Upcoming talk on the Paschal Mystery

On January 13, 2026 at 12:40 PM EST Fr. Neil Xavier O’Donoghue will offer a lecture entitled: Paschal Mystery: A New Interpretative Key to the Theology of the Sacraments of the Second Vatican Council

Location: Happel Room,

The Catholic University of America
School of Theology and Religious Studies
620 Michigan Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC 20064

Here is a short abstract of the talk: This paper explores how the Paschal Mystery—Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and glorification—became a defining interpretative key for the theology of the sacraments at the Second Vatican Council. Drawing on the early twentieth-century recovery of mysterion theology in the liturgical movement, it shows how Vatican II re-imagined the sacraments as living participation in Christ’s saving events rather than merely channels of grace. The paper argues that this represents a genuine theological development whose full implications have yet to be realized in the Church’s contemporary sacramental practice.

Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue

Neil Xavier O’Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teología Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren’s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.

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Comments

2 responses to “Upcoming talk on the Paschal Mystery”

  1. Lee Bacchi

    Will it be able to be viewed on an internet connection?

    Reply
  2. Rita Ferrone Avatar
    Rita Ferrone

    Thanks, Neil. Sounds very interesting. I’d like to see it or read it. If it will be livestreamed, please share the link. If not, will it be published — here or elsewhere?

    Reply

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