Religion & Law

Although I believe that most everyone on MOJ is already aware of this, I am pleased to announce that May 24-26, 2010, the Fifth Annual Conference on Catholic Legal Thought will take place here at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, in our newly refurbished building, the Philip H. Corboy Law Center, 25 E. Pearson Street, located at the north end of Chicago's famed Magnificent Mile, in the heart of City's Gold Coast neighborhood.

Among the various sessions for this year?s conference, we are pleased to say that Prof. Nicholas Wolterstorff from Yale University has agreed to be the featured speaker on a panel discussion dedicated to his recent book Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Princeton Univ. Press 2008).

We are also pleased to announce that Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, has likewise agreed to be the featured speaker on a panel dedicated to his recent book The Difference God Makes: A Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion, and Culture (Crossroad 2009).

Two other panels will be devoted to, respectively, a discussion of Benedict XVI?s recent encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate, and a discussion of The Challenge of Natural Law in the Modern World, addressing Alasdair MacIntyre?s essay Intractable Moral Disagreements.

The conference is designed for those law faculty who currently teach or have an interest in teaching courses in Catholic Social Thought as well as those whose scholarly work involves a direct engagement with CST and the broader Christian intellectual tradition. The conference is perhaps unique in that it not only offers its participants opportunities for intellectual engagement and fellowship, but also the chance to grow in one?s vocation as a law teacher through the celebration of Mass, and prayer in an abbreviated version of the Spiritual Exercises.

For more information about the conference I can be reached at jbreen1@luc.edu.