CST 20502 POVERTY & THE BISHOPS' PASTORAL

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Flanner Hall 925

W 4:00-5:15PM

Fall 2008

 

Charles K. Wilber

518 Flanner Hall

631-5168

E-mail: cwilber@nd.edu

Office hours: W 3-5pm or by appointment.

 

 

 

DESCRIPTION: This class is designed to rewrite the poverty section, including the issue of welfare, of Chapter 3 in the Bishops' 1986 letter, "Economic Justice for All." There will be hearings with groups of economists, theologians, community activists, et al. The class will be broken down into groups to write drafts of sub-topics that will then be discussed by the whole class, re-written, and then approved by the class as a whole. The idea is to simulate the process the bishops went through in writing the original document and to update the material in light of changes in the economy over the past 22 years. For example, since 1986 there has been significant welfare reform and globalization of the economy has increased dramatically,

 

TEXTS:

�Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy (NCCB, 1986).

Rembert Weakland, O.S.B., "'Economic Justice for All' 10 Years Later," America, Vol. 176, No. 9 (March 22, 1997), pp. 8-22.

Census Bureau Report on Poverty: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html

USCCB site on poverty: http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/index.htm

 

OTHER SOURCES:

http://www.justpeace.org/

http://www.nd.edu/~cstprog/

http://salt.claretianpubs.org/

http://www.catholicworker.org/

http://www.osjspm.org/cst.htm

http://www.cjd.org/

 

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

Sept 3: Organizational meeting (Read BPL and "10 Years Later" by October 1)

10: No class: Search web sites and continue readings.

17: Hearings:Global poverty, Globalization and the Causes of Poverty

(Prof. Lee Tavis)

24: Hearings: Poverty and welfare 20 years Later (Prof. Jim Sullivan)

Oct1: Hearings: views from the trenches (Bill Purcell, Center for Social Concerns)

8: Organizational meeting #2 (Divide into sub-groups on low-wage-employment, welfare, feminization of poverty, globalization, et al)

15: No class- sub-groups meet (read Census Bureau Report on poverty, other sources, including material from speakers, and prepare drafts)

22: No class-- Fall break

29: No class- sub-groups meet and prepare drafts. E-mail drafts by November 2.

Nov5: Discussion of sub-group drafts

12: No class- sub-groups re-write drafts. Email drafts by November 16.

19: Discussion and approval of second draft

26: Thanksgiving

Dec3: No class- drafting committee meets and prepares final merged version and emails to class by December 7.

10: Final merged draft handed in. Reprise of project