Formative education, flourishing, and Catholic social doctrine

Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, was a presenter at the “Summit on Belonging and Social Relations in the Age of Fragility” at the Casina Pio IV in Vatican City, home of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences.

Held earlier this fall, the conference stemmed from Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, issued last May, in which he declared “let us cultivate relationships.”

Hosted by Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS)—which advise the pontiff on global and societal issues—the convening examined relational theories of human flourishing through multiple disciplinary lenses and in relation to what Pope Leo XIV has characterized as the contemporary crisis of belonging.

Wortham addressed “Formative Education, Eudemonia (human flourishing), and Catholic Social Doctrine” at a session titled “Grounding in Catholic Social Teaching & Fratelli Tutti (‘all brothers’); Harmonizing; Spiritual Formation with Evidence-based Practices to Shape a Culture of Encounter and Solidarity.”

Carola Suárez-Orozco, a senior fellow at the Lynch School, also spoke at the conference, presenting “Multiple Exclusions: Threats to Belonging, Identity, and Development for Immigrant Children” during a session titled “Belonging and its Antonyms.”

“It was thrilling to participate in the recent Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences conference on belonging in the heart of the Vatican,” said Wortham.  “My colleague Carola and I described how formative education as practiced at BC is particularly valuable for overcoming contemporary social and technological challenges to deep human relationships.”

Co-chair of the event was filmmaker and actress Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.