In early February, nearly 600 Catholics from 42 states gathered in Washington, D.C.

Twenty-two years ago, the U.S. Catholic bishops wrote:

Our families are torn by violence. Our communities are destroyed by violence. Our faith is tested by violence.[1]

Not only was violence then destroying lives, dignity, and hopes, the bishops wrote, but fear of violence was “paralyzing and polarizing our communities.”

By Fred Kammer, S.J.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church names solidarity as a core principle of Catholic social teaching:

U.S. Supreme Court Removes Key Enforcement Provision

By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.

On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively gutted the enforcement provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, Attorney General et al.  In the words of Congressman John L. Lewis, who risked life and limb in the struggle for Civil Rights, the Court struck a “dagger in the heart” of the Voting Rights Act. [1]

by Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ

By Fred Kammer, SJ

Presented at St. Thomas University in Houston, TX on June 10, 2011.

By Fred Kammer, S.J.

In 1931, in the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, Pope Pius XI introduced a critically important Catholic social teaching concept, one which has remained current in political debates today. In his discussion of the social order, he stated the principle:

Pope Benedict’s Teaching on the Environment

by Fr. Fred Kammer, S.J.