STM was honoured to host participants of the 2024 Prairie Symposium for the Common Good April 29 through May 1 both at the Wanuskewin National Heritage Site and St. Thomas More College. Together, they engaged the theme of this year’s Prairie Symposium for the Common Good: Incarnating the Common Good – Catholic Institutions Engaging Diversities. Participants pondered what it means, as individuals, institutions, and communities, to be both Catholic and open to diverse expressions of human experience. They delved into their own commitments to foster the common good, “naming the tensions and promises of such commitments within a pluralistic world, as well as highlighting concrete paths of dialogue and action”. Inspired by Pope Francis’ call to build cultures of encounter and to journey along synodal paths of dialogue and action, attendees took time to listen, discern, and learn how to best act together.
Everyone is Needed: Building the Common Good through Dialogue and Friendship
In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis explains that “Authentic social dialogue involves the ability to respect the other’s point of view and to admit that it may include legitimate convictions and concerns” (203) and it is only possible when we begin by recognizing the equal dignity of all (211). Rejecting the throwaway culture, relativism, and utilitarianism, Catholic social offers a vision of the common good as built through inclusive participation in dialogue. Friendship and kindness are valued as integral elements for “once kindness becomes a culture within society it transforms lifestyles, relationships and the ways ideas are discussed and compared. Kindness facilitates the quest for consensus; it opens new paths where hostility and conflict would burn all bridges.” (FT 224). In this lecture, Dr. Meghan Clark will offer insights from Catholic social teaching’s vision of the common good for thinking about the values of diversity and inclusion within our pluralistic societies.
Ayotte Lecture on Faith and the Environment Sharing the Creator’s Earth: The Meeting of St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan, Al-Malik al-Kāmil as a Model of Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples
The U.S. is far behind Canada in owning up to past atrocities committed against Indigenous Peoples, and then seeking justice and reconciliation with them. In the case of the Sisters of St. Francis – Rochester, MN (my religious community) while we did not sponsor or run boarding schools, our Motherhouse property is on a hill where Indigenous People formerly held ceremonies. Only in the Summer of 2023 did we finally publicly acknowledge that reality, and officially begin conversations seeking how to make amends. We’ve only just begun sharing our common ground namely, a deep desire to care for “The Creator’s Earth.” This presentation will offer a model for dialogue toward reconciliation rooted in the 1219 encounter between St. Francis of Assisi and the Sultan, Al-Malik al-Kāmil.
