Harvard Professor Mary Jo Bane delivers the 2012 Hecker Lecture Jan. 3 at St. Paul’s College in Washignton, D.C. An image of Paulist Founder Father Isaac T. Hecker is on the screen.

Dr. Mary Jo Bane delivers sthe 2012 Hecker Lecture Jan. 3 at St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C. Dr. Bane’s lecture was titled, Economic Justice for All: The U.S. Economy 25 Years after the Bishops’ Pastoral Statement.

We live in a rich country, but there are among us people who are hungry, people who are suffering. We live in a rich country, yet we have no safety net for the poor. We live in a rich country, but 90 percent of the people receive 50 percent of the wealth.

That is why “it is so important to remind people that the Catholic emphasis is that we are all part of a common humanity,” according to Dr. Mary Jo Bane, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government who delivered the 2012 Hecker Lecture Feb 3 at St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C. Dr. Bane’s lecture was titled, Economic Justice for All: The U.S. Economy 25 Years after the Bishops’ Pastoral Statement.

The Hecker Lecture – named for Paulist Fathers founder Father Isaac T. Hecker – has been a tradition in the Washington theological community since 1975. Held on a date near the Jan. 25 Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, a guest speaker is invited each year to expound or reflect upon one of the core aspects of Paulist spirituality: evangelization, ecumenism, interfaith relations and reconciliation.

“This topic is about the reconciliation if those alienated from the broader culture,” said Father Paul Huesing, CSP, superior of St. Paul’s College and the Paulist formation director.

In preparing for the lecture, Dr. Bane said she did some research on Paulist Founder Servant of God Father Isaac T. Hecker.

“Hecker had a dream for America and for the church in America: that this country, which Hecker loved, had the potential to show the world what striving toward a peaceful and just commonwealth would look like; and that America could and should appreciate and aspire to bring about God’s plan for humanity on earth,” Dr. Bane said in her lecture. “Hecker wanted to convert America to Catholicism and thought he could. Whether we share that aspiration or not, we can certainly share his dream that the Catholic church in America commit itself to a vision of proclaiming, modeling and building the city on the hill, the kingdom of God, in America. We can also admire and share Hecker’s ‘incurable optimism, which he managed to hold onto during very difficult time for both the church and the country.”

Father Paul Huesing, CSP, welcomes guests to the 2012 Hecker Lecture, delivered by Mary Jo Bane Jan. 3 at St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Bane is a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and an involved parishioner at the Paulist Center in Boston.

“We also live in difficult times for the church and the country,” Dr. Bane continued. “It is easy and tempting to document the ills of the economy, the polity and the church, and to wring one’s hands at the difficulty of doing anything about them. But the spirit of Isaac Hecker inspires us to dream and to aspire, to trust that the Holy Spirit indeed works among us and justifies our hopes. In that spirit, I propose today to reflect on the large and depressing issue of economic, social and political inequality in America, but to do so in the context of thinking about how the American Catholic church, and all of us individually, might come to understand and start to address it.”

And address it is exactly what Dr. Bane did through intellect, faith and experience as the former assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also served aseputy assistant secretary for program planning and budget analysis at the United States Department of Education, commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services and co-chair of President Bill Clinton’s Working Group on Welfare Reform. Dr. Bane has authored a number of books and articles on poverty, welfare, families, and the role of churches in civic life; her current focus is research on poverty in the United States and international context. Dr. Bane lives what she believes, having served in the Peace Corps in Liberia, West Africa.

“The Paulist emphasis on social justice, inclusiveness, hospitality and reconciliation are all important to society as a whole, and are badly needed in our politics,” said Dr. Bane, who is greatly involved at the Paulist Center in Boston, where she serves as a lector and eucharistic minister as well as on the parish council and stewardship committee. “The emphasis the Paulists place on bringing people together is really important.”