Solidarity is a central aspect of the Catholic social tradition and yet it is difficult to
capture in a simple definition. Building upon his predecessor’s examination of solidarity,
Pope Francis develops solidarity’s christological character, a previously underdeveloped aspect of Catholic social teaching. Francis’s use of place and proclamation
in public ministry calls for an ethic of inclusion and encounter. Francis turns to the
Incarnation as informing a theology of solidarity focused on both Jesus as model of
solidarity and of lived solidarity as an encounter with Christ.

This article traces the development of Catholic treatments of integral human
development from Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio to the writings of Pope Francis
on accompaniment. The author argues that community organizing is an important
avenue for promoting the political dimension of accompaniment as understood in the
teaching of Pope Francis.

This article surveys all the contributions in ethics on these pages over the past eighty
years and is divided into four historical parts: the first three years; the years from
1943 to 1964; the years Richard McCormick wrote from 1964 to 1984; and the years
beyond McCormick. It surveys a period from neo-Scholastic manualism at the eve of
World War II to the contemporary era, where methods for attaining moral objectivity
are complex. This survey notes shifts in theological method, the movement of the
center from the personal to the social, the transition from an exclusively clerical
authorship to a much broader array of authors, and a shift in readership from priest
confessors to professional theologians.

While Roman Catholic ethics of war and peace develops more restrictive criteria of
just war and reprioritizes nonviolence, an important strand of Protestant theology
defends war as a God-given instrument of government’s multiple ends. A newer ethics
of just peace and peacebuilding emerges from Christian initiatives to transform armed
conflict at intra-state and cross-border levels. This essay assesses these approaches
and pacifism, concluding with a perspective from the Global South.

This article examines the influence of Pope Francis on Catholic healthcare ethics. The
first section offers an analytical summary of his ethics. The second section reviews
a “Franciscan” approach to Catholic healthcare ethics, which situates that field
within the broader context of Catholic social teaching. The third section analyzes
the implications of three of Francis’s most powerful metaphors: his injunction to
“go to the peripheries”; his contrast between a throwaway culture and a culture of
encounter; and his comparison of the church to a field hospital.

While women continue to engage in ministry in increasing numbers, their presence
and activity is an unresolved issue in terms of ecclesial structure and meaning. In the
past the effects of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth-century women’s
movement combined to open the door to women’s active engagement. The ongoing
foundation of women’s vocation to ministry lies, in the present as always, in the
significance of baptism; its theology and ritual are the same for women as for men. In
the face of current impasse, the dangerous memory of biblical women in ministry at
the origins of the church offers inspiration and hope for the future.

Traditional Christologies have focused attention on the question of Jesus’ beatific knowing. On the other hand, recent explorations into Spirit Christology raise different questions about his affectivity. Both issues highlight a concern with Jesus’ psychological experience. The present article proposes that both these issues can be fruitfully examined through the lens of the psychological analogy for the Trinity. In particular, Bernard Lonergan’s developments of the analogy drawing as they do on the experience of grace, shed a new and helpful light on the question of Jesus’ knowing and loving. This approach alleviates some of the more problematic aspects of the traditional approach to Jesus’ beatific vision, while also providing a more solid trinitarian basis for Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

This article explores three aspects of John W. O’Malley’s contribution to the critical study of the Second Vatican Council: his contention that Vatican II reflects a new “style” or philosophy of history; that the distinctive rhetorical style of the conciliar texts is itself an expression of their substantive teaching; and finally, that the council is a decisive response to the crisis of modernity. A full appreciation of these insights requires that we consider his study of Vatican II against the horizon of his works on renaissance and early modern church history.

John O’Malley’s study of the rhetorical style of Vatican II bears also on the question of post-conciliar vernacular translations of the liturgy. This article proposes a “hospitality” model of liturgical translation as consonant with the conciliar style. Of the key instructions on liturgical translation, Comme le prévoit (1969) and Liturgiam Authenticam (2001), the earlier is more consistent with a hospitality model. Analysis of selected collects in the English translations of the Mass based on these instructions, The Sacramentary (1974/1985) and the Roman Missal (2010), respectively, indicates that The Sacramentary translation is likewise better in representing the hospitable style of Vatican II called for in the present liturgical context.

Thomas Aquinas’ theology of mercy is deeply marked by the liturgical tradition of the Order of Preachers, incorporating many explicit and implicit references to liturgical prayers in praise of God’s mercy. This article explores the liturgical context of Thomas Aquinas’ theology of mercy, demonstrating the influence of the Dominican liturgy on Thomas’ understanding and articulation of mercy and showing the subsequent influence of Thomas on Pope Francis’ theology of mercy.