Prophetic and Public: The Social Witness of U.S. Catholicism

Acknowledgments

Although writing a book can be a solitary endeavor, I owe a debt of gratitude to many people for its completion. I am particularly grateful to David Hollenbach, S.J., Tom Massaro, S.J., and Mary Jo Bane for their valuable guidance of this project at its initial stage and for their own exemplary commitment to the active role of the church in the world. I am indebted to Lisa Sowle Cahill for her support throughout my doctoral work; her own method has informed my attempts to bring together divergent perspectives in this book. I am grateful for the conversations and debates with friends in graduate school at Boston College that have influenced my conclusions on Christian engagement here. Thanks to my colleagues in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University for their friendship and willingness to help with valuable references and advice. I am grateful to my department chair, Jeff Siker, for encouraging the book’s publication. Tom Rausch, S.J., and Jim Walter graciously read an earlier version of chapter 3 and provided insightful feedback . My ethics colleague and good friend Jon Rothchild served as a helpful sounding board along the way. Thanks to Jeremy Cruz and Brian Geremia for their assistance preparing the manuscript for publication and for our lively conversations about Christianity and politics. Many thanks are due to Jim Keenan, S.J., and Richard Brown at Georgetown University Press for this opportunity to give my ideas a public voice. Jim has long welcomed junior scholars “into his peerage,” and I very much appreciate his encouragement along the way. I am grateful for the comments of the press’s two anonymous reviewers. An earlier version of chapter 3 appeared as “Bridging the Divide in Contemporary U.S. Catholic Social Ethics,” Theological Studies 66 (June 2005): 401–40. I remain indebted to those whom I interviewed for this project for their candid and thoughtful reflections , as well as for their tireless work for justice and peace in our nation and world. Acknowledgments Acknowledgments xii Special gratitude goes to my husband, Mark Potter, whose support, humor , and insights sustained me throughout every stage of this project. His lived witness to Christian solidarity and his passion for life remind me daily of what truly matters. The arrival of Owen Xavier provided a great deal of joy and perspective during the book’s final stages. I dedicate this book to my parents , Robert Heyer and Jean Marie Hiesberger, who served as my first models of living out the Catholic faith. They gave me the foundations and courage to pursue this vocation, and their continued lives of dedicated, prophetic service to the church and world humble and inspire me. ...