2008: The Family
The ninth annual Fall Conference, “The Family: Searching for Fairest Love,” was inspired by Pope John Paul II’s 1994 Letter to Families: “The contemporary family, like families in every age, is searching for ‘fairest love’.” But it is impossible to deny that modern family is suffering a multi-dimensional crisis—economic, legal, political, demographic, biological, structural, cultural, and metaphysical. Conference attendees gathered to examine the family, its origins, and its status in society and under civil law; to discuss the challenges the family faces in the modern world; and to offer hope for the future of the family. The conference also celebrated, in a special way, the anniversaries of two important papal documents: the twentieth anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem, and the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae. Watch video recordings of the presentations using the links below.
Featured Presentations
- “On Retranslating Humanae Vitae,” John Finnis, University of Notre Dame, Oxford University
- “Does Sarah + John = 3? The History and Future of Complementarity in Catholic Feminism,” Elizabeth Schiltz, University of St. Thomas School of Law
- “The Pastoral Method of Pope John Paul II,” Michael Waldstein, Ave Maria Unversity
- “Conscious Parenthood,” Janet Smith, St. Paul Seminary
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“Fundamentals of Human Infant Biology and Its Relationship to Parent Caregiving: Western Constraints on Creating a ‘Fairest Love’?” James McKenna, University of Notre Dame
- “The State of the Marital Union: International Human Rights Law, the Family, and the U.S. Supreme Court,” William Saunders, Family Research Council
- “Lessons from the Locker Room on Courtly Love,” David Jeffrey, Baylor University
- “The Family: The Crisis and the Romantic Temptation,” Thomas Hibbs, Baylor University
- “Finding Fairest Love in the Church of the Home,” Fred and Lisa Everett
- “Beyond the Rights of Children: The Family Critically Re-Examined,” H. Tristram Engelhardt, Baylor University
- “The Bishop as sponsus ecclesiae particularis: Family Structures and Ecclesiological Developments in the First Millenium,” Msgr. Charles Brown, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
- “An Aristotelian Feminism?” Sarah Borden, Wheaton College
- “Families, Neighborhoods, and the Built Environment: A New Paradigm for Notre Dame,” Philip Bess, University of Notre Dame
- “Philosophers, Fetuses, and the Family: Autonomous Appetites Bound by Choice,” Francis Beckwith, Baylor University
- “A Catholic Perspective on the American Family Law Governing Intimate Partnerships: Gift Exchange or Balance Sheet Accounting?” Helen Alvaré, George Mason University School of Law
Past Conferences
- 2013: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
- 2012: Exploring the Many Facets of Justice
- 2011: Radical Emancipation
- 2010: Younger Than Sin
- 2009: The Summons of Freedom
- 2008: The Family
- 2007: Dialogue of Cultures
- 2006: Modernity
- 2005: Joy in the Truth
- 2004: Epiphanies of Beauty
- 2003: Formation and Renewal
- 2002: From Death to Life
- 2001: A Culture of Life
- 2000: A Culture of Death