Thesis advisor: Andrea Vicini / This dissertation aims, first, to retrieve a thicker notion of kinship; second, to explore whether such a notion might counter the political exclusion of the most vulnerable; and third, to propose that kinship has potential to promote the social integration of the most vulnerable. Over the past few decades, the term kinship has often been understood in a very reductionist sense, only referring to genetic connections or family ties, and a particular type of kinship, i.e., spiritual kinship, has lost its social implications. Such a narrow understanding of kinship contributes to marginalizing and excluding frail elderly women and men from the social fabric. In particular, the frail elderly are subjected to two kinds of exclusion: personal (individual) and institutionalized (systematic). While the vices that lead to personal exclusion include anthropodenial and an aversion to human limitations, the vices responsible for the institutionalized exclusion of the frail elderly include greed and individualism, both fostered by neo-liberalism. To promote the inclusion of the frail elderly, I propose, first, the practice of solidaristic kinship as a response to personal exclusion, because this practice re-educates the emotions through habits. Second, to address institutionalized exclusion, I recommend structures of kinship, such as solidarity and fraternity, because they promote kinship within society. Finally, practices of solidaristic kinship and structures of kinship together characterize communities of solidaristic kinship with frail elderly persons. By engaging in such communities, moral agents cultivate the civic virtues needed to contribute to shaping a society that promotes the political inclusion of its vulnerable members. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / This dissertation examines the significance of work and leisure from the perspective of Christian theology and ethics. Specifying work as obligatory activity and leisure as discretionary activity, the dissertation argues that a theological vision for work as a form of service and leisure as a form of peace can challenge some of the most damaging assumptions about paid employment and the use of free time. In the process, the dissertation also identifies the personal and social transformations necessary to make the theological vision a reality, and it proposes a distinct methodology for linking ethics with both lived experience and substantive theological claims. Chapter one outlines the current state of work in the United States, asserting that changes in the nature of work, the demographics of the workforce, and the structure of business have made workers more dependent on paid employment and less secure in their jobs. After discussing the implications of these changes for gender assumptions and family life, this chapter argues that the root causes of dependence and insecurity lie in an increasingly individualistic culture and its concomitant spirit of consumerism. Responding to the problems identified in chapter one, chapter two offers a theological vision for what work could become if Christian theological convictions were integrated more fully into this sphere of life. A critical overview of the traditional language of vocation yields a "charismatic-vocational" understanding of work, which stresses the dynamic nature of both God's call and an individual's response. This vision is further refined with insights about the relational nature of the human person and about Jesus' work for the kingdom of God. Christians, then, are encouraged to see their work as an intrinsic good that uses their particular charisms to serve God and neighbor. Chapter three uses the virtue of justice--biblically defined as right relationship--to pinpoint the structural reforms needed to make the theological vision for work more viable. In conversation with Catholic social teaching, this yields a constructive vision for just remuneration and a necessary critique of executive compensation practices. The result is a more relational understanding of work for employers and employees alike. Shifting to leisure, chapter four notes that the two most common leisure activities (watching TV and using digital media) are defined by superficiality and isolation. The former is described in opposition to depth and "flow," and the latter in contrast to robust community ties. In both cases, relationships are identified as the key casualty. Chapter five distinguishes leisure (flow-like activities) from recreation (non-flow activities) and engages Christian eschatology to insist that leisure is properly a temporary prefiguration of peaceful rest in God while recreation serves as a form of recuperation that helps one fulfill his or her charismatic-vocational responsibilities. Augustine's classic categories of enjoyment and use are then adapted to create a balanced approach to leisure and recreation that avoids idolatrous extremes. Chapter six develops a general ethics for leisure and recreation by relying on the virtue of solidarity. The distinctively Christian notion of this virtue yields a defense of a weekly day of rest for every worker. Parallels with Aquinas then create an ordering of leisure as well as guidelines for the ethical evaluation of particular recreational pursuits. The conclusion addresses the central benefits of the overall project, highlighting the value and necessity of promoting the practice of ethical discernment in everyday life. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / This dissertation tries to show the contribution and challenge of a Jesuit university in nurturing an ethic of collaboration for the common good by responding to the problem of fragmentation in post-authoritarian Indonesia. The history of compartmentalization since Dutch colonization, the unleashing of greedy elites after the fall of the Suharto regime and the silent penetration of neoliberal ideology through commodification of higher education on one hand contribute to the decline of the massive civic movement in higher education, but on the other hand open a new form of social movement through various local initiatives (Chapter I). It is in responding to this tension that an ethic of collaboration proves to be helpful, both in initiating a strong alliance among various groups and in respecting the plurality of its manifestations. The tradition of post-Vatican II Catholic Social Teaching, especially in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis and Caritas in Veritate, provides a solid grounding for proposing such an ethic of collaboration with its three recurring important themes: solidarity, subsidiarity, and the common good (Chapter II). This normative vision of collaboration for the common good is not alien to the Indonesian world view. Three Indonesian pedagogues (Ki Hajar Dewantara, Nicolaus Driyarkara and Mochtar Buchori) not only support the possibility of a cross-cultural dialogue between an ethic of collaboration for the common good based on Post-Vatican II Catholic Social Teaching and the Indonesian virtue of gotong royong (working together), but also show how the didactic of such a vision should be started in various forms and levels of education (Chapter III). Therefore, enlightened by Ignacio Ellacuría, the historical mission of a Jesuit university in the context of a post-authoritarian society is to provide space to engage with the people’s struggle to attain its personal and communal wellbeing. This commitment to be a-different-kind-of-university is carried out through research, pedagogy and community service (Chapter IV). In so doing, Jesuit higher education in post-authoritarian Indonesia will embody the mystique of service and bears a theologal dimension in its various collaborative practices to historicize the reign of God which is in process toward its fullness (Chapter V). / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Sowle Cahill / In what sense is Catholic social teaching theological? Undoubtedly theology is a resource for ethical reflection but it can also be an outcome of it. This dissertation explores the theological contribution of post-Vatican II papal social encyclicals on development. Particular historical challenges and also specific worldviews adopted by the popes shape ethical reasoning and political priorities for action, but they do more. They stimulate theological thinking by making options among diverse theological frameworks, favoring certain concepts or symbols and downplaying others, and thus, they contribute to entering the mystery of God’s salvific love and allowing it to seize us. Chapter one offers some guidelines for a theological reading of social encyclicals. Vatican II with its “principle of pastorality” works as a compass. Karl Rahner, whose theology is always at the same time anthropology and Christology, is a privileged partner for the investigation. The history of half a century of debates on theories of development is the background. Chapters two to four analyze successively Paul VI’s Populorum progressio (PP), John Paul II’s Sollicitudo rei socialis (SRS), and Benedict XVI’s Caritas in veritate (CiV) by retrieving elements of context, highlighting the theological meaning of their methodological options, and exploring their insights about the mystery of being human and the mystery of “Jesus Christ for us.” In the 1960s, PP develops a theology which highlights incarnation and God’s grace at work in this world (neo-Thomist framework). Twenty years later, when early hopes about development have faded, SRS pursues this lead but also rebalances it with a greater concern for sin and redemption brought by Christ in the world (Augustinian framework). It also incorporates categories put forward by Latin American liberation theology such as structures of sin, liberation, and option for the poor which stress the structural dimension of sin and grace (Liberationist framework). At the dawn of the 21st century and showing concerns for growing secularization in Western countries, CiV insists on God’s transcendence (Augustinian framework) while still showing traces of the two other theological frameworks because of his addressing challenges of global justice. The final chapter offers three guidelines for theology which arise from the recognition of the theological nature of the church’s social teaching. (1) Without losing sight of its transcendental origin, theology ought to begin within history and with human experience. (2) A Christian anthropology ought to manifest the unity of the personal and social dimensions of being human which calls for both personal conversion and structural change. (3) Christologies can articulate approaches from above and from below in a variety of ways but the inescapability of the latter needs to be stressed in connection with taking seriously the option for the poor. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / This dissertation looks at the reality of massive and persistent global poverty and underdevelopment in the era of globalization and the attempts to address this reality in both Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and various elements of secular theory and policy. It details that there has been a convergence of human rights and development discourse in both CST and secular thought and global public policy, and seeks a policy framework and ethical agenda for achieving “development as the realization of human rights” from a Catholic perspective. Having delineated the differences between various “Rights Based Approaches to Development” and multiples shortcomings in global public policy, the dissertation argues that the “Right to Development”(RTD) approach best reflects CST’s understanding of human rights as both a chief end and primary means of achieving development. Further, it insists on achievement of development so understood an urgent matter of justice, as itself a human right. It thus makes the case that the RTD can serve as a “carrier” of the tradition, acting as a consensus framework with which to address gaps and failures in responsibility and accountability in global governance, to serve as a guarantor of the indivisibility of all human rights, and to formulate a codification of the multiples obligations on varied global actors to strengthen the indivisibility and universality of rights and the participatory process necessary to secure them. It also argues that the Catholic Church therefore can and must work to see that the RTD approach undergo a re-invigoration in both international law and as an ethical vision in civil society. In short, then, it argues that the RTD and CST should act as allies in the common goal of development understood as the participatory realization of the full spectrum of human rights. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Little has been written on the pedagogy of Catholic Social Teaching and how to teach it in a way that encourages a living out of its main principles. Working for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), I was interested in how staff of diverse faith backgrounds might be encouraged to live out, in their work, the espoused values of the organisation, rooted as they are in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. My research question asked how effective Theological Action Research is in enabling CAFOD staff to interpret, embed and embody CAFOD’s values in their work. As an insider-researcher, I set up a research project called Reflecting on Values and invited 12 members of staff, from three different parts of the organisation, to conduct their own research on one of CAFOD’s values in conversation with their practice. Theological Action Research was both the research methodology and a tool under investigation. My findings were threefold. First, Theological Action Research revealed itself to be a strong tool of adult theological education, which allowed CAFOD staff to interpret, embed and embody CAFOD’s espoused values in their work. Second, the research process identified practices that enhanced the confidence and competence of staff in ecclesiology, in religious and faith language, and in theological reflection. Third, the data revealed an operant Eucharistic theology rooted in CAFOD’s practice of responding to poverty and injustice pastorally, politically, and in partnership. The research is original in that it demonstrates how CAFOD’s practices embody Catholic Social Teaching and can contribute to its development. It also offers the first systematic evaluation of Theological Action Research as a tool for adult theological education which is rooted in both theory and practice. The findings affirm the importance of allowing space for theological reflection within CAFOD, and that for this organisation, the practice of theological reflection is an essential dimension of living out its Catholic identity.

abstract: High schools throughout the country posit leadership as one of the characteristics they develop while students are with them. All too often though, this leadership development is limited to those in title positions of leadership or is only accomplished through informal training mechanisms. The challenge for educators is to develop leadership that can critically address community problems, a challenge that is made more difficult in a broader social environment that is becoming politically, economically, and racially more polarized. This action research study investigated how high school students understand transformative leadership as one way to address this problem. Using a hermeneutic orientation, this qualitative study investigated high school students’ (N = 8) understanding of transformative leadership. Situated within a leadership class open to any 11th or 12th grader, participants engaged with a community-based, service-learning project as a method to enact their leadership in a meaningful way. The use of Catholic Social Teaching as a way to frame the service-learning project allowed for a direct connection with the school’s Catholic identity and mission. Data sources included reflection journals, interviews, focus groups, and a researcher observation journal. Findings from the study suggest that high school students understand and enact transformative leadership through participation in a service-learning project. Participants understood transformative leadership to different extents, indicating that transformative leadership develops in different stages. These results, along with implications for future research, are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2016

Although called by our vocation and the mission of Catholic schools, students with disabilities (SWD) are underserved in Catholic education. Only approximately 1% of the nation’s SWD population (67,000 students) attend private schools with 40% identified as Catholic (U.S. Department of Education, 2018a). Despite the small number, SWD and peers that struggle are attending our schools and therefore, must be included meaningfully and served successfully. This study dispels the myths around the admission and service of students with Down syndrome in Catholic schools and informs educational leaders on how to create and sustain inclusive environments aligned with Catholic Social Teachings. A qualitative research approach comprising semi-structured interviews and document review was used in the study. The framework of Catholic social teachings and the epistemology of inclusivity were used to get answers to the two research questions: (a) how does a Catholic elementary school serve students with Down syndrome? and (b) What are the challenges in serving students with Down syndrome in a Catholic elementary school? The significance of this case study lies in witnessing and documenting one elementary Catholic school’s experience of creating, developing, establishing, and modeling an inclusion environment that serves the needs of its students with Down syndrome. This study ultimately provides data to those in similar Catholic school settings in developing and implementing fully inclusive environments. This study further expands the discussion in the field of Catholic education about the right(s) of all Catholic children, especially students with Down syndrome.

A decline in the number of vowed religious who teach and administer in Catholic high schools has placed the responsibility for transferring the founders’ Charism, the traditional mission and identity of the schools, in the hands of lay educators. This study examined how one Catholic independent single-sex high school established programs and methods to transfer the founders’ Charism to its lay educators and students in the areas of social justice, diversity, and social and political awareness. The researcher collected data about Charism transference by interviewing five adults selected as a purposive sample and conducting focus groups with 15 students selected on a nominative basis. Additional research included prolonged researcher emic observation and an analysis of school documents and archives; the data were codified and an emergent analysis of the data was performed. The analysis focused on social justice, diversity, and social and political awareness at the school. Informing the analysis were the theories of Catholic Social Teaching, critical pedagogy, and liberation theology. The emergent analysis identified that the school institutionalized the founders’ Charism, established an atmosphere of care for others in the areas of social justice and diversity, and promoted awareness of feminine identity and a sense of students as leaders, as well as an understanding of social justice and diversity issues. However, factors including social reproduction, social capital, cultural capital, and class complicated the transformational praxis of action in the areas of social justice and political and social awareness.

Thesis advisor: Stephen J. Pope / This dissertation develops a Roman Catholic account of the flourishing and virtuous agency of people with schizophrenia in the United States. At least two million people in the United States live with this brain disease, whose symptoms (e.g. delusions and avolition) complicate virtuous living. This dissertation remedies the neglect of schizophrenia in Catholic ethics and advances Christian ethics beyond the best available work done on the flourishing and virtuous agency of people with it by Protestant authors by: a) drawing its understanding of the content of human flourishing and of the theological and cardinal virtues from Christian theological and ethical commitments rather than from non-Christian sources; b) grounding the social supports that would increase the likelihood of clinical recovery and, therefore, of agency, habituation, virtue, and flourishing; c) showing via careful work in virtue theory whether, why, how, to what extent, and under which circumstances people with schizophrenia can live virtuously; and d) clarifying the meaning of the theological and cardinal virtues and their relevance for people with schizophrenia. Chapter One elucidates the challenges confronting people with schizophrenia in the United States from their illness itself and from the nation’s failed social response to them, as well as the opportunities available to them through clinical, functional, and personal recovery. Chapter Two concludes that, despite their liabilities, recent secular interpretations of the good life can or do conceptualize flourishing as possible even as constraints such as those associated with schizophrenia endure rather than only after they have been removed. Chapter Threes and Four find that Roman Catholic magisterial teachings about schizophrenia and an analogized reading of Luke 8:26-39 can helpfully ground necessary social supports, but the former requires greater conceptual clarification and development, while the latter emphasizes Jesus’s agency rather than that of the Gerasene man and depicts a total healing from total brokenness that is unavailable to or not fully representative of people with schizophrenia today. Chapter Five argues that Thomas Aquinas’s understandings of perfect and imperfect beatitude provide the best way for Christian ethics to conceptualize the possibility, content, and requirements of the flourishing of people with schizophrenia. Thomistic ethics can ground necessary social supports, and Aquinas’s virtue theory, as interpreted by William C. Mattison and developed by the scientifically-informed and socially-attuned threshold thesis, can show whether, why, how, to what extent, and under which circumstances people with schizophrenia can live virtuously before onset of illness, between onset and the threshold point of clinical recovery, and at and beyond the threshold. Chapters Six and Seven use Thomistic virtue ethics to explain the meaning of the theological and cardinal virtues, respectively, and their relevance for people with schizophrenia. The result is a wider and deeper Christian assessment of their possibilities for agency, habituation, virtue, and flourishing, even as schizophrenia’s challenges continue to varying degrees. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.