Faculty lead Catholic social tradition workshops in local parishes

March 18, 2026

What brings out an architecture major, an elementary school teacher, a nursing mother, a realtor, and a pastor to gather around a community room table in South Bend, Indiana, during the dead of winter?

For forty community members, it was the opportunity to deepen their understanding of Catholic social tradition (CST) and learn ways to put it into practice. This microcosm of the city is learning to build a more just and thriving community through the three-part workshop “Evangelized by Christ in the City.”

*David Lantigua provides framing remarks on Catholic social tradition*

By creating these spaces of encounter, the Institute for Social Concerns bridges the gap between campus and community, transforming CST principles into a shared power for local change.

The series brought together parishioners from across the city of South Bend—as well as Holy Cross and Dominican sisters—to learn alongside Notre Dame theologians and community organizer Rev. André Stoner of We Make Indiana, a non-partisan organization that helps move ordinary people from being spectators to agents in the work for justice in Indiana.

Each session combines theological reflections with training on community-building practices to demonstrate how CST can address the most pressing issues within the community—from poverty to immigration.

The workshop is the latest initiative to emerge from the Leadership Forum, a component of the institute’s South Bend Citizens Collaboratory. Fostering civic leaders across various sectors—academia, government, industry, faith communities, and neighborhood associations—the Leadership Forum equips them with tools that promote human flourishing.

In the January session, Notre Dame theologian David Lantigua, the William W. and Anna Jean Cushwa Co-Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, described how the theme of the series is inspired by recent papal teaching that the vulnerable are not only recipients but also agents of evangelism.

Participants read and discussed sections of Pope Leo XIV’s Dilexi Te (On Love for the Poor), where Leo describes how “lives can actually be turned around” by the realization that people who are poor “have much to teach us about the Gospel and its demands.” The workshops, Lantigua explained, are designed to provide training on how to do such listening and learning with marginalized people in the city.

*The Cushwa Center provided each participant a copy of Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation*

“I’ve been energized by the way this series is putting Catholic social tradition into practice,” said Lantigua. “So often we can make theology into an abstract academic discipline, but this series demonstrates the desire and pressing need to open theology to the Gospel by addressing the needs of our community.”

At the February session, Notre Dame theologian Todd Walatka described how St. Oscar Romero’s encounter with poor Salvadorans transformed his faith. The core of Romero’s theology, Walatka said, was the central insight of CST that every human has dignity as a creature of God. The struggle of the Christian life, according to Romero, is to see that dignity in oneself and others and to respond accordingly.

“Christian life is an exercise in holy seeing,” Walatka said. “We don’t yet see the splendid beauty in every person, but we should long to. Life’s a journey of learning to see and respond to humanity—our own and that of those around us.”

“One of the strongest ideas I am gleaning from this series is the importance of relational ministry–of encounter,” said Fr. Jim Fenstermaker, C.S.C., pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Parish, which co-sponsored the institute’s series along with the Cushwa Center.

Fr. Fenstermaker described the institute’s community partnerships as the embodiment of CST’s principle of subsidiarity, which teaches that social issues should be dealt with at the most local level possible and the highest level necessary. The local community brings its experiences of listening to the needs around them, and the institute partners with the community, recognizing that community members bring their own expertise on the work of justice at the local level.

Andre Stoner — *Rev. André Stoner leads workshop at the Near Northwest Neighborhood community room*

For participants like Heidi Witte ’09, a graduate of the institute’s Catholic Social Tradition Minor and director of children’s catechesis at Holy Cross Parish, the workshop bridges the theology she learned in the classroom with the realities she encounters in the community. As part of a nationwide group of Catholic women seeking to educate the public on the principles of CST, Witte described the way the workshop animates CST through one-on-one relational meetings as “eye-opening.”

“It was powerful,” Witte said. “I will carry that with me—trying to hear someone’s ‘why’ in a non-judgmental way.”

By bringing this workshop to local parishes, the institute ensures that the principles of CST are not kept to the academy but are embodied in the city through the concrete work of justice.

In the final session on March 26, Notre Dame theologian and St. Adalbert parishioner Rebecca Ruvalcaba will present on CST and immigration. All are welcome. Contact Michael Hebbeler, assistant director of community partnerships and programs, for details.