Léocadie Lushombo, is a consecrated woman, member of the Teresian Association (Institución Teresiana), Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology/Santa Clara University and a visiting professor at the Catholic University of the Congo. She earned her PhD in Theological Ethics from Boston College (USA) and completed master’s degrees in Theological Ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, in Sustainable Development at the Universidad Pontificio Comillas in Spain, and in Economics & Development at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Cameroon. Lushombo’s research focuses on Catholic social teaching, just peace virtue-based approach, gender-based violence, and women’s political participation, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
She recently published, A Christian and African Ethic of Women’s Political Participation: Living As Risen Beings, (Rawman & Littlefield, 2023); “Fratelli tutti: Toward a Community of Fraternity with the Wounded Women,” (Journal of Catholic Social Thought, 2022); “The Politics of Forest Conservation: Ethical Dilemmas and Impact on Peacebuilding” (Concilium, 2021), “Virtue-Based Just Peace Approach and the Challenges of Rape as a Weapon of War…”, (Georgetown University Press, 2020); “Rape-Weapon of War: A Crime of War and A Crime Against Humanity Contemporary Challenges to Peace and Justice in Rwanda and the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” (Journal for Peace and Justice Studies, 2019); “Rectifying Political Leadership through a Just Peace Ethic,” (Journal of Moral Theology, 2019), and “Christological Foundations for Political Participation: Women in the Global South Building Agency as Risen Beings,” (Political Theology, 2016).
She has given lectures at Boston College, Notre Dame University, Catholic Theological Union, and St. John University and has extensively worked as a researcher and Consultant-Trainer in justice, peace, and gender issues in the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa and in Peru. Lushombo’s teachings and writings are informed by her interdisciplinary experiences and studies as well as by the worldwide critical feminist theologies of liberation.
- Fundamental Moral Theology
- African Christian Theologies: Development and Issues
- Theologies of Liberation: Ethical Dimensions
- Political Theology
- Ethical Issues in War and Peace
- Ethics, Economics, and Liberation
- A Christian and African Ethic of Women’s Political Participation: Living as Risen Beings. Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in Religion and Theology. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc, 2023
- “Fratelli tutti: Toward a Community of Fraternity with the Wounded Women,” Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Volume 19, Issue 1, (Winter, 2022) : Pages 141-157
- “African Women Christology,” Catholic Theological Ethic in the World Church (CTEWC), June 1st, 2022. https://catholicethics.com/forum/african-women-christology/
- “La Política de La Conservación de Los Bosques. Dilemas Éticos e Impacto En La Construcción de La Paz.” In Amazonia: Dón y Taréa, edited by Geraldo L. de Mori, Michelle Becka y John Baptist Antony (eds.), Concilium., 392:53–68. Concilium. International Journal of Theology, 2021.
- “Ubuntu et les défis théopolitiques des proverbes sur la femme" dans Cahiers des Religions Africaines presses de l’Université catholique du Congo. Nouvelle série. Volume 2, n. 4 (décembre, 2021)
- “Virtue-Based Just Peace Approach and the Challenges of Rape as a Weapon of War…”, in A Just Peace Ethic Primer, Building Sustainable Peace and Breaking Cycles of Violence, ed., Eli S. McCarthy, (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2020).
- “Rape-Weapon of War: A Crime of War and A Crime Against Humanity Contemporary Challenges to Peace and Justice in Rwanda and the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).” Journal for Peace and Justice Studies, Vol. 28, no. 2 (July 2019): 40-59.
- “Rectifying Political Leadership through a Just Peace Ethic.” Journal of Moral Theology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2019): 122-139. Co-authored with Eli McCarthy (Georgetown University).
- “Mitigating Deforestation in the Congo Basin and Global Climate Change: An Ethic of Environmental Responsibility based on African Spirituality,” in Nature and the Environment in Contemporary Religious Contexts, ed., Muhammad Shafiq and Thomas Donlin-Smith (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018).
- “Education as the Practice of Freedom’ to Address Educational Poverty in Sub-Sahara Africa.” Asian Horizons Vol. 12, no. 1 (March 2018): 52-65.
- “Christological Foundations for Political Participation: Women in the Global South Building Agency as Risen Beings.” Political Theology, Vol. 18 no.5 (June, 2016): 399-422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462317X.2016.1195592
- “Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and climate change.” Asian Horizons 9, no. 4 (December 2015): 724-740. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107140
- “The Contribution of Jacques Maritain on Political Participation of the Christians in the Temporal World.” Telema/Congo, Jesuit Journal, Vol. 1, no. 16 (January-June 2016): 2-22.
- “L’enseignement social de l’Eglise catholique et la lutte contre la pauvreté des femmes.” Congo-Afrique no. 496 (Juin, Juillet, Août 2015) : 499-513 http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107141
“The Land of Gold and Blood: Congo suffers from the paradox of mineral wealth and human poverty,” SOJOURNERS. Faith in Action for Social Justice. (Sept-Oct 2015). Pages/Sojo.net, https://sojo.net/magazine/septemberoctober-2015/land-gold-and-blood.