Catholic Social Teaching: A Summer Reading Group Special
A New Summer Collaborative Reading Group
A new summer reading group, available to everyone, on key documents in Catholic Social Teaching.
With the election of Leo XIV, a lot of the attention has turned on Robert Francis Prevost’s choice of the papal name Leo XIV. As many suspected, his choice of Leo XIV was in homage to Leo XIII, the late 19th century pope who inaugurated a series of writings which have become known as Catholic Social Teaching. I had a chance to visit with our local NPR affiliate here about the significance that a new papacy has for all Christians of all persuasions, even if you’re not Roman Catholic.
Catholic Social Teaching, in a nutshell, brings contemporary concerns into conversation with Catholic doctrine, to show the salience of a theological frame for understanding contemporary challenges. Across the 20th century, this body of writing was developed and amplified by various popes, giving a comprehensive vision of what it means to be God’s humans, and connect this vision to the challenges of war, poverty, sex, globalization, and much more. If you want to dig into the full range of texts, this is a great place to begin in book form, though all of these are available digitally through the Vatican, and a compendium tying all the vision together is here.
And so, I reached out to
, who runs the Recovering Catholic newsletter to ask if she’d be interested in collaborating, and we came up with a four-part plan.The Reading Plan
Across the summer, we’ll host four discussions on four key texts within this tradition. This will be available to all readers, but since I can only accomodate so many on my Zoom account, priority will be given to supporting subscribers. I’ll send out a sign-up sheet for folks to express their interest, but I’m sure we’ll have room for all who want to do this.
So (while I’d love your support), we want this to be open to whoever wants to come together and learn.
The dates, and the texts (in their official Latin names), are as follows:
June 2: Rerum Novarum
June 23: Pacem In Terris
July 14: Centissimus Annus
July 28: Fratelli Tuttii
We’ll have more details, and a sign-up sheet in a week or two, but if you’re interested, put these on your calendar. The plan is for participants to read ahead, and we’ll organize into smaller groups over Zoom, with an introduction each time by either Sarah or myself.
In the meantime, you should go subscribe to Sarah’s newsletter, get a jump on the selected texts, or just enjoy the pool. Your call.
Hope you’ll join us for this summer readalong! For those of you looking for details about the upcoming read of Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, I’ll send out the Zoom details on that soon.