In recognition of his lifelong dedication to Catholic education, the Most Rev. John S. Cummins, bishop emeritus of Oakland, will be honored by the institute that bears his name at Saint Mary’s College of California.

The John S. Cummins Institute for Catholic Thought and Action at Saint Mary’s College of California will bestow the Montini Fellowship, which recognizes those who have contributed significantly to Catholic higher education in its role to evangelize and to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition.

Fellows are usually asked to give a talk on campus. Instead, Bishop Cummins will be honored at an event on a subject dear to his heart.

The Cummins Institute is sponsoring a lecture on inter-religious dialogue at 7:30 p.m. March 14 in the Soda Center on the Moraga campus.

Inter-religious dialogue is one of the themes of Bishop Cummins’ memoir, Vatican II, Berkeley and Beyond: The First Half-Century of the Oakland Diocese, which was published in 2015.

The guest lecturer for the evening is Professor Mehnaz Afridi, a Muslim theologian who teaches Holocaust Studies at the Christian Brothers’ Manhattan College in New York. She serves as assistant professor of Religious Studies and director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College.

Her most recent book is Shoah through Muslim Eyes (Academic Press, 2017).

Full story at The Catholic Voice.