Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Position of possible interest to MOJ readers

We are looking for a new Program Manager for the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Law, Thought, and Public Policy, which I co-direct.  The Institute is an interdisciplinary venture the University of St. Thomas the Center for Catholic Studies and the School of Law, working to engage the church, the academic community, and the public in rigorous discussions that bring historical and contemporary Catholic perspectives to bear on debates in law and public policy.  From Augustine and Aquinas to Galileo and Thomas More, on to Montesquieu, Mother Teresa, Saint John Paul II and Pope Francis, the vibrant programs of the Murphy Institute plumb the interdisciplinary riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition and draw upon other academic disciplines and faith traditions to engage the church and community, facilitate scholarship, provide public policy analysis, and support student scholars.

 A link to the job posting is  HERE.

October 26, 2018 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Friday, August 31, 2018

Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women

August 30, 2018

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Vatican City

Your Holiness: 

You have said that you seek a more incisive female presence in the Church,” and that “women are capable of seeing things with a different angle from [men], with a different eye. Women are able to pose questions that we men are not able to understand.”

We write to you, Holy Father, to pose questions that need answers.

........  read the rest and add your name here.

 

I'm proud to be one of the original signatories.  Last time I checked, the count was over 12,000 (in less than one day!)

August 31, 2018 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Time to Flourish: Protecting Families' Time for Work and Caregiving

The Center for Public Justice (CPJ), just released a powerful report:  “Time to Flourish: Protecting Families’ Time for Work and Caregiving”, as part of  CPJ initiative called Families Valued "that advances workplace practices and public policies that honor both work and family care".  CPJ is "an independent, nonpartisan organization devoted to public policy research and civic education with a distinct theological lens. Working outside the familiar categories of right and left, conservative and liberal, the Center for Public Justice seeks to help citizens and public officeholders respond to God’s call to do justice." 

The report is an elegant brief for the need to address the deplorable lack of support for family life in this country. It draws on a wide spectrum of Christian theological sources, but offering concrete, contemporary examples of the problems, as well as practical suggestions for policy changes.  An Op Ed in today's Christianity Today by one of the co-authors expresses the hope that the some recent indications of bipartisan support expressed at a recent Senate subcommittee hearing on paid family leave (including a proposal championed by Ivanka Trump) might lead to some changes.  Hear, hear!

July 17, 2018 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Recent victories in battle against legalization of physician assisted suicide

This morning, Riverside Superior Court Judge Ottolia, overturned the California End of Life Option Act, a law allowing physician-assisted suicide.  Judge Otollia “ruled that the state legislature should not have approved the assisted-suicide law during that special session because the subject of the law fell outside the grounds of the special session.” Judge Ottolia also stated that the End of Life Option Act does not fall under the category of healthcare options.  The ruling will certainly be appealed and challenged, probably overruled, but it is heartening to see some recognition of the fallacy of considering assisted suicide "health care."

Even more heartening is the fact that proposals to legalize physician assisted suicide in both Massachusetts and Delaware failed this past spring, despite intense targeting by Compassion in Choices.  Hard-fought victories by the opponents in both cases, but victories none the less.

May 16, 2018 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Some Good Analysis of the Issues raised by the Charlie Gard case

Melissa Moschella, Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics at Columbia University, wrote an excellent analysis of the competing interests of the doctors, the courts, and the parents of 11-month old Charlie Gard, who was born with a rare genetic disease known as mitochondrial depletion syndrome.  The hospital in England where Charlie is being treated wants to withdraw his life support, while his parents want to take up the offer of an American specialist at Columbia University in New York to try some experimental treatment.  The High Court in Britain first refused the parents permission to do so, and is now reconsidering the matter.  More recently, Melissa offered some interesting thoughts about the propriety of having Charlie's court-appointed guardian ad litem being represented in court by a lawyer who is actively involved in an organization closely aligned with Dignity in Dying, an advocacy group for assisted suicide.

July 20, 2017 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Friday, June 16, 2017

Fast-Tracking ACA Reform

I'm not sure what the most effective response to the dearth of civil, respectful political debate in our country is, but I certainly don't think the answer is to quelch all dialogue.  But that seems to be exactly what the Republican leadership in the Senate is doing with its response to the House's American Health Care Act.  As this Washington Post article reports, Senator McConnell has invoked the fast-track procedure that will bring the bill right to the floor for a vote, without any committee hearings.  The bill itself is being negotiated in private, with the expectation that it would be released within 24 hours of a vote, leaving nobody who might want to undertake a thoughtful examination of these important issues with any time to do so.  I don't pretend to understand all the details of the complexities of the ACA or its reform, but I am seeing desperate appeals from disability advocacy groups (like this from the National Down Syndrome Congress, and this from The Arc), describing the devastating effect the changes to Medicaid currently in the House bill, and likely to be in the Senate bill, will have on services to people with disabilities.  If you don't have a family member with a disability, have you heard anything at all about this aspect of ACA reform?

This really isn't any way to run a country, is it?

June 16, 2017 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

A Conversation with Cardinal Peter Turkson

If you are in the DC area tomorrow evening, you might be interested in attending a Conversation with Cardinal Peter Turkson, the head of the new Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development, on "Vatican Perspectives on Care for Creation, Economic Injustice, the Refugee Crisis, and Peace." Details and registration are here.  John Carr, Director of Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, has organized this public event in connection with a convening of US Academic Centers on Catholic Social Thought.  Should be a very interesting couple of days in DC!

May 30, 2017 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Serving Students with Disabilities in Catholic Schools

One of the greatest privileges of serving on the Board of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability is learning from my talented and committed fellow board members.  Two of them (Michael J. Boyle, Director, Andrew M. Greeley Center for Catholic Education, School of Education, Loyola University Chicago, and Pamela R. Bernards, Director for Professional Development, National Catholic Educational Association) have just published a fantastic white paper entitled One Spirit, One Body:  An Agenda for Serving Students with Disabilities in Catholic Schools, available here.

Some interesting findings:

Despite the fact that private schools are not required to legally comply with the least restrictive environment mandates of the Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), there is evidence to show that Catholic schools are responding to the Church’s challenge to serve students with disabilities.

The principle findings of the USCCB (2002) study, Catholic School Children with Disabilities, found that nationally, 7 percent of children enrolled in Catholic schools are children with disabilities, compared to 11.4 percent enrolled in public schools. When comparing disability types, Catholic schools enroll a greater percentage of children diagnosed with hearing impairment or deafness, developmental delay, speech/language, uncorrected vision impairment or blindness, traumatic brain injury, and other health impairments than public schools (USCCB, 2002: p. 11). Huppe (2010) notes that other disability categories such as mental retardation, autism, and emotional disorders have a “significantly lower representation in Catholic schools than in public schools.”

Boyle and Bernards offer great suggestions for dealing with some of the challenges of including students with disabilities in Catholic schools.  They acknowledge the tension felt by many Catholic schools between wanting to serve students with disabilities and the financial burdens of doing so, but remind us that:

. . .the United States Catholic Bishops have stated:
Costs must never be the controlling consideration limiting the welcome offered to those among us with disabilities, since provision of access to religious functions is a pastoral duty (USCCB, 1998, p.2).
“The focus on the inequities in funding between public and private schools often provides an opportunity to justify the inability to provide services for children with special needs” (Moreau, Weaver, R. Davis, S. Landers M. 2006). However, the failure to serve students with disabilities in Catholic schools may actually be “due to an underlying belief on the part of many Catholic educators that children with special needs would be better served elsewhere” (Moreau et al., 2006). In many instances, it has been an assumption that the responsibility for the education of students with disabilities lies in the public school domain, whereas Catholic education encompasses so much more than just academic preparation. Catholic education offers spiritual formation, a faith community and a sense of belonging to the larger church which cannot be replicated within the public school setting. Certainly, the Bishops have noted the value in the interaction between those individuals with disabilities and those without. In such an interchange, “it is often the person with a disability who gives the gift of most value” (USCCB, 1998). Educating individuals with disabilities within the Catholic school setting helps those without disabilities to see the real world reflected in their school, creates a sense of normalization that disability is a part of life and helps to minimize the stigma of disability.

 

May 25, 2017 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Call for Papers: "Building Institutions for the Common Good: The Purpose and Practice of Business in an Inclusive Economy"

My colleagues at the Ryan Institute have put out a call for papers for a conference next summer that is sure to be of interest to many MOJ readers.

The Tenth International Conference on 
Catholic Social Thought and Business Education

and

The Sixth Colloquium on Christian Humanism in Business and Society

 

"Building Institutions for the Common Good:

The Purpose and Practice of Business in an Inclusive Economy"

 

University of St. Thomas

St. Paul - Minneapolis, Minnesota

June 21-23, 2018

The common good is a prominent principle and one of the pillars of the Catholic social tradition.  Its origins in Judaism and Hellenistic philosophy were taken up by the early Christian community and reinforced by Christ's commandment of charity, forgiveness, and service. As suggested by its ancient roots, the principle is not exclusive to Christian faith; other religions and philosophical traditions uphold it too. Still, sharing an appreciation for the concept does not remove the important work about the meaning of the common good and its operational and institutional significance in business.  

Scholarly reflections on the common good vary in correspondence with the whole range of existing philosophical, economic, political, and social positions. This is certainly true among leading voices in the development of Catholic social thought -- Jacques Maritain, Neo-Thomism, civil economy, personalism, and Catholic liberalism, among others. What has not been as developed is a tradition of thought that engages the common good with the purpose and practice of business.  This conference is set out to make a contribution in this area.  

As business and its impact have moved into virtually every country and culture on the planet, so have questions about its role in regard to human well-being and to what society holds in common. This makes the common good a subject for reflection in the education of all future business professionals.  There may be as well a particular opportunity and benefit for reflecting on the common good in the context of business education in Catholic universities. Uniquely prepared to address the idea of the common good from a theoretical perspective, Catholic business education is also uniquely positioned to reflect on it as a moral principle for leaders and as an aspirational principle for a business mission.    

This conference on "Building Institutions for the Common Good: The Purpose and Practice of Business in an Inclusive Economy" welcomes participants from multiple disciplines and perspectives ready to engage in a constructive dialogue on the common good and how a growing number of people can participate in the market economy and finance in an equitable, stable, and sustainable way. We take the common good within the Catholic social tradition as our starting point in this discussion.

We are looking for papers in three tracks: broad, organizational and theoretical treatments of the common good; the common good in relation to individual disciplines (marketing, personnel management, strategy, etc.); and curriculum design, materials, and pedagogical approaches for addressing the common good in a business context.

Track One - Exploring the Common Good, Its Meaning and Its Capacity to Inspire and Sustain Ethical Institutions

It is relatively easy to criticize what does not work and even necessary to do so. The much more challenging task is to build a humane and flourishing society. Catholic social teaching has examined property, free and ethical markets, businesses, the rule of law, and the legal protection of workers as some of the institutions that are essential in creating institutions that work. However, the best institutions falter if they are undercut by a lack of individual conscience and social virtue. Thus, Catholic social teaching also repeats demands for virtuosity: structures and institutions alone are not capable of solving the problems that beset society

Topic areas:

  • Theological and philosophical visions of the common good;
  • Markets and the common good;
  • The purpose of business and the common good;
  • Property and the common good;
  • Law and the common good;
  • Interrelation of the common good with other principles of Catholic social teaching;
  • Business and its social and moral frameworks;
  • Business, family life, and the common good;
  • Social value and the responsibility of business;
  • The common good in business ethics;
  • Religious and wisdom traditions on the common good;
  • Philosophy of business and the common good.

Track Two - Exploring the Common Good and Its Relevance for Specific Fields of Management

Principles that are discussed on an abstract level can remain bloodless and unsubstantial. Not infrequently the abstract principles, like the common good, become clear by application in concrete circumstances. We welcome papers that explore the meaning and relevance of the common good in specific fields of management and business, especially (but not exclusively) if they discuss the institutional dimension in fields such as the following:

  • marketing;
  • strategy and governance;
  • managing people in the organization;
  • finance;
  • operations;
  • compliance and regulation.

Track Three - Providing Curricular Materials, Processes, and Ideas that Reflect the Significance and Practical Wisdom of Business and Leadership Reflection on the Common Good

Topic areas:

  • Case studies that address breaches and/or success in managerial efforts to create business cultures that address social justice and institutionalize approaches that work;
  • Experiential exercises that examine the question of the common good;
  • Video or computer-based approaches that enhance teaching about the common good;
  • Literature and cross-disciplinary activities that highlight questions of the common good.

In the area of curriculum development, we are specifically looking for syllabi, background notes, and teaching notes that engage the Catholic social tradition and the disciplines of business and liberal education. For examples, please see

http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/cst/curriculum-dev/biz-ed/


Call for Paper Proposals:  

The selection committee is looking for submissions that engage one of the three tracks described above.   Please send a one to two-page single spaced proposal which includes the following: thesis/purpose, outline of paper as well as a one paragraph biography that includes institutional position and affiliation, recent publications, research interest, practical experience.  The best papers will be published. Papers eligible for publication must be in English. Presentations in workshops must also be delivered in English. 

Call for Abstracts and Workshops:

In addition to the classic formula for presentations (max. 25 minutes each: about 15 minutes for the presentation itself and 10 minutes for discussion), workshops in groups may also be proposed, with brief talks and an immediate discussion of ideas. We will admit arguments that seek to find connections between the other participants and small groups already engaged in a specific topic. Presentations of professional activities and educational experiences are also welcome. 

Conference Background Papers and Annotated Bibliography:

Conference background papers and an annotated bibliography for this meeting will be available for your reference by June 1, 2017 at http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/news/commongood/. The annotated bibliography will be periodically updated.

 

Send proposals by November 1, 2017 to: Fr. Martin Schlag at [email protected].

Conference Organizers:

  • The John A. Ryan Institute, University of St. Thomas
  • MCE (Markets, Culture and Ethics) - Research Centre of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome
  • The Veritas Institute, University of St. Thomas

Conference Registration fee: $350. Registration will begin October 1, 2017 at http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/news/commongood/.

 

 

May 24, 2017 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink

Monday, May 8, 2017

Link to video of recent Douthat/West conversation

Here is the link to the recent Murphy Institute conversation between Ross Douthat and Cornel West on "Christianity and Politics in the U.S. Today."  We've edited the wide-ranging 2-hour conversation down to a manageable hour, including highlights such as: an analysis of recent U.S. military interventionism in light of Christian principles; a fascinating debate about whether the term "white supremacy" is applicable to any situation other than the relationship between blacks and whites in the United States; Ross Douthat asking Cornel West:  "What about sex?", and the ensuing discussion; and the moving and thoughtful response to a young Latina woman's request for advice to her generation about dealing with the perception of increased racism, discrimination, and xenophobia. 

Minnesota Public Radio will be broadcasting the conversation as part of their MPR News Presents series, tomorrow (May 9) at both noon and 9 pm (CST).  That link is here.

May 8, 2017 in Schiltz, Elizabeth | Permalink