Office of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. The author of The Catholic community in Australia (2005) and author or co-author of numerous other books, book chapters, journal articles and reports about the demography of the Australian Catholic population and aspects of Catholic belief and practice, he has a PhD in sociology from Monash University as well as degrees in science, theology and education. Bob has had honorary

appointments at Australian Catholic University and the University of Divinity. [email protected]

Gemma Tulud Cruz is Senior Lecturer in Theology at Australian Catholic University. She is author of Pilgrims in the Wilderness: An Intercultural Theology of Migration (2010) and Toward a Theology of Migration: Social Justice and Religious Experience (2014). Gemma’s research projects include “Faith on the Move: Christianity and the Intercultural Church,” (ACURF) “Asian Catholicism and Globalization” (ACU-IRPS and Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs), and “Christian Mission and Multicultural Relations” (Australian Theology Research Foundation, Inc). [email protected]

Edmund Chia served as Executive Secretary of Interreligious Dialogue for the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences from 1996-2004. He then taught for eleven years at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and, since 2011, has been teaching at the Australian Catholic University. His academic interests include interfaith dialogue, comparative theology, inculturation, Asian theology, and systematic theology from a cross-cultural and contextual perspectives. His recent books include: (Editor), Interfaith Dialogue: Global Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 and (Author), Edward Schillebeeckx and Interreligious Dialogue: Perspectives from Asian Theology. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publication, 2012. [email protected]

Richard Madsen is Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus, adjunct professor of the Graduate School of Global Policy and Strategy, and director of the UC-Fudan Center for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is a co-author (with Robert Bellah et al.) of The Good Society and Habits of the Heart which received the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was jury nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He has authored or co-authored seven books on China, including Morality and Power in a Chinese Village for which he received the C. Wright Mills Award; China’s Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society; and China and the American Dream. His latest single-authored book is Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan. [email protected]

Denis Kim SJ is a Jesuit priest and professor in the Department of Sociology in Sogang University in Korea. He earned his PhD at University of California San Diego in 2007. His research areas are international migration, civil society in East Asia, and Catholicism in Korea. He was a Visiting Professor at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in 2014-15. His recent publications include “Il papa alla frontiera” Concilium 51:135-142(2015/3) and “For You and for All” Stephen Cardinal Kim, Church and Civil Society in Korea.” Gregorianum 96(3) 2015: 345-364. [email protected]

Research Project Team


Jose Mario C Francisco is a Filipino Jesuit professor of theology and cultural studies at Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, and the Pontificia Università Gregoriana (Rome). He has had leadership positions in various academic and religious institutions, and lectured around Asia, U.S.A. and Europe. He is founding member and Southeast Asian representative of the International Journal of Asian Christianity, and his work has appeared in Philippine and international publications. [email protected]

Sr. Mary John Mananzan is a Missionary Benedictine sister. She obtained her doctorate degree in Philosophy major in Linguistic Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy and a degree in Missiology at the Wihelms-Universität, Münster, Germany. As a feminist-activist she was the National Chairperson of GABRIELA, a broad alliance of women’s organization for 18years. She served as President of St. Scholastica’s and as Prioress of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of the Manila Priory. She is currently the Superior of the Manila Community and Vice President of External Affairs of St. Scholastica’s College. She has helped develop a distinct Third World Theology and has held positions in the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). She has written several books and given lectures and seminars in more than 50 countries. [email protected]

Délio Mendonça, Ph.D. in History and M.A in Portuguese Literature and Culture - is a Jesuit priest. After completing his schooling in Beira he entered the Society of Jesus in Goa in 1979. He is former director of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa, India, an institution of the Jesuits. He taught Portuguese Literature and Culture at Goa University. Besides having written several articles and edited books he is the author of Conversions and Citizenry: Goa under Portugal 1510-1610 (2002) and Saint Francis Xavier (2013). He teaches in the Faculty of History of the Church, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. [email protected]

Philip Gibbs is a Divine Word Missionary priest from New Zealand serving in Papua New Guinea since 1973. He has a Post-grad Diploma in Anthropology from the University of Sydney, a Masters in Theology from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago and he has a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University, Rome. Currently he is Professor of Social Concerns and Vice president Research and Higher Degrees at Divine Word University, Madang, Papua New Guinea. He is well known for his research and advocacy against sorcery related violence in PNG and has contributed publications such as the volume Talking it Through from ANU Press. [email protected]

John Mansford Prior, SVD, has been working in eastern Indonesia since 1973. He undertook pastoral work in a town parish (1974-1981) and a parish in the interior (1981-1987). For the past 30 years John has been teaching at Ledalero Institute of Philosophy, Maumere, since 2002 in the post-graduate programme in contextual theologies.

John has a doctorate in Intercultural Theology from Birmingham University UK (1987). He is author of seven books, 240 articles and book chapters, and editor or co-editor of over 50 books, primarily in bahasa Indonesia. Has been active with the Evangelisation Office of the FABC (1990-2013); Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Culture (1994-2009); Coordinator of the Biblical Studies and Mission Study Group (BISAM) of the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS) (2004-2012); Asian representative on the board of the International Association of Catholic Missiologists (IACM) (2010-2013); Advisory Board of the Intercultural Bible Collective, Vrieje Universiteit, Amsterdam since 2008; Editor Jurnal Ledalero: Wacana Iman dan Kebudayaan (2008-2017); Deputy Editor Mission Studies (2012-2017); Advisory Board Asian Horizons since 2013. [email protected]

Brother Anthony Rogers entered the De La Salle Brothers in 1968. He has a Bachelor’s degree and Diploma in Education from the University of Malaya in 1974 and a Master’s Degree on Pastoral Sociology at the Asian Social Institute and De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. He was the Director of the La Salle Brothers in Malaysia and Chairman of the Malaysian Lasallian Education Council (MLEC) and has held various offices in the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference (FABC) over many years. He has written extensively on the ongoing theology and ecclesiology of the Asian Church. His latest contribution was a book entitled “The Faces of Joy and Hope In Asia”. He served as National Director of the National Office for Human Development/Catholic Welfare Services (NOHD – CWS), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and also as a member of the Caritas Internationalis– Executive Committee and on the International Advocacy Committee and is a former Member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and is currently a consultor of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, Rome. [email protected]

Dr Evelyn Monteiro is of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Cross of Chavanod, France. She holds a doctorate in Theology from Centre Sèvres, Facultés jésuites de Paris. She is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Theology, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pontifical Institute of Philosophy and Religion, Pune, India and was head of the Department of Systematic Theology as well. She is currently at her congregation’s headquarters in Geneva. She has made numerous presentations and contributions to theology and to feminist theology, both nationally and internationally. Some of her publications include: Evelyn Monteiro, Church and Culture: Communion in Pluralism, Delhi: ISPCK, 2004, Towards the Full Flowering of the Human: Interdisciplinary Studies on the Empowerment of Women, Kurien Kunnumpuram SJ & Evelyn Monteiro SCC, Eds. Mumbai: St Pauls, 2011 and “Asian Churches and Public Theology”, Jeevadhara, Doing Public Theology in Asia, Vol. XLIII, No. 253, 2013, pp. 49-63. [email protected]


AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR RELIGION, POLITICS & SOCIETY

215 Spring Street Melbourne, Vic 3000

Email: [email protected]

www.irps.acu.edu.au

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