The article examines the place of Caritas in veritate in the documentary tradition of Catholic social teaching, its application of metaphysics to social questions, and its interpretation of social norms and the natural law. It treats the formative role of charity on government and world community and the application of the ethic of gratuitousness and

Within the vibrant life of the Catholic Church today, many currents of spirituality and specific projects can shed light on the encyclical’s themes and provide examples of what its principles might look like in practice. This note focuses on how Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity might offer a helpful way for people to understand how

Bernard Lonergan and René Girard provide succinct statements of the meaning of redemption. The article, having raised the question as to how the statements relate to one another, argues that Lonergan provides a heuristic structure for understanding redemption, while Girard supplies much of the data that the heuristic structure would organize. Complementarities between the two

Bernard Lonergan and René Girard provide succinct statements of the meaning of redemption. The article, having raised the question as to how the statements relate to one another, argues that Lonergan provides a heuristic structure for understanding redemption, while Girard supplies much of the data that the heuristic structure would organize. Complementarities between the two

For two centuries Catholic philosophers and theologians have generally treated Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy as incompatible with principles fundamental to Catholic accounts of the human condition in relation to God. This article argues that contemporary scholarship—particularly about the role of anthropological concerns in the critical project—indicates that Kant’s understanding of finite human freedom provides a

The Danish cartoon controversy was extremely problematic for Muslims. But the publication of the cartoons also raised profound normative questions about speech for the Catholic Church as well. This article addresses the cartoon controversy in light of the Catholic social teaching’s tradition on speech. In particular, the article addresses the issues of offensive speech; the

The author argues that the intention of the theological commission in proposing the change from “is” to “subsists in” was no longer to affirm full identity between the church of Christ and the Catholic Church, for the reason that such full identity contradicted the tradition followed by the popes and Western councils of recognizing the

Part I of this note assesses recent developments in embryonic stem cell research and HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in light of two recent magisterial texts: Dignitas personae on Certain Bioethical Questions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Caritas in veritate. Part II explores the implications of these

The war in Iraq has generated a vast amount of commentary, popular and scholarly, on a broad range of topics. This note reviews literature on three issues of particularly great moral significance that have arisen from the experience of U.S. military action in Iraq. There is the jus ad bellum question of the legitimacy of