This past semester Catholic scholars from across the U.S. gathered at Franciscan University of Steubenville for the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. The conference included 33 sessions that featured 66 presenters that addressed issues ranging from a session on “The Importance of Marriage and Children to Society” to a roundtable on “Religious Freedom and the Future of the Catholic Church in the American Public Order.”
Panelists also discussed the “role religion has played in American public life and the evolution of the state’s relationship with Church. They agree that the values of the state must always be measured by the values of the Church.” Also at the conference, the Pope Pius XI Award for Contributions toward the Building Up of a True Catholic Social Science was awarded to F. Russell Hittinger, the Warren Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa. Hittinger “spoke on Catholic social doctrine as an area of moral theology, explaining that it is a study of the rectitude of human action in light of duties to our neighbor.”
To read more about the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, visit Franciscan University news.