Annual Koch lecture dives into Catholic social thought and distant suffering
The yearly lecture was given by Daniel K. Finn on Monday night. He explored themes of compassion, unity and reflection within the Catholic faith.
Daniel K. Finn, this year’s Koch Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture, lectured students and staff on Catholic social thought on Monday as part of the annual Koch Lecture.
Finn is professor emeritus of theology and Clemens professor emeritus of economics at CSB+SJU, as well as a published author. His books include “Christian Economic Ethics,” “Consumer Ethics in a Global Economy” and “The Moral Ecology of Markets.” He has received lifetime achievement awards from the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Association for Social Economics. He is a former president of those two professional societies as well as the Society of Christian Ethics. For 25 years, he has been the Director of the True Wealth of Nations project at the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. He has lectured in more than twenty nations in Latin America, Europe and Asia and has led a successful affordable housing campaign in five cities in central Minnesota.
The Koch Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture recognizes a scholar whose research and teaching involves placing the Catholic intellectual tradition in dialogue with other academic disciplines. The Koch Chair assists the campus community to deepen their understanding of the rich Catholic intellectual and cultural tradition.
In his speech, Finn explained Catholic social thought, as well as what it means to be complicit in harming others. According to him, living responsibly is essential in Catholic social thought.
“What does it mean to live responsibly?” Finn asked the crowd. “What must we do?”
The professor listed three things he feels we all must do to live responsibly.
“We must act in accord with the goals you hold and hold ourselves accountable for what we do and do not do,” he said. “We need to recognize that we are often unreflective about the things we do, and work to remedy that.”
Finn emphasized the importance of thinking about the lives we are not living, but that inevitably impact our own. These are the people Finn says we must consider in order to live responsibly—we must consider distant suffering that may not directly impact our daily lives.
He instructed the audience to look at their shirt tags and share where their clothing was made.
“How were those people treated? What were their working conditions? Did they get bathroom breaks? How often do they see their families? Are they paid livable wages? Are they happy?” Finn said.
Finn also pointed out that the systems and structures we live and work in contribute to this distant suffering.
“Some structures we live and work in may have sinful aspects,” Finn said. “When is it our responsibility to change these structures?”
