Dr Pat Jones spoke of “Patrick Keegan, first lay auditor to address Vatican II, in her Cardijn Lecture for 2024 on Thursday 14 November.
Looking back over the 60 years since Keegan delivered his address to the Council on 13 October 2024, she looked at what has been lost and what has been gained with respect to the lay apostolate.
Dr Pat Jones
The daughter of pioneer English YCW leaders, Patricia Jones knew Patrick Keegan personally. And as a student, she also belonged to the Young Christian Students (YCS) movement.
In 1987, she took part in the Synod on the Vocation and Mission of Lay People as a lay auditor and was a consultor with the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
This year, Pat was the lead author of a groundbreaking report entitled “The Cross of the Moment,” that explored the ecclesial and cultural implications of the child abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
The report examined the culture and theology of Catholic teaching that had implications for the abuse, and considered new perspectives and practical paths to take forward in synodal and restorative approaches at various levels of the Church.
Previously, she worked as a research associate at the University of Durham, where she completed a doctorate on the relationship between Catholic charities’ identities and practices and Catholic social teaching (CST) and did initial post-doctoral work on how CST could listen to, and learn from, the experience of women affected by prostitution.
Earlier, Pat began her career as a parish youth worker in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, and worked for ten years in the Pastoral Formation Team, latterly as Director of Adult Christian Education.
She then moved to be the first female assistant general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and afterwards as deputy director of the English Catholic development agency, CAFOD.
