Interessante artigo, na última edição da revista America, sobre a experiência de uma Professora Titular de Teologia, Georgia Masters Keightley, que deixou o emprego de professora para assumir o cargo de Prefeita de uma pequena cidade americana e tentar colocar em prática a doutrina social católica.
"S everal years ago, I unexpectedly found myself serving as the elected mayor of a small, economically depressed town in rural Nebraska. Previously I had been a tenured theology professor at a Catholic women’s college in the East. I had returned to my Nebraska hometown the summer after completing a sabbatical leave to finish up some family business. Once there, the idea of being able to do full-time research and writing on the role of the laity in the church grew irresistible, and I decided to resign my teaching position and stay.
My hometown was no longer the thriving farming and ranching community it had been when I was growing up. While the farms and ranches had grown much larger, there were far fewer families operating them. The arrival of a Wal-Mart 20 miles away had the usual dampening effect on local business. I was dismayed to discover that all the social ills of the big city could be found here in small-town America as well: widespread drug and alcohol abuse, limited educational opportunities, few new jobs and high unemployment. Social services were stressed, and not a few residents experienced grinding poverty. Later, during my door-to-door campaigning, I came across two homes that “borrowed” electricity from their neighbors, thanks to a very long orange extension cord.
After many lengthy conversations and strategy sessions with friends about what might be done to stem the town’s decline, I agreed, at their urging and with some reluctance, to run for mayor. But this decision was, I must confess, also prompted by a set of interests and concerns I had as a teacher and lay theologian. Let me explain.
Throughout my career, I had regularly taught courses in Catholic social ethics and was gratified to find students altruistic and enthusiastic about the idea that society could be transformed by their decisions and actions. Yet the more I taught these courses, the more I wanted to know how to translate this body of teaching into practical, everyday decisions and actions. What could educated Catholic professionals do to make the social, economic and political networks of their communities more fair and just, more supportive of the common good? How does one live out a preferential option for the poor in one’s professional life? How does the principle of solidarity apply to one’s daily use of money?
While I could remind students of the Gospel charge to do hands-on charity and service, such actions do not really address the structural causes of injustice, which, as Paul VI taught, must be a primary focus of the Catholic witness in our time. The pope described the need for Catholics to bring to conversion “the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieu which are theirs.” The question was how."
Para ler o artigo completo :A Theologian in Town Hall
