Another Reaction to the Compendium

Alison Sulentic from Duquesne sent this reponse to my query about the possible use of the Compendium as a teaching tool:

"I have spent some time reading the Compendium over the past few months. I teach a class at Duquesne Law School entitled "Faith, Justice & Social Responsibility" and, like you, I assign the encyclicals and other magesterial documents. However, at this point I don't think I will be assigning significant portions of the Compendium in lieu of the original encyclicals and Vatican II documents. I agree with the review in America a few months ago (I think it was by Tom Massaro) which noted that the Compendium is heavily footnoted to JP II's writings and that this has the somewhat unfortunate effect of unduly emphasizing his writings in comparison to other sources.

"While JP II's contribution to CST is important, I think it is equally important for the students to see that CST's roots extend well beyond JP II's work. In my class, I assign excerpts by Aristotle and Aquinas, as well as materials from most of the major social encyclicals and Vatican II. Then I supplement this with materials from the Catholic Bishops' Conference and other non-magisterial writers. My concern is that the intellectual history of the development of CST might be less apparent if one relied solely on the Compendium. So, that's my two-cents on the issue that you raised on MOJ, for what it's worth."

Thanks to Alison for her helpful comments.