Cathonomics & Integral Ecology – treating people and the environment with inherent dignity – Faith & Reason lecture – March 30th, 2023
*NOTE: this event had to be rescheduled due to severe winter weather. The event will now be virtual and take place on March 30th.
Description:
“The main tenets of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those who it would seem meant to benefit, and is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind; “once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, the rest that one owns belongs to the poor, and “based on a purely economic conception of man, the system of neoliberalism considers profit and the law of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and peoples.” From the beginnings of Catholic Social Teaching to today, the church has never shied away from criticizing the failings of economic and environmental ideologies, from socialism to capitalism, and others that lie in between. In this Faith & Reason event, economist, and advisor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Anthony Annett, will share the richness of Catholic social thought on economics and the environment, showing how it transcends the secular ideologies that surround us. Moderated by Peter Copeland of Catholic Conscience and the St. Monica’s Institute, on behalf of the Newman Centre at the University of Toronto.
Biography
Anthony Annett is a Senior Advisor at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He works at the intersection of economics, ethics, sustainable development, and Catholic social teaching. He holds a B.A. and M.Litt. from Trinity College Dublin and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.
Annett helped coordinate an initiative called Ethics in Action, which met at the Vatican and brought together religious leaders and scholars from the world’s major religions as well as economists, philosophers, business and labor leaders, development experts, and activists to develop an ethical consensus on the need for sustainable development. He was an editor (alongside Jeffrey Sachs, Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Owen Flanagan, William Vendley, and Jesse Thorson) on a new book entitled Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (Columbia University Press, 2022). The foreword was written by Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Annett also recently published Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy (Georgetown University Press, 2022). In this book, he draws on economics, Catholic social thought, philosophy, climate science, and psychology to show how readers of all faiths and backgrounds can work together to create a more just economy.
Annett has acted as an informal consultant to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and co-authored the remarks delivered by Dr. Carolyn Woo at the launch of the encyclical, Laudato Si’.
Annett spent two decades at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. In this role, he served as a speechwriter to two Managing Directors.
Annett is currently writing a new principles of economics textbook with Jeffrey Sachs that would incorporate ethics and Catholic social teaching. This book is based on a course he taught at Fordham University.
Peter Copeland 