Luke Arredondo

In the tradition of the Catholic Church, short works of meditation and spiritual theology have been written on the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  In this book, we make a modest effort at starting a tradition of doing the same thing with the Fatima Prayer.  O My Jesus: The Meaning of the Fatima Prayer is a work of popular theology, set to release in May of 2017 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions.

A Hermeneutic of Continuity: Pope Francis’ Ecology in Context

After the release of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, the New York Times called it “an urgent, accessible call to action” while the Washington Post noted mixed reactions from policy advocates, theologians, politicians, and other noteworthy media figures.  There is no denying that Francis is addressing “every person living on this planet” and certainly wants to spur some real changes to the world’s practices in a variety of areas from politics to environmental advocacy.  However, I argue that the proper way to understand his environmental concerns is through a more theological lense. 

While Pope Francis certainly has a different personal style and approach to the office of the Papacy, he has nonetheless continued a strain of thought that has been well-developed by his predecessors, especially Pope Benedict XVI.  Moreover, in writing an encyclical which focuses so much on environmental issues, it is important not to misread his motivation as being entirely political or scientific.  Indeed, to properly frame Francis’ ecological hermeneutics, we must be attendant to the development of the ideas of stewardship and care for creation.

In my paper, I will address the continuity of Pope Francis’ view of the environment with the ecology of Pope Benedict XVI, as well as its deep roots in the Catholic view of creation, particularly as laid out in the document of the International Theological Commission entitled Communion and Stewardship: Human Beings Created in the Image of God.  While my primary argument is that Francis’ vision of ecology is marked by continuity with the theological development of the issue at the level of the Papacy, I will also contend that Francis has advanced the dialogue in terms of the severity of the rhetoric and the discussion of policy ideas, rather than confining himself to the use of theological categories.

As is well-known by scholars interested in Humanae Vitae, the release of the Majority Report by the Commission on Problems of the Family, Population, and Natality to the press, followed by a two-year delay by Blessed Pope Paul VI, led to great controversy after the encyclical was finally promulgated in July of 1968.  The Majority Report would influence many of the earliest critiques against HV, particularly the Statement by theologians which was issued by Fr. Charles Curran of Catholic University of America.  In the Majority Report, and in the Statement from Curran and his co-signers, one common critique emerged that would dominate the discussion immediately following HV: Paul VI had focused too exhaustively on the biological aspect of conjugal relations, and was ignoring the long-term sexual activity of a couple.

I argue in this paper that the claim that Paul VI was narrowly focused on one area of human life, and ignored the wider humanism that some of his critics claimed to embrace, is erroneous.  In making my case, I will show that a critically important way of interpreting Humanae Vitae is by doing so in light of Populorum Progressio.  In short, my argument is that the vision of transcendent humanism, of the whole development of the human person, elaborated at length in Populorum Progressio, needs to be the base upon which one reads Humanae Vitae.  It is my contention that, by seeing HV as an extension of PP, one can see the much more broad focus that Paul VI brings to the idea of development.  By doing so, one can place HV in its proper context, as a clarification of just one aspect of the question of development.  The strongest link between the two encyclicals, I will argue, is the role of self-mastery in development broadly conceived (PP #25, 36, 37) and its role in the sexual union of husband and wife (HV #21).

Luke Arredondo, “Beauty: The Path to Transcendence.” Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans, LA.

In this paper, I examine the relationship between beauty as experienced through the senses and the encounter with beauty in the mystery of human love. Utilizing the work of Dietrich von Hildebrand and Fulton Sheen, I argue that the principle of superabundance and the transfiguration of human love into divine love through marriage gives modern man access to beauty in a way perhaps even more transforming than the experience of beauty through the senses in art and nature.

In this paper, I examine the references to St. Thomas Aquinas in Ch. 8 of Pope Francis' Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love).  My focus is to see how, or whether, Aquinas' citations advance Francis' argument, as well as what we can discern about Francis' argument by a close attention to his sources.

I discuss the arguments put forth in Griswold v. Connecticut and show that in the Papal Commission set up prior to Humanae Vitae and show that similar arguments are made in both cases with regard to privacy within the institution of marriage.  I also briefly look at the different kind of response of Catholics after the Griswold case and the current reaction to the ACA contraceptive mandate by showing how different issues are at stake.

In this paper I examine Iran's recent move to ban permanent forms of contraceptives, the way that religious argumentation is used to support shifting views of contraception in Iran, and make a comparative analysis of Catholic views on contraception.  Special emphasis is placed on the distinctive function of coitus interruptus in both Islamic and Catholic contexts.

Argues that the public policy debates around the Responsibility to Protect could be strengthened by utilizing religious arguments, as suggested in the original International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty recommended.  Paul Ramsey's vision of a Christian foundation for discrimination and proportionality in war is used as an example.