ITEST Webinars

In this ITEST Webinar, entitled Evangelizing the Real Presence – Miracles, Scripture, and Quantum Physics, Dr. David Keys and Raymond Gerard present on the Eucharist.

Recognizing the importance of the Eucharist in today’s challenging culture, the USCCB has begun a 3-year initiative to promote faith in the Eucharist, culminating in a national Eucharistic Congress next year in Indianapolis. To help proponents evangelize the Real Presence, Dr. David Keys, a scientist turned theologian, and Raymond Gerard, a lawyer by trade, will discuss certain means toward that end. Dr. Keys will discuss various Scriptural reasons for belief, as well as certain Eucharistic miracles. Mr. Gerard will discuss various miracles focused on the reliability of witness testimony. There will also be a limited discussion on the theological and philosophical implications of quantum physics.

​Belief in the Real Presence has declined significantly. Many have lost their trust in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Without trust in one’s sources of knowledge, there can be no belief. To restore belief, trust and catechesis are critical. However, many still will not believe. God knows man and knows this. As a result, God has provided multiple, extraordinary miracles to help man in his unbelief of the Real Presence. Dr. Keys will review the faith-based reasons for belief in the Real Presence, and he will discuss a few of the miraculous interventions God has given us to support the Church’s Eucharistic teaching.

While most people think of bleeding Hosts when Eucharistic miracles are mentioned, there are a number of other miracles for which reliable evidence may be found in the testimony of witnesses. By its nature, the reliability of such evidence is recognized in Scripture and our English-based legal system. The reliability for particular Eucharistic miracles can be found in the number of witnesses to such miracles or the reliability of the witnesses themselves. Four particular instances will be discussed in detail: 1) the French island of Reunion (1902), 2) Andre Frossard (1935), Alexandrina Maria da Costa (1943), and San Mauro la Bruca (1969). The logical and philosophical implications of a certain discovery in quantum physics will also be raised.

https://faithscience.org/eucharistic-miracles/

For the Time Dilation Video, click here: https://youtu.be/yuD34tEpRFw

WCAT TV is an en air wing of En Route Books and Media working with WCAT Radio to share the joys of the Catholic faith. To support the station, please visit our Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/wcatradio

Is science only another human intellectual achievement, as is music, literature, philosophy? Or is it something more? Are the techniques used in science—mathematics, experiment, and rational inquiry—given to humankind by God so that His creation be understood and glorified, as in Psalm 19A? What ethical constraints, if any, does God set on science? And why did science develop only with Christendom? And finally, why should we not worship the idol of Science? These questions will be addressed in this webinar.

In this episode of I Thought You'd Like to Know This, Too, ITEST presents a webinar with Dr. Gerard Verschuuren and Dr. Stacy Trasancos on Faith That Makes You Think (December 10, 2022)

Can faith ever make you think? For most people, thinking contradicts having faith. People who think do not have faith. And people who have faith do not think. That is the most common perception nowadays. But that perception is seriously flawed.

In fact, there is a strong connection between thinking and having faith. St. Augustine expressed this quite clearly saying, “Believers are also thinkers: in believing, they think and in thinking, they believe.… If faith does not think, it is nothing.” In the Catholic tradition, this connection has been known as “faith and reason.” Pope John Paul II even wrote an encyclical on this issue, making them two sides of the same coin.

https://faithscience.org/faith-think/

Dr. Thomas Sheahen and Dr. Stacy Trasancos present on How Science and Theology Read One Another (October 29, 2022)

Pope St. John Paul II began his famous encyclical, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.” Dr. Thomas P. Sheahen, with a Ph.D. degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, examines truth from the wing of science. Scientists depend on empirical data for conclusions. Dr. Stacy A. Trasancos, with a Ph.D. in chemistry and M.A. in dogmatic theology, explains how we find truth from the wing of faith. Theologians derive formulations from divine revelation. Together they seek an understanding of the axiom, truth cannot contradict truth.

https://faithscience.org/two-wings/

This webinar will develop essential American Constitutional law principles and their relationship to the most significant bioethical issues of the day. Without this knowledge, meaningful participation in ongoing debates related to bioethics is seriously compromised. Topics will include the judicial lens by which legislation and regulations are examined for their constitutionality, including the tests applied to determine the validity of a claim of fundamental liberty. The meaning and application of the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Constitution will be presented and applied to topics such as: end of life health care, advance medical directives, capital punishment, contraception, marriage, and abortion – with special attention to the recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. If time permits, we will also examine government health care mandates and sexual orientation and gender identity laws and their relationship to constitutional and statutory rights to free exercise of religion and freedom of speech.

https://faithscience.org/catholic-bioethics/

In this webinar entitled "A Post-Roe World," Dr. Pat Castle and Kiki Latimer offer their insights into the science of the human person and the morality of abortion. Moderated by Francis Etheredge.

With the overturn of Roe, let us double down in our ministry to eliminate abortion from every community. There is no acceptable amount of abortion. Every life is a gift from God. We eliminate abortion by reaching students before abortion lies reach them and by serving abortion-vulnerable mothers. Mothers from Pro-Life states can still travel to pro-abortion states. The longer the travel time the better, allowing more time for mothers to encounter a life-encouraging person or message. 78% of post-abortion mothers said if they had encountered ONE supportive person or encouraging message, they would have chosen life. More at liferunners.org/stats.

https://faithscience.org/post-roe/

* Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Abstract for Webinar

Signature Courses at Seton Hall: STEM engages the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

The SHU University Core—taken by all undergraduate students—includes a sequence of three Signature courses. These are rooted in questions central to but not exclusive to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. The third course, Engaging the World, encompasses a set of courses building on the first two from many differing academic perspectives. We look at challenges in developing such courses in STEM disciplines, and then at three particular courses, Science and Theology of Food; Logic, the Limits to Knowledge, and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition; and Creation and Science (which is also taken by students at the Seminary/School of Theology).

The purpose of these courses is to inform and engage, and not at all to persuade or convert, and their goal to make better and wiser Catholics of Catholics, and everyone more informed and reflective.

https://faithscience.org/food/

DR. THOMAS MARLOWE
CREATING A STEM SIGNATURE COURSE

Thomas Marlowe is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science at Seton Hall University, where he taught in both disciplines for over 40 years. He holds a Ph.D. in each discipline from Rutgers University. He has always had an interest in interdisciplinary and integrative studies, in both his teaching and his research. He worked with Fr. Laracy and others over the past seven years to develop an interdisciplinary upper-level course for Seton Hall’s University Core program on Logic, the Limits to Knowledge, and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, and consulted with Fr. Buonopane on his course on Science, Food, and Theology. This work has led to several conference and journal publications.

FR. GERALD BUONOPANE
SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY OF FOOD

Ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark in 2006, Rev. Buonopane’s area of specialization is food chemistry. Prior to seminary and the priesthood, Fr. Buonopane held a number of positions in academia, the federal government (USFDA), and in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Among the courses Fr. Buonopane teaches, and has taught, are a graduate level course in food chemistry, as well as Core curriculum courses, including a Core 3 course, “Science and Theology of Food.” His research areas of interest are: Chemical Deterioration of Food Lipids: Oxidative Reactions; Essential Oils as Natural Antioxidants; and Cold Plasma Treatment of Botanicals and Essential Oils. In addition to this work, Fr. Buonopane was appointed Minister to the Priest Community on June 1, 2020.

FR. JOSEPH LARACY
CREATION AND SCIENCE

The Rev. Joseph R. Laracy, S.T.D., a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, serves as Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, Seton Hall University. He is also an affiliated faculty member with the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science as well as the Catholic Studies Program. Father Laracy is the author of Theology and Science in the Thought of Ian Barbour: A Thomistic Evaluation for the Catholic Doctrine of Creation (Peter Lang, 2021) and the co-editor of Stanley Jaki Foundation International Congress (Gracewing, 2020). His scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as The Seminary Journal; Logos; The Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics; The Journal of Religion and Theology; The International Journal of Communications, Network, and System Sciences.

FR. LEO PATALINGHUG, IVDEI
WEBINAR INTRODUCTION AND PRAYER

Fr. Leo Patalinghug is a priest member of a community of consecrated life, Voluntas Dei (The Will of God). He is the creator and founder of an international food and faith movement called Plating Grace.com, and founder and chair of the nonprofit group, The Table Foundation. He is a best-selling author, acclaimed international speaker, host for radio, podcast and a weekly international food and faith show on EWTN, Savoring our Faith. His unique background as a professional chef and his previous experience as a two-time black belt martial arts instructor and former award-winning break dancer and choreographer has earned the attention of major media outlets, including the Food Network. The mission to see food as a gift from God to nourish your family and to strengthen relationships is making this world a better place one meal at a time.

In an age of communicative media, free speech appears to be ubiquitous. Anyone can say anything in any of a hundred social media apps that can go viral worldwide in an instant throughout all of them. And this opens the thoughts of anyone to the commentary of anyone else. But are there limits on free speech in a global world? How is our freedom of speech bound by legal, ethical, and content restrictions? In what way is our freedom really free? Presenters from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia join with a Canadian moderator to walk us through some considerations on what it means to speak freely in the modern world.

Lawrence Hopperton (ret.) was the founding director of distributed learning at Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada. He has published extensively on the theory and practice of online learning and won an international award for instructional design and disability compliance. He has also published four textbooks on writing skills, two chapbooks of poetry, and a full collection, Table for Three, through En Route Books and Media, which also published three of his chapters concerning disability compliance in a book entitled Teaching and Learning in the Age of Covid-19. His next book of poetry, Such Common Stories, will be released by En Route later this year.

Rachel Fischer is a researcher and information ethicist who collaborates with academic institutions, civil society organisations and intergovernmental entities. She is the Co-Chair of the International Centre for Information Ethics, Deputy Editor for the International Review of Information Ethics and member of UNESCO IFAP’s Working Group on Information Accessibility. Rachel was an editor and one of the authors for the Nelson Mandela Reader on Information Ethics which was released in 2021. Learn more about this reader at https://www.i-c-i-e.org/publications.

Francis Etheredge is a Catholic married layman, with eleven children, three of whom he hopes are in heaven and the rest of whom are alive and well and stepping through life’s stages of school, university, and career. In the last seven years, he has returned to being a self-employed writer, adding twelve books to one already published. Find his books on bioethics at En Route Books and Media. The Human Person: A Bioethical Word, Conception: An Icon of the Beginning, Mary and Bioethics: An Exploration, The ABCQ of Conceiving Conception, and Reaching for the Resurrection: A Pastoral Bioethics. Forthcoming later in 2022 is his new book, Human Nature: Moral Norm.

Peter Breen is a defamation and media lawyer and former member of state parliament in Australia. He is the author of several books including his latest book, Prodigal Pilgrim Letters to Pope Francis from Lourdes, Fatima, Garabandal and Medjugorje. Coming in July 2022, his book Dear Mr. Putin will be published by En Route Books and Media. In this book, Peter expresses outrage at the unprovoked attack on the Ukrainian people, at the same time placing the war in a religious context, with the prospect that its outcome may be the historical events prophesied at Fatima in 1917.

https://faithscience.org/free-speech/

The only standard we have for judging all of our social economic, and political institutions and arrangements as just or unjust, as good or bad, as better or worse, derives from our conception of the good life for man on earth, and from our conviction that, given certain external conditions, it is possible for men to make good lives for themselves by their own efforts.

There must be sufficient truth in moral philosophy to provide a rational basis for the efforts at social reform and improvement in which all men can join, regardless of their religious beliefs or disbeliefs. Such common action for a better society presupposes that the measure of a good society consists in the degree to which it promotes the general welfare and serves the happiness of its people—this happiness being their earthly and temporal happiness, for there is no other ultimate end that the secular state can serve.

The Mission of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas
”Philosophy is Everybody’s Business”

To help awaken citizens from their moral and intellectual slumbers, and to help them understand why philosophy is everybody’s business. The possibility of finding sound and practical answers to questions about the good life and good society. Philosophy’s ability to answer the most basic normative questions. What ought we seek in life? And how ought we seek it?

To promulgate the insights and ideals embedded in Dr. Adler’s lifelong intellectual work in the fields of Philosophy, Liberal Education, Ethics and Politics.

To continue functioning as THE resource for, access to, and the on-going interpretation of his work.

Presented by ELAINE WEISMANN

https://faithscience.org/thegreatideas/

How can a Catholic scientist speak about “a beautiful mind and soul”? Dr. Gerard Verschuuren does so as a Catholic who knows that science has nothing to say about mind and soul, but also that science has nothing to say against it. Using a lively, conversational dialog between a skeptical scientist and a religious scientist, this book provides an enlightening tour through the pivotal questions raised by our human minds and souls, which were created in God’s image.

https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/beautifulmindandsoul/