to continue listening to one another’s experiences as we seek to advance our understanding of human rights and justice. This is a precondition for advancing as a world church that seeks to respond more adequately to the needs of all people.

Pointed Challenges

The conference also raised some pointed challenges for both civic society and the church in North America. A theologian from the United States made a powerful argument that respect for the right to due process of law is in danger of being subverted by what is happening at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in the government’s surveillance of U.S. citizens in response to fear of terrorist threats. She traced the origin of the right to due process back to medieval canon law and showed that its roots layin the respect due to every person as created in the image and likeness of God. The church, therefore, has a stake in defending the right to due process and should address violations in the United States today. Taking this right seriously also calls for revisions in the way the church governs itself.

North Americans were also challenged to respond much more effectively to the massive poverty in the world today—a central implication of the Gospel and our common humanity. The theologians at Padua found a consensus that this is a central requirement facing the church in the United States. Since the United States is the world’s most powerful nation, it has the greatest capacity to advance or impede our common humanity. Heightened capacity entails greater responsibility.

Moral theology in