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Aquinas Day lecture to reimagine Catholic history as a call to action

Matthew J. Cressler will be the featured speaker for Aquinas Day 2026 at Candler School of Theology.

Candler’s Aquinas Center of Theology will host its 2026 Aquinas Day events on Thursday, Jan. 29. Held annually near the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, the gathering offers theologians and students the opportunity to engage forward-looking theological work that speaks to the challenges of the present moment.

This year’s speaker is writer, scholar, and comics creator Matthew J. Cressler, chief of staff of the Corporation for Public Interest Technology. Cressler will preach during worship at 11:05 a.m. in Cannon Chapel. Following a lunch for those who register, he will present his lecture “Bad Catholics, Good Trouble: Reimagining Catholic History as a Call to Action.”

The lunch and lecture are free and open to the public with advance registration required for both in-person and online attendance.


Lecture: “Bad Catholics, Good Trouble: Reimagining Catholic History as a Call to Action”

What does it mean to be a “bad Catholic”? Catholics who joined the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s were called criminals, and worse, by fellow Catholics who considered themselves the “real, good, sincere” ones. Drawing from his webcomic series “Bad Catholics, Good Trouble,” Cressler will share some forgotten stories that reveal how the Catholic tradition has both reinforced oppression and inspired radical witness, and ask what “good trouble” might look like for Catholics and other Christians today.

Cressler is the author of “Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migrations” (NYU Press, 2017) and the creator of “Bad Catholics, Good Trouble,” an educational webcomic series that explores the overlooked histories of Catholics engaged in movements for justice. His writing has appeared in America, The Atlantic, National Catholic Reporter, Slate, U.S. Catholics and numerous academic journals.


Register to attend the Aquinas Day lecture in person or online and view the schedule.


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