This essay considers American Catholics who, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, reflected se... more This essay considers American Catholics who, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, reflected seriously on the religious significance of technology in general, and space science in particular. American Catholics, while no more immune from the belief that space science would create fundamental changes in human life than their Protestant, Jewish, and secular counterparts, nevertheless sought to understand the Space Age in their own distinctive terms. Catholic discussion of these issues revolved around the contributions of two theologians. From the earliest moments of the Space Age, Thomas Aquinas provided a justification for the work of Catholic scientists and astronauts within a Cold War framework. However, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's cosmic vision helped American Catholics integrate feelings of wonder and hope with darkly realistic fears about the military consequences of the space race. Thomas and Teilhard, fundamentally optimists, helped Catholics elaborate a vision of a way forward through the very real threats Americans confronted in the “long 1960s,” a vision they developed in books, articles, and speeches, but also in art, liturgy, and fiction. Ultimately, however, both extreme hopes about cosmic unification and extreme fears about total annihilation modulated, and like their fellow Americans interested in space flight during the 1960s, American Catholics turned in the early 1970s to a renewed focus on the Earth.
By the mid-1960s, American dioceses were beginning to be overwhelmed by the complexity of the adm... more By the mid-1960s, American dioceses were beginning to be overwhelmed by the complexity of the administrative problems facing them as inner cities and suburbs alike transformed under demographic, economic, and political pressures. This essay argues that the development of pastoral planning in the early 1970s emerged from valiant if doomed 1960s attempts to reduce these problems to quantifiable – and therefore manageable – proportions. The term "planning" came to represent the possibility of naming, and therefore potentially solving, the problem. Robert G. Howes, a priest-planner, was one of the key figures in promoting this idea. His work at Catholic University, as an author and speaker, and in the Archdiocese of Baltimore provides a window into the appeal as well as the limitations of "planning" for stressed diocesan administrators.
This essay argues that Catholic (magisterial) social teaching's division of ethics into public an... more This essay argues that Catholic (magisterial) social teaching's division of ethics into public and private creates a structural lacuna which makes it almost impossible to envision a truly just situation for migrant domestic careworkers (MDCs) within the current horizon of Catholic social thought. Drawing on a variety of sociological studies, I conclude that it is easy for MDCs to “disappear” between two countries, two families, and, finally, two sets of ethical norms. If the magisterium genuinely wishes Catholic ethicists to address the plight of these migrant women, normative Catholic social teaching must pay more attention to household sociological realities and more fully absorb the feminist critique of the sharp line between the public and the private, between care and paid work.
This exhibit documents the work of Frederick Franck, a Dutch-American artist (1909-2006) who atte... more This exhibit documents the work of Frederick Franck, a Dutch-American artist (1909-2006) who attended the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965 and drew and painted many of its delegates, as well as a variety of scenes of life at the Council. The exhibit is curated by Catherine R. Osborne and sponsored by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.
This essay considers American Catholics who, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, reflected se... more This essay considers American Catholics who, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, reflected seriously on the religious significance of technology in general, and space science in particular. American Catholics, while no more immune from the belief that space science would create fundamental changes in human life than their Protestant, Jewish, and secular counterparts, nevertheless sought to understand the Space Age in their own distinctive terms. Catholic discussion of these issues revolved around the contributions of two theologians. From the earliest moments of the Space Age, Thomas Aquinas provided a justification for the work of Catholic scientists and astronauts within a Cold War framework. However, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's cosmic vision helped American Catholics integrate feelings of wonder and hope with darkly realistic fears about the military consequences of the space race. Thomas and Teilhard, fundamentally optimists, helped Catholics elaborate a vision of a way forward through the very real threats Americans confronted in the “long 1960s,” a vision they developed in books, articles, and speeches, but also in art, liturgy, and fiction. Ultimately, however, both extreme hopes about cosmic unification and extreme fears about total annihilation modulated, and like their fellow Americans interested in space flight during the 1960s, American Catholics turned in the early 1970s to a renewed focus on the Earth.
By the mid-1960s, American dioceses were beginning to be overwhelmed by the complexity of the adm... more By the mid-1960s, American dioceses were beginning to be overwhelmed by the complexity of the administrative problems facing them as inner cities and suburbs alike transformed under demographic, economic, and political pressures. This essay argues that the development of pastoral planning in the early 1970s emerged from valiant if doomed 1960s attempts to reduce these problems to quantifiable – and therefore manageable – proportions. The term "planning" came to represent the possibility of naming, and therefore potentially solving, the problem. Robert G. Howes, a priest-planner, was one of the key figures in promoting this idea. His work at Catholic University, as an author and speaker, and in the Archdiocese of Baltimore provides a window into the appeal as well as the limitations of "planning" for stressed diocesan administrators.
This essay argues that Catholic (magisterial) social teaching's division of ethics into public an... more This essay argues that Catholic (magisterial) social teaching's division of ethics into public and private creates a structural lacuna which makes it almost impossible to envision a truly just situation for migrant domestic careworkers (MDCs) within the current horizon of Catholic social thought. Drawing on a variety of sociological studies, I conclude that it is easy for MDCs to “disappear” between two countries, two families, and, finally, two sets of ethical norms. If the magisterium genuinely wishes Catholic ethicists to address the plight of these migrant women, normative Catholic social teaching must pay more attention to household sociological realities and more fully absorb the feminist critique of the sharp line between the public and the private, between care and paid work.
This exhibit documents the work of Frederick Franck, a Dutch-American artist (1909-2006) who atte... more This exhibit documents the work of Frederick Franck, a Dutch-American artist (1909-2006) who attended the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965 and drew and painted many of its delegates, as well as a variety of scenes of life at the Council. The exhibit is curated by Catherine R. Osborne and sponsored by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.
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