Workers' Participation in the United States: Catholic Social Teaching and Democratic Theory

1997 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Philip J. Chmielewski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Teaching

Traveling Light: Pilgrim Law and the Nexus between Law, Politics and Catholic Social Teaching

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 445-479
Author(s):  
Amelia J. Uelmen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Tax Exempt

Coming out of a church whose marks of identity include unity, holiness, and universality, it is ironic—and painful—that the “Catholic vote” has become a “metaphor” for polarization in United States culture and politics. As one reporter described the scene in the weeks before the 2004 presidential election: Some rail against their own bishops, while others cheer what they see as a long-awaited stand of conscience. The tension seemed to reach a peak yesterday, when the Vatican felt compelled to publicly dismiss the claims of a Catholic lawyer who said he had Vatican support to seek [Senator] Kerry's excommunication.Tensions have also manifested themselves in the variety of Catholic “voter's guides.” Some list a limited number of “non-negotiable” issues—particular actions that are identified in Catholic moral theology as “intrinsic evil” and suggest that candidates be evaluated according to their stand on these particular issues. For example, the Catholic Answers Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics, first distributed prior to the 2004 election, named “five non-negotiables”: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning and homosexual marriage. As these moral principles “do not admit of exception or compromise,” the Guide reasoned that political consequences should be clear: “You should avoid to the greatest extent possible voting for candidates who endorse or promote intrinsically evil policies.”In the interim between the 2004 and 2006 elections, a few organizations congealed to formulate competing guides. Others rallied around Faithful Citizenship, the United States Bishop's long-standing official commentary on the nexus between the principles of Catholic social teaching and political participation. Others directly challenged the Catholic Answers guide as a distortion of Catholic social teaching and argued that its partisan activities were a potential threat to the Roman Catholic Church's tax-exempt status.

The Early Teaching of John Paul II

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Intellectual Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
New Framework

The future Pope John Paul II’s intellectual development was shaped by his experience in communist Poland, a context very different from Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States, where the main strands of Catholic social thought had emerged. As archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyła developed a philosophy centered on the concepts of praxis and participation, which laid the groundwork for his later social teaching as pope. This chapter looks at this early philosophical work, as well as his first two social encyclicals, Laborem Exercens and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis. In particular, it looks at the issues of human work, structures of sin, and liberation. John Paul II’s early teachings represent the beginning of a new framework for Catholic social teaching, the communio framework, which emphasizes the distinctiveness of Christian revelation in the midst of the contradictions of modernity.

Two Models of Public Opinion: Bacon's ‘New Logic’ and Diotima's ‘Tale of Love’ (The Prothero Lecture)

1974 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Samuel H. Beer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Work Done

It is appropriate that an American should address himself to the subject of public opinion. For, in terms of quantity, Americans have made the subject peculiarly their own. They have also invested it with characteristically American concerns. Most of the work done on the subject in the United States is oriented by a certain theoretical approach. This approach is democratic and rationalist. Both aspects create problems. In this paper I wish to play down the democratic problem, viz., how many of the voters are capable of thinking sensibly about public policy, and emphasize rather the difficulties that arise from modern rationalism. Here I take a different tack from most historians of the concept of public opinion, who, taking note of the origin of the term in the mid-eighteenth century, stress its connection with the rise of representative government and democratic theory.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Gerald J. Beyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
The University

The introduction describes the author’s purpose, aims, and methodology of the book and why it should matter to all who care about Catholic higher education. The author discusses his own indebtedness to Catholic higher education and acknowledges that Catholic colleges and universities in the United States serve students and society in laudable ways. However, the introduction presents the thesis of the book: many Catholic institutions of higher education have failed to embody the values of the Gospel and the principles of Catholic social teaching (CST) in some important institutional policies and practices. Just Universities argues that the corporatization of the university undermines the fidelity of Catholic higher education to its mission by hindering efforts to promote worker justice on campus, equitable admissions, financial aid, and retention policies, just diversity and inclusion policies, and socially responsible investment and stewardship of resources. The author acknowledges the argument of the book represents one perspective and is intended to generate more sustained conversation about ways that Catholic social teaching should shape the life of Catholic institutions of higher learning.

scholarly journals From Liability Shields to Democratic Theory: What We Need from Tort Theory Now

2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Li Feldman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tort Liability ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
American Conservatism

Abstract In the United States, one startling response to COVID-19 has been a push for so-called “liability shields,” laws modifying tort doctrine so as to largely eliminate tort liability for negligently causing COVID-19. Though not enacted at the federal level, such changes have been adopted in numerous states. This article excavates and articulates the tort theory that lies behind this puzzlingly response to a pandemic. I call the theory “tort deflationism.” Grounded in modern American conservatism and with a doctrinal pedigree dating back to the 1970s, tort deflationism explains and justifies only minimal tort liability, out of deference to non-governmental actors – especially family, church, and business—and suspicion of government competence and power. Other tort theories should reckon with tort deflationism, and I discuss some challenges of doing so. The contest between tort deflationism and other theories speaks to ongoing debates about the legitimacy of law in pluralist democracies. I urge tort theorists to enter these debates and to consider their implications for tort law itself.

scholarly journals Safe Injection Sites: A Moral Reflection

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-93
Author(s):  
Steven Bozza ◽  
Jeffrey Berger
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Healthcare Ethics ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Common ◽  
Safe Injection

This article addresses the issue of safe injection sites (SIS) that municipalities in the United States and elsewhere in the world propose to save lives by curbing the instances of fatal overdoses and provide addicts with healthcare services and opportunities for detoxification and social rehabilitation. Drawing on current clinical science and the medical facts regarding substance abuse and addiction, widely accepted bioethical principles, Catholic social teaching, and the common good, it shows the administration and consumption of illicit recreational drugs in an SIS is not a suitable medical intervention and a violation of the core principles of Catholic social teaching and Catholic healthcare ethics. More importantly, municipal governing bodies and the clinicians who staff these facilities cooperate in the evil of illegal drug abuse. Summary: Safe injection sites are morally illicit.

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