NEWPORT, R.I. – The public is invited to participate in two events at Salve Regina University that are planned in conjunction with the highly anticipated second debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney on Tuesday, Oct. 16. Both will be presented in Bazarsky Lecture Hall, located in O’Hare Academic Center on Ochre Point Avenue.
The events are sponsored by the university’s department of Religious & Theological Studies, the Mercy Center for Spiritual Life and the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy. Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP to pellcenter@salve.edu or by calling (401) 341-2927.
Peter Steinfels lecture, 7:30 p.m.
Peter Steinfels, founder and co-director of the Fordham University Center on Religion and Culture, will present a lecture on “Faithful Citizenship in a Partisan World” at 7:30 p.m.
A two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and former religion columnist for The New York Times, Steinfels says that since the 1970s, Catholics have been urged by church leaders to be “faithful citizens” and to shape the nation’s future by making moral choices in voting. He agrees that people of faith should bring their moral convictions into public life – and into the voting booths.
“This requires more than blind partisan loyalties or simple self-interest,” Steinfels says. “It requires carefully formed consciences, courage and, as the Catholic bishops declare, ‘the virtue of prudence.’ But citizenship doesn’t begin and end on Election Day.”
Morality means more than many people assume, Steinfels says. And prudence often leaves them confused. “How can we make sense of these crucially important ideas amid the clamor of campaigns, the blitz of negative ads, and the fog and fireworks of political spin?”
Obama-Romney II, 9 p.m.
The second debate between President Obama and Gov. Romney will be presented at 9 p.m. on the big screen at Bazarsky Lecture Hall.
Will President Obama be able to rebound from what was widely viewed as a disastrous first debate? Or will Gov. Romney maintain his momentum? Viewers are invited to settle in with some popcorn and watch the debate with Pell Center friends.