Catholic Social Teaching Archives - LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Liam Ray

“The Reception of Vatican II” (Lamb & Levering, eds.)

This month, Oxford University Press released The Reception of Vatican II edited by Matthew L. Lamb (Ave Maria University) and Matthew Levering (Mundelein Seminary). The publisher’s description follows:

From 1962 to 1965, in perhaps the most important religious event of the twentieth century, the Second Vatican Council met to plot a course for the future of the Roman Catholic Church. After thousands of speeches, resolutions, and votes, the Council issued sixteen official documents on topics ranging from divine revelation to relations with non-Christians. But the meaning of the Second Vatican Council has been fiercely contested since before it was even over, and the years since its completion have seen a battle for the soul of the Church waged through the interpretation of Council documents. The Reception of Vatican II looks at the sixteen conciliar documents through the lens of those battles. Paying close attention to reforms and new developments, the essays in this volume show how the Council has been received and interpreted over the course of the more than fifty years since it concluded.

The contributors to this volume represent various schools of thought but are united by a commitment to restoring the view that Vatican II should be interpreted and implemented in line with Church Tradition. The central problem facing Catholic theology today, these essays argue, is a misreading of the Council that posits a sharp break with previous Church teaching. In order to combat this reductive way of interpreting the Council, these essays provide a thorough, instructive overview of the debates it inspired.

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Liam Ray

Lecture: “The Social Vision of Leo XIII in the Twenty-First Century”

On Thursday, March 17, in Washington, First Things Magazine will host a lecture, “The Social Vision of Leo XIII,” by Russell Hittinger. Those interested can RSVP here. Here’s a description:

For more than a century, Catholic social teaching was organized and propounded in light of three institutions thought to be necessary for human happiness: family, polity, and church. The Church insisted that human flourishing requires a dynamic concord between domestic, political, and ecclesial orders, and that membership in these three societies is not strictly voluntary. All of the chief principles of Catholic social thought were formulated and clarified using this three-fold institutional paradigm, focused on the harmonization of the three societies, beginning with Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903) and continuing for most of the following century.

Despite some great successes, especially during the post-war era, the picture eventually turned cloudy for the threefold model of human social life. First, what Pope John Paul II called the “anthropological crisis” deeply eroded confidence in a normative account of institutions. Beginning with marriage and family, the three necessary societies began to be seen as merely optional elements of individual lifestyle—choices and contracts reducible to personal preference or global economics.

Whereas the problem for the better part of two centuries was how to reduce the rivalry and conflict between the three necessary societies, today the main issue is a human sociability set free from normative institutions. We have entered a time perplexities—a time of doubt and suspicion about social order that transcends private exchanges and distributions. We are in the fluidly “prophetic” era of Pope Francis. What does this mean for human society in its three basic institutions? Can peace still be made between them?

Russell Hittinger, Warren Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, will take up these questions in a public lecture held at The Catholic University of America on Thursday, March 9th, 2017. The event is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception with refreshments.

Posted on December 9, 2016 by L&R Forum · 1 Comment

Forcades, “Faith and Freedom”

This month, John Wiley & Sons releases Faith and Freedom by Teresa Forcades, a Benedictine nun and “one of Europe’s leading radical thinkers.” The publisher’s description follows:

Teresa Forcades, Spanish Benedictine nun, theologian, physician and political activist, is one of Europe’s leading radical thinkers. Marrying her Catholic faith with a passion for social justice, she came to prominence for her eloquent condemnation of the abuses of some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. She has gone on to found a leading Catalonian anti-capitalist independence movement and is one of the leading voices in the world today against the injustices of capitalism and the patriarchy of modern society and of her own church.

In Faith and Freedom, her first book written in English, she skilfully weaves together her personal experiences with a reflection on morality, religion and politics to give a trenchant account of how the Christian faith can be a dynamic force for radical change. Placing herself in a powerful tradition of Catholic social doctrine and Liberation Theology, she applies her perspective to the issues most precious to her: freedom and love, social justice and political engagement, public health, feminism, faith and forgiveness.

Structured around the five canonical hours that give its peculiar rhythm to the monastic day, this book is a thoughtful and bold polemic against the exploitation and injustice of the status quo. Its call for liberty, love and justice will resonate with anyone disaffected with a savage and destructive political and economic system that marginalises and murders the poor and undermines the very fabric of social life.

Posted on January 25, 2016July 26, 2016 by Christina Vlahos

“Local Church, Global Church” (eds. Andes & Young)

In March, the Catholic University of America Press will release “Local Church, Global Church: Catholic Activism in Latin America from Rerum Novarum to Vatican II,” edited by Stephen J.C. Andes (Louisiana State University) and Julia G. Young (Catholic University of America). The publisher’s description follows:

This important volume investigates the many forms of Catholic activism in Latin America between the 1890s and 1962 (from the publication of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum to the years just prior to the Second Vatican Council). It argues that this period saw a variety of lay and clerical responses to the social changes wrought by industrialization, political upheavals and mass movements, and increasing secularization. Spurred by these local developments as well as by initiatives from the Vatican, and galvanized by national projects of secular state-building, Catholic activists across Latin America developed new ways of organizing in order to effect social and political change within their communities.

Additionally, Catholic responses to the nation-state during this period, as well as producing profound social foment within local and national communities, gave rise to a multitude of transnational movements that connected Latin American actors to counterparts in North America and Europe. The Catholic Church presents a particularly cohesive example of a transnational religious network. In this framework, Catholic organizations at the local, national, and transnational level were linked via pastoral initiatives to the papacy, while maintaining autonomy at the local level.

In studies of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Catholic renewal in Europe and the Americas, scholars have rarely given ample analysis of the translocal and transnational interconnections within the Catholic Church, which became critical to the energy, plurality, and endurance of Latin American Catholic activism leading up to, and moving through, the Second Vatican Council. By studying Latin America as a whole, Local Church, Global Church examines a larger degree of transnational and translocal complexity, and its investigative lens spans regional, hemispheric, transatlantic, and international borders. Furthermore, it sheds new light on the complex and multifarious forms of Catholic activism, introducing a fascinating cast of actors from lay organizations, missionary groups, devotional societies, and student activists.

Posted on November 27, 2015July 26, 2016 by Christina Vlahos

McAndrews, “Refuge in the Lord”

This month, the Catholic University of America Press released “Refuge in the Lord: Catholics, Presidents, and the Politics of Immigration, 1981-2013,” by Lawrence J. McAndrews (St. Norbert College). The publisher’s description follows:

When Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, immigration and refugee policy was among the unresolved matters that he inherited from his predecessor, Jimmy Carter. Over three decades later, it remains largely unresolved, due not only to the men who would inhabit the White House, but to interest groups and members of Congress, many of them Catholic, on all sides of the issue.

Carter appointed a Catholic priest, University of Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, to chair the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. The commission’s report, released in the early days of the Reagan Administration, helped produce the Immigration Reform and Control Act, signed by Reagan in 1986. Since it offered amnesty to those who were in the country illegally, Catholic immigration advocates, led by the American bishops, applauded the law as consistent with the church’s sacred mission and proud history of compassion toward strangers.

These Catholics were also on the same side as the White House when George H. W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990, which raised the ceiling for legal immigration; when George W. Bush in 2006 and Barack Obama in 2013 supported comprehensive immigration bills which passed the Senate; and when Obama granted temporary residence to the foreign-born children of undocumented immigrants in 2012. But they challenged the restrictive 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act signed by Bill Clinton; the interior enforcement efforts of George W. Bush and Barack Obama; and the border control and refugee policies undertaken by all presidents from Reagan to Obama.

Rather than helping to overcome the growing political divide over immigration in the country and the church, Catholics on the outer edges of the issue contributed to it. By eschewing compromise in favor of confrontation, Catholic legislators from both parties too often helped prevent Congress from giving the presidents, and the public, most of what they wanted on immigration reform. By forsaking political reality in the name of religious purity, Catholic immigration advocates frequently antagonized the presidents whose goals they largely shared, and ultimately disappointed the immigrants they so badly wanted to help.

Posted on September 28, 2015July 26, 2016 by

“The Cambridge Companion to Christian Political Theology” (Hovey & Phillips, eds.)

In November, Cambridge University Press will release “The Cambridge Companion to Christian Political Theology” edited by Craig Hovey (Ashland University) and Elizabeth Phillips (University of Cambridge). The publisher’s description follows:

Interest in political theology has surged in recent years, and this accessible volume provides a focused overview of the field. Many are asking serious questions about religious faith in secular societies, the origin and function of democratic polities, worldwide economic challenges, the shift of Christianity’s center of gravity to the global south, and anxieties related to bold and even violent assertions of theologically determined political ideas. In fourteen original essays, authors examine Christian political theology in order to clarify the contemporary discourse and some of its most important themes and issues. These include up-to-date, critical engagements with historical figures like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant; discussions of how the Bible functions theopolitically; and introductions to key movements such as liberation theology, Catholic social teaching, and radical orthodoxy. An invaluable resource for students and scholars in theology, the Companion will also be beneficial to those in history, philosophy, and politics.

Posted on September 22, 2015September 22, 2015 by geraldrussello

“American Law from a Catholic Perspective”

For some time now, legal scholars have been engaged in a project that seeks to examine law (and business practice as well insofar as that practice concerns law) through the lens of Catholic Social Thought. As part of my own interest in the subject, I have been making my way through this book, with the hopes of writing a longer review. I would like to use a few blog posts to develop some preliminary points to help shape my thinking.

The book, edited and selected by Ronald J. Rychlak, applies a Catholic perspective to a number of legal areas, such as torts, family law, and legal ethics. The contributions provide a good overview of the state of Catholic-inflected legal scholarship. The Catholic tradition has a number of principles, such as subsidiarity, solidarity, the common good, and the value and dignity of work, that at the level of scholarship can fruitfully engage American legal norms.

Whether you think this project worthwhile as a practical exercise – that is, whether Catholic thought can help lawyers in their day to day practice – may depend on whether you see the American legal landscape friendly to arguments rooted in that tradition. Some Catholics think the American experiment is opposed to Catholicism, especially in light of Obergefell and Roe. As Gerard Bradley of Notre Dame, who wrote the preface, notes, Catholicism has had little formally to do with American law, if by that we mean laws directly inspired by Catholic principles (the laws protecting priest-penitent privilege being an interesting exception). What positive laws there are in America oftentimes seem opposed to Catholics, from the public school cases of the nineteenth century to the HHS mandate.

Others, however, take a different view. Some excellent work has been done in this area, especially as it concerns “religious lawyering;” my friend Amy Uelmen has written on how a lawyer can insert her religious perspective even into a big corporate law firm practice. The Catholic tradition allows, indeed requires, Catholics to bring their faith to everyday interactions. On a more scholarly level, the book contains helpful analyses of, for example, the Eighth Amendment in light of Catholic teaching on the death penalty. As Robert George of Princeton notes in his essay, Catholic reflection on positive law assumes some connection to natural law. Without that connection, law becomes mere power relations and an instrument for injustice. Given cases like Roe, the Catholic intellectual tradition today must serve to limit that sense, common among the ruling legal elites, that law comprises its own morality rather than serving as a tool to further the common good.

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