CREDO plays an organizational role in conferences on economics and Catholic social thought sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute.  These unique, small group conferences bring together Catholic bishops, research economists and other scholars to discuss economic research and its relationship to social goals. The small group nature of the conferences require them to be by invitation only, but there is usually a public event as well. After 8 years of holding the conferences annually, we are changing to a biannual format. The next Catholic economics conference is planned for 2018.


Caring for our Common Home: Economics, Environment, and Catholic Social Thought

May 19-20, 2016 (May 19, public event)
Chicago

Keynote Address
Thomas G. Wineskin, Archbishop of Miami,

Panelists:
Christopher Barrett, Cornell University
Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University
Michael Greenstone, University of Chicago
V. Ramanathan,, University of California, San Diego

For Pope Francis, the earth is “among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor” due to the environmental degradation caused by human activity. In turn, this violence against the land has an impact on us all, but in particular on the most vulnerable. The ecological crisis is a human crisis, both in its origins and its effect. Pope Francis’ appeal to the dual cry of the earth and the poor challenges us to consider this issue not merely from the physical sciences, but also the social sciences, and to recognize it as an ethical crisis. This symposium will consider the economic and ethical realities of environmental degradation, working towards a more integral human ecology that recognizes the inseparable bond “between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.”

This program is part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Eighth Annual Conference in Economics and Catholic Social Thought, a continuing exchange between research economists, bishops, and scholars.

Other conference participants include Richard Carson (University of California, San Diego), David Cloutier (Mount St. Mary’s University), Geoffrey Heal (Columbia University), Mark Jacobsen (University of California, San Diego), Bishop Richard Pates (Diocese of Des Moines), and Jame Schaefer (Marquette University).

Links to video from the conference are here: VIDEO.


The Family in the Changing Economy

April 30-May 1, 2015 (April 30, public event)
Chicago

Opening Remarks
Blase J. Cupich , Archbishop of Chicago

Keynote Address
Oscar Cantú, Bishop of Las Cruces, NM; Chair, USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace

Panelists:
Pierre-André Chiappori, Columbia University
William Evans, University of Notre Dame
Christine Firer Hinze, Fordham University
Valerie Ramey, University of California, San Diego

How does today’s economy impact the modern family? Several trends link mounting burdens on family life to economics: children are raised amid familial and fiscal instability, young people are delaying or forgoing marriage, the elderly are made increasingly vulnerable with a growing distance between generations and rising health care costs, and the families of economic refugees are often divided across national borders or go legally unrecognized. Yet families form us as persons and are integral both to society and the economy. Situated between the 2014 and 2015 Synod Of Bishops On The Family, this symposium will feature dialogue between Bishop Cantù, economists, and scholars on what insights Catholic social teaching and contemporary economics can offer into the current crisis of the family in the changing economy.

Other conference participants include Anna Aizer (Brown University), Kasey Buckles (University of Notre Dame), Flàvio Cunha (University of Pennsylvania), Joe Hotz (Duke University), Kathleen McGarry (University of California, Los Angeles), Claudia Olivetti (Boston University), Fr. Michael Sweeney (Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology), and Brad Wilcox (University of Virginia).

Links to video from the conference are here: VIDEO.


The Human Person, Economics and Catholic Social Thought

April 3-4, 2014
Chicago

Presentations and panel discussion by:

Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde  University of Pennsylvania

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. Archbishop of Chicago

Mary Hirschfeld, Villanova University

F. Russell Hittinger, University of Tulsa

Rachel Kranton, Duke University

The human person is a contested terrain. Within the fields of Economics and Catholic Social Thought, each maintain distinct conceptions of and emphases on the human person that impact their respective diagnoses of contemporary crises and proposed solutions. Drawing together economists, bishops and scholars, this symposium will explore fundamental convergences and divergences in the conception of the human person in Economics and Catholic Social Thought.

Other conference participants included Daniel Finn (College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University), Carol Graham (The Brookings Institute), Joseph Kaboski (University of Notre Dame), Serge-Christophe Kolm (Les Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Science Social), Frederick Lawrence (Boston College), Joan O’Donovan (University of Edinburgh), Oliver O’Donovan (University of Edinburgh), Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo (Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences & the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences), and Andrew Yuengert (Pepperdine University).

Links to video and available texts from the conference are here: VIDEOTEXTS.


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Toward A Moral Economy: Globalization and the Developing World

May 23-24, 2013

Chicago

Keynote address:
Peter Cardinal Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

Presentations by:
Robert Lucas, University of Chicago Economics Department

Luigi Zingales, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Joseph Kaboski, University of Notre Dame Economics Department


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Toward a Moral Economy: Policies and Values for the 21st Century
May 31-June 1, 2012
Chicago
Keynote Address: Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich

Presentations by:

Roger Myerson, University of Chicago

Kevin M. Murphy, University of Chicago

Russell Hittinger, University of Tulsa, Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas

 


2011 Conference
2010 Conference
2009 Conference