Acton Institute 2020 Year In Review

By Rev. Robert Sirico

Rev. Robert Sirico, president and co-founder of the Acton Institute, reflects on the year 2020 and answers questions submitted by our President’s Circle members who faithfully support the Acton Institute and our work at the intersection of faith and free enterprise.

We wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas and look forward with optimism and hope at the year ahead.

Acton Line podcast:
Maryann & Barry Keating on rebuilding social capital

December 23, 2020

Social capital – the capacity of people to cooperate towards common aims – is an indispensable element of a free and prosperous society yet many studies demonstrate that it has been steadily eroded in recent decades.

Social pathologies such as the breakdown of the family, addiction, and deaths of despair are strongly correlated with weakening social ties and norms. The decline in social capital has had devastating real world consequences.

In this episode, Acton’s Dan Hugger talks with Maryann and Barry Keating, authors of the new book Rebuilding Social Capital, about the idea of social capital, its erosion, how economics and Catholic Social Teaching help to clarify the concept, and what their new research suggests is the path forward to rebuilding social capital.

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Your child’s misery is a price the NEA is willing to pay

By Rev. Ben Johnson

The National Education Association has released a new report admitting that virtual schooling has subjected America’s youngest and poorest students to “learning loss,” “social-emotional challenges,” and “trauma.” However, the nation’s largest teachers union implies that schoolchildren’s setbacks should rank below the interests of its 3 million dues-paying members, because kids are “resilient.”

This restaurant owner is the face of California’s selective lockdowns

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As states like California continue imposing harsh COVID-19 lockdowns on their citizens, government officials gain even more power to decide which businesses get to survive. Unsurprisingly, politicians have given powerful interests preferential treatment. One of the most blatant cases occurred in Los Angeles, where a restaurant owner’s tearful condemnation of the city’s uneven policies reveals what happens when government starts deciding whose livelihood takes priority.