Since Pacem in Terris (1963), Catholic Social Doctrine has attempted to bolster the project of global governance by way of a development of its own basic principles—particularly the principles of the common good and subsidiarity. In the most recent contribution to this strand of social doctrine, Caritas in Veritate (2009), Pope Benedict XVI conspicuously used the language of classical politics, albeit with equally conspicuous imprecision, when he spoke of the polis and res publica. Focusing especially on Caritas in Veritate, this talk will consider how social doctrine might be in need of political philosophy understood as a study of political forms to adjudicate the impasses that arise in the project of global governance, a task implied but not fully developed in Benedict XVI's landmark Social Encyclical.

Patrick Jones is a PhD candidate in moral theology at the Catholic University of America, though he currently lives in Latrobe, PA where his wife Jessica is a professor of philosophy at St. Vincent College. He grew up in Baltimore. He received his BA from St. John's College in Annapolis, MD and his MA from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and is currently working on a dissertation entitled "The Nation-State and Global Governance: A Question in Modern Catholic Social Doctrine."