There is a common tendency to reduce the broad principles of Catholic social teaching to specific, and often narrowly partisan, public policy positions on contemporary issues. After examining the principles of Catholic social teaching, this article uses three contemporary issues—welfare reform, health care and drug sentencing reform—to illustrate how the faithful application of Catholic social teaching can admit of very different, and often equally legitimate, conclusions regarding appropriate public policy responses to a particular social concern. It also demonstrates that Catholic social teaching is not limited to the role of the State, but also encompasses the responsibilities of individuals, families, the community and social groups in addressing matters of social concern.

The Intelligent Design Movement offers a compelling critique of the materialist metaphysical assumptions underlying much of modern natural science. These same assumptions serve as a foundation for much of modern sociology, often making it hostile to a Catholic perspective. The author examines the Intelligent Design Movement as a model for sociologists who attempt to practice their discipline within a Catholic framework.

The years between 1964 and 1975 were divisive ones for the United States, and American Catholics were likewise divided over the two wars that marked the period: the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Two leading Catholic periodicals, America and Commonweal, reflected the debate that raged among American Catholics in these years.

As part of a continu'mg exploratior) of how to more effectively defme and teach a Catholic sociology to toda/s college students, I examine ways in which the idea of Catholic sociology was framed in the early days of this academic effort in the United States. I overview some significant pedagogical and conceptual issues set forth in a number of widely used, explicitly Catholic, college-level sociology texts from the 1930's and forward by three key authors of that era: Fr. Paul Hanley Furfey Dr. Eva Ross and Fr. Raymond Murray. I draw some lessons for our teaching and curriculum development from their long-running efforts to set forth what Catholic sociology is and how to teach it, and what they decided to include in their textbooks. I end by posing some questions we need to more fully consider if we are to effectively advocate for a Catholic social science in our undergraduate programs today.

Before the war in Iraq, Catholics in the United States were sharply divided over its merits, even though many serious Catholic participants in the debate attempted to analyze the situation from the standpoint of just war (jus ad bellum) criteria. Catholic commentary ranged across a spectrum, from the opposition of pacifists to the support of neoconservatives voicing fears about weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. Pope john Paul II and the Holy See strenuously opposed the war. A focal point of the Pope's critique concerned the initiation of war without specific United Nations authorization. Nevertheless it was wrong to accuse Catholics who supported the war of dissent from papal teaching, since the position advocated by Pope john Paul, like the positions other Catholics both supporting and opposing the war on just war grounds, was based on prudential judgments regarding matters of fact that allowed for a range of opinions.

As college-level courses on Catholic Social Teaching become more widespread, it is important to explore the contents of the CST textbooks that students are likely to encounter. Are the ideology and pedagogy of these textbooks doctrinally faithful and respectful of the Church's teaching authority? I examine several recent, popular CST texts, and arrange them on a continuum from the strongly faithful to the openly dissenting. Of particular interest are texts halfway along this continuum: texts presenting views which do challenge the Magisterium and its teaching legitimacy but in a comparatively subtle way that undergraduates may not recognize as tending toward dissent I argue these troubling textbooks represent a forward edge of an expanding legitimation of what Charles Curran once proudly called "faithful dissent" in Catholic higher education. I offer some CST text selection guidelines for college educators seeking to use authentically Catholic materials in their beginning-level undergraduate courses on this subject