Father Gabriel Richard Lecture series premieres Sept. 26

Dennis O’Brien, former president of Bucknell University and the University of Rochester, will give the premiere lecture in the first Fr. Gabriel Richard Lectures for the 2006-07 academic year.

O’Brien will discuss The Disappearing Moral Curriculum, in the program co-sponsored by the U-M Ethics in Public Life Initiative and Commonweal magazine, at 4 p.m. in the Michigan League Ballroom, and Religion and Grunge: the Theology of Kurt Cobain, at 7:30 p.m. in Donnelly Hall at St. Mary Student Parish, 331 Thompson St.

“In cooperation with the University of Michigan, we are very pleased to present a lecture series with speakers of this caliber,” said the Rev Thomas McClain, pastor of St. Mary’s and director of Catholic Campus Ministry. “The topics discussed this year are timely, relevant and, we hope, interesting to a wide variety of people.”

Other speakers in the St. Mary Student Parish series include James E. Post, professor at Boston University’s School of Management and president of the Catholic lay group Voice of the Faithful; Peter Steinfels, co-director of the Fordham University Center on Religion and Culture and religion columnist for he New York Times; and Scripture scholar and author Marie Noonan Sabin.

The lectures are named after the Rev. Gabriel Richard, co-founder of U-M and pioneer priest, educator and statesman. For more information about the lecture series and St. Mary Student Parish, call 663-0557, ext. 240, or go to www.stmarystudentparish.org.