These essays explore team-based parish leadership theologically, sociologically, and pastorally in a variety of cultures and circumstances. The result is an extended conversation, both practical and deeply reflective, emerging from the collaboration of theologians, social researchers, organizational development specialists, and pastoral ministers. Collaborative Parish Leadership draws on the experience, strengths, challenges, and insights of the long-term pastoral-academic partnerships out of which it has grown. These include "Project INSPIRE," a pastoral team-formation project sponsored by Loyola University and the Archdiocese of Chicago and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., as part of its Sustaining Pastoral Excellence initiative. Another partner initiative is the international pastoral minister exchange "Crossing Over," involving several Catholic dioceses in northwest Germany and based at Ruhr Universitat, Bochum. Authors of these essays have also been involved in Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership, the Congregational Studies Team's Engaged Scholars fellowship (both also Lilly Endowment funded projects), and other projects. Collaborative Parish Leadership employs practical-theological methods, rooted in pastoral experience and integrated with scholarly reflection. Opening essays deal with the current situation of U.S. parishes, the parish consultancy model of Project INSPIRE, and a case study of several parishes that benefited from the project. The following chapters present comparative case studies of collaborative leadership in various settings: multicultural parishes in different parts of the U.S., parish clusters consolidating into single parishes using very different processes, and parishes in Chicago and Mexico City meeting similar urban challenges. Three authors associated with CrossingOver and its participating dioceses assess the general state of parish reorganization in Germany, and the potential of the unique approach to team leadership taken in the French archdiocese of Poitiers. The final chapters reflect on the theology of parish leadership from pastoral and systematic perspectives, and on the future needs and possibilities of collaborative approaches. Overall, Collaborative Parish Leadership engages and challenges academic and pastoral leaders in diverse social and ecclesial situations, suggests multiple models for cultivating collaboration, builds connections between collaborative action and theological development.

Human beings leave their homelands for many reasons and they are called by many names: illegal aliens, strangers, asylum-seekers, displaced persons, economic migrants, lawful permanent residents, refugees, temporary workers, and victims of trafficking. Some are forced to flee because of violence, persecution, natural disaster, or intense economic privation. Most migrate in search of a better life, many as part of a family survival strategy. The movement of people from one place to another has remained a constant feature of human history. In an era characterized by the fast and cheaper movement of goods and services around the globe, migrants are the face of globalization. The world's two hundred million migrants often find themselves at the center of economic, social, and political debates. This book describes the distinctive way in which Catholic social teaching looks at migrants. It analyzes migration from the legal, social science, and cultural perspectives, and gives special consideration to the lived experience of immigrants themselves and their host communities. The book identifies gaps and opportunities to improve government and non-governmental responses to migration on a local, national, and international level. And You Welcomed Me aims to reframe perspectives on migration by focusing on the human beings at the heart of this phenomenon. It analyzes trade, immigration, labor, national security, and integration policies in light of the core Catholic commitment to the common good, human dignity, authentic development, and solidarity.

This study examines the collects assigned to the Sundays and major feasts of the proper seasons in the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman rite. The Latin collects assigned to each day in the typical editions of the respective missals are compared and contrasted both with their respective sources and with one another. Pertinent discussions and decisions of the Consilium study groups responsible for the post-Vatican II revisions of the liturgical calendar and Mass collects are also presented and considered. The goal of the study is to determine whether the two sets of collects present the same picture of the human situation, approach God in the same way, seek the same things from him, and, where they do not, to identify significant changes in theological and/or spiritual emphases.

What Catholic social thought can teach thinkers of all faiths and backgrounds about equitable economics Inequality is skyrocketing. In a world of vast riches, millions of people live in extreme poverty, barely surviving from day to day. All over the world, the wealthy's increasing political power is biasing policy away from the public interest toward the financial interests of the rich. At the same time, many countries are facing financial fragility and diminished well-being. On top of it all, a global economy driven by fossil fuels has proven to be a collective act of self-sabotage with the poor on the front lines. A growing chorus of economists and politicians is demanding a new paradigm to create a global economy for the common good. In Cathonomics, Anthony M. Annett unites insights in economics with those from theology, philosophy, climate science, and psychology, exposing the failures of neoliberalism while offering us a new model rooted in the wisdom of Catholic social teaching and classical ethical traditions. Drawing from the work of Pope Leo XIII, Pope Francis, Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle, Annett applies these teachings to discuss current economic challenges such as inequality, unemployment and underemployment, climate change, and the roles of business and finance. Cathonomics is an ethical and practical guide to readers of all faiths and backgrounds seeking to create a world economy that is more prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable for all.

Taking on a still-controversial topic, a diverse group of experts, including victims and clergy, offers reflections on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, examining what the church has done-and what it still needs to do-to protect children. Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002-2012 is a thoughtful, multidisciplinary commentary. Beginning when the scandal first broke in Boston in 2002, this first-of-its-kind work offers a wide range of opinion, both positive and negative, on what has been done in the ensuing ten years to stop and prevent such abuse. Through the contributions here, readers can delve into the world of the church hierarchy and into the minds of abusive priests and their victims. The book presents the views of leading academics and psychologists, but also allows the church to speak. First-person insights from victims are shared, as in a chapter written by a woman abused by a clergy member as an adolescent. She explains what happened, the resulting trauma, how she healed, and what she thinks needs to be done to prevent future abuse-a subject that still makes headlines and stirs debate. Contributions from 20 leading experts on sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy, including a federal judge; a social worker; a priest; a bishop; prominent psychologists; and professors of law, crime, and sociology

At times serious and sometimes playful, yet always rich with meaning, the poems in The Wild Woods Edge express a sense of hope and longing for the love and adventure we all seek in this world and in the next.