The United Nations at 75: Catholic Perspectives

Free and open to the public. This event is co-presented with America Media, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, and is co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Collegium Institute, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Institute for Faith and Culture, the Institute for Human Ecology, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, and the St. Paul Catholic Center. This event will be held on Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. Historically, the Bishop of Rome and the diplomats representing the Holy See have played important roles in international affairs involving Empires and Kingdoms, sometimes in…
Is there a Catholic Vote? An Evangelical Vote? Religion, Polls and Presidential Elections

REGISTER HERE Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and YouTube live-stream. This event is cosponsored by America Media and the Institute for Human Ecology. The 2020 presidential race seemed to highlight the central role of religion in the electorate. Democrats spent heavily on campaign ads emphasizing Joe Biden’s Roman Catholicism. President Trump has spent the past four years courting Evangelicals and conservative Catholics. But is there really a religious vote? In this panel, experts will examine the relationship between religion, polls, and presidential elections.
Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System

This event is co-sponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, the Boston College Law School, the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Kolbe House Jail Ministry, St. Paul’s Catholic University Center, the Collegium Institute’s Legal Humanities Project, the National Center for the Laity, America Media, and Oxford University Press. There is growing bipartisan awareness of the need to reform the American criminal justice system. Solutions have been sought for over-criminalization, over-incarceration, and the disproportionate effect of the system upon minority communities. Many have observed a difference between European models of criminal justice, such as that in Germany, and the unique harshness…
Fragile Democracy: Technocratic Takeover and Popular Renewal

This event is co-presented with the Nova Forum and co-sponsored by America Media, the Collegium Institute, the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. We are experiencing a crisis of democracy more powerful than anything seen in a generation: inequality continues at a galloping pace; policing is increasingly racialized and militarized; political decision-making appears remote and divorced from the lives of ordinary people. This panel discussion—including renowned philosopher Charles Taylor–will consider sources and solutions to the present crisis of democracy by drawing on two recent books: Reconstructing Democracy by Charles Taylor, Patrizia Nanz, and Madeleine Beaubien…
The Origins of Mass Incarceration: The Courts and the 1960s Criminal Procedure Revolution?

This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center, Notre Dame Law School, Boston College Law School, the University of St. Thomas School of Law, the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, Catholic Prison Ministry Coalition, Kolbe House Jail Ministry, Seattle University, the Seattle University Crime and Justice Research Center, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, Fordham University School of Law, the Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham University School of Law, The Center on Race, Law, and Justice (Fordham University School of Law), the University of Denver College of Law Federalist Society,…
Pierre Manent on Natural Law and Human Rights

This event is cosponsored by University of Notre Dame Press and the de Nicola Center for Ethics & Culture. Shortly after the promulgation of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, Jacques Maritain wrote, “With regard to Human Rights, what matters most to a philosopher is the question of their rational foundations. The philosophical foundation of the Rights of man is Natural Law. Sorry that we cannot find another word!” In his recent book Natural Law and Human Rights: Toward a Recovery of Practical Reason (Notre Dame Press, 2020), leading Catholic political philosopher Pierre Manent takes a different and decidedly more critical approach…
United by Their Loves: Deciphering Augustine’s Understanding of a People
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This event is cosponsored by America Media. The president in his inaugural address quoted Augustine of Hippo’s definition of a people as “a multitude defined by the common objects of their love.” This surprising event offers us the occasion to consider Augustine’s definition and its implications for our understanding of life in society: what role do our loves play in fashioning us as people? Can disparate loves divide a people? What does Augustine think we should love in order to belong to the people who inhabit the City of God? Join us for a moderated conversation between Profs. Russell Hittinger, Michael…
Justice and Peace: A Radical Reconsideration of Public Safety – A Roundtable Discussion

8:00 PM ET | 7:00 PM CT | 5:00 PM PT This zoom webinar event is free and open to the public. Presented by Seattle University and The Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network. Nearly fifty years ago, Pope St. Paul VI said, “If you want Peace, work for Justice.” Echoing his words, “No Justice, No Peace” has become the chant of protesters from Seattle to Atlanta seeking freedom not only from excessive use of force by police but also from unjust inequities across social and political structures. This roundtable presentation invites policing scholars in the fields of law, criminology, and theological ethics…
POSTPONED: Jacques Maritain’s “Man and the State”

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. WE WILL ANNOUNCE THE NEW DATE IN THE COMING WEEKS. THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT. Open to current graduate students and University of Chicago Undergraduates. Others who are interested in participating should contact us. Copies of Man and the State (CUA Press, 1998) will be provided for registrants. Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) was perhaps the most influential Catholic social and political philosopher of the 20th century. He taught at Columbia and Princeton, and was a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Chicago, where he gave the Walgreen Lectures, later published as Man and the State (1951). Appointed the French…
Redeeming Punishment: Catholic Approaches to Criminal Justice Reform

The Lumen Christi Institute’s Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network and the Catholic Social and Political Thought Initiative of the UW-Madison Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy present Catholic Perspectives on Criminal Justice Reform: a Scholarly Colloquium. This three-day public lecture and workshop series gathers a diverse array of legal scholars and ethicists to explore how Catholic tradition and social thought can inform the many challenges confronting today’s American criminal justice system. As part of this colloquium, there will be a keynote panel on “Redeeming Punishment: Catholic Approaches to Criminal Justice Reform,” featuring Dean Strang, Cecelia Klingele, Rev. Javier del Castillo, and Secretary Kevin…