CST and Ecology

A few days ago Rick was kind enough to post a notice of our Villanova conference on Catholic Social Teaching and Ecology, November 9-11, with friend-of-MOJ Lucia Silecchia as one of the speakers. He asked if I could chip in some more info, so here goes. This conference is sponsored by the Journal of Catholic Social Thought, which also sponsors our annual confab on CST and the law, and which will publish the proceedings of the ecology conference. We do at least one CST conference a year in addition to the law conference, often focusing on the anniversary of one of the major social encyclicals or on major themes such as CST and globalization. These conferences tend to be very interdisciplinary (theology, philosophy, history, political theory, economics and even law). While the CST/ecology theme is pretty far out of my area of expertise (even my area of pretended expertise), I can say that it will focus on an increasingly important theme in CST that has drawn attention not just from the theorists, but from some national bishops' conferences. It also creates links with a broader "ecotheology" being developed in other religious traditions. Lucia is among the few legal academics who has have begun to explore the legal implications of a CST-informed environmental ethic. Lucia is the only law prof type participating in the ecology conference.

-- Mark