Catholic Social Thought and Citizenship at Villanova Law

Well, we had a rewarding day at the Sixth Annual Symposium on CST and the Law here at Villanova Law on Saturday. It is hard to believe this was our 6th conference! When we started,only occasional conferences at Notre Dame and Amy's new programs at Fordham were regularly giving expression to the Catholic voice in legal education. (I'm sure I am forgetting and offending someone, but there truly was not a lot going on!) Today, St. Thomas and St. John's are regularly weighing in with annual conferences, and new programs are popping up at other Catholic law schools. These symposia and conferences are vital to sustaining a network of scholars working in Catholic legal theory, and we at Villanova are happy to be doing our part.

The timely theme for this year's symposium was Catholic social thought and citizenship. The papers presented ranged over history, politics, theology, philosophy, and law. Several speakers, including our own John Breen from Loyola-Chicago and Amy Uelmen from Fordham, wrestled with the question of politicians, voters, and abortion. One panel (Greg Kalscheur from BC, Aidan O'Neill from Scotland, and Amy) addressed conscience and citizenship, to which our own Patrick Brennan responded. John Keown, the Kennedy Chair of Ethics at Georgetown--and an Englishman!--questioned whether the Revolutionary War was an unjust war and what that might say about American Catholicism. Our keynoter was John Coleman, S.J., a giant among scholars of Catholic social thought in the US, who discussed the relationship between discipleship and citizenship. Others who spoke were Michael Baxter from Notre Dame, Michael White from Arizona State, Ed Gaffney from Valparaiso, Tisha Rajendra of UST, Kevin Lee from Campbell, Bruce Frohnen from Ohio Northern, and Gene McCarraher, Jeanne Schindler, and Christine Palus from Villanova. Most importantly, we had speakers with a remarkably wide range of views who disagree strongly with one another on tough issues on the eve of an election but came together for a day of civil dialogue.

Many thanks to my Villanova colleague Mike Moreland, who did the lion's share of the work in organizing this conference, and fulfilled a faculty member's main obligation -- making his dean look good!

MAS