:Center of Concern
{{Short description|Catholic think tank in Washington, D.C.}}
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{{Infobox organization
| name = Center of Concern
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| image = CenterofConcern.png
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| size = 220
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| abbreviation = Center
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| established = {{Start date and age| 1971 }}
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| purpose = Social justice
| headquarters =
| location = 1015 15th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, D.C.
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| region_served = Global
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| general =
| leader_title = Interim President
| leader_name = Dianna Ortiz
| leader_title3 = Chair of Board
| leader_name3 = Marie Dennis
| key_people =
| main_organ = Education for Justice
| parent_organization =
| affiliations = Catholic Charities USA, CIDSE, United Nations Economic and Social Council
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| website = [https://www.coc.org coc.org]
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Center of Concern (Center) was a think tank in Washington, D.C., that Jesuit Superior General Pedro Arrupe and National Conference of Catholic Bishops General Secretary Joseph Bernardin (later Cardinal Bernardin) co-founded on May 4, 1971. The Center was created as a joint project of the Society of Jesus and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now United States Conference of Catholic Bishops).{{Cite web |title=Center of Concern Celebrates 45 Years of Championing Global Social Justice and Peace |url=https://jesuits.ca/press-release/center-of-concern-celebrates-45-years-of-championing-global-social-justice-and-peace/ |access-date=2022-09-21 |website=Canada Province |language=en-US}} On October 12, 2018, the Center of Concern announced{{Cite web |title=Board Update on Center of Concern and Education for Justice |url=https://educationforjustice.org/resource/board-update-on-center-of-concern-and-education-for-justice/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331105612/https://educationforjustice.org/resource/board-update-on-center-of-concern-and-education-for-justice/ |archive-date=March 31, 2022 |access-date=December 27, 2018 |website=Education for Justice |language=en-US}} that it no longer had the financial resources to sustain normal operations and that it had terminated all of its paid staff.
History
= Beginnings =
The context for the founding of the Center was the document “Justice in the World” produced by the Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1971. At this synod, the world’s Catholic bishops decreed: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”{{Cite web |title=Action for justice |url=https://catholicidentity.bne.catholic.edu.au/scripture/SitePages/Action-for-justice.aspx?csf=1&e=qtAThn |access-date=2022-09-08 |website=catholicidentity.bne.catholic.edu.au}}
The Center's purpose was to study issues of development, justice, and peace from a global perspective. From the start, the Center convened discussions regarding development, justice, and peace from a global perspective, reading the sign of the times and supporting United Nations, Catholic social tradition, and other frameworks for such issues as population, hunger, environment, poverty, habitat, science and technology, and women’s empowerment.{{fact|date=September 2018}}
The Center's founding director, William F. Ryan,{{Cite web |title=Bill Ryan {{!}} Jesuit Forum |url=http://www.jesuitforum.ca/board-of-directors/bill-ryan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622193252/http://www.jesuitforum.ca/board-of-directors/bill-ryan |archive-date=June 22, 2018 |access-date=February 20, 2017 |website=www.jesuitforum.ca |language=en}} served from 1971 to 1978. His assistant, Peter J. Henriot, succeeded him and served from 1978 to 1988.{{Cite news|url=http://americamagazine.org/issue/794/article/remembering-justice|title=Remembering 'Justice': Retrieving a forgotten proclamation| date=2011-11-14| newspaper=America Magazine|access-date=2017-02-20|language=en}}
In the late 1970s, the center's work concerned what some in the Vatican viewed it as an inappropriate foray into political activism.{{cite news |first= Loye |last= Miller |title= Rift develops over Catholic activism |page= 6C |work= The Journal-News |location= White Plains, NY |via= Newspapers.com |url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/162697498 |date = May 25, 1988}}
= 1980s and 1990s =
Beginning in the 1980s, the Center focused more on analysis of emerging social movements within the United States, on behalf of women, workers, the poor, and peace issues.{{fact|date=September 2018}} The Center assisted the U.S. Catholic bishops with their pastoral letters on racism, peace, and the U.S. economy. In the 1990s, turning again to U.N. conferences and development abroad, the Center focused on the work of global civil society and social service organizations and community-centered, local, and grassroots organizations to complement the work of intergovernmental organizations to aid the poorest people in the world .{{Cite web|url=http://www.policyinnovations.org/innovators/organizations/data/00591|title=Center of Concern|website=www.policyinnovations.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-02-20}}
= New millennium =
In 2000 the Center organized an initiative involving its Rethinking Bretton Woods Project Justice,{{Cite web|url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/04/how-the-definition-of-development-aid-is-being-eroded|title=How the Definition of Development Aid is Being Eroded {{!}} Inter Press Service|website=www.ipsnews.net|date=21 April 2016 |access-date=2017-02-20}} which began in 1995, and explored the policy implications for debt relief for poor nations. Following this, the Center welcomed the news that the U.S. Congress and administration cancelled the bilateral debt of over 30 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).{{fact|date=September 2018}}
The Center founded Education for Justice{{cite web|url=https://educationforjustice.org|title=Resources}} in 2001 as a Web-based global subscription service to provide a bridge of conversation between Catholic social tradition and the signs of the times in terms accessible to members in high schools, universities, parishes, religious congregations, and healthcare organizations, as well as for individuals. Education for Justice's founder Jane Deren and director Sr. Katherine Feely won the Harry A. Fagan Roundtable Award in 2011.{{Cite web|url=http://snd1.org/en/snd-news-from-around-the-world/current-news/sr-mary-katherine-feely-receives-catholic-social-justice-award/|title=Sr. Mary Katherine Feely Receives Catholic Social Justice Award|last=|first=|date=|website=snd1.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-02-20}}
The Center represented the United States in the global lay Catholic development and advocacy alliance, Coopération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité (CIDSE) and is a member of Catholic Charities USA. It had been accredited with consultative status before the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 1974.
The Center ceased operations in late 2018, though the Board found a new “home” for Education for Justice, now a part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network.{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=I. S. N. |date=2021-02-23 |title=Sr. Dianna Ortiz: Remembering a Powerful Advocate for Peace and Justice |url=https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2021/02/23/sr-dianna-ortiz-peace-justice/ |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=Ignatian Solidarity Network |language=en-US}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|3}}
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External links
- [http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/center-concern-turns-45-qa-lester-myers America Magazine profile on Center of Concern]
- [http://archives.nd.edu/findaids/ead/xml/coc.xml#idm1613752624 Center of Concern Records index] via the University of Notre Dame Archives
Category:Think tanks based in Washington, D.C.
Category:1971 establishments in the United States
Category:Think tanks established in 1971
Category:Human rights organizations based in the United States
Category:Political and economic think tanks in the United States
Category:Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
Category:Jesuit development centres
Category:Catholic organizations established in the 20th century