The Signs of the Times Podcast Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame

“Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value." That's the working motto of the Catholic Social Teaching and Financial Decision-Making Research Project, a grant-funded research initiative between the University of Salzburg’s Center for Ethics and Poverty Research and the Center for Social Concerns. The goal of the project is to understand the current budgeting and financial decision-making processes and procedures in representative Catholic institutions and to translate Catholic Social Teaching into budget-relevant points of reference. Center research associate Kelli Hickey joins us today to talk more about what motivated the research, how it was conducted, and what her team is learning.

"A meaningful life begins with meaningful work. There’s something truly transformative about the dignity found in meaningful work. Having a job can give an individual the means and the motivation to overcome past adversities, provide for loved ones, and achieve their dreams," Cincinnati Works. Luke Meyer, a sophomore accounting major at Notre Dame, joins us to talk about his Summer Service Learning Program (SSLP) in his hometown of Cincinnati, OH working for a non-profit called Cincinnati Works. Cincinnati Works assists with unemployment, but unlike a typical employment agency they form lifelong partnerships to not only prepare people for the workforce but to help them succeed and advance in the workforce. Luke shares his experience working with them and how the SSLP prepared him to truly encounter others and get the most out of his experience.

For more than ten years now the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures has partnered with the Center for Social Concerns to develop one of the most robust community-based learning (CBL) programs in language in the country. Today we’re joined by Elena Mangione-Lora, teaching professor in Spanish, and Clare Roach, immersion coordinator at Holy Cross School. Together they created a translation class at Holy Cross in South Bend that brought Notre Dame and Holy Cross students together around numerous translation projects that are now being picked up by dual language schools in Chicago and Los Angeles. Community-based learning has a way of developing expansive educational networks, and Elena describes how her CBL work led her to work with a school for men with special needs in Chile recently.

David Silberklang, Ph.D., is a senior historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem and the speaker at the center's annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture. In this episode, Silberklang shares stories from the Holocaust, looking at the importance of Jews' efforts to maintain human dignity and human life in the face of the overwhelming forces and impossible odds arrayed against them. 

What do labor unions and the Church have in common? For Clayton Sinyai, the answer to that question is a countercultural emphasis on solidarity. Sinyai is the executive director of the Catholic Labor Network, an association of Catholic union activists and clergy committed to Catholic Social Teaching on labor and work. In this episode, he discusses his experiences in a non-unionized workplace and the movement to connect churches with unions to promote the cause of workers.

Quinn McKenna is a Notre Dame junior who participated in the center's Global Living Learning Community (GLLC) during the summer of 2021. Following the cancellation of summer travel in 2021, the International Summer Service Learning Program (ISSLP) offered GLLC for students who needed to complete their global service-learning virtually. This program allowed ISSLP participants an opportunity to live in an intentional community in South Bend/Notre Dame, conduct virtual global service-learning projects, and engage in learning about global issues localized in South Bend and the region.
In this episode Quinn shares her GLLC experience, which she found to be one of the most surprising and rewarding experiences she's had at Notre Dame