Rinvio dell’evento del 4 maggio al 17 maggio 

Dear all,

With apologies, we need to postpone tonight’s scheduled Centesimus Annus UK meeting. Our speaker, Dr. Adrian Pabst, has come down with a bad reaction to a covid vaccine jab yesterday.

More details on rescheduling to follow soon.

Meantime, please remember that we’ve got our next one coming up soon, in less than two weeks’ time, on Monday 17th May (1800-1930hrs)

It’s already diarised and in your calendars.

Dr. Catherine Pakaluk will be our speaker.

Please see some preparatory readings attached.

  1. Divini Illius Magistri, Pius XI (1929)
  2. The Seton Option, CR Pakaluk (2018)
  3. Private Schooling after a year of Covid-19 (2021)

Our theme will be :

Session 6: The Catholic vision of education and civil / civic responsibilities

Topics to be addressed:

  • What are the roles of parents and Dioceses in ensuring school provision plays its proper role in the formation of young people?
  • The role / rights of parents as primary educators
  • Faith-based schools and school choice for parents
  • Scarred for life? the experience of children and students during lockdown
  • Digital learning environments for children and students – how effective?
  • What should a Catholic curriculum look like?
  • How can we revive the culture of adult education and formation?

Catherine will look at this primarily through the lens of her US experience, but there are very important lessons to be drawn from her research for the UK, for Europe and for the Universal Church.

Dr. Catherine Pakaluk bio

Catherine Ruth Pakaluk (Ph.D in Economics, Harvard University, 2010) joined the faculty at the Busch School (Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.) in the summer of 2016, and is the founder of the Social Research academic area, where she is an Assistant Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought. Formerly, she was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy. Dr. Pakaluk is the 2015 recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award, a prize given for “significant contributions to the study of the relationship between religion and economic liberty.”

Pakaluk did her doctoral work at Harvard University under Caroline Hoxby, David Cutler, and 2016 Nobel-laureate Oliver Hart. Her dissertation, “Essays in Applied Microeconomics”, examined the relationship between religious ‘fit’ and educational outcomes, the role of parental effort in observed peer effects and school quality, and theoretical aspects of the contraceptive revolution as regards twentieth century demographic trends.

Beyond her formal training in economics, Dr. Pakaluk studied Catholic social thought under the mentorship of F. Russell Hittinger, and various aspects of Thomistic thought with Steven A. Long. She is a widely-admired writer and sought-after speaker on matters of culture, gender, social science, the vocation of women, and the work of Edith Stein. She lives in Maryland with her husband Michael Pakaluk and eight children.

“What is it that families generate (or preserve) in us that makes mobility and economic success so much more likely? What is it in our families that informs and shapes our political behaviors? Why is it that individualized conceptions of marriage and childbearing have taken hold with such intensity, even while self-reports of happiness are declining? These and related questions form the basis for a number of new research projects on the horizon: such projects will be vital to shaping sensible family policy in the short term, and to helping to restore the flourishing of our nation in the long term.”– Catherine Ruth Pakaluk

Kind regards,

JP Casey

UK Coordinator, CAPPF