THE SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
Friday and Saturday, October 26-27, 2007
The St. John’s University School of Law
Mark E. Ginter, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Moral Theology
Saint Meinrad School of Theology
200 Hill Drive
St. Meinrad, IN 47577
812-357-6207
member: University Faculty for Life
Paper Proposal for Panel Seventeen: Toward a Theology of Work
Work and Rest:
John Paul II’s perspective on the Lord’s Day in his theology of work
This paper provides an exposition of Pope John Paul II’s theology of the Lord’s Day as a day of rest from toil, not work. The specificity of his theology of the Lord’s Day will be discussed against the backdrop of his general theology of work. Connections will be drawn between his theology of the Lord’s Day and the work of sustaining a cosmos of light, building a culture of life, nurturing a civilization of love, and fostering a community of liberation.
Paper Proposal for Panel Fifty-Eight: Catholicism and Politics
Cooperation in Evil Acts:
Principles of Discernment for Office-holders and Citizen-voters
Vatican II’s great pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, 27, proposes what I call a “hierarchy of truths in morals.” Pope John Paul II identifies these human acts as intrinsically evil in Veritatis Splendor, 80. Pope Benedict XVI identifies five non-negotiable values necessary for eucharistic consistency in Sacramentum Caritatis, 83. Practically all of these acts appear before Catholic office-holders and citizen-voters in the political arena today in various ways throughout the world. Based on the work of Haas and Cataldo, this paper proposes an application of the principles of formal and material cooperation in evil acts to political issues that could faithfully guide the consciences of Catholic public servants and citizens in the new moral life for the new evangelization.