Inaugural Pallium Lecture feeds audience with intellectual smorgasborg

An Oct. 26 Pallium Lecture touched on a wide array of topics: peace, unity, Catholic social teaching, evangelization, social institutions, St. Thomas Aquinas, holiness, humor, friendship, love, encouragement and hope.

What tied that array of subjects together were the views of Pope Leo XIV and St. Augustine of Hippo – whose teachings formed the Augustinian pontiff – as presented in Omaha by two notable academics in Catholic thought and formation.

The 2025 Pallium Lecture was a teaching event held under the leadership of Archbishop Michael G. McGovern. About 100 people attended the lecture at the St. John Paul II Newman Center.

The archbishop adopted the idea for the lecture from Archbishop Emeritus Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee and his predecessor, the now Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.

The Archdiocese of Omaha is the third diocese in the United States to begin a Pallium Lecture series.

Guest speakers in Omaha were Msgr. Martin Schlag, a professor of ethics and business law at Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; and Father Joseph Taphorn, rector of St. Paul Seminary at the University of St. Thomas and vice president of the university.

Following their presentations, Deacon Omar Gutiérrez led a Q&A panel discussion with audience members. Deacon Gutiérrez is the president and co-founder of the Evangelium Institute in Omaha, a nonprofit organization dedicated to adult faith formation, as well as director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for the archdiocese.

Gilbert “Gib” Fendrick and his wife, Kriss, of St. Patrick Parish in Elkhorn, were among those in attendance.

Fendrick said he liked a comment made about a subtle shift between the papacies of Pope Francis and Pope Leo.

Msgr. Schlag said Pope Francis emphasized that social action was required to spread the Gospel, while Pope Leo has taken that a step further, saying that the spread of the Gospel is required for social action.

Spreading the Gospel and social action are not exclusive to each other, the professor pointed out, but one in the same love, providing both “material bread and the Bread of the World.”

Fendrick said he also appreciated a distinction made by Msgr. Schlag, that the poor the two popes have invited people to serve are “not a different species.” The poor are those among us, he said, and include anyone who asks something of us, anyone who needs us.

Father Taphorn shared his thoughts on Pope Leo and St. Augustine borrowing from his own experience as an archdiocese administrator, in his ministry to college students as the founding pastor of the St. John Paul II Newman Center and now in his role in the formation of seminarians.

He learned, for example, the importance of young people being surrounded by good friends. St. Augustine needed such friends for his conversion, Father Taphorn said, and Pope Leo has recognized how, through holy friendships, God’s love heals and brings hope.

“Christian life is a team sport,” Father Taphorn said, in which people encourage each other in holiness.

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