On Monday, Febrary 4, 3:30 to 5, in Gorman Faculty Lounge the third and final semester of discussion of Catholic Social Teaching from 1891 to the present will begin with a discussion of John Paul II's encyclical from 1987. 

Carrying on the tradition, the pope, while defending private property and the preferred location of initiative regarding economic issues at the level closest to the individual (subsidiarity), nonetheless promotes a strong role for the federal government to ensure just distribution and care for the disadvantaged (preferential option for the poor).  The tradition has condemned unbridled free enterprise and totalitarianism but insists that private property itself has a social use. The overriding idea is that of solidarity.

Presentation and responses will be given by members of the Theology Department. The major presentation will be by John Medaille, with responses by Marianne Siegmund and Christopher Malloy.