Sheed & Ward proudly presents the first of two volumes in a groundbreaking series calledAmerican Catholics in the Public Square. The result of a three-year study sponsored by Pew aimed at understanding the contributions to U.S. civic life of the Catholic, Jewish, mainline and evangelical Protestant, African-American, Latino, and Muslim communities in the United States, the two volumes in this series gather selected essays from the Commonweal Colloquia and the joint meetings organized by the Commonweal Foundation and The Faith and Reason Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.

Sheed & Ward, in partnership with the Commonweal Foundation and with funding from the Pew Charitable Trust, proudly presents the first of two volumes in a groundbreaking series calledAmerican Catholics in the Public Square. The result of a three-year study sponsored by Pew aimed at understanding the contributions to U.S. civic life of the Catholic, Jewish, mainline and evangelical Protestant, African-American, Latino, and Muslim communities in the United States, the two volumes in this series gather selected essays from the Commonweal Colloquia and the joint meetings organized by the Commonweal Foundation and The Faith and Reason Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. Participants in the Commonweal colloquia and the joint meetings—leading Catholic scholars, journalists, lawyers, business and labor leaders, novelists and poets, church administrators and lobbyists, activists, policy makers and politicians—produced approximately forty-five essays presented at ten meetings that brought together over two hundred and fifty participants. The two volumes in the American Catholics in the Public Square Series address many of the most critical issues now facing the Catholic Church in the United States by drawing from the four goals of the colloquia-to identify, assess, and critique the distinctive elements in Catholicism's approach to civic life; to generate concrete analyses and recommendations for strengthening Catholic civic engagement; to encompass a broad spectrum of political and social views of Catholics to encourage dialogue between Catholic leaders, religious and secular media, and political thinkers; to reexamine the long-standing Catholic belief in the obligation to promote the common good and to clarify how Catholics may work better with those holding other religious or philosophical convictions toward revitalizing both the religious environment and civic participation in the American republic.

This first volumeAmerican Catholics and Civic Engagement: A Distinctive Voice, i

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 Part 1: Catholic Thought in the American Context
Chapter 3 The Common Good & Catholic Social Thought
Chapter 4 Pluralism & the Common Good: A Response
Chapter 5 Catholic Social Thought & the American Experience
Chapter 6 Contending with Liberalism
Chapter 7 Catholics and the Liberal Tradition
Part 8 Part 2: Catholic Institutions in the American Public Square
Chapter 9 The Catholic Parish in the Public Square
Chapter 10 What do State Catholic Conferences Do?
Chapter 11 The Limits of Coalitions and Compromises: The California State Catholic Conference
Chapter 12 Catholic Health Care & the Challenge of Civic Society
Part 13 Part 3: Catholics in the Public Square: Autobiographies
Chapter 14 Pro-life, Pro-family, Pro-poor
Chapter 15 State House Politician
Chapter 16 On the Beat in the South Bronx and Central America
Chapter 17 Politics and Polling
Chapter 18 A Journalist's Calling
Chapter 19 Look for the Real Story
Chapter 20 Family, Faith and Union
Chapter 21 The Workers' Worker
Chapter 22 Family, Good Fortune and Stewardship
Chapter 23 God Deals with Me Through My Clients
Part 24 Part 4: Catholics in the Voting Booth
Chapter 25 How Catholic is the Catholic Vote?
Chapter 26 There Is No Catholic Vote-And It's Important
Chapter 27 Catholic Republicans
Chapter 28 Communitarian Lite