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“WHAT’S FAITH GOT
TO DO WITH IT?”
A 4-lecture series given by Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete on
the relationship between faith and life in some challenging areas
FAITH AND POLITICS: Do they mix?
Wed., October 15, 2008 at 7:00 pm
TRANSCRIPT

FAITH AND SCIENCE: Are they in conflict?
Wed., October 22, 2008 at 7:00 pm
TRANSCRIPT

FAITH AND MONEY: Do they add up?
Wed., October 29, 2008 at 7:00 pm
TRANSCRIPT

FAITH AND ROMANCE: Are they a good match?
Wed., November 5, 2008 at 7:00 pm
TRANSCRIPT

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THE LECTURES ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND
FREE OF CHARGE
“What's faith got to do with
it?” is a series of four
lectures What Monsignor
Albacete will be talking about
is, of course, the relationship
between faith and life in four
important human phenomena
(politics, science, economics,
affectivity).

In doing this, we would like to
avoid two easy traps: the first
one is to take this
relationship for granted, by
making an a priori decision
that faith has everything to
do with these phenomena
(or, conversely, that faith has
nothing to do with them). On
the contrary, we would like to
put this supposedly
necessary relationship (or
lack of it) to the test, and
verify experientially whether
faith can have an interesting,
positive, valuable, impact on
these aspects of daily life.

The second trap is to
assume that, in any case,
such relationship affects
primarily the ethical realm,
that is, how someone who
has faith should or should
not behave. On the contrary,
we consider that faith is first
of all knowledge, through
revelation, of the mystery of
God, which is the mystery of
Being, the origin of all
created realities. If this is so,
in the words of Benedict XVI
in Regensburg, faith should
“broaden” our reason, give
us a better vantage point to
look at the world and
decipher the workings both
of nature and of history.

This is the intuition behind
this series: we have asked
Msgr. Albacete the question:
how does faith shed new light
on each of these four
realities? Does faith reveal
something new and
previously unnoticed about
these things? Does it change
the way we should think
about them? And then, as a
result, does it change the
way we live them?

Faith and politics is a good
example. It is almost
universally assumed that
faith's chief contribution to
politics is to provide “values.”
Both sides of the political
spectrum claim, to some
degree, that Christianity is an
important source of
inspiration. Of course, each
side is also perfectly
prepared to dismiss faith as
a valid motivation when it
gives support to policies they
don't like. But the question
we want to raise tonight is, is
that it? Is the relationship
between faith and political life
just one of ethical guidance?
Given that we all agree that
Christianity helps us
appreciate, say, the value of
life or the need for social
justice, does it have any
deeper impact on the way we
live together in society?
Does faith give any new
insight into political life?
Does it make us understand
differently the concept of
democracy? Do Catholics
have a genuinely different
view of the role of the state?
What about faith and
freedom? Does Christianity
support political freedom or
threaten it? Is the Church in
some sense a political
reality? Should faith have a
social role or be a strictly
private affair?  Is the social
doctrine of the Church yet
another political ideology?
How should it affect the way
we approach politics in our
country? Monsignor will help
us address all these
questions.