Dr. Kate Ward

@thekateward.bsky.social

Frugal and well-behaved wage earner at Marquette Theology. Making a Life: Catholic Social Teaching and the Meaning of Work out Feb. 5 from Bloomsbury!

"Though the four-hour Mass began in sunlight, clouds slowly gathered and darkened overhead... As the host was consecrated, a torrential downpour fell on the crowd and muddied the hillside while thunder roared and lightning flashed across the sky."

National Catholic Reporter@ncronline.bsky.social · last mo.

Moments after swearing obedience to the Catholic Church, the pope and his legitimate successors, four priests were made bishops without papal approval in what Pope Leo XIV had warned would be a "schismatic act."

The fact is that the Catholic Church has *not* budged on natural law or its teaching even as it has made practical changes that integrate it more solidly into the rest of Catholic life. It’s not pastoral or theological care to encourage Catholics in this kind of traditionalist paranoia.

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Was just going to post about how much I'm enjoying this book and realized the Kindle edition is free (today?!) Come for Steve Long's incisive essay on the "Protestant ethic" and Milwaukee sewer socialism, stay for an edited volume whose authors are visibly in conversation and not always agreeing.

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Please share this call for book proposals for a new series, Short Introductions to Engaged Catholicism! 50,000 words could be just right for so many projects. Bloomsbury Academic/T&T Clark is great to work with; your book will be peer reviewed and fairly priced. Happy to chat w/those interested!

T&T Clark Short Introductions to Engaged Catholicism Series 
Bloomsbury Academic invites proposals for a new book series, T&T Clark Short Introductions 
to Engaged Catholicism, which explores how Catholic moral theology and ethics engage the 
most pressing challenges of contemporary life. The series will publish concise, accessible, and 
academically rigorous volumes of approximately 50,000 words that address topics such as 
democracy, migration, ecology, healthcare, economics, technology, peacebuilding, gender, 
sexuality, and social justice. 
Written for students, seminarians, clergy, educators, and informed lay readers, the series 
seeks books that bring the Catholic moral tradition into constructive dialogue with 
contemporary ethical questions. Contributors should engage both the strengths and 
limitations of Catholic thought while demonstrating its continuing relevance for public life, 
human dignity, solidarity, and the common good. We particularly welcome proposals from 
scholars whose work reflects diverse global perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches. 
For further information, or to submit a book proposal, contact Kristin Heyer, 
heyerkr@bc.edu or Richard Brown, richard.brown@bloomsbury.com. 
Series Editor Kristin E. Heyer is the Joseph Chair in Theology at Boston College and one of the leading 
voices in contemporary Catholic ethics. Her scholarship focuses on immigration ethics, 
Catholic social teaching, moral agency, public theology, and political responsibility. A former 
president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and current co-chair of Catholic 
Theological Ethics in the World Church, she has published extensively at the intersections of 
faith, justice, and public life. 
www.bloomsbury.com 
Susan Abraham, Pacific School of Religion, USA 
Victor Carmona, University of San Diego, USA 
Catherine Clifford, St. Paul University, Canada 
Daniel Fleming, St. Vincent’s Health Australia 
Christine Firer Hinze, Fordham University, USA 
M.…

So grim. In the 1990s I visited China. The faculty there couldn’t believe I designed my own courses. They kept asking the same question in different ways thinking I hadn’t understood. I assumed that China would come to adopt Western freedoms, not US would adopt central control.

Kathleen Bachynski@bachynski.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“The Auburn University Board of Trustees on Friday gave itself complete control over course offerings, curriculum, degree requirements and academic credentials while eliminating shared governance at the Alabama land-grant university… The policy leaves many questions unanswered”

If you read my recent report on the Vatican’s relationship with Anthropic — which focused on the U.S. context, which gets a mention in here — this traces some of that same history from the Vatican side, focusing on Tighe. Fascinating stuff.

Naomi O'Leary@naomiohreally.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Irish priest behind the scenes of the Vatican’s work on artificial intelligence The son of an IDA official, Paul Tighe became a go-between between Silicon Valley and the Vatican in dialogues about AI going back a decade www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...

Pope Leo addresses the Synod Hall after presentation of his first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: “Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen."

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... I would encourage a careful examination of the supply chains of digital production, the working conditions hidden behind our devices and the mechanisms that profit from manipulation and war.

240. Every technical or economic decision should include spiritual discernment and be an opportunity for assessing whether the advances in AI are promoting justice and participation or concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a select few. ...

Drawing to a close, Leo points to the Incarnation and the Eucharist. Struck me as more Christian-specific than Francis who liked to sound interreligious notes in conclusions, but both also quite appropriate in a doc reflecting on humanity.

"Adopting the perspective of victims 216. There are times when, in order to remain human, we must set aside our reservations and take a stand. In some conflicts, it is unjust to remain neutral, nor is it enough merely to claim that we are not complicit." ...