Center Update: Catholic Social Teaching and the Economic Crisis

In November 1986, in the midst of an economic expansion, the Bishops of the United States published a pastoral letter on Catholic Social Teaching and its policy implications. They gave it the title “Economic Justice for All.” A quarter century later, the economy is stagnating, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall St. have emerged, and we are in the midst of a prolonged budget crisis.

On Tuesday, December 6, the Berkley Center and the Governance Studies Program at Brookings convened a roundtable of four experts to address “Economic Justice for All” and its legacy: E.J. Dionne (Brookings Institution and Georgetown), Ross Douthat (New York Times), Christine Firer Hinze (Fordham) and Rev. Robert Sirico (Acton Institute).

The participants discussed how well the Bishops' analysis and prescriptions hold up after 25 years. And they addressed a broader, related question: How relevant is Catholic Social Teaching to today's economic and budget crisis? In an election year that will turn not just on the state of the economy but also on different views of economic justice, the question is a critical one.

- Tom Banchoff

>> Event Details and to RSVP
>> The Bishop’s 1986 Pastoral Letter "Economic Justice for All"
>> Knowledge Resources on the Church and Economic and Social Justice