Setting This Year's Agenda & Mopping Up (a bit...)

Dear CIOT Participants,

Needless to say, much has happened since our last meeting on the eve of election day in November. We were snowed out in December and, this year, the first Monday of the month was New Year's Day, forcing us to meet a week later. I hope all of you are well and have had a blessed Christmas.

The most pressing point on the agenda for the upcoming gathering will be to brainstorm and establish a list of possible topics to discuss over the next eight sessions (February through May, then September through November). As we have in the past, we will open the floor and compile a list of potential topics. After that we'll each vote and the results will be posted on the website with February's materials.

Given the importance of establishing a schedule that is relevant, interesting, and challenging, I urge everyone to attend and to share their ideas!

Finally, there are any number of issues that were included in the reading materials last year but never made it to the floor during our discussions. For example, we talked so energetically about stem cell research that we never broached the issue of evolution, which is also a topic of current controversy. So I'm going to suggest that "Evolution" be put up for a vote as the sole topic one month in 2007. Nor did we make it through many of the materials involving Catholic Social Teaching etc.

For this reason, I've put a few of them below for discussion next week, after we vote on our list of topics. There is no specific theme or order; it's more of a hodge-podge of some interesting but non-discussed materials left over from last Fall. Enjoy!

With warm wishes,
John

PS: We had a lovely Christmas but, at this time, I have the flu along with three of the children! Sorry if any of the above or below is rambling or incoherent!

Catholic Teaching and the Environment

Thomas Storck interprets the 1992 Catholic Catechism's stance on environmental issues. It seems the best place to start: http://catholiceducation.org/articles/environment/en0002.html.

Another interesting piece appeared in 2001: Philip C.L. Gray. "Christian Stewardship: What God Expects from Us," Lay Witness (September 2001).

Finally, here again is the interview with Schrader-Frechette over the issues of Christianity and the environment, or more specifically, over how issues impacting the environmental debate extend into discussions of social justice, economics, etc. "The Sky is Falling. No, really," U.S. Catholic 71,4 (April 2006), 18-23.

Now for some real Hodge-Podge!

Is America really at risk because of so-called growing economic inequality? It's not just liberal hysteria. Read what James Curth, a highly respected conservative economist, has written for a recent edition of The American Conservative (Patrick Buchanan's anything-but-left-wing-bomb-throwing-weekly): "The Rich Get Richer: Growing Income Disparity Doesen't Presage a New Labor Movement at Home-But it may Signal more Terrorism for us Abroad," 25 September 2006.

What does one Catholic think about privatizing social security?

What about foreigners and illegal immigrants from a Catholic perspective?

Does the new US federal budget reflect our Catholic values?