Stritch Univ. hosts Bishop Hying in new lecture series aimed at business

Cardinal Stritch University’s Saint Clare Center for Catholic Life is launching a new breakfast lecture series aimed at the Catholic business community that focuses on the intersection between faith and industry.

The new Forums on Faith and Work, modeled after the old Peter Favre Forums once sponsored by Marquette University, will feature presentations by theologians and scholars on topics of interest to the business community, said St. Clare Center Executive Director Eamonn O’Keeffe.

Each breakfast, four times a year at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, will be hosted by new Stritch President James Loftus and his wife, Irene. And while it’s a great opportunity for Loftus to make connections in the business community, that was not the impetus for the forum, O’Keeffe says.

“The Catholic business community has been crying for some kind of format ever since the Peter Favre Forum ended,” he said. “People in the business community really do want something beyond the Sunday sermon to help them live their Catholic faith.”

While the topics will be driven in part by the business community, speakers will not shy a way from the tenets of Catholic social teaching on such issues as labor, the common good and profit, O’Keeffe said. Milwaukee Bishop Donald Hying is expected to touch on at least some of those in the kickoff lecture, “Living the Creative Power of God in the Work We Do,” 7-9:30 a.m. Oct. 21.

The cost is $25. Reservations available at 410-4340. 

MJS

Ahem, I seriously doubt Cardinal Stritch University correctly understands Catholic Social Teaching.  On the other hand, they recently removed their affiliation with Planned Parenthood so maybe someone over there is trying to right the ship.  But if you do not correctly understand the Church's teaching on the Gospel of Life you will never understand her social teachings.  Being pro-life is the foundation.

Do Wisconsin Unions Reflect Catholic Social Doctrine?

Pope Leo XIII supported unions...up to a point.

In the context of the Wisconsin recall vote on Tuesday, Michael Sean Winters over at the National Catholic Reporter brings up, as many others have, the importance of labor unions in the tradition of the Catholic Church’s social teaching. While Mr. Winters has a point that the Church has been in support of unions, what he and many others fail to note are the parameters which the Holy Fathers have given for that support. There are limits, and these limits are almost always ignored.

The news out of Wisconsin yesterday morning was in some places headlined “Unions Lose.” Whether or not that’s true, it certainly betrays the perception that at the heart of the political angst in Wisconsin are the questions of public unions, collective bargaining and the closed shop rules that dominate. A “closed shop” means that you cannot work at the “shop” unless you belong to the union. Wisconsin public schools are a closed shop.

Because of the historic support for unions, many Catholics are lamenting the lack of support that the bishops are giving the Wisconsin unions. How dare they not use their pulpits, suggests Mr. Winters, to rally Catholic action against Governor Walker and his GOP hoods. But then looking at the actual social teaching ought to help us decipher the situation.

Let’s start with Pope Leo XIII, the founder of modern social doctrine, and his Rerum novarum which says:

continue at Regnum Novum 

A very good read.  Sadly, the Church's social teaching has got a reputation of being "bad" because so many on the left continue to misrepresent it.  The Church defines the teaching, not a particular political party.