St. Paul-based center seeks to spread Catholic social teaching

By Anna Wilgenbusch For The

Catholic Spirit

Assumption in St. Paul will be home to a new and innovative center seeking to spread Catholic social teaching across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Founded by Colin Miller — director of pastoral care and outreach at Assumption — the Center for Catholic Social Thought will host a plethora of free events.

“The center is an initiative of the Church of the Assumption with the objective of spreading the thought and practice of Catholic social teaching in the archdiocese, and specifically to the ordinary layman in the pew who has not encountered it before,” Miller said.

Miller earned his Ph.D. in theology from Duke University in 2010 and wrote his dissertation on virtue ethics and St. Paul, with an eye toward Catholic social teaching. Since then, he has devoted much of his energy to spreading that message.

It is a message that is sometimes misunderstood.

“Catholic social teaching … is primarily about what we do; not, in the first instance, about what the government does,” Miller said. Catholic social teaching, for example, does not aim to merely serve the poor, but to build Christian fellowship with the poor.

“And it’s about how all of this is vitally connected with a life of prayer, of regular Christian fellowship, and especially with the Eucharist,” said Miller, who is currently working on a book about the Catholic Worker Movement that will be published with Ave Maria Press in 2024.

Father Paul Treacy, pastor of Assumption, said he has encouraged, supported and helped guide how the center might be a resource not only for the parish, “but for the whole of the archdiocese.” Catholic social teachings provide “rich treasures of the Church,” he said.

On Aug. 31, the center will kick off its fall 2023 speaker series titled The Catholic Social Difference. Michael Naughton, chair of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, will deliver the inaugural lecture.

Naughton said Catholic social

The Catholic Social Difference

All lectures at 7 p.m., Assumption in St. Paul

Aug. 31: “What is Catholic Social Teaching?” by Michael Naughton, chair of Catholic Studies, University of St. Thomas

Sept. 7: “Community, Poverty, and the Common Good” by Michael Goar, president and CEO of Catholic Charities Twin Cities

Sept. 14: “A Catholic Economy” by Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary and director of the Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing, University of St. Thomas

Sept. 21: “Church and Politics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” by Msgr. Martin Schlag, professor of Catholic social teaching, University of St. Thomas

All events are free. Registration is available on the center’s website at catholicsocialthought org

Thought has already accrued support from many within the archdiocese. Archbishop Bernard Hebda said he “applauded the establishment of the center and is praying for its success.” teaching is an integrating force for Catholics.

“At the Second Vatican Council, in a document called ‘Gaudium et Spes,’ it says that one of the more dangerous errors of our time is the split between our faith and our social life,” Naughton said. Catholic social thought, he said, helps bring daily life to “a place where virtue can gow.”

The center will host classes every fall and spring. This fall, Miller will offer a five-week course on Christianity and Politics, one of several courses he has taught through Assumption since 2020. In spring 2022, he co-taught a course titled Radical Discipleship and Catholic Community with Tyler Hambley, which examined the social teaching of the Church and its practical relevance.

Linda Thain, 76, said she signed up immediately when she saw Miller and Hambley’s class advertised in the Assumption bulletin in fall 2021.

Thain, who is a parishioner of Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul and a catechesis teacher at Assumption, said her interest in Catholic social teaching led to her conversion to Catholicism in 2018 when she read the works of Dorothy Day.

“We had such wonderful discussions,” said Thain, who now works as Miller’s assistant by coordinating food drives and volunteer opportunities. “Catholic social teaching is important when … thinking of religion as not something to compartmentalize.”

On the first and third Tuesday nights of every month, Assumption will host a roundtable discussion group from 5:30-7 p.m. to discuss various topics within Catholic social teaching. The center also plans to deliver short talks by Miller or guest speakers on weekdays after the noon Mass at Assumption. The Center for Catholic Social

Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law who teaches Catholic Thought, Law and Policy, said he hopes the center will be a place where Catholic social teaching is diffused into Catholic families and communities.

“I’m delighted that Assumption parish is launching this center,” Father Griffith said. “Catholic social teaching could provide a forum for respectful, informed dialogue across differences of political opinion and other societal opinions.”

The Basilica hosted a five-part series about Catholic social teaching during Lent 2021.

“All of the (in-person and online) sessions were packed,” Father Griffith said, “so I do think that there is a hunger there.”