Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life

The Initiative’s first online dialogue was held on March 26, 2020, just a few days after the United States implemented stay-at-home orders. This dialogue featured Reyna Guardado, Salvadoran immigrant and co-owner of a family restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland; Sr. Carol Keehan, D.C., nurse and former president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association; Fr. Myles Sheehan, S.J., M.D., Jesuit priest and physician; and John Monahan, J.D., senior advisor for global health to the president of Georgetown University.

This dialogue focused on the moral and human costs of the economic collapse related to the coronavirus with Maru Bautista of the Center for Family Life in Brooklyn, New York; David Brooks, columnist at the New York Times and commentator for PBS Newshour; E.J. Dionne, professor at Georgetown and columnist for the Washington Post; and Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and columnist at Bloomberg.

This was the first online Salt and Light Gathering and included Tara Isabella Burton, columnist for Religion News Service; Kimberly Mazyck, senior manager for engagement and educational outreach at Catholic Charities USA; Ashley McKinless, associate editor at America Magazine; and Darius Villalobos, the director of diversity and inclusion at the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.

This conversation co-hosted by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs was led by Paul Elie, author and senior fellow at the Berkley Center. He discussed Pope Francis’ challenges and leadership in the coronavirus crisis with Austen Ivereigh, a leading biographer of Pope Francis who writes for the Tablet and Commonweal, and Kim Daniels, the Initiative’s associate director and member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication.

This dialogue included Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and leader of the new Vatican COVID-19 Commission; David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a Lutheran minister, and author of Exodus from Hunger (2010); and Haydee Diaz, program director in Uganda for Catholic Relief Services.

This dialogue was held in cooperation with the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and included Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Vatican; Dan Misleh, founder and director of Catholic Climate Covenant; Kim Wasserman, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago, Illinois; and Christiana Zenner, associate professor of theology, science, and ethics in the department of theology at Fordham University.

Ten days after the killing of George Floyd, this dialogue was held with Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory; Dr. Marcia Chatelain, a provost’s distinguished associate professor of history and African-American studies at Georgetown; Ralph McCloud, the director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development; and Gloria Purvis, a host of the EWTN radio show Morning Glory. Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development made a surprise appearance towards the end of the dialogue.

This dialogue included Michael Gerson, a Washington Post columnist and a policy fellow with the ONE Campaign; Justin Giboney, an attorney, political strategist, and the president and co-founder of the AND Campaign; Jeanné Lewis, a board member of Faith in Public Life and a member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Washington, DC; and Gabby Orr, a White House reporter for POLITICO covering President Donald Trump. Gregory Smith, an associate director of research at Pew Research Center, opened the dialogue with data from their recent report on religious voters and the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

This was the first Initiative dialogue of the year and was co-sponsored with the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. This outstanding panel included Denis McDonough, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama; Carlos Curbelo, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Miami, Florida; Aryah Somers Landsberger, vice president of programs at Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees; and Mizraim Belman Guerrero (SFS’20), a DACA recipient at Georgetown University.

This dialogue was co-sponsored with Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and had Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and author of Dead Man Walking (1993) and River of Fire (2019), in conversation with Cheryllyn Branche, president of the GU272 Descendants Association, and Paul Elie, senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.

This Dahlgren Dialogue was co-sponsored with the Office of Mission and Ministry. Archbishop of Washington Wilton Gregory, a former president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was the centerpiece of the evening. He was joined in conversation by Helen Alvaré, professor at the Scalia Law School of George Mason University and a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, and John Carr, director of the Initiative and former leader of the U.S. bishops’ efforts on justice and peace.

The Initiative held the Washington premiere of Revolution of the Heart: The Dorothy Day Story followed by a discussion with several of the film’s subjects, including Martha Hennessy, Dorothy Day’s granddaughter; Robert Ellsberg, editor-in-chief and publisher of Orbis Books; Carolyn Zablotny, editor of the Dorothy Day Guild’s newsletter, In Our Time; and filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, president and founder of Journey Films.

The panelists at this dialogue included Adelle Banks, a national reporter and editor for Religion News Service; Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas; Justin Giboney, co-founder and president of the AND Campaign; and Rev. Jim Wallis, founder, president, and editor-in-chief of Sojourners and author of Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus (2019).

This last in-person dialogue before COVID-19 restrictions were put in place was with Donna Brazile, former interim national chair of the Democratic National Committee; Timothy Carney, commentary editor at the Washington Examiner and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, senior researcher at Pew Research Center; Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., columnist for Religion News Service and former editor of America; and Eugene Scott, political reporter for the Washington Post’s The Fix.

This dialogue included Michael Gerson, a Washington Post columnist and a policy fellow with the ONE Campaign; Justin Giboney, an attorney, political strategist, and the president and co-founder of the AND Campaign; Jeanné Lewis, a board member of Faith in Public Life and a member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Washington, DC; and Gabby Orr, a White House reporter for POLITICO covering President Donald Trump. Gregory Smith, an associate director of research at Pew Research Center, opened the dialogue with data from their recent report on religious voters and the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

This Salt and Light Gathering brought together young leaders to hear from Michael Gerson, a Washington Post columnist and a policy fellow with the ONE Campaign; Jeanné Lewis, the vice president and chief engagement officer at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy; and Montse Alvarado, the vice president and executive director at Becket Law, as well as a consultor to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for Religious Liberty.

The School of Continuing Studies auditorium was packed on for this Salt and Light Gathering with Ross Douthat, a New York Times columnist and author of To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (2018); Austen Ivereigh, a journalist and author of The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (2015); Leah Libresco Sargeant, a writer for outlets such as First Things, America, The American Conservative, and Commonweal; and Matthew Sitman, an associate editor at Commonweal and a co-host of Know Your Enemy, a podcast about the American right.

This special screening for young leaders of Revolution of the Heart: The Dorothy Day Story included reflections from Robert Ellsberg, the editor-in-chief and publisher of Orbis Books; Carolyn Zablotny, the editor of the Dorothy Day Guild’s newsletter, In Our Time; Anne Snyder (G’14), the editor-in-chief of Comment magazine; and filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, the president and founder of Journey Films. The two-night Washington film premiere led to a major story on Dorothy Day in the Washington Post.

This was the first online Salt and Light Gathering and included Tara Isabella Burton, author of Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless Age (May 2020) and columnist for Religion News Service; Kimberly Mazyck, the senior manager for engagement and educational outreach at Catholic Charities USA; Ashley McKinless, an associate editor at America Magazine; and Darius Villalobos, the director of diversity and inclusion at the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.

This first online Latino Leader Gathering included Bishop Mario Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington; Juan Belman Guerrero, program manager for the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown; Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, executive director and co-founder of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership; and Olga Segura, freelance writer and author of a forthcoming book on race, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Catholic Church.