Annual McElroy Lecture to explore 'Global Migration, Citizenship' on October 25

The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law will host the 23rd annual McElroy Lecture on Tuesday, October 25, from 5 to 6 p.m. in room 226 at Detroit Mercy Law, 651 East Jefferson Ave. in Detroit. A reception will follow the lecture in the atrium.

This year’s lecture, titled “Global Migration, Citizenship and Catholic Social Teaching,” will be presented by Vincent D. Rougeau, president of College of the Holy Cross. Rougeau will present the role of Catholic social teaching based on the questions of global migration and citizenship. He will declare that Catholic social teachings with an emphasis on the dignity of the human person maintain values essential to democratic societies like the United States.

Rougeau, a nationally respected expert in legal education and Catholic social thought, became the 33rd president of the College of the Holy Cross in July 2021. He previously served as dean of the Boston College Law School and the inaugural director of the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America. Prior to his role at Boston College, Rougeau was a tenured professor of law at Notre Dame Law School, and served as their associate dean for Academic Affairs from 1999-2002.

Rougeau has written extensively on law and religion with a particular focus on Catholic social teaching and the law. His book “Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order” was released by Oxford University Press in 2008. He served as senior fellow at the Centre for Theology and Community (CTC) in London, where he researched broad-based community organizing, immigration, and citizenship in the UK as part of the Just Communities Project. He is past president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), and previously served on the Council of the Boston Bar Association. He currently serves on the boards of Newton-Wellesley Hospital and the Boston Lyric Opera. Rougeau received his A.B. from Brown University in 1985, and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.

The McElroy Lecture on Law and Religion provides a forum for prominent thinkers to address fundamental issues of law and religion. The annual McElroy Lecture is made possible through a bequest from Detroit Mercy Law alumnus Philip J. McElroy.

To register for the October 25 lecture, visit https://law.udmercy.edu and scroll down to “Upcoming Events.”