Category: News

Inspired by the pope’s exhortation to encounter and dialogue, the Institute for Social Concerns launched the series Encounter: Conversations on Catholic Social Tradition. Organized by Suzanne Mulligan, professor of the practice and co-director of the Catholic social tradition minor, the series features distinguished scholars of Catholic social tradition who share insights and guide critical conversation on matters of justice and the common good in our fragmented time.

At the Institute for Social Concerns, the reentry program through Notre Dame Programs for Education in Prison (NDPEP) is designed to provide not just assistance but also hope for returning citizens like Daniel, Michael, and Clinton. As reentry program director Jim Cunningham describes, “The institute takes a holistic approach to reentry. It isn’t simply about finding jobs for reentering citizens. It is about treating reentering citizens as whole persons and seeking their flourishing in society.”

The Institute for Social Concerns leverages research to respond to the complex demands of justice and to serve the common good. This series, ReSearching for the Common Good, highlights some of the scholars in our community.

The Institute for Social Concerns has been deeply influenced not only by Pope Francis’s sermons, speeches, and writings but also by his general orientation to the moral life as one of loving encounter and care. In the wake of Pope Francis’s death on April 21, several institute faculty and staff reflected on his legacy and its impact on their work.

From Los Angeles to Tucson to the Twin Cities to New Orleans, students visited sites of justice-oriented work in the United States to briefly but intensely engage with a question of justice in a specific time and place.

Drawing on this mission, the 2025 Catholic Social Tradition (CST) Conference explored how the University and the Church can be a site of beloved community.

The Institute for Social Concerns leverages research to respond to the complex demands of justice and to serve the common good. This series, ReSearching for the Common Good, highlights some of the scholars in our community.

Deane is carrying on her family’s legacy by bringing her expertise in education and curriculum development to the Institute for Social Concerns. “I’m the pedagogy person,” Deane says with a smile. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about teaching and learning in K-12 spaces, in out-of-school-time spaces, and in higher education. I’m getting tapped to think about pedagogy everywhere I go in the institute, which is fun and challenging.”

The conference responded to this call by gathering over 250 scholars of theology, sociology, political science, ethics, and more from across the United States and around the globe on March 20–22. Collectively, they offered historical, constructive, and comparative approaches to examine religious nationalism as a significant sign of the time in contemporary national and international contexts.

Each spring semester over the long weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the first-year McNeill Fellows retreat to a US city to engage a particular question of justice.