Welcome to the First, January 2022

The First

The Monthly Newsletter of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church

January 2022

Dear CTEWC Friends,

Greetings on this World Day of Peace. Today we are delighted to launch the new Enrico Dolazza Travel Fellowship, which provides air travel funds to support members’ collaborative research and conferences in concert with our mission. Please see the website for details, and contact Andrea Vicini with questions or interest. We pay tribute to Enrico’s longtime, generous support of our network with this new initiative. Next month we plan to launch grants to support global ethics book publications, stay tuned.

In January we also welcome a new slate of Junior Scholars Forum contributors: Carlo Calleja (Malta), Federico Cinocca (Italy), Craig Ford Jr. (US), Simeiqi He (China), Léocadie Lushombo (Democratic Republic of Congo), Ann Mary Madavankadu (India), Claúdia Montes de Oca (Bolivia), Verónica Naranjo Quintero (Colombia), Robson Riberio de Oliveira Castro (Brazil) and Stephanie Ann Puen (Philippines). We are very grateful to the first group of Forum contributors whose essays launched this Junior Scholars initiative following Sarajevo: Alexandre Martins (initial coordinator), Anne Celestine Achieng Oyier Ondigo, Jutta Battenberg, Grégoire Catta, Geevarghese Kaithavana and Kristine Meneses. María Isabel Gil Espinosa will continue as coordinator; we are grateful for her leadership, as well.

In this month’s Junior Scholars’ Forum, continuing contributor Henry Omeike analyzes how underfunding and corruption in Nigeria’s health care sector are serving to de facto “euthanize” needy citizens. Sharon Bong laments the Malaysian government’s lackadaisical responses to year-end monsoon-driven flooding and infrastructural contributing factors, yet lifts up ordinary citizens’ climate literacy and concern for those most impacted by “natural” disasters. In the Latin American and Caribbean Forum, Aníbal Torres articulates a renewed politics informed by Fratelli Tutti, the existential peripheries, and the accompaniment modeled at Emmaus. Kenyan guest contributor Reginald Nalugala imagines ways to enhance the common good and individuals’ agency in the face of the “development trap” along with conflict, resource and governance “traps” impacting many African nations today. In the European Forum, guest contributor Anna Blackman highlights the glaring neglect of militarism at November’s COP26 meeting, contrasting it to Francis’ integral ecology and an “integral peace” promoted by the Catholic Global Climate Movement. Finally, in the North American Forum, guest contributor Meghan Clark details the antiracism efforts of the Catholic Theological Society of America over the past eighteen months, in terms of prophetic statements, public summons and pedagogical collaboration.

As we enter a new year still constrained by the pandemic’s reach, may our dialogue, teaching and labor contribute to building lasting peace.

Kristin Heyer

Shaji George Kochuthara, CMI

Andrea Vicini, SJ

In this Issue

January Forum

Virtual Tables

Regional Reports

Submit Your Resources

Job listings? Calls for papers? Announcements? Submit your content here.

Kristin Heyer, Editor

Sara Bernard-Hoverstad, Associate Editor

catholicethics@gmail.com

Join our global ethics network fostering connections in the world church.

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Featured Forum Articles

African Forum: "Cultivating a Transformative Faith that Drives the Common Good for Everyone" - Reginald Nalugala

European Forum: "Creation and Nonviolence: Reflections in Light of COP26"

- Anna Blackman

North American Forum: "How the CTSA is Keeping Focus on the Call to Racial Justice Amidst the Pandemic"

- Meghan Clark

Asian and Oceanian Forum: "What's Natural in Natural Disasters?"

- Sharon Bong

Latin American and Caribbean Forum: "Acompañamiento y liderazgo político democrático: una propuesta para la implementación de Fratelli Tutti"

- Aníbal Torres

Junior Scholars Forum: "Too Poor to Pay for Treatment: Government Corruption and Mismanagement Indirectly 'Euthanizing' Nigeria's Poor" - Henry Omeike

Virtual Tables

The Pursuing Health Virtual Table met for the second time on November 10, 2021 and gathered seven of the approximately 15 members. Participants shared stories of accompaniment in the contexts of health, illness, injury, and disability. Narratives attuned us to the challenges and rewards of accompanying family members at the end of their lives, accompanying members of the deaf community who resist medical models of their lives, accompanying those who struggle for healthcare justice, and, as we neared the end of an academic semester in the U.S., accompanying our students whose levels of depression and anxiety were palpably on the rise. It is telling that several members of the table were unable to join that day as they accompanied friends and relatives through the arduous routines of aging, illness, and parenting young children. We are scheduling the next table for later in January 2022 and encourage anyone interested to join us! Please contact Mary Roche (mroche@holycross.edu) for the schedule and the zoom link. That meeting will include time for continued reflection on accompaniment, and a discussion of health through lenses of self-care, fidelity, justice, and mercy. One of the short-term goals of the group is to provide access to resources and syllabi for teaching medical, bio-, and healthcare ethics. So, bring your own story, resource, syllabus, etc. We also draw your attention to a recent post by our member Sr. Teresa Kiragu of CUEA on Holistic Healthcare Ethics in Kenya.

African Regional Report

In Memoriam Podcast Episode

This month, Stan Chu Ilo pays tribute to Jacquineau Azetsóp, S.J. on the podcast "African Catholic Voices." Ilo highlights Azetsóp's remarkable legacy with CTEWC colleagues Jim Keenan and Meghan Clark.

Asian-Oceanian Regional Report

Report of the 31st Annual Conference of the AMTI

The 31st Annual Conference of the Association of Moral Theologians of India (AMTI) was held virtually in November 2021 on the theme "Five Years of Amoris Laetitia: Developments in Moral Theology and Challenges in Pastoral Practices." Read a report on the conference here.

Call for Papers

Asian Horizons, Dharmaram Journal of Theology, calls for articles for its March 2022 issue on Eastern Catholic Churches. Papers are invited to address themes such as Eastern Catholic Churches since Vatican II, Implementation of Orientalium Ecclesiarum and Challenges Ahead, Synodality in Eastern Churches, Liturgical Renewal in Eastern Churches, Eastern Catholic Churches: Contributions to Theological Developments etc. Contributions may be submitted at the latest by 01 March 2022. View the call for papers here.

Publication

Jed Martin Tingson and Agnes M. Brazal, "Spirituality of hopeful risk-taking (Bahala na) among Filipino healthcare workers," Journal of Public Health, December 2, 2021. This article is available via open access.

European Regional Report

Publication

Stephan Goertz, Who am I to judge? Homosexuality and the Catholic Church (De Gruyter, 2022).

The Catholic Church still takes an ambivalent stance toward homosexuality, declaring that homosexuals should be respected and not discriminated against while morally condemning their intimate relationships. This volume presents exegetical, theological, and ethical arguments as well as evidence from the human sciences to advocate for the recognition of homosexuality as a natural variant of the human capacities to love and to form relationships.

Job Openings, Austria

The Vienna Doctoral School of Theology and Research on Religion VDTR, a structured PhD programme offered jointly by the Faculty of Protestant Theology, the Faculty of Catholic Theology and the Research Centre "Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society RaT", is looking to fill four university assistant positions (prae-doc) as of 01 April 2022.

Further information available here.

Conference Announcement and CfP, Germany

Conference, Frankfurt, March, 30th – April 1st: "The Mission of the Church in the Era of Global Public Health." This conference wants to bring out some of the current health challenges in public and global health. By connecting experts from different fields of research and practice we hope to stimulate further reflection and exchange concerning the possibilities of Church engagement in this field. Call for papers and further information available here.

Latin American-Caribbean Regional Report

Noticias

Nuestro compañero Pablo Alberto Blanco fue nombrado Director del Instituto de Cultura Universitaria de la Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA). El Instituto de Cultura Universitaria (ICU) tiene a su cargo los docentes y materias filosófico-teológicas que integran el ciclo de formación Humanista Cristiano, y a su vez desarrolla actividades de extensión y diálogo con la cultura a través del ciclo de Diálogos con la Cultura.

Para ver la noticia UCA - Noticia: Nuevo director del Instituto de Cultura Universitaria

Artículos

Nuestro compañero Agustín Ortega nos comparte su último artículo “Lacuestión social y ética del trabajoen el 40aniversario de Laborem exercens”. Para el artículo completo.

North American Regional Report