Global Justice: Integrating CST Worldwide

Catalog description

Amidst the ongoing global realities of social and political polarization, racial reckoning, and health and environmental crises, what does it mean to work for justice? How can Catholic Social Thought (CST) and social work core values help foster the building of a more global, just beloved community? The See, Reflect, Act Circle of Insight paradigm, inspired by CST core principles, provides the framework for the exploration of global justice at the intersection of CST and core social work values, including: a belief in the inherent dignity of all persons; solidarity; self-determination; subsidiarity; service; centering those most vulnerable; and working for social justice. A case study approach is utilized to examine stories of individuals and communities motivated by CST and social work principles in their work to promote and practice justice globally. Case studies examined include the work and insights of: social workers and Nobel Peace Laureates Jane Addams and Jody Williams; international social worker and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Polish Solidarity movement; social worker and Secretary of Labor in the FDR administration, Frances Perkins; Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement; Martyr and Saint from El Salvador, Oscar Romero; Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate from Northern Ireland; and Fathers Phil and Dan Berrigan and the Catonsville 9, who used napalm to burn draft files in protest of the Vietnam War, inviting nations to beat swords into ploughshares. The course invites deeper understanding of the intersection and confluence of CST and core social work values. It also explores creative tensions at this intersection. Finally, it invites constructive, creative, faith-inspired application of these values and principles in the fierce urgency of…