Paper/Proposal Title
Pope Francis, Human Rights, and COVID-19
Location
Room S2060, Curran Place; also presented remotely
Start Date
12-3-2021 4:00 PM
End Date
12-3-2021 5:30 PM
Keywords
Pope Francis, human rights, covid-19, structural change
Abstract
In this paper I will explore the contributions that Pope Francis has made to discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic, its causes, its consequences, and constructive responses. Repeatedly, Pope Francis has expressed his hope that the pandemic will serve as a wake-up call to humanity, highlighting the need to fundamentally rethink humans' relationship with nature and the importance of working to overcome economic injustice, racial injustice, and other structural problems that the pandemic has more clearly revealed and exacerbated. I will also discuss more broadly the understanding of human rights that is contained in Catholic social teaching and the central role that Pope Francis sees for grassroots social movements in bringing about needed structural changes.
Author/Speaker Biographical Statement(s)
John Sniegocki is Professor of Religious Ethics and Director of the Peace & Justice Studies minor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. His main areas of interest include Catholic social teaching, globalization, economic ethics, war and nonviolence, grassroots social movements, ecology, food ethics, contemplative spirituality, the Catholic Worker movement, and Buddhist-Christian dialogue. He is the author of Catholic Social Teaching and Economic Globalization: The Quest for Alternatives (Marquette University Press, 2009), as well as various journal articles and book chapters.
Pope Francis, Human Rights, and COVID-19
Room S2060, Curran Place; also presented remotely
In this paper I will explore the contributions that Pope Francis has made to discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic, its causes, its consequences, and constructive responses. Repeatedly, Pope Francis has expressed his hope that the pandemic will serve as a wake-up call to humanity, highlighting the need to fundamentally rethink humans' relationship with nature and the importance of working to overcome economic injustice, racial injustice, and other structural problems that the pandemic has more clearly revealed and exacerbated. I will also discuss more broadly the understanding of human rights that is contained in Catholic social teaching and the central role that Pope Francis sees for grassroots social movements in bringing about needed structural changes.
