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St. Marie Eugenie
Foundress
Religious of the Assumption
News
Assumption Sister to Speak on Catholic Values in World of Finance, February 13, 2010
Sr. Catherine Cowley’s book predicted the 2007 collapse of the banking industry
WORCESTER, Mass. – Sr. Catherine Cowley, R.A., Ph.D., associate director of the Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life at Heythrop College, the philosophy and theology college of the University of London, will give a lecture titled “Values in Economic Life” at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16 in Rehm Library, Smith Hall, at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.
The lecture is part of the yearlong economic series “After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward,” sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, which explores the lessons learned from the credit crisis that began in 2007 and offers diverse perspectives on how to construct a new economy that is sustainable and just.
“The credit crisis of the past two years provides us with an important opportunity to assess the benefits and shortcomings of our economic system, to examine how it embodies our social priorities, and to imagine what kind of system we really want and can have,” said Thomas M. Landy, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.
Cowley, who worked in banking before becoming a religious sister, studies the social ethics relating to the economy and the financial sector. In her book The Value of Money: Ethics and the World of Finance (T&T Clark, 2006), Cowley explains the danger of risk, and the fact too little attention was being paid to it in the pursuit of profit. Before the banking collapse, Cowley predicted that derivatives, with complex and unquantifiable risks, in combination with volatile markets could destabilize whole economies.
Cowley worked in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors prior to joining the Congregation of the Religious of the Assumption. She studied theology at the Gregorian University, Rome. Following some years in pastoral ministry, she obtained a master’s degree in philosophy and religion and then a doctorate at Heythrop College. She teaches Christian ethics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and is degree convener for the master’s in Christian ethics. She is secretary to the Association of Teachers of Moral Theology.
-- press release, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA