OPPORTUNITY: Throughout the world, religious liberty is under pressure. But few spiritual traditions see the connection between economic and religious liberty. The Catholic Church faces significant religious liberty challenges today, but Catholic leaders do not yet see how economic freedom helps secure religious freedom.
GOAL: To raise awareness among Catholic leaders concerning the religious and economic liberty connection and develop the importance of such links in their teaching and action.
ACTIVITIES: 1) 5 conferences addressing economic-religious liberty connection 2) 3 annual conferences for 150 of world's most leveraged Catholic bishops 3) Production/marketing of book on this subject to Catholic leaders 4) immersion of 200 future Catholic leaders in the significance of this subject.
OUTPUTS: 1) 5 strategic conferences focused on target audience 2) 3 bishops conferences 3) 1 print/media product addressing core economic-religious liberty issues 4) Scholarships for 200 Catholic leaders to attend Acton University.
OUTCOMES: 1) Enhanced awareness among target audience of how economic and religious liberty sustain the other; 2) Catholics exploring two Big Questions 3) Strong formal articulation of economic and religious freedom links by Catholic leaders.
POTENTIAL ENDURING IMPACTS:
1. growing grasp in Catholic teaching that economic freedom and religious liberty are mutually reinforcing; diminishing one usually diminishes the other.
2. development of substantive answers to the Big Questions explored by this project.
3. growth in number of research by Catholics into connections between religious freedom and economic liberty.
4. increase in references to the religious-economic liberty connection by public statements by Catholic leaders.
5. explicit linkage between religious and economic liberty by Roman Curia.
6. in the very long-term, a future papal social encyclical will make a reference to the linkages between these forms of freedom.
