Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church

In May 2002 while teaching at the Gregorian University I invited 5 fellow Catholic ethicists from Roman universities for a dinner together.  It was sensational.   Each was from a different country, each was already teaching in Rome for more than 15 years and none had met one another outside of their own school. After that dinner I decided to develop an international network of Catholic Theological Ethicists.
I established an international committee of eight ethicists; we first met in Leuven in 2003 and named ourselves Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church.  We articulated a mission statement, describing the fact that ethicists network with professionals in medicine, public health, economists, law, etc., but not with fellow ethicists.  We realized the need to network among ourselves.
We began working toward a first international conference to be held in Padua Italy in 2006.  We were aiming to bring 250 ethicists together, but 400 came from 55 countries.  We featured speakers from each continent: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, so that we could begin to realize the need to get out of our own “context” so as to connect with others in theirs and be more “catholic.”
2006 in Padua led to 2010 in Trent when 600 Catholic ethicists came from 75 countries.  By this point we were a network on the move.   But we decided that we were spending too much time preparing for international conferences and we needed, instead, to deepen our networks in a variety of ways.
First, we developed a monthly newsletter, The First, that has 5 continental op-ed pieces in each issue along with news, calls for papers, sabbatical programs, job notices, etc.
Second, we decided to develop a seven volume book series, launching the Trento plenary papers as the first and now more recently a volume on Feminist Catholic Theological Ethics. With five more volumes having more than thirty contributors each, we envision at least over 200 ethicists participating in the project.
Third, each continent now has a regional leader who organizes regional conferencing (Nairobi, 2012; Krakow, 2014; Bangalore, 2015; Bogota, 2016); appoints writers for the op-ed contributions; supports younger scholars; and networks with other regions.
Fourth, we just posted a map where we are populating it with our vitae and publications making our CTEWC map more personal and more connected.
Fifth, our schools from the south and the north have begun sponsoring more faculty from overseas in our visiting professors program.
Sixth, we are thinking of hosting a third international conference in 2018.  Stay tuned.
Jim Keenan, S.J. is the Founder of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, at Boston College he teaches theological ethics, holds the Canisius Chair, and directs both the Jesuit Institute and the Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program.