Media advisory: Professor discusses social issues surrounding papal visit

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas researcher who studies the Catholic Worker movement and environmentalism is available to discuss social issues surrounding the papal visit to the United States.

Pope Francis is making his first official visit to North America as he will appear, hold Mass and speak this week in Cuba, New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Francis, a Jesuit originally from Argentina, has been known for living in less extravagant housing as pope and stressing social justice causes that are a hallmark of the Catholic Worker movement, including his "Laudato sí" encyclical that was an argument on the environment and sustainable development.

Paul Stock, assistant professor of sociology and environmental studies, is an environmental and rural sociologist with a primary focus on farmers' values and practices and alternative agriculture. He writes about the communal agricultural projects of the Catholic Worker movement, which was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933.

Q: Is there significance in what Pope Francis stresses in "Laudato sí" — or anything else he has done related to social issues — that have strong connections to other movements in the Catholic Church, such as the Catholic Worker movement? If so, how?

Stock: One of the biggest things that Pope Francis’ document "Laudato sí" that groups like the Catholic Worker movement stress is the importance on integrative thinking — the connections and linkages between what we often treat as separate problems.

Thus economic inequality — one of the key social issues Francis talks about — is connected to how we treat the planet, indigenous people, species, oceans, etc. "Laudato sí" helps bring together the long-held ideas of justice and fairness for workers along with the environmental protection ideas that both previous popes touched on. To stress the interconnectedness open the dialogue about how to live in the world with an awareness of those connections. 

Q: Francis is often described as someone who sheds lavish things that past popes had access to, such as living in a humble apartment. Has his leadership and example perhaps given more awareness to these ideas that are closely related to the Catholic Worker movement instead of the modern lifestyle and excesses many people in the Western world are accustomed to today?

Stock: There’s certainly a similarity in the pope’s connection with the poor that the Catholic Worker movement certainly exemplifies. The idea of voluntary poverty has animated the Catholic Worker movement since its founding in New York City in 1933.

From an environmental standpoint, the idea of voluntary poverty helped spur the Catholic Worker movement to seek out opportunities to found communal farms starting in the mid-1930s. While these farms struggled over the years, the contemporary efforts in California, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Zealand and elsewhere serve as examples of connecting inequality, peace activism and food justice.

To arrange an interview with Stock, contact George Diepenbrock at gdiepenbrock@ku.edu or 785-864-8853.