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December 10, 2024

What Do We Do Now? Catholic Responsibilities, Opportunities After the Election and Synod

Image of USA flag next to a church

As an eventful 2024 comes to an end and we approach a new year, a new presidential administration, and a new Congress, how can American Catholics and people of good will bring principles of Catholic social thought—human life and dignity, family and community, solidarity and subsidiarity, priority for the poor and care for creation—into U.S. public life more effectively and consistently?

Pope Francis has been our Holy Father for almost a dozen years. How can his priorities of encounter and mercy, respect for the dignity of all people and God’s creation, standing with migrants and poor families, and synodality and the “joy of the Gospel” help Catholics contribute to a “better kind of politics” and “an outward-facing Church that is healthy on the inside”?

After the election and the final session of the global Synod on Synodality, the Initiative is bringing together four respected and diverse leaders to assess where we have been, where we are now, and where we need to go. They will explore how key principles of Catholic social thought can offer an affirmative path forward in both a challenged Church and a polarized nation.

Kim Daniels, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, will moderate the dialogue.

This Public Dialogue is part of the Initiative’s Faith and the Faithful series.

Recording

For those who cannot join us in person, the dialogue starting at 7:00 p.m. EST will be livestreamed and posted online for later viewing.

Participants

David Brooks

David Brooks

David Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times, a contributor to the Atlantic, and a commentator on the PBS NewsHour. He is the author of How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (2023).

Sr. Teresa Maya, CCVI

Sr. Teresa Maya, CCVI

Sr. Teresa Maya, CCVI, is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, and is the senior director for theology and sponsorship at Catholic Health Association.

Kerry Robinson (C’88)

Kerry Robinson (C’88)

Kerry Robinson (C’88) is the president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, a network of Catholic Charities agencies that provide help to and create hope for more than 15 million people a year regardless of religious, social, or economic backgrounds.

Vincent Rougeau

Vincent Rougeau

Vincent Rougeau is the first lay and first Black president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and previously served as dean of the Boston College Law School. He is the author of Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order (2008).

Accessibility

All in-person accommodation requests should be sent to cathsocialthought@georgetown.edu by December 6. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill requests.