Quarterly Open Access Meeting – All Invited!
SPEAKER:
Rev. Thomas Dailey, OSFS
John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary
and Project Director, The Catholic Preaching Institute
Ambler, Pa.
TOPIC:
“Let’s Build a Fire in Every Pulpit! (and Other Thoughts on Catholic Preaching)”
We are privileged to welcome as our January speaker the single most knowledgable individual in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on one element of a hot topic being discussed among many Catholics and across multiple parishes throughout the U.S. — homilies and hymns … messaging and music. Our speaker will focus on the first of the two elements — homilies-messaging. [The state of liturgical music will be saved for another month.]
Father Dailey joined the Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary faculty full-time in 2017-18 as the inaugural John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics & Social Communications. In January 2024, he also assumed direction of The Catholic Preaching Institute at the seminary. He has given more than 600 presentations throughout the US and internationally on topics in Salesian Spirituality, Social Communications, Catholic Education, and Biblical Theology.
Father Dailey has offered workshops in the Sophia Institute for Teachers and directs an annual webinar for the Church Management Institute at Villanova University. He has written, edited or translated 10 books and more than 80 contributions to a variety of scholarly and pastoral publications worldwide. He also contributed blog posts and authored white papers as a Research Fellow for the Catholic Leadership Institute (Malvern, PA). He is a member of the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Spirituality (Bangalore) and serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Catholic Higher Education. He is featured among the members at CatholicSpeakers.com and has appeared on television, radio, and podcast programs in both regional and national markets. For the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Father Dailey served on the Communications Committee for the World Meeting of Families and Visit of Pope Francis to the USA in 2015. He also served as the Episcopal Delegate for the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Father Bill Atkinson, O.S.A.
Fr. Dailey was elected to the Academy of Catholic Theology in 2013 and became a member of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics in 2018. Among other awards, he has been nominated twice for inclusion in Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals, and has been selected four times for inclusion in the list of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Allentown College of Saint Francis de Sales, DeSales University since 2001, where he served as the Fr. Brisson Chair & Founding Director of the Salesian Center for Faith & Culture. Father Dailey is an honorary life member of the Knights of Columbus.
Father Dailey first professed vows in the religious congregation of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales (O.S.F.S.) in 1980, was ordained to the diaconate in St. Peter’s Basilica (Rome) in 1986, and was ordained to the priesthood in St. Anthony of Padua Church (Wilmington, Del.) in 1987. He earned a doctoral degree in sacred theology (S.T.D.) from the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome), where he completed his dissertation on the biblical Book of Job.
We are especially delighted to welcome Father Dailey to speak with us during the month celebrating the feast day of his religious community’s patron saint, St. Francis de Sales. We encourage you to join us on January 20 for what promises to be an inspiring presentation on a compelling topic. In accepting our invitation to speak, Father Dailey wrote:
“The renowned American evangelist Dwight Moody once said, ‘The best way to revive a church is to build a fire in the pulpit.’ This talk will lay the wood for that fire … by speaking about the work of the Catholic Preaching Institute (CPI) in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We’ll take a look at some of the key findings of our major research project on the state of Catholic preaching in the archdiocese. We’ll explain some of the ways that CPI is trying to spark the fire of a homiletic revival. And we’ll consider the critical role that those ‘in the pews’ play to transform Catholic preaching into a more compelling experience.”
Feel free to invite family, friends, parishioners, pastors, deacons, Catholic school administrators, chaplains, and campus ministers, and others who would be keenly interested in this important topic. This is a quarterly open-access meeting; all are invited to join our meeting. The Zoom link will be sent to all Philly Serra members and friends closer to the date, and it will be posted on our website.