Recovering Social Catholicism: Arizmendi, La Pira, McKnight

(Nov. 4, Noon-1:30 PM EST)

In this group conversation, we explore three figures from a different era of Catholicism, that of the post-World War II movement towards a socially-engaged Church known as “social Catholicism”. We will be asking what this movement was and how it might be recovered in a time like today when it is sorely missing.

In this panel discussion and book launch sponsored by Solidarity Hall, M.T. Davila (Merrimack College) will be our moderator, along with three presenters:

• Elias Crim (Solidarity Hall), speaking about Fr. Josemaria Arizmendi, the founder of the Mondragon cooperatives;
• Matthew Shadle (Marymount University), speaking about Blessed Giorgio La Pira, the anti-war mayor of Florence Italy in the 1960s; and
• Nate Tinner-Williams (editor of Black Catholic Messenger), speaking about Fr. Albert McKnight, a civil rights pioneer and key player in the Southern cooperative movement.

This event is also the occasion of the launch of two new titles from Solidarity Hall Press:

• Reflections, the first widely available English translation of this text by Fr. Josemaria Arizmendi, with Introduction by Nathan Schneider and an Afterword by Jessica Gordon Nembhard.
• The Power of Hope, a new pictorial biography of Blessed Giorgio La Pira by Riccardo Clementi.

Both books will be available to order online at the Nov. 4 event and thereafter at the Solidarity Hall website and other book sites.