Minneapolis meeting of the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought

I'm happy to report that the second meeting of the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought, which we hosted here at the University of St. Thomas this year, was a thoroughly successful follow-up to last year's organizational get-together at Fordham.  The model that we generated at Fordham seems to have worked very well.  The deliberately interactive sessions generated wide-ranging, broad discussions among all the participants, during which we were able to expore multiple dimensions of each issue -- from the theoretical frameworks of the ideas, to the practical challenges of implementing the theories in our teaching and scholarship, to the pastoral challenges of modeling Christianity while engaging the culture. 

We began with a day of introduction to Catholic social thought through the lens of economic life, led by the economist/theologian Daniel Finn from St. John's University in Collegeville, MN.  (Just before joining our conference, Finn had been presiding over the meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America, as outgoing President.  John Allen's current column describes Finn's Presidential Address there last Sunday as one of the most impressive talks he's ever heard, explaining:  "When I say "impressive," I mean not just intellectually provocative or rhetorically satisfying, though Finn's address was both, but also brave and potentially transformative -- not only for the CTSA, but for American Catholicism.")

We then continued with two days of roundtables, panels, workshops featuring, among many other wonderful contibutors, theologians Paul Wojda and Bill Cavenaugh, medical doctor Sr. Marie Paul Lockerd, and MOJer's Amy Uelmen, Patrick Brennan, and Michael Scaperlanda.  One of our guests was the sociologist Sr. Edith Bogue of the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.  She has posted a discussion of the conference (with pictures!) on her blog, Monastic Musings (scroll down -- you'll recognize the people in the pictures.)  MOJer Susan Stabile graced us with an extraordinary Ignatian prayer excercise, and Fr. Reggie Whitt (who will be rejoining us at UST in a few weeks after 4 years as President of the Dominican House of Studies in D.C.) and Fr. Greg Kalscheur (Boston College) celebrated Masses for us.

And, of course, there was some time for the other goal of this group -- community building. We had a fun (if rather boisterous by the end) dinner together at an Italian restaurant downtown, and a much more mellow outing to the Loome Theological Bookstore in Stillwater  (where everyone found at least one book they were looking for or didn't know they needed, but where, we all agree, Patrick Brennan won the prize for buying the most), followed by dinner on the outdoor patio of a bar on the banks of the St. Croix River, on a picture-perfect beautiful summer evening.

Next year, we'll be meeting at Seattle University School of Law.  Our introductory day is going to grapple in some way with how we deal with issues of authority in incorporating Church teachings in our work.  We'll be putting together segments on legal theory, the pastoral implications of teaching as a Catholic law professor, developing a "scholarly persona" as a Catholic, and workshopping Rob Vischer's current book project on conscience.  Although it has been a true joy to work on pulling together this year's meeting, I'm happy to hand over the reins to Russ Powell.  I am already looking forward to what I will learn from this extraordinary group of scholars and friends next year!  Expect to start hearing from Russ as the year goes on.

Lisa