Back Michaelmas 2005 FIRST WEEK Drinks Party Catholic Chaplaincy, 8.30pm A good way to start the term. Come along and find out more about the society. Membership is free for Catholics who are members of the University and there is a very small charge for others. All welcome! SECOND WEEK Gangland to Promised Land - Mr John Pridmore Catholic Chaplaincy, 8.30pm Mr John Pridmore, a former East End gangster, will talk about his journey from violence and criminality to the Catholic Church. Contrary to expectations his work as a missionary throughout Europe has proven even more eventful than his previous life of crime. THIRD WEEK God's Children in South America - Mrs Margaret Wheeler Catholic Chaplaincy, 8.30pm Mrs Wheeler will discuss the work of Fe y Alegría, a charity - of which she is the Oxford representative - which works to advance the education of poor and destitute children in Venezuela and Colombia. The talk will be accompanied by slides. FOURTH WEEK Film Screening - The Cardinal (1963) Catholic Chaplaincy, 7pm The Cardinal charts the life and trials of an Irish-American priest from his days in seminary to receiving the cardinal's red hat. The film takes in some twenty years of history and almost every problem known to the Catholic conscience; from interreligious marriage and abortion to the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi menace. Evocatively capturing the mood and ethos of the pre-conciliar Church, The Cardinal is a tale of triumph in adversity through fidelity to Christ. FIFTH WEEK Disputation on the 'Historical Jesus' - Fr Henry Wansbrough vs Prof. Geza Vermes Catholic Chaplaincy, 8.30pm Fr Henry Wansbrough (monk of Ampleforth and member of the Pontifical Biblical Institute) will face Oxford's Professor Geza Vermes (Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and former Catholic priest turned to Judaism) in debating "Who is the 'Historical Jesus'?" The speakers will explore questions of importance for contemporary biblical research. SIXTH WEEK The Christian Hope for Heaven - Fr John Saward Catholic Chaplaincy, 8.30pm Fr John Saward is a Fellow of Greyfriars and parish priest of Oxford's church of Ss. Gregory and Augustine. He will speak on his most recently published work, Sweet and Blessed Country, in which he offers an exploration - organised around a fifteenth-century altarpiece - of the Catholic theology of heaven. SEVENTH WEEK Jihad - An Islamic Crusade? - Dr Frank Trombley Catholic Chaplaincy, 8.30pm Dr Trombley is an expert on Eastern Christianity and Islam and has published extensively on these subjects. His talk will shed light on how jihad is understood in its religious context, and ask what this might mean for the future of the Church and of the West. EIGHTH WEEK Termly Mass and President's Dinner Oriel College SCR, 7pm Guest-of-Honour at Dinner: Fr John Owen Our termly Mass and black-tie dinner will take place in Oriel College SCR. Fr John Owen, who has written for The Observer and The Economist and is now Chaplain at the University of Cardiff, will speak in response to Cole Porter’s question, “What is this thing called love?”