The 2010 Aquinas lecture at St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center will feature Peter Kreeft, a philosophy professor at Boston College and author of more than 40 books on a range of spiritual and philosophical topics.

Kreeft will talk about suffering, a topic he explored in his 1986 book, Making Sense Out of Suffering.

The lecture will be Jan. 31 at 1 p.m. Jan. 31 at the center, 170 S. University St., Salt Lake City. It is free and open to all, said the Rev. Peter Rogers, pastor at St. Catherine.

"The question of suffering is not just a Catholic question. It's one for all humanity," Rogers said. "I hope we'll find people of many faiths coming to listen and ... walk away with a better understanding of human suffering and how we cannot necessarily avoid suffering but how we can make it meaningful in our lives."

Aquinas lectures are a tradition at churches and centers run by Dominicans. St. Catherine started its annual lecture in the 1980s, when Dominican priests began running the university parish, Rogers said.

The idea is to promote greater spiritual understanding of religious topics, especially through the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great 13th-century Catholic theologian who was a member of the Dominican order.

For more information, the church's Web site is www.unewman.org and Kreeft's Web site is www.peterkreeft.com.

-- Kristen Moulton