College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University: DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU

Cordaro, Tom

The Journal of Social Encounters 
Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 16 
Review of Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis 
Tom Cordaro 
Pax Christi USA Ambassador for Peace 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters 
 Part of the Catholic Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, 
Politics and Social Change Commons, and the Social Justice Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Cordaro, Tom () "Review of Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis," The Journal of Social 
Encounters: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, 88-90. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol5/iss1/16 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted 
for inclusion in The Journal of Social Encounters by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more 
information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
88 
 
Book Review: 
Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis 
 
Tom Cordaro 
Pax Christi USA Ambassador for Peace 
Justice and Outreach Minister, St. Margaret Mary Parish, Naperville, IL 
 
Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis. Thomas Massaro, SJ, Jesuit School of 
Theology of Santa Clara University, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., Lanham, 
Maryland, 2018. Paper, 208 pp. ISBN 9781442271746 
 
As a pastoral minister who provides parishioners opportunities to pray, study and act on the call to 
work for justice, I welcome the work done by Thomas Massaro SJ, in his book, “Mercy in Action: 
The Social Teachings of Pope Francis.” The book is both academically sound and accessible for 
most Catholics with a heart for social justice. 
 
One of Fr. Massaro’s most important contributions to understanding Pope Francis’ social teachings 
is his emphasis on change and continuity. As Massaro points out, Francis’ teachings are firmly 
rooted in the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching. At the same time Francis does not just embrace 
previous teachings but significantly advances them. In light of a steady stream of attacks by anti-
Francis factions within the Church (including parishes), this book will help Catholic parishioners 
understand and defend how Francis’ teachings fit into the larger tradition. 
 
Massaro begins with a good description of what Catholic Social Teaching is all about, “the place 
where the Church turns its face most deliberately to the wider world.” He also includes parts of 
the pope’s biography to help us better understand where Francis is coming from: a man from the 
global periphery. 
 
Why is it that when Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI taught in strong terms about economic 
justice, peacemaking or caring for creation they did not get push back in the same way that Francis 
does? Part of the reason is that often, when John Paul II or Benedict XVI had something important 
to say, they would issue encyclicals – which are hardly if ever read or taught to the faithful. Francis, 
on the other hand, speaks directly to believers in ways that are easy to understand. This often 
shocks the sensibilities of those who benefit the most from the status quo. 
 
Massaro points out that Francis speaks as a pastor more than a pontiff. His ethical method is 
“inductive,” giving priority to actual human experience rather than starting with abstract first 
principles. This new model of teaching authority, “pastoral magisterium,” focuses attention to 
specific personal needs. It is all driven by the pope’s emphasis on mercy. As Massaro writes, 
“Mercy is difficult to enact because it requires sacrifice and the overturning of ordinary 
expectations for how human life proceeds, such as with the perpetuation of petty grudges and 
automatic punishment for infractions of rules.” 
 
Francis seems to understand that if he wants his teachings to reach every day Catholics he needs 
to break out of the stifling limitations of formal teaching means and methods. Massaro points out 
that Francis does not just issue formal teachings but also uses creative opportunities, like the 
Book Review: 
Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis 
 
89 
 
Vatican World Meetings of Popular Movements, and synods of bishops to speak directly to the 
faithful. (His recent series of reflections on the moral challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and 
Catholic Social Teaching is another innovative way of applying Church teaching to the signs of 
the times.) 
 
Pope Francis is also a master of using social media and traditional media as forums for teaching; 
including Twitter, YouTube, media interviews, even a TED talk. As Massaro writes, Francis’ 
words carry so much impact because he often matches his words with deeds – inviting refugees to 
the Vatican, attending to the needs of the homeless in Rome; pausing a motorcade to embrace a 
sick child; washing the feet of women, Muslims and recovering addicts.  
 
Massaro also identifies many aspects of Francis’ teachings that significantly advanced Catholic 
social thought. On the environment Francis expanded our understanding of “integral ecology” 
which connects concerns for natural ecology with human ecology. In Francis’ understanding it 
cannot be emphasized enough that everything is interconnected. In regards to peacemaking, 
“reconciliation” best captures the efforts of Pope Francis. Francis insists that peacemaking is the 
work of solidarity; and creative active nonviolence is the best way to peace. 
 
Massaro reminds us that mercy and inclusion are two guiding lights of the ethical approach of 
Francis. He writes, “While [Francis] occasionally uses the terms ‘justice,’ ‘rights’ and 
‘obligations,’ the pope shows a rather marked preference for the language of mercy and love.” 
Pope Francis talks about the relationship between mercy and justice, not two contradictory 
realities, but two dimensions of a single reality that unfolds progressively until it culminates in the 
fullness of love. Francis cites Jesus’ example of going beyond the law. For Francis, mercy is at the 
absolute core of the Gospel. 
 
Another important innovation in Pope Francis’ social teaching is the emphasis he places on culture 
and the importance of cultural transformation. As Massaro points out, “Francis invites us to see 
the connection between our external actions and our internal state of mind, driven as they are by 
our culture and spiritual motivations.” When you add these connections to Francis’ insistence on 
addressing the systemic roots of social problems we begin to see how important the concept of 
culture is to Francis’ teachings.  
 
This pope speaks of, “the urgent need for us to move forward in a bold cultural revolution.” Over 
the years he has spoken of “a culture of care,” “a culture of mercy,” “a culture of welcome,” “a 
culture of accompaniment,” and “a culture of encounter.” On this point the book would have 
benefited from a more in-depth exploration of the meaning of culture and how cultures change and 
transform.   
 
From my limited experience with institutional cultural transformation, as an anti-racism organizer 
and in my work to establish a missional culture in my parish, I have a few insights that may help 
Catholic social justice activists begin the cultural revolution called for by Pope Francis.  
 
One way to think about the social conventions of the dominate culture is that they are generated 
by institutions and systems in order to legitimate, defend and promote the values, beliefs and 
outcomes of these institutions and systems. Individual behaviors and attitudes are formed by these 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
90 
 
institutions and systems through a process of socialization. This means that in order to transform 
culture, you not only need to change personal attitudes and behaviors, you need to transform the 
institutions and systems that form individual attitudes and behaviors.  
 
Institutional cultural transformation includes changing formal structures, policies, practices and 
procedures and informal structures, policies, practices and procedures. Like an iceberg, most of an 
institution’s culture is below the surface and is often unacknowledged and unexamined. This 
means that the first step in transforming institutional culture is to disrupt its normal operation in 
an effort to invite reflection on what is taking place; why it is done the way it is done; and can it 
be done in a different way that better reflects the professed values of the institution. To do this 
work we need “holy disrupters.” 
 
Institutional cultural transformation is as much about un-learning as it is about learning something 
new. Old patterns of behavior will need to be disrupted; new patterns will need to be created that 
will, at first, be un-natural and at times uncomfortable. Over time these new ways of doing and 
being can begin to re-shape attitudes. You cannot simply educate your way into a new institutional 
culture. You will need to organize your way to a new culture. It is a process of dismantling, 
reforming and in some instances reconstituting formal and informal ways of doing and being. 
 
Being a “holy disrupter” is no fun; it is often dangerous, thankless and isolating. For this reason 
community is essential. No disrupter can survive alone. We need each other and we need to 
embrace intersectionality, the conviction that all of our struggles in all of our respective institutions 
are connected. As Pope Francis teaches, everything is interconnected. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


English

Review of Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis

Hoekema, David A.

The Journal of Social Encounters 
Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 20 
Review of Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology 
David A. Hoekema 
Calvin University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters 
 Part of the Anthropology Commons, Christianity Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, 
International Relations Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Hoekema, David A. () "Review of Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology," The Journal of 
Social Encounters: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, 98-102. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol5/iss1/20 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted 
for inclusion in The Journal of Social Encounters by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more 
information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
98 
 
Book Review: 
Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology 
 
David A. Hoekema 
Professor of Philosophy Emeritus 
Calvin University (Michigan, USA) 
 
Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology.  Todd D. Whitmore.  London:  T. & T. 
Clark, 2019.  Paperback, 386 pp., $29.95, ISBN 9780567684172 
   
Todd Whitmore’s monograph Imitating Christ in Magwi is a difficult book to categorize.  On 
which shelf does it belong:  Theology?  Anthropology?  African Studies?  Peace and Conflict 
Studies?  Development Studies?  Intellectual autobiography?  There is a good case for each 
category.   
The author calls the study “an anthropological theology.”  That is a field I have never seen listed 
in a university directory, but its legitimacy can be inferred, perhaps, from Whitmore’s joint 
appointment in the  Theology and Anthropology departments at the University of Notre Dame.   
But what sort of hybrid can these two disciplines generate?  Anthropology is a social science that 
seeks to identify and interpret the structures and relationships of authority, kinship, and social 
meaning in a culture and to study the means by which they are refined and communicated.  
Theology, on the other hand, is an interpretive study of the teachings, practices and meaning 
structures that undergird and identify a faith tradition.   
A subdiscipline of theological anthropology is an easy concept to grasp:  it would study the 
grounding of social and cultural structures in belief systems and the interactions between religion 
and culture.  But what are the elements of anthropological theology?  This is one of many 
interesting issues raised by Whitmore’s study of the recent history of northern Uganda and 
southern Sudan.  He has provided a many-faceted and multi-layered account of the experiences of 
the people of the region and of an American academic living in their midst for several extended 
periods,  By doing so Whitmore seeks to persuade his reader both by argument and by example 
that an anthropological methodology can be deployed – indeed, it must be deployed – by 
theologians in the global community of Christians today. 
The necessity of this hybrid perspective, Whitmore argues, arises from a chasm between belief 
and practice that has infected the Western church.  How, he asks in his opening chapter, has 
“theology become so detached from the concrete practice of the imitation of Christ in the first 
place?”  (p.35). In Whitmore’s account the sources of this separation lie deep in the history of 
Western theology – deeper than the early modern and Enlightenment philosophers such as 
Descartes and Kant who are often blamed for the divorce of reason from experience, mind from 
matter, transcendent from immanent.  In a rather discursive appendix to the book Whitmore places 
the blame instead on Abelard, Athanasius, and, prefiguring these medieval thinkers, the apostle 
Paul.   
The theological argument of the appendix is also supported – more directly, and for this reader 
more persuasively – by the historical account of East African missions to which Whitmore devotes 
several chapters in this study.  His goal here is succinctly stated in an opening chapter on the 
importance of doing theology in media res.  Some influential anthropologists, he notes, have 
Book Review: 
Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology 
 
99 
 
advocated a mode of inquiry that embodies a deep ‘solidarity’ with research subjects. Such an 
approach, suggests Whitmore, has “close affinities with John Paul II’s understanding of the 
charity-infused solidarity that marks the life of the Christian”(p. 35).   
In what way can our relationship today with the people of East Africa put this into practice, he 
asks?  Can the spirit of solidarity bring together those who dwell in the global North and the global 
South, the affluent and the impoverished, the inheritors of millenia of doctrinal deliberation in 
monasteries and universities with the inhabitants of a world where ancestors and other spirits dwell 
among the living?  If we are to overcome these divisions among people, we must also reject all 
bifurcation of the physical and spiritual realms, of belief and lived practice, of analytic reason and 
lived experience.  When we do so, he urges, we make a beginning at living out the call to mimesis, 
the imitation of Christ in daily life. 
To support and illustrate this synthesis of applied theology and engaged anthropology, Whitmore 
proceeds along several parallel tracks.  One of them is an informative history of the Catholic 
mission to the region, highlighting the contributions of a pioneering nineteenth-century missionary 
priest, Daniel Comboni, and a twentieth-century bishop, Angelo Negri.  The locally based orders 
that they founded, the Sons of the Sacred Heart (later renamed the Comboni Missionaries of the 
Heart of Jesus) and the Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Gulu, have worked faithfully to bring 
succor and hope to the people of the region, even when it was engulfed in civil war.     
Launched by European missionaries, both of these communities are now overwhelmingly African.  
Yet their European roots have, inevitably, complicated their place in the political and economic 
environment.  Under British rule, the Comboni missionaries initially aligned closely with the 
colonizers, for better and for worse.  They tolerated and sometimes facilitated the corruption and 
co-opting of indigenous leaders, for example, and the exploitation of natural resources for export 
to Europe.  But in the twentieth century, Whitmore recounts, both European and African members 
of the order became courageous advocates for the welfare and dignity of the people of the north, 
first against the British and later against a new Ugandan government dominated by southern ethnic 
groups.   
The Little Sisters were founded by Bishop Negri, a Comboni priest, in 1942 with the goal of 
providing better education, especially for girls, and their work has focused on schooling.  During 
the Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) conflict the schools were the targets of repeated kidnapping 
raids – and yet the sisters were suspected by government troops of being rebel sympathizers.  As 
the conflict drew to an end, northern Uganda saw a massive influx of NGO’s, and many members 
of the order left their convents to collect generous salaries as local consultants and translators.  All 
these made life more difficult for the religious order. 
Few regions of the world have suffered from as brutal or as protracted a conflict as did northern 
Uganda and southern Sudan during the quarter-century rebellion led by Joseph Kony.  Whitmore’s 
extended stays in southern Sudan and northern Uganda took place in the last years when the 
conflict still raged, isolating the region from the rest of the world, and in the first years after the 
LRA withdrew from Uganda at last in 2006.  Releasing LRA soldiers and other camp residents to 
return to their home villages, Kony and a small band of his followers took refuge in remote 
locations in neighboring countries, where they remain in hiding today, eluding all efforts by 
regional armies to flush them out.    
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
100 
 
The story of the LRA rebellion is known around the globe, along these lines:  a rapacious warlord 
claiming to speak for the spirits launched a brutal war for control of northern Uganda, killing and 
kidnapping and raping at will, while Ugandan government forces, with aid and advice from 
Western allies, made valiant efforts to defeat the rebels and restore peace.  That widely accepted 
account, Whitmore shows, is far from the truth.  Residents of the region told him a very different 
story.  Government neglect of the region had long fueled resentment, and Kony was initially 
respected by many as an advocate for the Acholi people. As his movement evolved into a rebel 
army, the government’s response escalated to equal levels of cruelty.  Both sides kidnapped young 
people, killed suspected sympathizers with their enemy, and raped village women. Army troops 
and rebel soldiers alike, pursuing each other in a region far too dangerous for journalists to travel, 
terrorized and brutalized Acholi towns and villages.   
In the late 1990s, having failed to defeat or even weaken the LRA, the government of Uganda 
forced nearly all the residents of the region into displaced persons camps, where overcrowding, 
disease, and lack of access to farms caused unimaginable suffering.  Whitmore provides a first-
hand account of one of the largest camps, at Pabbo, where he interviewed a number of residents.  
All of this took place out of sight of the rest of the world.  Western governments and NGOs were 
assured that defeat of the LRA was imminent, but this was no more than wishful thinking. 
Thanks in large part to the courageous witness of religious leaders, domestic and international, a 
path opened at last to resolution of the conflict, and the camps were emptied when the LRA 
withdrew from Uganda in the mid-2000s.  Whitmore gives credit, in a few brief mentions, to the 
amazing interfaith group the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, created in 1997 by bishops 
and pastors and imams, whose steadfast efforts to alleviate suffering and facilitate dialogue laid 
the groundwork for peace.1   
Whitmore’s interpretation of what he heard, and his efforts to counter prevalent misconceptions of 
the conflict, themselves became a source of conflict, ironically, both in Uganda and at home.  What 
his local informants described to him, he decided, was nothing less than a campaign of genocide 
against the Acholi people.  He laid this charge against the Museveni government in an article 
submitted to a scholarly journal in the United States.  When the Ugandan authorities learned of his 
allegations they blocked him from visiting Uganda for three years, overturning his research plans. 
Whitmore’s colleagues and graduate supervisors back in the United States, to his shock and 
disappointment, also registered their dissent from his conclusions and their opposition to their 
publication, which they feared might jeopardize continuing mission and development work in East 
Africa.   
Whitmore’s rehearsal of this controversy seems at times intended as much to strike back at his 
critics as to advance his argument.  Was the military campaign against Kony indeed a heinous war 
crime directed at destruction of the Acholi people, or was it simply an undisciplined and 
uncoordinated reign of destruction by poorly disciplined soldiers shielded from accountability for 
their actions?  Whitmore has reasons for the first characterization; but my own informants in 
Uganda who lived through the civil war, many of whom suffered grievous losses from both 
 
1 The story of the ARLPI is set out in more detail, against the background of Uganda’s recent 
history and the rise of Kony’s movement, in my most recent book, “We are the voice of the 
grass;” Interfaith peace activism in Northern Uganda (Oxford University Press, 2019). 
 
Book Review: 
Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology 
 
101 
 
government and LRA violence, never invoked the term he employs.  If charges of genocide were 
lodged in an international tribunal, they might not be sustained. 
Nevertheless Whitmore does readers a service by correcting the wildly inaccurate picture, put 
forward by the Museveni government and naively accepted by most of the world, that the rebels 
alone were responsible for indiscriminate violence.  By no means does the truth exonerate the 
LRA:  “I find Kony and his actions to be not merely wrong, but deeply evil, even demonic,” 
Whitmore writes.  But what must also be recognized is that “the life- and culture-destroying tactics 
of Museveni’s NRA [the national army] created a social context in which spirit-medium-led 
resistance seemed to the Acholi to be the only possible defense” (p. 242). 
Whitmore recounts a rich assortment of personal stories from the heart of the conflict, gathered 
during the many months when he lived, observed, listened, and reflected in the region. One of the 
book’s many strengths is its vivid and disarmingly honest account of the life of an outsider who 
stays long enough to become a participant in village life.  On one occasion, for example, he 
approaches a village funeral cautiously, standing at a distance and observing the joyous dancing 
and drumming that traditionally mark the passing of someone whose life has been long and happy.  
Villagers draw him in and – although he professes to be a dreadful dancer – smear his head with 
ashes to identify him as a leader of the dances.  But when he begins taking photos, he reports, the 
atmosphere changes.  The dancers are more self-conscious, and two young men want to know all 
about his camera.  Elders draw him aside and advise:  “You better leave.  We think those young 
men are planning to beat you” (pp, 181-182). 
Among the most remarkable stories Whitmore relates – puzzling, perhaps alienating, for the reader 
– is the occasion when he feels a two-year-old girl pressing against his leg.  He recognizes the girl, 
and knows her name – only because he has been shown her photograph, as the victim of a ritual 
killing years earlier.  Yet the sensation of her against his leg is as real and vivid, he says, as anything 
else in his environment.  Whitmore finds himself compelled to ponder the gulf between the “critical 
rationality” of academic discourse and “a construal that populates the world with intervening 
spirits.”  The experience causes him “to reassess – that is, to re-discern – what I think on a wide 
array of other things.” Perhaps the child’s “unbidden (so far as I could tell) visitation” was “a kind 
of loving vengeance on the scholar”  (pp. 202-204). 
A strength of the book is the window it offers into the daily life of East Africans.  One of its 
weaknesses is  Whitmore’s tendency to digress into lengthy side discourses, making the whole less 
persuasive and less unified than it might have been.  The book’s closing chapter, for instance, 
includes a fascinating dialogue, in side-by-side columns, between Whitmore’s call to bring 
theology and anthropology together in the practice of “mimesis” and the personal reflections of a 
former LRA captive, a novice in the Little Sisters community.  But the first half of this chapter is 
devoted to another topic entirely:  the foibles and blind spots of Notre Dame, including its 
reluctance to boycott Chinese garment sweatshops and the lavish rituals of devotion to the football 
team.  And then, in an appendix of nearly 40 pages that makes no mention of Uganda or Sudan, 
the author decries the tendency of Christian theology to exalt the abstract over the concrete, the 
received text over lived experience, and traces this error from the apostle Paul to the early Fathers 
to the contemporary academy, an argument that perhaps belongs in a different book. 
A conversation with a group of men in the Pabbo Internally Displaced Person’s (IDP) camp – 
Whitmore’s name for the group in his notes is the “Teachers’ Drinking Club” – confronts him with 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
102 
 
a question that becomes a leitmotif in the book, invoked several times in different contexts.  “We 
know you have your research,” one of the men remarks.  “But what are you going to do for us?” 
(p. 19). 
Whitmore’s response includes some practical measures -- he has founded a nonprofit that offers 
training in agriculture and peacebuilding – while he continues to search for a more adequate 
answer.  Perhaps the question posed is a variant of the question that I posed at the outset of this 
review: what would it mean to practice anthropological theology?  It would mean opening oneself 
to unexpected challenges and unexplainable experiences in seeking to find new ways of imitating 
Christ.   
The rich treasury of personal stories that Whitmore distills from his search deepen our 
understanding of the LRA conflict and its aftermath and of the encounter between North and South.  
The dialogue between social science and lived experience that Whitmore models can enrich our 
understanding of both theology and culture.   


Review of Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology

Pembleton, Deborah J.

The Journal of Social Encounters 
Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 21 
Review of Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a 
Hostile World 
Deborah J. Pembleton 
College of St. Benedict/St. John's University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters 
 Part of the Business and Corporate Communications Commons, Business Law, Public Responsibility, 
and Ethics Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies 
Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Pembleton, Deborah J. () "Review of Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World," The 
Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, 103-105. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol5/iss1/21 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted 
for inclusion in The Journal of Social Encounters by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more 
information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
103 
 
Book Review: 
Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World 
 
Deborah J. Pembleton 
College of St. Benedict/St. John's University 
 
Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World. Mary Martin. London: Hurst & 
Company, 2020.  Hardcover, 320 pp. $26.24 (US). ISBN: 9781-787381-278. 
 
The author, Mary Martin, is the Director of the UN Business and Human Security Initiative, 
London School of Economics IDEAS. She was formerly European Business editor of The 
Guardian, and later The Daily Telegraph. 
The author takes us around the world beginning in 2006 in London and revisits her London 
experience 10 years later. Throughout the book, Martin utilizes numerous analogies and metaphors 
of walls, bulwarks, and perimeters that provide security, yet also serve as barriers that curtail 
collaborative efforts among governments, companies and local populations. Each of the ten 
chapters of the book introduces us to a different case study, in a different country, with a different 
set of circumstances. She takes us through a wide range of case studies that explains the necessity 
of having to triumph and overcome challenging conditions. 
In Chapter 1, Martin lays out her definition and purpose of writing Corporate Peace: “This book 
proposes that re-imagining security as something that deals with individual, family, and 
community safety and welfare, offers a new lens for looking at the role of business” (p. 17). Martin 
successfully achieves her objective by taking a microscopic lens approach to examining the 
oftentimes overlooked aspects of the influences of foreign corporations on local culture within 
families, communities, small villages, as well as impacts on the environment. Martin sets the tone 
in Chapter 1 for what will follow in subsequent chapters with her initial vivid portrayal of 
extractive industry operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
She begins our book journey in a London meeting where a private security company, investors 
and other stakeholders strategize their plans for extracting rubber, diamonds, copper, cobalt, 
rubber, and other minerals from the “beautiful and remote mountain scenery of [the eastern 
Democratic Republic of Congo]” (p. 2). While the mineral extraction occurs in the remote regions 
of the Congo, Martin immediately engages the average reader by bringing this far-away mining 
activity home to the everyday consumer. She clearly identifies how everyday  consumers of mobile 
phones and Sony Playstations, benefit from products that contain these natural resources mined in 
the Congo. She describes the fragility of “the perimeter fences” which represent the “protection, 
safety and wealth” that “separate companies from communities” in which both entities seek higher 
standards of living (p. 5). Martin makes the case for the value of the role of the United Nations 
‘Global Compact’ “Business for Peace” (B4P) initiative and acknowledges the contributions of 
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in combatting malaria. She calls for “re-imagining security 
as something that deals with individual, family and community safety and welfare” and states that 
“foreign corporations are an essential part of delivering physical, material and emotional security” 
(p.17).  Chapter one sets the stage for the remainder of the book’s chapters which primarily follow 
a similar case study-type recipe that juxtaposes descriptions of the local environment and culture 
with business operations and frequently unstable politics, in order to “reveal a bigger picture about 
peace, conflict and development, and how they connect to companies” (p.19). Throughout the 
Book Review: 
Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World 
 
104 
 
book, Martin challenges analysts to not view companies in a negative light, but to look deeper and 
to learn more about what is more complex than a simple right or wrong issue.   
In Chapter two Martin takes the reader to Syria, Iraq and Serbia to better understand the importance 
of breaking down barriers between companies through peacebuilding and calls for increased 
alignment among global security efforts. Martin argues that the key to peacebuilding is to go 
beyond military threats and to establish increased collaboration within the international 
community.  Over time as peacebuilding has transitioned into state building, Martin rightfully 
questions the western influence; for example, NGOs in Kosovo grew from 65 to 2500 over a five-
year period between 1999 and 2004.  Martin skillfully delivers historical and present-day 
perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which depends on the voluntary acts of 
corporate executives. Martin advocates that the reader “re-examine ideas about corporate care and 
responsibility” as community relationships are increasingly being recognized as “central, not 
merely incidental, to their [the corporation’s] success” (p.26). 
In chapter three, Martin provides a poignant historical perspective about the vast control of Asian 
and African trade by ‘Leviathans,’ the Dutch and British East India Companies and the Hudson 
Bay Company as well as these entities’ strong contributions to western colonial expansion.  Martin 
gives a picturesque assessment of modern-day Leviathans who gather annually in well-appointed 
accommodations in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. Here, Martin definitively 
encourages dialogue and opens the door for critical conversations as she contrasts the comfortable, 
well-protected and secure surroundings at Davos with the home countries of many of the World 
Economic Forum participants. This chapter may give rise to a multitude of crucial dialogs about 
humanitarian aid, disparities and power, to name a few issues. 
Chapter four surveys peacebuilding efforts in Columbia and the role of Shell Corporation in 
Nigeria, where it seems that business, politics and society are so integrated that they shape one 
another.  Martin effectively depicts the multifaceted role of Corporate Social Responsibility. This 
chapter sets the stage for the chapters that follow by asking the question “…can corporations step 
in to fill gaps in preserving well-being and safety?” (p. 63). 
In Chapter five we venture into Mexico City, described by Martin as “a sprawling conurbation 
held together by smog-choked freeways and barrios of low-rise housing, arranged on grid patterns” 
(p.65).  Readers see that Mexican cartels have taken hold, yet Unilever’s products are abundant, 
and Walmart has had rapid expansion.  This chapter is a riveting read, and the section on “safety 
in ice cream” takes us down to the local community and individual level in explaining the day-to-
day challenges of an ordinary Mexico City ice cream truck driver (p. 82). Here, readers would 
benefit from more vibrant descriptions of local Mexican culture; such portrayals would provide 
more sensory appeal, thereby drawing in the reader more. At this point I wished that the author 
had shared more stories about individuals and their daily lives in previous chapters. 
We continue our international journey in chapters six through nine.  Each chapter takes place in a 
different country and represents a complex case study unto itself that demonstrates the multitude 
of issues in balancing doing business operations and corporate social responsibility.  Each chapter 
paints a different vivid portrait of integrated cultures, of how lives are lived, and of the business, 
social, political and cultural changes that abound. These intriguing chapters encourage readers to 
learn about the intricacies of conducting business with discordant constituencies while promoting 
peacebuilding. Martin continues to achieve the objective of this book by recognizing the possibility 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
105 
 
of striking a balance between promoting business development and maintaining peace among 
corporations, government entities, and communities. 
In the final chapter, chapter ten, the author revisits the secure confines of London ten years later, 
in 2016. She poses a broader question raised later in the book “What does it take for a company 
whose principal aim is to maximise profit, cut costs, preserve its competitive advantage and guard 
its reputation with investors, customers and employees, to actively address the problem of a 
struggling society, trying to save itself?” (p. 178). 
Overall, Martin realizes her initial purpose, which is to encourage readers more closely examine 
the often-unnoticed aspects of the influences of foreign corporations on local culture within 
families, communities, and small villages. As previously noted, I wanted to know more about the 
local communities, as in the example of the ice cream truck driver presented in chapter five. 
Several questions remain for me for the author to address: Is it more than just the right thing to do 
to protect, maintain, and uplift local communities? Why is it important to preserve the cultures of 
these local communities? What brings the people in these cultures alive?  What will additional 
knowledge tell us about the interplay among foreign companies, politics, and local communities? 
Increased coverage and more in-depth knowledge of local cultures may illuminate and more 
clearly elucidate this interplay. Perhaps additional and colorful examples of culture, including 
drinking Turkish coffee, experiencing the vibrance of Mexico City, or witnessing the skill of 
leatherworkers in Nigeria can place readers in the midst of the atmosphere of these important 
cultures, allowing us to witness first-hand the importance of preserving these at the local level. 
Such increased coverage brings the reader closer, thereby raising our awareness and enhancing our 
understanding.  Finally, this book is an intriguing read for anyone with similar interests. I would 
strongly recommend this text as an excellent addition to any course that would focus on Corporate 
Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation or Global Peace Education, by 
addressing one or more of the following: citizenship, sustainable development, corporate 
accountability, and creating shared value (CSV). 
 
 


Review of Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World

How do individuals and churches collectively discern what choices to make? And how can metaphors, such as pottery, help with the process?
In Fall 2020, the Collegeville Institute’s Communities of Calling Initiative gathered leaders from the 13 participating congregations for the virtual Treasure in Clay Jars retreat. Designed by project director Rev. Dr. Jane Patterson and program associate Jessie Bazan, the retreat invited participants to play with the metaphor of pottery as a way of reflecting on their individual and congregational callings.
In this Collegeville Connections presentation, Jane and Jessie will explore the value of metaphor as a tool for discernment and use the metaphor of pottery to reflect with some Communities of Calling Initiative participants about their recent experiences in congregational life

Patterson, Jane

Bazan, Jessie

Collegeville Connections: Metaphor as a Tool for Discernment

Harmakaputra, Hans A.

The Journal of Social Encounters 
Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 4 
Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian 
Reflection 
Hans A. Harmakaputra 
Hartford Seminary 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters 
 Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Catholic Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, Peace and 
Conflict Studies Commons, Social Justice Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, and the South and 
Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Harmakaputra, Hans A. () "Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian Reflection," 
The Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, 14-18. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol5/iss1/4 
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in The Journal of Social Encounters by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more 
information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
14 
 
Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian Reflection 
 
Hans A. Harmakaputra 
Hartford Seminary 
 
Introduction 
As a scholar who focuses on Christian-Muslim relations, Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti (FT)1 brings 
excitement for me, mainly because he openly states that the document was not only inspired by St. 
Francis, but also by Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb of Al-Azhar, Egypt (no. 5). They signed a 
document titled “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” on February 4, 2019 
(Francis & Al-Tayyeb, 2019). Among its statements, which is also quoted in FT, is, “God has 
created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and has called them to live together 
as brothers and sisters” (no. 5). Pope Francis’ humility in expressing how a Muslim stimulated 
him to write an encyclical is monumental because, as Cardinal Michael L. Fitzgerald said in an 
interview, no other pope in history has done it before (O’Connell, 2020). In FT Pope Francis 
demonstrates his commitment to interreligious dialogue in particular and Catholic engagement 
with other faiths since Vatican II in general.2 
In Pope Francis FT covers many interesting subjects that mirror current theological discourse and 
interreligious conversation, such as hospitality, the immigration crisis, and the intersections 
between peace, reconciliation, and memory. However, this essay will focus on dialogue and 
friendship, which Pope Francis explained in chapter 6. Topics related to interreligious friendship 
have attracted Christian theologians and scholars in recent years (Fredericks & Tiemeier, 2015; 
Goshen-Gottstein, 2018). The importance of building friendship in society is affirmed in FT. In 
this essay, I will discuss how FT draws several vital points related to dialogue and interreligious 
friendship while pointing to some areas that can benefit from improvement. Here, I will bring my 
experience and perspective as a Christian in Indonesia, a country with the largest number of 
Muslims worldwide. 
Dialogue, Differences, and Dignity 
In chapter 6 of FT, titled “Dialogue and Friendship in Society,” Pope Francis emphasizes that an 
authentic social dialogue must respect the different points of view of each person involved, 
including her convictions and concerns. He says, “When individuals or groups are consistent in 
their thinking, defend their values and convictions, and develop their arguments, this surely 
benefits society. Yet, this can only occur to the extent that there is genuine dialogue and openness 
to others” (no. 203). Unlike secular societies of the West where religious views are sometimes 
perceived with contempt and suspicion, Indonesia somewhat stands in the middle between a 
secular and a religious society. Pope Francis’ idea is a gentle reminder to Indonesian Christians 
who championed the strict separation of state and religion but failed to engage others in the public 
sphere, let alone participate in constructive public debates. 
 
The chapter also highlights human dignity as an intrinsic, universal value that is “superior to that 
of material objects and contingent situations” (no. 213). This understanding of human dignity is 
one of the core beliefs required to build a just and peaceful society. Whether it is sexual, religious, 
or other identities, one's identity is irrevocable and integral to her dignity in front of other human 
Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian Reflection 
15 
 
beings. It also applies to any economic system that treats human and non-human beings as 
expendables for the sake of financial gains or authority. In places that still discriminate against 
people based on their sexual, religious, or other forms of identity and where a large gap between 
the rich and poor exist, Pope Francis’ words call for self-examination and repentance toward 
transformation into a more just society.  
Pope Francis utilizes the image of a polyhedron to describe a society “where differences coexist, 
complementing, enriching and reciprocally illuminating one another, even amid disagreements and 
reservations” (no. 215). He reiterates his words in Evangelii Gaudium that champions unity over 
division, “the whole is greater than the part” (Francis, 2013). When I read the phrase for the first 
time, I felt discomfort because I grew up during the New Order era (1966-1998) under President 
Suharto, an authoritarian ruler. At that time, to support the government’s development program, 
the phrase “give priority to the public interest” (mengutamakan kepentingan umum) was often 
quoted. In school, I was taught to always sacrifice self-interest for the sake of public interest and 
the nation's unity. However, such jargon often harms the poor and marginalized while benefits 
those in power. Fortunately, Pope Francis underlines that unity should not undermine the part. He 
asserts, “No one is useless and no one is expendable” (no. 215). Those who are in the peripheries 
of society may see things differently, and their views matter. 
Friendship in (Multi-Religious) Society 
Pope Francis’ utilization of the word “friendship” in FT is commendable because it expresses a 
deeper human relationship. The portrayal of Interreligious dialogue often does not entail any 
notion of friendship. It refers to an event where the speakers consist of leaders of different religious 
traditions or church denominations, and they talk about a particular theme from their perspective. 
Bringing the notion of friendship to dialogue, Pope Francis has moved beyond that kind of 
interreligious dialogue. Moreover, his friendship with Imam Al-Tayyeb becomes an example of 
the interconnection between friendship and dialogue. Nevertheless, interreligious dialogue must 
progress beyond the example of Pope Francis and Imam Al-Tayyeb precisely because both of them 
are prominent religious leaders. To promote dialogue in society, one must undertake interreligious 
friendship in everyday life and on a personal level, not only among the elites.  
 
Next, it is beneficial to discuss the definition of “friendship” itself. When I read chapter 6, I think 
it explores dialogue more than friendship itself. As a result, what Pope Francis means by 
“friendship” remains unclear. Alon Goshen-Gottstein notes that there are different definitions and 
multiple levels and dimensions of friendship (Goshen-Gottstein, 2018, p. xi). The exact meaning 
of friendship is nowhere to be found in FT. Yet, I take Pope Francis’ elaboration of love as moving 
beyond oneself as the foundation of his understanding of friendship. He states,  
 
In the depths of every heart, love creates bonds and expands existence, for it draws people 
out of themselves and towards others...My relationship with those whom I respect has to 
take account of the fact that they do not live only for me, nor do I live only for them. Our 
relationships, if healthy and authentic, open us to others who expand and enrich us. 
Nowadays, our noblest social instincts can easily be thwarted by self-centred chats that 
give the impression of being deep relationships. On the contrary, authentic and mature love 
and true friendship can only take root in hearts open to growth through relationships with 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
16 
 
others. As couples or friends, we find that our hearts expand as we step out of ourselves 
and embrace others (nos. 88 and 89). 
Here, it is clear that Pope Francis thinks of friendship as a deeper bond between people and not 
shallow human relations. Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz offer a similar understanding 
of friendship from a Christian perspective: “The friendships we have in mind require the 
commitment of time and extended communication. They involve open communication and are not 
restricted to a certain facet of life (e.g., ‘office friends’). And, in concert with the roots of the 
English word ‘friend’ (from the Proto-Germanic frijôjan, ‘to love’), they are marked by affection” 
(Volf & McAnnally-Linz, 2018, p.46; italics by authors). In both definitions, the connection of 
hearts is what marked friendship, including interreligious friendship. Friendship entails openness 
and mutual growth. I believe such a meaning of friendship is closer to a family bond, and that is 
why Pope Francis uses both “friendship” and “family” in FT (no. 230). 
Interreligious Friendship as Peacebuilding 
Another important aspect of friendship is to achieve common goals together. Joas Adiprasetya and 
Nindyo Sasongko, Indonesian theologians, describe friendship as sharing lives between people 
who are bound by their affection and shared vision. They state, “the culmination of friendship is 
not mutually exclusive bonding, an attraction which is shown between friends; friendship also 
brings about a common vision or project for the other and for the world. Only in friendship is 
inclusive and non-hierarchical love found” (Adiprasetya and Sasongko, 2019, p. 24). Moreover, 
such friendship always opens toward outsiders and constantly invites them to join the circle. Thus, 
it always happens in public spaces. For a multi-religious society, interreligious friendship relates 
to the peacebuilding effort to maintain harmony.  
 
Interreligious friendship as peacebuilding is essential for today’s multi-religious society. Pope 
Francis touches upon this theme at the end of chapter 6, when he speaks about cultivating kindness. 
He affirms that kindness “facilitates the quest for consensus; it opens new paths where hostility 
and conflict would burn all bridges” (no. 224). Furthermore, he elaborates several essential points 
related to peacebuilding in chapter 7, such as forgiveness and memory. Interreligious friendship is 
an effective way for peacebuilding in today’s world, especially in a post-conflict society. One 
example from Indonesia is interreligious peacebuilding in Maluku, a region in the Eastern part of 
Indonesia that suffered from violent Muslim-Christian conflicts (1998-2002). Strategies used to 
build peace include interfaith live-ins and trauma workshops focused on building friendship 
between participants. The biggest challenge of the peacebuilding effort was to confront one’s fear 
of the religious other due to the trauma caused by the violence. Such an effort aimed at 
transforming an enemy into a friend.3 During a program called Young Ambassador for Peace that 
has a workshop and live-in for women, Helena Rijoly explains how the participants 
continued to share their stories about the struggles all women faced in life, no matter what 
their religious background. There were stories about their efforts to fulfil their daily needs, 
about the loss of a child, husband and belongings, about concerns for the future etc. With 
every story told, they embraced each other, they talked from the heart and dreamed that 
Ambon will return to its beautiful state. The incident, which had made the situation quite 
tense, then created solid friendships and familial relationships (Rijoly, 2017, p. 286). 
Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian Reflection 
17 
 
After the situation has improved for several years, in 2011, another incident happened in Ambon, 
the capital city of Maluku that led to a local riot. It created an eerie atmosphere for the population 
because of its resemblance with the beginning of the 1998 conflict. Fortunately, the riot did not 
spread far due to the effort of local grassroot movements. One of the movements is called Peace 
Provocateurs, and it has a particular focus on building interreligious friendships (Al-Qurtuby, 
2013). When the riot happened, Peace Provocateurs employed social media platforms and short 
text-messages to halt any hoaxes and fake news related to the incident in order to reduce tension 
and restrain people from retaliating and fighting. In the aftermath, the group organized programs 
and activities to connect people and build friendship. Notably, they target young people not using 
religious means but through activities in public spaces such as music and photography 
(Harmakaputra, 2016, p. 9-10). 
Conclusion 
I believe the issuance of FT is timely and relevant in many aspects for Christians and non-
Christians. This essay intends to offer a few reflection points on dialogue and friendship as 
elaborated in FT from an Indonesian Christian perspective. As it has inspired me, I sincerely 
believe FT will inspire broader discussions on the topic that involve more diverse perspectives to 
enrich the conversation. Such conversations serve Pope Francis’ aspiration toward the unity of all 
as a human family and a community of equal friends who work for justice and peace.  
 
Endnotes 
1. Fratelli Tutti means “all brothers,” but it can be interpreted inclusively as “all brothers and 
sisters.” In this essay I will refer to it only with its paragraph numbers (Francis, 2020). 
2. For studies on Pope Francis’ interreligious engagements, see Pope Francis and Interreligious 
Dialogue: Religious Thinkers Engage with Recent Papal Initiatives (Kasimow and Race, 
2018). For studies on Catholic engagements with other religions, see Catholicism Engaging 
Other Faiths: Vatican II and its Impact (Latinovic, Mannion, and Welle, 2018). 
3. For stories related to interreligious friendship and peacebuilding in Maluku, Indonesia, see 
Basudara Stories of Peace from Maluku: Working Together for Reconciliation (Manuputty, 
2017). 
 
  
The Journal of Social Encounters 
 
18 
 
References 
 
Adiprasetya, J., and N. Sasongko. (2019). A compassionate space-making: Toward a Trinitarian 
theology of friendship. The Ecumenical Review 71(1-2), 21-31. 
https://doi.org/10.1111/erev.12416.   
Al-Qurtuby, S.. (2013). Peacebuilding in Indonesia: Christian–Muslim alliances in Ambon 
island. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 24(3), 349–367. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2013.785091. 
Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb. (2019). Human fraternity for world peace and living together.  
http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/travels/2019/outside/documents/papa-
francesco_20190204_documento-fratellanza-umana.html 
Francis. (2020). Fratelli Tutti. 
http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-
francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html  
Francis. (2013). Evangelii Gaudium. 
http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-
francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html. 
Fredericks, J.  L., and T. Sayuki Tiemeier, eds. (2015). Interreligious friendship after Nostra 
Aetate. Palgrave Macmillan. 
Goshen-Gottstein, A., ed. (2018). Friendship across religions: Theological perspectives on 
interreligious friendship. Wipf and Stock. 
Harmakaputra, H. A. (2016). Interfaith relations in contemporary Indonesia: Challenges and 
progress. Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs, Boston University and Henry 
Luce Foundation. https://www.bu.edu/cura/files/2016/11/Hans-Draft-Paper-CURA-Oct-
27-fin.pdf.  
Kasimow, H., and A. Race, eds. (2018) Pope Francis and interreligious dialogue: Religious 
thinkers engage with recent papal initiatives. Palgrave Macmillan.  
Latinovic, V., G. Mannion, and J. Welle, eds. (2018). Catholicism engaging other faiths: Vatican 
II and its impact. Palgrave Macmillan. 
Manuputty, J., et al., eds. (2017). Basudara Stories of Peace from Maluku: Working Together for 
Reconciliation. Hilary Syaranamual (Trans.). Monash University Publishing. 
O’Donnell, G. (2020, December 1). What Pope Francis’ friendship with the Grand Imam of al-
Azhar means for Muslim-Christian relationship. America: The Jesuit Review. 
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/12/01/pope-francis-grand-imam-muslim-
christian-relations-
239368?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6656&pnespid=0rJ89
PdfGBCNdCXPpg3iAh2Y1_QX8vJb0pDyTmK3.  
Volf, M., and R. McAnnally-Linz. (2018). A Christian perspective on interreligious friendship. 
In A. Goshen-Gottstein (ed.), Friendship across religions: Theological perspectives on 
interreligious friendship (pp. 45-67). Wipf and Stock. 


Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian Reflection

Pagnucco, Ronald

Okumu, Joseph O

The Journal of Social Encounters 
Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 1 
2021 
Introduction to Issue 5, Number 1 
Ronald Pagnucco 
rpagnucco@csbsju.edu 
Joseph O. Okumu 
okumu27@gmail.com 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters 
 Part of the Catholic Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies 
Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Pagnucco, Ronald and Okumu, Joseph O. (2021) "Introduction to Issue 5, Number 1," The Journal of Social 
Encounters: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, 1-1. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol5/iss1/1 
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in The Journal of Social Encounters by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more 
information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
The Journal of Social Encounters 
1 
 
Introduction to Issue 5, Number 1 
 
Dr. Ron Pagnucco 
rpagnucco@csbsju.edu 
 
Dr. Joseph Okumu 
okumu27@gmail.com 
 
We are pleased to share with you Issue 5, Number 1. In this issue we are devoting a special section of 
essays to the new Social Encyclical by Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship 
(FT), a very important and engaging work on pressing global peace and justice issues of our day 
addressed to all people of good will, and a significant addition to the body of Catholic social 
teaching/social thought. The Encyclical has been well received and widely commented on globally; 
following Laudato Si', with this Encyclical Pope Francis continues to contribute to the vitally necessary 
global dialogue on global trends and dynamics, from his unique position as a highly respected and loved 
global leader, who is not only discussing the empirical realities, but even more importantly, the major 
moral choices before us from the global common good perspective. Would that more political leaders 
did the same, and talked about the national and global common good. 
 
We keep our comments brief since the essays below, providing global and Christian and non-Christian 
perspectives, discuss various aspects of FT, including its genesis.  We invited the authors to write these 
essays; they choose their topics. We do want to highlight in this introduction two points: St. Francis of 
Assisi was the inspiration for Pope Francis: "This saint of fraternal love, simplicity and joy, who inspired 
me to write the Encyclical Laudato Si', prompts me once more to devote this new Encyclical to fraternity 
and social friendship"(para 2). But the unique inspiration, for a pope, of a document co-authored with a 
Muslim world leader was also key: as Pope Francis wrote of the Document on Human Fraternity for 
World Peace and  Living Together, which he co-authored with the Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb in 
2019:  "The present Encyclical takes up and develops some of the great themes raised in the Document 
that we both signed" (para 5). Interestingly, Pope Francis goes on to say: "I have also incorporated, along 
with my own thoughts, a number of letters, documents and considerations that I have received from 
many individuals and groups throughout the world" (para 5), also showing his openness to a variety of 
sources. 
We hope the essays on Fratelli Tutti will contribute to the much needed discussion, and application, of 
the Encyclical. We invite others to send us essays on FT for upcoming issues of the Journal of Social 
Encounters as we continue the discussion of it. 
We are sure you will find the other essays in this issue informative and engaging as well. We commend 
the authors for the quality of their work, and we believe they make a valuable contribution to our 
knowledge and to the scholarly literature in peace and justice studies. 
If you wish to submit an essay on any peace and justice issue for consideration of publication in the 
Journal, the deadlines are: March 15, 2021 for the August 2021 issue; October 15, 2021, for the 
March/February 2022 issue. All essays are peer-reviewed. Please see the "Policies" link in the upper- 
left-hand corner of our home page for more information. Please send essays to Dr. Pagnucco and Dr. 
Okumu. Address any questions to Dr. Pagnucco. 


Introduction to Issue 5, Number 1

Wallace, Maria

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University 
DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU 
Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day Undergraduate Research 
4-19-2021 
Evaluation of Online Lab Platforms Against Best Practices for an 
Undergraduate Neurobiology Course 
Maria Wallace 
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University, mwallace001@csbsju.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday 
Recommended Citation 
Wallace, Maria, "Evaluation of Online Lab Platforms Against Best Practices for an Undergraduate 
Neurobiology Course" (2021). Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day. 140. 
https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday/140 
This Poster is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/
SJU. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
Evaluation of online lab platforms against best practices for an undergraduate 
neurobiology course
Maria Wallace and Jennifer Schaefer
College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University, Biology Department, Collegeville, MN 56321
Introduction
The COVID-10 pandemic has changed the way that traditional
college courses, and especially laboratory courses, are
taught.
Best practices for online education
Following best practices helps instructors to develop the most 
effective online instruction, increasing student learning and 
engagement. Many courses and laboratories have been 
forced to move online in the past 8 months as COVID 
mandated remote instruction. Many online neuroscience 
laboratory resources had already been developed due to the 
cost- and time-intensive nature of neurobiology laboratory 
techniques. Instructors can take advantage of these pre-
existing online resources during the COVID pandemic.
Neurobiology course and project
The neurobiology course taught at CSB/SJU (Biology 320) 
offers a laboratory component for the first time in spring 2021. 
Online laboratory resources may continue to be utilized in 
parallel with hands-on investigations post-pandemic. This 
project researched best practices for online undergraduate 
science laboratory instruction and tested neurobiology online 
lab platforms against best practices and course goals.
Methods
Results
§ Best practices for online education:
§ Labs removed for accessibility issues:
§ NeuroSim5
§ Swimmy
§ UCLA- NSF modules
§ Electrophysiology of the neuron
§ Description of top labs: NeuroWiki & MetaNeuron
§ Accessible from personal computers & easy-to-use: increases 
student understanding and facilitates student collaboration
§ Include many simulations for a topic/lesson and/or provides in-depth 
material for each topic
§ Allow data collection and data analysis
§ Include student exercises & instructor’s manuals, with videos & 
demonstrations of the simulations or concepts
§
Conclusion/ Discussion
The increasing demand for online instruction and remote science laboratories is due to the current pandemic but is likely to change the direction of 
education for the future. The top-rated online laboratories for neurobiology offer virtual simulations, data analysis, understanding of laboratory 
techniques, and coverage of numerous course topics. The CSB/SJU Neurobiology course is prepared for either remote or traditional learning via 
online laboratories that follow best practices for online instruction to promote student engagement and learning.


Evaluation of Online Lab Platforms Against Best Practices for an Undergraduate Neurobiology Course

Claypool, Mackenzie

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University 
DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU 
Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day Undergraduate Research 
4-19-2021 
Synthesis of Dihydrocarvide 
Mackenzie Claypool 
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University, mclaypool001@csbsju.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday 
Recommended Citation 
Claypool, Mackenzie, "Synthesis of Dihydrocarvide" (2021). Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day. 
148. 
https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday/148 
This Poster is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/
SJU. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
Synthesis of Dihydrocarvide
Kenzie Claypool1, and Chris Schaller1
1. Department of Chemistry, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University, St. Joseph, Minnesota, 56374
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
REACTION TRIALS
CONCLUSION
FUTURE WORK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
BAEYER-VILLIGER OXIDATION DISCUSSION
Sustainable polymers are a topic of interest due to their environmental 
benefits. Dihydrocarvide is a monomer for ring-opening polymerization, 
derived from citrus peels. This monomer can be obtained by the Bayer-
Villiger oxidation of dihydrocarvone with oxone, a green oxidant, and 
sodium bicarbonate in methanol/water. Although this reaction has been 
investigated in prior studies, it has been complicated by epoxidation of the 
double bond. The approach for this study in organic methodology was to 
run multiple trials while varying conditions such as mode of reagent 
addition, stirring time, and the presence of co-oxidants. Progress was 
monitored via 1H NMR spectroscopy. A single addition of 
reagents followed by a 4-hour stir provided the most promising result. An 
observed ratio of 2:1 alkene:oxymethine integration in the 1H NMR 
indicated the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation without epoxidation. The 
result remained consistent through a scale-up of the reaction. The 
monomer will be used in ring-opening polymerizations leading to 
numerous possible application directions illustrating the advantages of 
green chemistry.
Green chemistry is a rising concern for researchers due to its benefits for 
human health, the environment, and the economy.1 The synthesis of green 
monomers is of interest due to the competitive performance and low cost 
of these materials, which are derived from renewable resources, and allow 
easy and safe recycling or decomposition.2 Past studies have been 
conducted on related topics. One group had examined the synthesis of 
monomer menthide in which the starting material was derived from mint.2 
Using this compound, the group was able to develop a class of sustainable 
triblock polymers to make elastomeric materials.2 Another group found 
interest in a new approach for the synthesis of lactone involving the use of 
oxone as the oxidant as well as solvents containing ionic liquids.3 Our 
interest in this research is to find an alternative synthesis of the monomer 
dihydrocarvide by utilizing a Bayer-Villiger oxidation reaction. Previous 
researchers in this lab have run numerous reactions looking at presence of 
promoters such as co-oxidants to improve yield of the product. The focus 
of this study was to examine the method of reagent addition and reaction 
time.
Each reaction contains a 
variation of the following:
Each reaction is worked up 
uniformly in the following steps:
-Dihydrocarvone 
(substrate) 
-Solvents
- deionized water,       
methanol
-Oxidant
- Oxone 
(stoichiometric)
- Sodium bicarbonate (pH 
control)
1. Rotary evaporated methanol
2. Liquid-liquid extraction with 
ethyl acetate
3. Washed with sodium bisulfite
4. Washed with DI water
5. Washed with brine
6. Dried with MgSO4
7. Filtered 
8. Rotary evaporated ethyl
acetate
9.  Characterization (1H NMR)
1. “Benefits of Green Chemistry.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 16 May 2019, www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/benefits-green-chemistry. 
2.  M. A. Hillmyer, W.B. Tolman, Aliphatic Polyester Block Polymers: Renewable, Degradable, and Sustainable, Acc. Chem. Res, 2014, 47(3), 
2390-
2396.
3.  A. Chrobok, The Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of ketones with Oxone in the presence of ionic liquids as solvents, Tetrahedron, 2010, 66(32), 6212-
6216.
4.  S. C. Knight, C. P. Schaller, W. B. Tolman, M. A. Hillmyer, Renewable carvone-based polyols for use in polyurethane thermosets, RSC Adv., 
2013, 3, 20399-20404.
5.  K. Kaneda, S. Ueno, T. Imanaka, E. Shimotsuma, Y. Nishiyama, Y. Ishii, Baeyer-Villiger Oxidation of Ketone Using Molecular Oxygen and 
Benzaldehyde in the Absence of Metal Catalysts, J. Org. Chem., 1994, 59, 2915-2917.
Oxidizing the starting material dihydrocarvone with oxone in methanol 
and water using a Baeyer-Villiger oxidation reaction, leads to the 
synthesis of 3 major products. Within these three products there is only 
one without an epoxide. In this study, we worked on synthesizing the non-
epoxide product, the monomer dihydrocarvide. 
The most promising conditions include a single addition of reagents, with 
a 4-hour reaction time at room temperature. Using this procedure, the 
reaction was scaled up to 100 times the original quantity. The use of 
recrystallization may help to separate the two products differing in 
chirality. During characterization, 1H NMR spectra were utilized. By 
monitoring peaks around 4.4 and 4.7 ppm. Having a 2:1 ratio between 
these shifts indicated the ester formation without epoxidation. NMR also 
suggests the presence of a minor diastereomer in the reaction.
Once dihydrocarvide can be synthesized in high yield on gram scales, the 
monomer will be used in ring-opening polymerization reactions. It is 
hoped that post-polymerization modification through addition to the side-
chain alkene will lead to a range of applications.
Our interest in this research is to find an alternative synthesis of the 
monomer dihydrocarvide by utilizing a Bayer-Villiger oxidation 
reaction.4 When implementing the application of green reagents, as well 
aqueous conditions, sustainable chemistry techniques are displayed.3
Numerous reactions have been run varying stir times, method of addition 
and presence of promoters.5 In the most promising reaction thus far, all 
the starting materials were added together at once and left to stir for four 
hours. The key 1H NMR spectral features show a pair of alkene hydrogens 
near 4.7 ppm and a methine hydrogen adjacent to oxygen near 4.4 ppm in 
the desired ester. An epoxide would lack the alkene hydrogen, whereas a 
ketone would lack the H-C-O methine
a
b
u
n
d
a
n
c
e
0
1
.0
2
.0
3
.0
X : parts per Million : 1H
12.0 11.0 10.0 9.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0 -1.0 -2.0
  
 4
.7
2
1
  
 4
.4
3
4
1
0
.6
0
5
.3
3
Filename = 6-mtc-215-rxn7_PROTON-2.jdf
Author = Delta
Sample_Id = 6-mtc-215-rxn7
Creation_Time = 21-OCT-2020 15:00:31
Revision_Time = 22-OCT-2020 19:48:51
Inst_Model_Number = JNM-ECA400
Inst_Serial_Number = NM10910041
Version = 4.3.6 [Linux]
BothShi epoxidationBaeyer Villiger
A
B
We want to 
see a 2H:1H 
ratio between 
peaks labeled 
A and B
CSB|SJU Chemistry Department for the space and the resources.
Clare Boothe Luce Program for research funding.
Clare Johnson and Levi Salzl for prior work. 
Why are we looking for a 2:1 ratio betwe n 1H NMR peaks shifted at 4.4 ppm and 4.7 ppm?
That is a good indication of whether the ester is the sole product or if an epoxide has also been 
synthesized.
With this reaction, there are 3 possible products (with 3 possible alkene H: oxymethine H 
ratios):
- Baeyer Villiger (2H:1H)
- Shi epoxidation (0H:1H)
- Both (0H:1H)
Reaction
Additive 
Technique
Stir Time
Peak Ratio 
at 4.7:4.4 
ppm
Scale
A All at once 7 days 1:1 0.11 mL
B All at once 4 days 2:1 0.22 mL
C All at once 1 day 2:1 0.22 mL
D All at once 4 hours 2:1 11 mL
A
B


Synthesis of Dihydrocarvide

Berens, Betsy

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University 
DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU 
Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day Undergraduate Research 
4-19-2021 
Accuracy of Nutrient Intake Values from Four Popular Nutrition 
Tracking Apps 
Betsy Berens 
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University, bberens001@csbsju.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday 
Recommended Citation 
Berens, Betsy, "Accuracy of Nutrient Intake Values from Four Popular Nutrition Tracking Apps" (2021). 
Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day. 159. 
https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/ur_cscday/159 
This Poster is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/
SJU. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@csbsju.edu. 
Assessment of the Accuracy of Nutrient Intake Calculations from Popular 
Nutrition Tracking Apps
B.M. Berens & A.L. Evenson, PhD, RDN, CFS
Nutrition Department, College of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, MN
•To assess the accuracy of nutrient intake calculations 
from leading nutrition tracking apps.
Objective
•One-day food records were obtained from 30 
students in an introductory nutrition course.
•After demonstrating inter-rater reliability (ICC 
>0.90), one-day food records were entered by two 
researchers into ESHA-Food Processor, MFP, MND, 
SparkPeople and Cronometer apps to determine 
nutrient intake calculations.
• Wilcoxon-signed rank test and Spearman 
correlation coefficients were used to analyze the 
data comparing the apps to ESHA.
Methods
• Nutrition tracking applications (apps) are 
increasing in popularity with 98,651 health and 
fitness related apps currently available in the 
Apple/Android app stores.
• Nutrition apps can be a relatively low-cost 
method for assessing dietary intake and could 
provide benefits in consumer, research, and 
educational settings.
Introduction
• Mean differences were significantly lower for MFP 
compared to ESHA for kcals, fat, carbohydrate, and 
sodium (p<0.05), but not for protein, fiber, 
cholesterol, and sugar (p>0.05).
•Mean differences were significantly lower 
for Cronometer compared to ESHA for kcals, 
carbohydrate, and sodium (p<0.05), but not for fat, 
protein, fiber, cholesterol, and sugar (p>0.05).
•Pearson correlation coefficients for kcal intakes 
from ESHA compared to MFP and Cronometer were 
.883 and .934, respectively.
Results
•MFP, MND, and SparkPeople apps all calculated 
lower kcal intake, fat, carbohydrate and sodium.
• Individuals and researchers should be aware of 
the significant differences when using nutrition 
tracking apps.
Conclusions
Table 1. Mean daily nutrient intake values comparing ESHA-Food processor and each nutrition tracking apps
*p<0.05
Kcals Fat (g/day) Carbohydrate (g/day) Protein (g/day) Fiber (g/day) Sodium (mg/day)
Mean SD p-Value Mean SD p- value Mean SD p-value Mean SD p-value Mean SD p-value Mean SD p-value
ESHA 1955.66 741.0 - 85.88 51.00 - 218.63 78.41 - 83.43 33.11 - 16.00 9.09 - 3377.47 1560.75 -
Cronometer 1840.98 613.87 .088 80.64 44.66 .249 201.77 67.73 .026* 82.94 31.19 .614 16.23 8.99 .558 2791.83 1702.26 .019*
MyFitnessPal 1707.86 539.42 .002* 72.23 42.05 .003* 187.97 70.00 .005* 79.20 31.86 .165 15.57 8.42 .861 2495.13 1208.96 .000*
MyNetDiary 1778.96 666.58 .002* 75.47 52.63 .003* 197.07 63.09 .002* 80.13 33.42 .453 15.40 10.24 .206 2816.70 1406.79 .014*
SparkPeople 1788.56 717.47 .003* 74.13 49.97 .006* 200.63 76.32 .004* 81.23 33.89 .309 15.30 9.11 .289 - - -


College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University

Not a member yet

Review of Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis

Review of Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology

Review of Corporate Peace: How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World

Collegeville Connections: Metaphor as a Tool for Discernment

Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Friendship: An Indonesian Christian Reflection

Introduction to Issue 5, Number 1

Evaluation of Online Lab Platforms Against Best Practices for an Undergraduate Neurobiology Course

Synthesis of Dihydrocarvide

Accuracy of Nutrient Intake Values from Four Popular Nutrition Tracking Apps

El Legado de una Dictadura: Las Protesta del Pueblo Mapuche Desde Pinochet Hastsa Nuestros Dias

3,828

8,817