Morals & Markets: Being Catholic in a Global Economy

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Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) offers papal reflections on the global economy, and touches on theological, economic, and political questions. Thus, our opening panel is a conversation between a theologian, an economist, and an expert in international law. Following an introduction by Father Jenkins, each panelist will offer some reflections on the encyclical from the point of view of their discipline. The moderator will then briefly discuss the relationship between the three points of view before opening the conversation to the audience for comments and questions.

Discussion

Morals & Markets: Being Catholic in a Global Economy articles

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Moderator

Mary Hirschfeld

Mary Hirschfeld earned her Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University in 1989. After 15 years teaching macroeconomics, econometrics, mathematical economics, finance, economics and philosophy, and economic history at Occidental College, she resigned her position in order to return to school to study theology. She is currently a Ph.D. student in moral theology at Notre Dame, and is a Newcombe Fellow and a Graduate Fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies writing a dissertation on theological economics.

Panelists

Douglass Cassel

Douglass Cassel is a professor of law and director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the Notre Dame Law School, where he teaches a course on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights. Prof. Cassel is a scholar and practitioner of international human rights and international criminal and international humanitarian law. His scholarly articles in English and Spanish are published in the United States, Latin America, and Europe, and he lectures at universities and conferences worldwide. He has published several articles on the human rights responsibilities of transnational corporations. On behalf of retired U.S. diplomats and leading experts on international law, he has filed several amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court involving the rights of prisoners at Guantanamo, and accountability for human rights violations under the Alien Tort Claims Act. He represents victims of human rights violations in Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela in cases before the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Read more.

William Evans

Bill Evans is the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics in the Dept. of Economics and Econometrics at the Univ. of Notre Dame. Before coming to Notre Dame, Evans spent 20 years on the faculty in the Dept. of Economics at the Univ. of Maryland. Evans completed his undergraduate work at Wake Forest Univ. in 1983 and earned his Ph.D. in economics from Duke Univ. in 1987. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Human Resources, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Scholars Program. His principal research interests are in applied microeconomics, and his work has focused on topics in labor economics, the economics of education, public finance, industrial organization, and health economics. Bill and his wife, Eileen, have three sons: Conor, Brendan, and Patrick. Conor is a junior at Notre Dame and a member of the Notre Dame swim team.

Margaret Pfeil

Margaret R. Pfeil is an assistant professor of moral theology at the Univ. of Notre Dame and a Faculty Fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. After obtaining a BA from Notre Dame in 1987, she earned an M.T.S. from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in 1994 and a Ph.D. from Notre Dame in 2000. Her articles have appeared in Louvain Studies, Horizons, The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Josephinum Journal of Theology, The Journal for Peace & Justice Studies, New Theology Review, and the Mennonite Quarterly Review. She is currently finishing a book, Social Sin: Social Reconciliation? She is a cofounder and resident of St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker House in South Bend, Ind.