OPTION FOR THE POOR | Engaging the Social Tradition

March 21–23, 2019 | University of Notre Dame

This biennial conference, sponsored by the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame, will explore how Catholic social tradition can engage academics and practitioners in the challenges of the most marginalized and vulnerable people in societies today, as well as how the development and impact of the Latin American theological concept of Option for the Poor has been globally embraced to build a more just and humane world. If the moral test of a society is how it treats vulnerable people, the signs of the times suggest there is significant room for improvement in communities around the world. By assembling experts in Catholic social ethics, the conference seeks to identify social issues with practical responses adequate to address the difficulty of resulting injustices.

Keynote Speakers

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B. | Bridge Across the Continents in Fellowship with the Poor

Lisa Sowle Cahill, Ph.D. | From ‘Option for the Poor’ to Option by the Poor:  Flint’s Water and the Problem of Political Will

Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P. | Gustavo Gutiérrez and the Option for the Poor

Charles Clark, Ph.D. | Challenges to Poverty Eradication in the 21st Century: Insights from Catholic Social Thought

Daniel Graff, Ph.D. | Defining a Just Wage: Introducing the Higgins Labor Program’s Just Wage Framework and Tool