Interview with Brendan Steven, CAPP-Canada Member and Lumen Gentium Forum Coordinator

What inspired you to join CAPP‑Canada?

I met CAPP Canada coordinator Dr. Cecil Chabot at a conference in the Archdiocese of Toronto several years ago, and was immediately inspired by the mission of the CAPP Foundation. At that point, I had already spent a few years actively engaged in different apostolates that educated and formed lay Catholics in the principles of Catholic social doctrine and its practical application to the social challenges of our times. I saw clearly that CAPP not only shared that mission but also lived it in a particularly powerful way: through direct service to the Pope and the Holy Father's apostolic priorities. I quickly knew I wanted to play a part in CAPP Canada's growth and was honoured to do so through co-developing the Lumen Gentium Forum, a CAPP Canada signature program, alongside truly brilliant collaborators like Drs. Cecil Chabot and Danielle Morin, Jeff Lockert, Robin D'Souza, Patrick Douglas, and Dr. Constance Price.

In your professional or community life, how do you apply Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as a leader?

Across my professional and civic commitments, I aim to share the rich wisdom of CST with other lay Catholics and see those principles actualized in our society through the leadership of prayerful and well-formed Christian leaders. As the coordinator of CAPP Canada's Lumen Gentium Forum, a fellowship program offering intensive formation in Catholic social teaching and virtuous leadership for young professionals, it is a joy to journey with emerging Catholic leaders. They discover the truth, beauty, and goodness of CST, especially learning how it applies to their own vocations and how they can help create a more Christian society oriented to the common good. In my full-time work, I am the director of marketing at Cardus, an ecumenical Canadian Christian think tank, whose foundational moral commitments include principles derived directly from CST and papal encyclicals, especially. At Cardus, we produce public policy research and convene institutional leaders to tackle our society's greatest challenges by drawing on the wisdom of 2,000 years of Christian social thought. We explore an array of issues from independent education to the dangers of legalized euthanasia, and from marriage and family to the future of work and economics in our country.

Is there a teaching, quote, or principle from CST that especially resonates with you right now?

Peter Maurin, the great Catholic philosopher and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, said: "Let us create a society in which it is easier for people to be good." So much of the wisdom of Catholic social teaching is contained in that one line.

What kind of community do you hope CAPP‑Canada becomes?

I hope we continue to gather Catholic leaders of all ages, and from all different sectors, who share a deep commitment to Christian witness and mission; and who together grow in their knowledge of and application of CST in all aspects of social life. In a society as secularized as Canada, it is so critical that Catholic lay apostles come together to pray for, learn with, strengthen, and undertake apostolate with each other. There is so much good work to be done, and Christ calls us to it: the time to build is now!