Catholics and Muslims
have common ground,
expert says

Countries that are predominantly Muslim and nations with a Catholic majority are not as foreign to each other as believers might think, says a sociology researcher who will speak here tomorrow.

"People from the world's two largest religions have common ground and common problems," said Ohio State University professor Katherine Meyer. She will speak on "Shared Challenges for Catholics and Muslims in a Globalized World" at 4 p.m. tomorrow at Chaminade University's Mystical Rose Oratory.

The annual Mackey Marianist Lecture is free and open to the public.

"There is a huge variability in how well-off these countries are, from the relative prosperity of Kuwait and Ireland to countries that are among the poorest," said Meyer, whose specialty is research on sociological development and democratic movement in the Middle East.

Meyer said one facet she will explore is the condition of women and girls, particularly in education, following through on the 2000 United Nations millennium goal of gender parity in education. The teaching of both religions "talks about the importance of educating women," she said. "There are success stories under both religions." But "there are 65 million school-age girls around the world who are not in school. Two-thirds of the 900 million illiterate people in the world are women."

"What I want to do is educate people to direct the energy needed to achieve change," Meyer said.

Meyer also taught a graduate course on American Catholicism and the lay ministry last week at Chaminade.

The lecture series is named for the late Rev. Robert Mackey, one of the founders of the Catholic university and its first president.