Address to University of Notre Dame

March 2, 2011

Goods of Conscience: A Case for the Parish Benefice

If I were pope, I would write an encyclical on the “Cycle of Charity” in homage to Archbishop Romero, Fr. Stan Rother, and others who have given their lives for social justice in Latin America. Using Pope Benedict’s supple arguments in “God is Love” for “face-to-face” charity, I would emphasize transforming global market forces into a communion of peoples. My work has been influenced by Fr. Greg Shaffer, who created a benefice for coffee growers in Guatemala to sell directly to US parishes. During a retreat in 2004, I ruminated on Fr. Shaffer’s synthesis of Catholic social teaching, “The Goods of Conscience,” which includes elements of individuality; the common good; subsidiarity; and the preferential option for the poor.

I came to see that Fr. Shaeffer’s model of direct trade to US parishes could be expanded into a shared system of parish benefices by involving US parishes in production as well. I believe that globalization inhibits the soulful act of making by making production remote and anonymous. In my vision, trade becomes a tenable and profitable cycle of trade that regenerates a life-giving sense of sense of purpose on the parish level, a model that rejuvenates the medieval model of benefice and reintroduces a powerful sense of active participation and opportunity for social justice on the parish level.

Spiritually and intellectually excited by this new model of benefice, I competed in 2005 as a finalist in the Global Social Venture Competition at Columbia University. These experts urged me to switch from religious goods to apparel. Drawing upon my large family’s love of culture and art (fine and domestic) and upon my education in literature, theology, and the humanities, including studies in Ireland and Italy, I created a line of high-fashion clothing that I trademarked Goods of Conscience, using social fabric™ a heritage Guatemalan cotton handwoven with a special reflective thread that inoculates native Mayan weavers from predatory competition. In 2009, Vogue featured a pair of our shorts in a cover story and Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor and the doyenne of the fashion world, praised our forward-thinking production model, noting that the native cotton we use is “something to cheer about” for its natural resistance to pests.

The success of Goods of Conscience continues to astonish, inspire, and humble me. My vision has become a thriving benefice that vibrantly connects skilled workers in the Bronx with growers and weavers in Guatemala. The proceeds from our workshop provide school uniforms, aid for needy children, and a teaching garden. I hope to develop programs to nourish marriage and family life, desperately needed programs to help our parish families, the font of genuinely sustainable social justice.

Goods of Conscience has received extraordinary attention and support from American and international media, the fashion world, the academy, and from our diocese. My presentation will seek to articulate--intellectually, spiritually, and visually--how the benefice model can become a powerful conduit for social justice on the parish level.