Encounter: Conversations on Catholic Social Tradition

Anna Rowlands is the St. Hilda Chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University, England. She is a political theologian who works at the interface of political and social theory and Christian theology. Her original training was in the social and political sciences, followed by postgraduate degrees in theology. She has worked for two decades on the political philosophy of Gillian Rose, with additional interests in Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil. These interests coincided with research over the last 15 years in two other areas: the study of forced migration and the ethics of migration, and the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching. She has published in all these areas. Her key publications include: Towards a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The T&T Clark Reader in Political Theology, edited with Elizabeth Phillips and Amy Daughton (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Contemporary Migration (forthcoming 2024) edited with Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh. She is currently working on a new book on Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil and Gillian Rose.

Marcus Mescher is associate professor of Christian ethics. He holds a Ph.D. from Boston College and specializes in Catholic social teaching and moral formation. His research and writing concentrate in the following areas: human dignity and rights; social/environmental justice for the global common good; how moral agency is impacted by cultural context and digital technology; the moral dimensions of friendship; sexual justice and the ethics of marriage and family life; liberation theology and inclusive solidarity; healing the psychological, spiritual, social, and moral harm caused by clergy abuse. Dr. Mescher has written dozens of popular and academic articles; he has published essays in the Journal of Moral Theology, the Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Jesuit Higher Education, and The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. He is the author of The Ethics of Encounter: Christian Neighbor Love as a Practice of Solidarity (Orbis, 2020) and Fratelli Tutti Study Guide (Paulist, 2021). His current research and writing focus on mental health and moral injury.

Victor Carmona is associate professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego. Carmona’s research advances theological-ethical analyses of migration with a global perspective grounded in Latinx points of view. His dual aim is to draw from the wisdom the Catholic tradition offers to create more just immigration systems and to nurture its ability to do so in increasingly pluralistic and interdependent societies. Publications include chapters on immigration in Human Families: Identity, Relationships, and Responsibilities (Orbis, 2021), where Carmona takes up the challenges of global migration, particularly at the US southern border, and the moral and political questions shaping this ongoing reality as it relates to families, in Value and Vulnerability: An Interfaith Dialogue on Human Dignity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020), where he analyzes the US and European efforts to externalize their border enforcement to stop Central American and Syrian refugees attempting to reach their borders, and in Sex, Love, and Families: Catholic Perspectives (Liturgical Press, 2020), where he tends to the dilemmas that mixed-status families are confronting in daily life to diversify Catholic reflections on family ethics.