title: Catholic social teaching

text: Further development came in the post–Second World War period when attention turned to the problems of social and economic development and international relations. On 15 May 1961 Pope John XXIII released "Mater et magistra", subtitled "Christianity and Social Progress". This encyclical expanded the church's social doctrine to cover the relations between rich and poor nations, examining the obligation of rich countries to assist poor countries while respecting their particular cultures. It includes an examination of the threat of global economic imbalances to world peace. On 11 April 1963, John expanded further on this in "Pacem in terris" (), the first encyclical addressed to both Catholics and non-Catholics. In it, the pope linked the establishment of world peace to the laying of a foundation consisting of proper rights and responsibilities between individuals, social groups, and states from the local to the international level. He exhorted Catholics to understand and apply the social teachings:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: This document, issued at the height of the Cold War, also included a denunciation of the nuclear arms race and a call for strengthening the United Nations.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The primary document from the Second Vatican Council concerning social teachings is "Gaudium et spes", the "Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World", which is considered one of the chief accomplishments of the council. Unlike earlier documents, this is an expression of all the bishops, and covers a wide range of issues of the relationship of social concerns and Christian action. At its core, the document asserts the fundamental dignity of each human being, and declares the church's solidarity with both those who suffer, and those who would comfort the suffering:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Other conciliar documents such as "Dignitatis humanae", drafted largely by John Courtney Murray, an American Jesuit, have important applications to the social teachings of the church on freedom today.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Like his predecessor, Pope Paul VI gave attention to the disparities in wealth and development between the industrialized West and the Third World in his 1967 encyclical "Populorum progressio" ("The Development of Peoples"). It asserts that free international trade alone is not adequate to correct these disparities and supports the role of international organizations in addressing this need. Paul called on rich nations to meet their moral obligation to poor nations, pointing out the relationship between development and peace. The intention of the church is not to take sides, but to be an advocate for basic human dignity:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The May 1971 apostolic letter "Octogesima adveniens" addressed the challenge of urbanization and urban poverty and stressed the personal responsibility of Christians to respond to injustice. For the tenth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council (26 October 1975), Paul issued "Evangelii nuntiandi" ("Evangelization in the Modern World"). In it he asserts that combating injustice is an essential part of evangelizing modern peoples.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Pope John Paul II continued his predecessors' work of developing the body of Catholic social doctrine. Of particular importance were his 1981 encyclical "Laborem exercens" and "Centesimus annus" in 1991.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: While not endorsing any particular political agenda, the church holds that this teaching applies in the public (political) realm, not only the private.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: "Laborem exercens" qualifies the teaching of private ownership in relation to the common use of goods that all men, as children of God, are entitled to. The church "has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone." Many of these concepts are again stressed in "Centesimus annus", issued on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of "Rerum novarum", which encompasses a critique of both socialism and unfettered capitalism. Another major milestone under John Paul II's papacy occurred in 2005, with the publication of the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church", a work entrusted to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 encyclical "Caritas in veritate" added many additional perspectives to the social teaching tradition, including in particular relationships with the concepts of Charity and Truth, and introduced the idea of the need for a strong "World Political Authority" to deal with humanity's most pressing challenges and problems. This idea has proven to be controversial and difficult to accept, particularly by right-of-center U.S. Catholic thinkers who are generally suspicious, or even disdainful, of supranational and international organizations, such as the United Nations. The concept was further developed in a 2011 note issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace entitled "Towards reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the context of World Political Authority".


title: Catholic social teaching

text: In "Caritas in veritate", Benedict also lifted up Paul VI's social encyclical "Populorum progressio", setting it as a new point of reference for Catholic social thought in the 21st century. Noted scholar Thomas D. Williams wrote that "by honoring "Populorum progressio" with the title of 'the "Rerum novarum" of the present age,' Benedict meant to elevate "Populorum Progressio", conferring on it a paradigmatic status not dissimilar to that enjoyed by "Rerum novarum" throughout the twentieth century." Williams claims that the reason for this elevation is that "Populorum progressio", "for all its real deficiencies, effected an important conceptual shift in Catholic social thinking, by moving from the worker question (with its attendant concerns of just wages, private property, working environment, and labor associations) to the broader and richer social benchmark of integral human development."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Pope Benedict has also been a critic of capitalism, characterizing it as a system that recognizes no duties or obligations towards human beings, and credits it with creating a destructive type of invididualism which "encourages selfishness, as men are concerned exclusively with what they should receive from society and unconcerned with what they can or should contribute to it." According to Benedict, Catholic teaching recognizes common good as key requirement to prosperity, whereas capitalism disregards it for pursuit of profit, leading to exploitation and erosion of moral limitations. Benedict also expressed concern with the role of charity in capitalism, criticizing capitalism for its indifference towards charity and discouraging interest in others in favor of self-interest. Lastly, Pope Benedicts blames capitalism for growing sense of alienation and anomie in modern societies. Benedict points to the prevalence of drugs, alcohol, and


title: Catholic social teaching

text: “deceptive illusions of happiness” as evidence of this alienation. He describes this alienation as stemming from the self-centered emphasis of capitalism, "where individuals act in their own self-interest, seeking the satisfaction of their own wants - man is not concerned with his fellow man, except insofar as he may be instrumental in satisfying his wants."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Pope Francis has described mercy as "the very substance of the Gospel of Jesus" and asked theologians to reflect this in their work. Francis has taken the emphasis off of doctrinal purity or church membership and restored Jesus' emphasis on charity, on doing good as fundamental. Responding to the question whether atheists go to Heaven, Francis responded to an atheist: "We must meet one another doing good. 'But I don't believe, Father, I am an atheist!' But do good: we will meet one another there."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Pope Francis has accentuated the importance of mercy by declaring 2016 a "Year of Mercy." The pope made it clear that from December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016, he wanted members of the Church "to place the sacrament of God’s mercy – which is the sacrament of penance and reconciliation – into the central pastoral life for the Church."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: In his apostolic exhortation "Evangelii gaudium", Francis said: "It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare." He explicitly affirmed "the right of states" to intervene in the economy to promote "the common good". He wrote:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: In his second encyclical, "Laudato si'", the pope lays forth a "biting critique of consumerism and irresponsible development with a plea for swift and unified global action" to combat environmental degradation and climate change.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: With respect to climate change, some critics have argued that Francis is departing from the positions of his predecessors. Daniel Schwindt observed that "some writers seem to suggest (as is common among persons who've never taken the time to read the encyclicals themselves), that Pope Francis' "Laudato Si" represents some new venture on the part of the Church—a departure from its customary range of subject matter." But, Schwindt argues, his attitude toward climate change is a precise continuation of the attitude of his immediate predecessor. Pope Benedict XVI once wrote:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Francis' apostolic exhortation "Gaudete et exsultate" emphasized the universal call to perfection of charity, which is based on "service of your brothers and sisters" (No. 14) and on the entirety of the Church's social teaching tradition.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Every commentator has his or her own list of key principles and documents, and there is no official 'canon' of principles or documents.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Human dignity is one principle of Catholic social thought. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession facts, and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The origins of subsidiarity as a concept of Catholic social thought lie with Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, who served as Bishop of Mainz in the mid- to late 19th century. It is most well-known, however, from its subsequent incorporation into Pope Pius XI's encyclical "Quadragesimo anno". This encyclical's formulation of subsidiarity is the touchstone from which further interpretations tend to depart:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: "Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: As with many social encyclicals in the modern period, this one occurs in the historical context of the intensifying struggle between communist and capitalist ideologies, exactly forty years – hence the title – after the Vatican's first public stance on the issue in "Rerum novarum". Promulgated in 1931, "Quadragesimo anno" is a response to German Nazism and Soviet communism, on the one hand, and to Western European and American capitalist individualism on the other. It broke the surface of Catholic social teaching in this context, and it is helpful to keep this in mind. The main author of the 1931 encyclical's "subsidiarity" part was the German Jesuit and economist Oswald von Nell-Breuning.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Gregory Beabout suggests that subsidiarity draws upon a far older concept as well: the Roman military term "subsidium". He writes that "the role of the subsidium (literally, to sit behind) is to lend help and support in case of need." Employing Beabout's etymology, subsidiarity indicates that the higher social unit ought to "sit behind" the lower ones to lend help and support in case of need. Another etymological interpretation states that subsidiarity literally means "to 'seat' ('sid') a service down ('sub') as close to the need for that service as is feasible". Either interpretation indicates a hermeneutic of subsidiarity in which the higher social body's rights and responsibilities for action are predicated upon their assistance to and empowerment of the lower.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Francis McHugh states that in addition to the "vertical" dimension of subsidiarity, there is also a "horizontal" dimension which "calls for a diversity of semi-autonomous social, economic, and cultural spheres". "Quadragesimo anno" presents these "spheres" as occupying the space between the poles of individual and State:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: "...things have come to such a pass through the evil of what we have termed "individualism" that, following upon the overthrow and near extinction of that rich social life which was once highly developed through associations of various kinds, there remain virtually only individuals and the State. This is to the great harm of the State itself; for, with a structure of social governance lost, and with the taking over of all the burdens which the wrecked associations once bore. the State has been overwhelmed and crushed by almost infinite tasks and duties."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: These associations or "lesser societies" are encouraged because they are the vehicle by which society functions most effectively and corresponds most closely with human dignity. Examples of these associations today would include the family, unions, nonprofit organizations, religious congregations, and corporations of all sizes.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Subsidiarity charts a course between the individualism and collectivism by locating the responsibilities and privileges of social life in the smallest unit of organization at which they will function. Larger social bodies, be they the state or otherwise, are permitted and required to intervene only when smaller ones cannot carry out the tasks themselves. Even in this case, the intervention must be temporary and for the purpose of empowering the smaller social body to be able to carry out such functions on its own.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Solidarity is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good, not merely "vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of others" (Joseph Donders, John Paul II: The Encyclicals in Everyday Language). Solidarity, which flows from faith, is fundamental to the Christian view of social and political organization. Each person is connected to and dependent on all humanity, collectively and individually.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: In "Caritas in veritate", the Catholic Church declared that "Charity is at the heart of the Church". Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (Matthew 22:36–40). It gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; it is the principle not only of micro-relationships but with friends, family members or within small groups.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The church has chosen the concept of "charity in truth" to avoid a degeneration into sentimentality in which love becomes empty. In a culture without truth, there is a fatal risk of losing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word "love" is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in God and the Bible.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Distributism is a school of economic and social thought developed by Catholic thinkers G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. It holds that social and economic structures should promote social justice, and that social justice is best served through a wide distribution of ownership. For support, distributists cite "Rerum novarum", which states:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: This principle is then used as a basis for progressive tax rates, anti-trust laws and economic cooperatives including credit unions. "Rerum novarum", "Quadragesimo anno" and "Centesimus annus" are all documents which advocate a just distribution of income and wealth. Still more recently, in "Caritas in veritate", Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the point to such an extent that the term "redistribution" is mentioned no less than eight times throughout the encyclical, each time in a positive manner.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: As with the principles above, there is no official list of key themes. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has identified these seven key themes of Catholic Social Teaching set out here. Other sources identify more or fewer key themes based on their reading of the key documents of the social magisterium.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The foundational principle of all Catholic social teachings is the sanctity of human life. Catholics believe in an inherent dignity of the human person starting from conception through to natural death. They believe that human life must be valued infinitely above material possessions. Pope John Paul II wrote and spoke extensively on the topic of the inviolability of human life and dignity in his watershed encyclical, "Evangelium Vitae", (Latin for "The Gospel of Life").


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Catholics oppose acts considered attacks and affronts to human life, including abortion, fornication (including contraception), capital punishment, euthanasia, genocide, torture, the direct and intentional targeting of noncombatants in war, and every deliberate taking of innocent human life. In the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, "Gaudium et spes" (Latin for "Joy and Hope"), it is written that "from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care." The church did not historically not oppose war in all circumstances. The church's moral theology has generally emphasized just war theory since the mid 3rd century. However, Francis' encyclical Fratelli Tutti says that in light of modern weapons of mass destruction, it is increasingly harder to invoke the criteria of a just war, and it calls for an end to war.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Applying this argument to the situation in the United States today, in 2005 the USCCB launched "a major Catholic campaign to end the use of the death penalty."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: In 2018, Pope Francis changed the Catechism to oppose all uses of the death penalty in the modern world, while not going so far as to call it intrinsically evil:Believing men and women are made in the image and likeness of God, Catholic doctrine teaches to respect all humans based on an inherent dignity. According to John Paul II, every human person "is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God." Catholics oppose racial prejudice and other forms of discrimination. In 2007 the USCCB wrote:


title: Catholic social teaching

text: A belief in the inherent dignity of the human person also requires that basic human needs are adequately met, including food, health care, shelter, etc. The bishops have see this as a basis for the support of social welfare programs and of governmental economic policies that promote equitable distribution of income and access to essential goods and services.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: According to the Book of Genesis, the Lord God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone". The Catholic Church teaches that man is both a sacred person and a social person and it also teaches that families are the first and most basic units of societies. It advocates a complementarian view of marriage, family life, and religious leadership. Full human development takes place in relationship to others. The family—based on marriage (between a man and a woman)—is the first and most fundamental unit of society and it is also a sanctuary for the creation and nurturing of children. Together families form communities, communities form states and together all across the world each human is part of the human family. How these communities organize themselves politically, economically and socially is thus of the highest importance. Each institution must be judged by how much it enhances, or is a detriment to, the life and dignity of human persons.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Catholic Social Teaching opposes collectivist approaches such as Communism but at the same time it also rejects unrestricted laissez-faire policies and the notion that a free market automatically produces social justice. The state has a positive moral role to play as no society will achieve a just and equitable distribution of resources with a totally free market. All people have a right to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society and, under the principle of subsidiarity, state functions should be carried out at the lowest level that is practical. A particular contribution of Catholic social teaching is a strong appreciation for the role of intermediary organizations such as labor unions, community organizations, fraternal groups and parish churches.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Every person has a fundamental right to life and to the necessities of life. The right to exercise religious freedom publicly and privately by individuals and institutions along with freedom of conscience need to be constantly defended. In a fundamental way, the right to free expression of religious beliefs protects all other rights.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The church supports private property and teaches that "every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own." The right to private property is not absolute, however, and is limited by the concepts of the "universal destiny of the goods of the earth" and of the social mortgage. It is theoretically moral and just for its members to destroy property used in an evil way by others, or for the state to redistribute wealth from those who have unjustly hoarded it.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities—to one another, to our families, and to the larger society. Rights should be understood and exercised in a moral framework rooted in the dignity of the human person and social justice. Those that have more have a greater responsibility to contribute to the common good than those who have less.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: We live our lives by a subconscious philosophy of freedom and work. The encyclical "Laborem exercens" (1981) by Pope John Paul II, describes work as the essential key to the whole social question. The very beginning is an aspect of the human vocation. Work includes every form of action by which the world is transformed and shaped or even simply maintained by human beings. It is through work that we achieve fulfilment. So in order to fulfil ourselves we must cooperate and work together to create something good for all of us, a common good. What we call justice is that state of social harmony in which the actions of each person best serve the common good.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Freedom according to Natural Law is the empowerment of good. Being free we have responsibilities. With human relationships we have responsibilities towards each other. This is the basis of human rights. The Roman Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, in their document "The Common Good" (1996) stated that, "The study of the evolution of human rights shows that they all flow from the one fundamental right: the right to life. From this derives the right to a society which makes life more truly human: religious liberty, decent work, housing, health care, freedom of speech, education, and the right to raise and provide for a family" (section 37). Having the right to life must mean that everyone else has a responsibility towards me. To help sustain and develop my life. This gives me the right to whatever I need to accomplish without compromising the mission of others, and it lays on others the corresponding responsibility to help me. All justice is the power of God compensated solely in terms of individual relationships.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The Ten Commandments reflect the basic structure of the Natural Law insofar as it applies to humanity. The first three are the foundation for everything that follows: The Love of God, the Worship of God, the sanctity of God and the building of people around God. The other seven Commandments are to do with the love of humanity and describe the different ways in which we must serve the common good : Honour your father and mother, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour, you shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbour (Exodus 20:3–17). Our Lord Jesus Christ Summarized the Commandments with the New Commandment: "Love one another, as I have loved you" (John 13:34, 15:9–17). The mystery of Jesus is a mystery of love. Our relationship with God is not one of fear, of slavery or oppression; it is a relationship of serene trust born of a free choice motivated by love. Pope John Paul II stated that love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. By his law God does not intend to coerce our will, but to set it free from everything that could compromise its authentic dignity and its full realization. (Pope John Paul II to government leaders, 5 November 2000.)


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that every person is equal to others and has human rights, and even lists various human rights. These include the right to


title: Catholic social teaching

text: According to the church, the fundamental human right is the right to life. Pope John Paul II explained in Evangelium Vitae: "...the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life...the fundamental right and source of all other rights which is the right to life, a right belonging to every individual."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Jesus taught that on the Day of Judgement God will ask what each of us did to help the poor and needy: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." This is reflected in the church's canon law, which states, "The Christian faithful are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor from their own resources."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Through our words, prayers and deeds we must show solidarity with, and compassion for, the poor. When instituting public policy we must always keep the "preferential option for the poor" at the forefront of our minds. The moral test of any society is "how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor."


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Pope Benedict XVI has taught that "love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel". This preferential option for the poor and vulnerable includes all who are marginalized in our nation and beyond—unborn children, persons with disabilities, the elderly and terminally ill, and victims of injustice and oppression.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Society must pursue economic justice and the economy must serve people, not the other way around. Employers must not "look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but ... respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character." Employers contribute to the common good through the services or products they provide and by creating jobs that uphold the dignity and rights of workers.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Workers have a right to work, to earn a living wage, and to form trade unions to protect their interests. All workers have a right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, and to safe working conditions. Workers also have responsibilities—to provide a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, to treat employers and co-workers with respect, and to carry out their work in ways that contribute to the common good. Workers must "fully and faithfully" perform the work they have agreed to do.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: In 1933, the Catholic Worker Movement was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. It was committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the marginalized and poorest in society. Today over 185 Catholic Worker communities continue to protest injustice, war, racial prejudice, and violence of all forms.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Pope John Paul II wrote in the 1987 encyclical "Sollicitudo rei socialis", "Solidarity is undoubtedly a Christian virtue. It seeks to go beyond itself to total gratuity, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It leads to a new vision of the unity of humankind, a reflection of God's triune intimate life. ..." It is a unity that binds members of a group together.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: All the peoples of the world belong to one human family. We must be our brother's keeper, though we may be separated by distance, language or culture. Jesus teaches that we must each love our neighbors as ourselves and in the parable of the Good Samaritan we see that our compassion should extend to all people. Solidarity includes the Scriptural call to welcome the stranger among us—including immigrants seeking work, a safe home, education for their children, and a decent life for their families.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Solidarity at the international level primarily concerns the Global South. For example, the church has habitually insisted that loans be forgiven on many occasions, particularly during Jubilee years. Charity to individuals or groups must be accompanied by transforming unjust political, economic and social structures.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The world and its goods were created for the use and benefit of all of God's creatures and any structures that impede the realization of this fundamental goal are not right. This concept ties in with those of Social Justice and of the limits to private property.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: A Biblical vision of justice is much more comprehensive than civil equity; it encompasses right relationships between all members of God's creation. Stewardship of creation: The world's goods are available for humanity to use only under a "social mortgage" which carries with it the responsibility to protect the environment. The "goods of the earth" are gifts from God, and they are intended by God for the benefit of everyone. Man was given dominion over all creation as sustainer rather than as exploiter, and is commanded to be a good steward of the gifts God has given him. We cannot use and abuse the natural resources God has given us with a destructive consumer mentality.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Catholic Social Teaching recognizes that the poor are the most vulnerable to environmental impact and endure disproportional hardship when natural areas are exploited or damaged. US Bishops established an environmental justice program to assist parishes and dioceses who wanted to conduct education, outreach and advocacy about these issues. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops Environmental Justice Program (EJP) calls Catholics to a deeper respect for God's creation and engages parishes in activities that deal with environmental problems, particularly as they affect the poor.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Several organs of the Holy See are dedicated to social issues. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is tasked with promoting "justice and peace in the world, in the light of the Gospel and of the social teaching of the Church." It works to clarify, expand upon, and develop new teachings in the areas of peace, justice, and human rights. The council also collaborates with local and international Catholic organizations working in those areas, and works with the social welfare organs of the United Nations, through the Secretariat of State. The Pontifical Council Cor Unum is the Holy See's primary organ devoted to charitable works. The council supervises the activities of Caritas Internationalis. It also operates the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel and the Populorum Progressio Foundation. The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences promotes the study and progress of social sciences. The academy works with various dicasteries, especially the Council for Justice and Peace, to contribute to the development of the church's social teachings.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The Holy See has established the World Movement of Christian Workers as the church's organization for working men and women to advance Catholic social initiatives.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Christian democracy, a political movement in numerous European and Latin American countries, is significantly influenced by Catholic social teaching. It has influenced other political movements in varying degrees throughout the world.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The subsidiarity principle which originated in "Rerum novarum" was established in European Union law by the Treaty of Maastricht, signed on 7 February 1992 and entered into force on 1 November 1993. The present formulation is contained in Article 5 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community (consolidated version following the Treaty of Nice, which entered into force on 1 February 2003).


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Progressio Ireland, a nongovernmental development organization based in Dublin, is also founded on the principles of Catholic social teaching. It works to achieve sustainable development the eradication of poverty in the world's underdeveloped nations.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, a cooperative based in Mondragón, Spain, was founded on the then extant principles of Catholic social teaching.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: The International Movement of Catholic Professionals and Intellectuals, "Pax Romana", is another organization firmly based on Catholic Social Teaching principles. It is active in all continents, particularly Europe, the Americas, and Africa.


title: Catholic social teaching

text: In the run up to the 2010 General Election, the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales produced the booklet Choosing the Common Good in order to clarify the principals of Catholic Social Teaching.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: Jonathan D. Cooper (born August 23, 1967) is a Canadian-American professional ice hockey coach who is the head coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). Cooper won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 as the Lightning head coach, and is currently the longest-tenured coach in the NHL.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: Cooper was born in Prince George, British Columbia. He played high school hockey at Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. He graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Hofstra University in 1989. Despite his prior lacrosse experience being that of the box variety, he was a field lacrosse letterman in each of the first four years of John Danowski's tenure as the varsity program's head coach. An attackman who eventually transitioned into a midfielder, Cooper scored 74 goals with 25 assists for 99 points and was a member of East Coast Conference championship teams as a junior and senior. He also played one year of club hockey during his time at Hofstra.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: He graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan. Cooper practiced law for five years and was a public defender off and on for two years while also maintaining his private practice. Cooper started playing hockey again while attending law school, ultimately leading to his first experience coaching hockey at Lansing Catholic High School.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: Cooper began his coaching career in 1999–2000 with Lansing Catholic High School and led the team to its first regional hockey championship in 25 years. The following season (2000–01) he served as an assistant with the Capital Centre Pride of the North American Hockey League, the only time during his coaching career Cooper was an assistant. During the 2001–02 season, Cooper was the head coach of the Metro Jets in the North American 3 Hockey League and led the Jets to the Silver Cup – the USA Hockey National Junior B Championship. In 2002–03, Cooper coached the Honeybaked Midget Major AAA team.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: In 2003, Cooper returned to the North American Hockey League (NAHL) to coach the expansion Texarkana Bandits. In 2004–05 he was named the NAHL Coach of the Year after leading the Bandits to a 36-15-5 record. Cooper continued with the Bandits franchise when it relocated to St. Louis in 2006–07. During the 2006–07 season, the Bandits captured the Robertson Cup as league champion. The following season the Bandits would once again capture the Robertson Cup. Additionally, Cooper won his second NAHL Coach of the Year that season. Cooper spent a total of five seasons coaching in the NAHL before moving on to coach the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League. In his five seasons coaching the Bandits franchise in the NAHL, Cooper compiled an overall record of 198-74-18.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: Cooper was the coach of the United States Hockey League (USHL)'s Green Bay Gamblers starting in 2008. He led the team in 2008–09 and 2009–10 to a combined record of 84–27–9. In 2010, the team won the Clark Cup for the League's championship and Cooper was named USHL Coach of the Year. He is the only coach to win a championship in all three tiers of junior hockey in the United States.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: In 2010, Cooper was hired by the Tampa Bay Lightning to coach the Norfolk Admirals, the team's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate. During the 2011–12 season, the Admirals won the Calder Cup as the AHL's champions. The Admirals also set a North American professional sports record for the longest regular season winning streak at 28 games in a row. Additionally, Cooper won the 2012 Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL's most outstanding head coach.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: For the 2012–13 season, Cooper became the head coach of the Syracuse Crunch after the Lightning changed their AHL affiliation. In 65 games with the Crunch, Cooper led the team to a 39–18–3–5 record, the best in the AHL at the time of his promotion.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On March 25, 2013, following the dismissal of head coach Guy Boucher, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that Cooper would become head coach. After leading the Lightning to their best season in franchise history in points (108) and wins (50), Cooper coached the Tampa Bay Lightning to their second Prince of Wales Trophy as the Eastern Conference champion. The Lightning lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On March 22, 2016, Cooper recorded his 143rd win as the Lightning's head coach. The win moved Cooper past Terry Crisp for second all-time in wins in franchise history. On November 8, 2017, Cooper recorded his 200th career win as head coach of the Lightning. Cooper joined John Tortorella as the only coaches in franchise history to record 200 wins. On January 7, 2018, Cooper was named as head coach of the Atlantic Division for the 63rd National Hockey League All-Star Game, which was played at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The selection was because the Lightning were the team with the highest points percentage in the Atlantic Division. On March 30, 2018, Cooper recorded his 240th career NHL win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The win moved Cooper past John Tortorella for most wins in franchise history.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On January 5, 2019, Cooper was named to the 2019 National Hockey League All-Star Game. This was Cooper's second consecutive selection to the NHL All-Star game. On March 18, 2019, Cooper coached the Lightning to their first Presidents' Trophy in franchise history with a victory over the visiting Arizona Coyotes at Amalie Arena. On March 21, 2019, Cooper recorded his 300th career NHL win in a 6–3 Lightning win over the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. On March 26, 2019, Cooper signed a multi-year contract extension to remain as the head coach of the Lightning. On April 1, 2019, Cooper coached the Lightning to their 60th win of the season. With the win, the Lightning became only the 3rd team in NHL history to reach the mark and Cooper became the second coach in NHL history to coach a team to 60 wins, joining Scotty Bowman. Tampa Bay would go on to win 62 games during the 2018-19 regular season, tying the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for the most wins in a season in NHL history. The Lightning that season were swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets, making them the first team to win the Presidents' Trophy and not win a single post-season game in the same year.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On September 28, 2020, Cooper led the Lightning to franchise's second Stanley Cup, when they beat the Dallas Stars in six games. Cooper stated after the win that the team drew inspiration from the Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball program. Similar to the Lightning's playoff defeat in 2019, top-seeded Virginia was defeated in their opening game by a 16th seed in the 2018 national tournament, the first such occurrence of a 16 vs. 1 upset in the history of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. One year later, Virginia won the national championship.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On May 30, 2021, Cooper coached the Lightning to a 2–1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena in his 100th career NHL playoff game.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On July 7, 2021, Cooper led the reigning champions to the Lightning's third Stanley Cup when they beat the Montreal Canadiens in five games. Cooper was the first coach to win back-to-back Stanley Cups since Mike Sullivan accomplished this feat with the Pittsburgh Penguins winning in 2016 and 2017.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On December 9, 2021, Cooper recorded his 400th career win in a victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. Cooper set the record for the least amount of games coached to reach 400 wins in NHL history, which came in his 659th game.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On April 1, 2022, Cooper coached in his 700th career NHL game. His 426 wins at the time of reaching the milestone are the most in NHL history among head coaches through their first 700 games.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On November 13, 2015, Team North America general manager, Peter Chiarelli, named Cooper as an assistant coach for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey under Team North America head coach Todd McLellan.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On April 11, 2017, Hockey Canada named Cooper as the head coach of Canada's men's national ice hockey team for the 2017 IIHF World Championship tournament. Cooper was joined by assistant coaches Gerard Gallant, Dave Hakstol, and Dave King. On May 21, 2017, Cooper coached Team Canada to a silver medal. Team Canada lost to Team Sweden 2–1 in a shootout.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On August 9, 2021, Cooper was named head coach of Team Canada for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing but ultimately did not participate due to the NHL pulling out of the competition because of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: Cooper is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Cooper's mother was American, while his father was Canadian. Growing up, Cooper's family were fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Cooper and his wife Jessie have twin daughters and a son.


title: Jon Cooper (ice hockey)

text: On September 16, 2016, the creation of the annual Coop's Catch for Kids charity fishing tournament was announced in partnership with the V Foundation. The tournament's purpose is for benefiting pediatric cancer research at Moffitt Cancer Center and All Children's Hospital. Each year, anglers are treated to an exciting day of fishing and fundraising alongside Lightning players and coaches. The annual catch-and-release inshore grand slam tournament pairs Lightning celebrities on a guided boat with two participants. The inaugural event was held on October 11, 2016 and to date has raised over $750,000.


title: Varina Davis

text: Varina Anne Banks Howell Davis (May 7, 1826 – October 16, 1906) was the only First Lady of the Confederate States of America, and the longtime second wife of President Jefferson Davis. She moved to a house in Richmond, Virginia, in mid-1861, and lived there for the remainder of the American Civil War. Born and raised in the South and educated in Philadelphia, she had family on both sides of the conflict and unconventional views for a woman in her public role. She did not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, and was ambivalent about the war.


title: Varina Davis

text: Davis became a writer after the American Civil War, completing her husband's memoir. She was recruited by Kate (Davis) Pulitzer, a purportedly distant cousin of Varina’s husband and wife of publisher Joseph Pulitzer, to write articles and eventually a regular column for the "New York World". Widowed in 1889, Davis moved to New York City with her youngest daughter Winnie in 1891 to work at writing. She enjoyed urban life. In her old age, she attempted to reconcile prominent figures of the North and South.


title: Varina Davis

text: Varina Anne Banks Howell was born in 1826 at Natchez, Mississippi, the daughter of William Burr Howell and Margaret Louisa Kempe. Her father was from a distinguished family in New Jersey: His father, Richard Howell, served several terms as Governor of New Jersey and died when William was a boy. William inherited little money and used family connections to become a clerk in the Bank of the United States.


title: Varina Davis

text: William Howell relocated to Mississippi, when new cotton plantations were being rapidly developed. There he met and married Margaret Louisa Kempe (1806–1867), born in Prince William County, Virginia. Her wealthy planter family had moved to Mississippi before 1816. She was the daughter of Colonel James Kempe (sometimes spelled Kemp), a Scots-Irish immigrant from Ulster who became a successful planter and major landowner in Virginia and Mississippi, and Margaret Graham, born in Prince William County. Margaret Graham was illegitimate as her parents, George Graham, a Scots immigrant, and Susanna McAllister (1783–1816) of Virginia, never officially married.


title: Varina Davis

text: After moving his family from Virginia to Mississippi, James Kempe also bought land in Louisiana, continuing to increase his holdings and productive capacity. When his daughter married Howell, he gave her a dowry of 60 slaves and of land in Mississippi. William Howell worked as a planter, merchant, politician, postmaster, cotton broker, banker, and military commissary manager, but never secured long-term financial success. He lost the majority of Margaret's sizable dowry and inheritance through bad investments and their expensive lifestyle. They suffered intermittent serious financial problems throughout their lives.


title: Varina Davis

text: Varina was born in Natchez, Mississippi as the second Howell child of eleven, seven of whom survived to adulthood. She was later described as tall and thin, with an olive complexion attributed to Welsh ancestors. (Later, when she was living in Richmond as the unpopular First Lady of the Confederacy, critics described her as looking like a mulatto or Indian "squaw".)


title: Varina Davis

text: When Varina was thirteen, her father declared bankruptcy. The Howell family home, furnishings and slaves were seized by creditors to be sold at public auction. Her wealthy maternal relatives intervened to redeem the family's property. It was one of several sharp changes in fortune that Varina encountered in her life. She grew to adulthood in a house called The Briars, when Natchez was a thriving city, but she learned her family was dependent on the wealthy Kempe relatives of her mother's family to avoid poverty.


title: Varina Davis

text: Varina Howell was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for her education, where she studied at Madame Deborah Grelaud's French School, a prestigious academy for young ladies. Grelaud, a Protestant Huguenot, was a refugee from the French Revolution and had founded her school in the 1790s. One of Varina's classmates was Sarah Anne Ellis, later known as Sarah Anne Dorsey, the daughter of extremely wealthy Mississippi planters. (After the Civil War, Dorsey, by then a wealthy widow, provided financial support to the Davises.)


title: Varina Davis

text: While at school in Philadelphia, Varina got to know many of her northern Howell relatives; she carried on a lifelong correspondence with some, and called herself a "half-breed" for her connections in both regions. After a year, she returned to Natchez, where she was privately tutored by Judge George Winchester, a Harvard graduate and family friend. She was intelligent and better educated than many of her peers, which led to tensions with Southern expectations for women. In her later years, Varina referred fondly to Madame Grelaud and Judge Winchester; she sacrificed to provide the highest quality of education for her two daughters in their turn.


title: Varina Davis

text: In 1843, at age 17, Howell was invited to spend the Christmas season at Hurricane Plantation, the property of family friend Joseph Davis. Her parents had named their oldest child after him. Located at Davis Bend, Mississippi, Hurricane was 20 miles south of Vicksburg. Davis was planning a gala housewarming with many guests and entertainers to inaugurate his lavish new mansion on the cotton plantation. (Varina described the house in detail in her memoirs.) During her stay, she met her host's much younger brother Jefferson Davis. Then thirty-five years old, Davis was a West Point graduate, former Army officer, and widower. He worked as a planter, having developed Brierfield Plantation on land his brother allowed him to use, although Joseph Davis still retained possession of the land.


title: Varina Davis

text: Jefferson Davis was a 35-year-old widower when he and Varina met. His first wife, Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of his commanding officer Zachary Taylor while he was in the Army, had died of malaria three months after their wedding in 1835. Davis mourned her and had been reclusive in the ensuing eight years. He was beginning to be active in politics.


title: Varina Davis

text: I do not know whether this Mr. Jefferson Davis is young or old. He looks both at times; but I believe he is old, for from what I hear he is only two years younger than you are [the rumor was correct]. He impresses me as a remarkable kind of man, but of uncertain temper, and has a way of taking for granted that everybody agrees with him when he expresses an opinion, which offends me; yet he is most agreeable and has a peculiarly sweet voice and a winning manner of asserting himself. The fact is, he is the kind of person I should expect to rescue one from a mad dog at any risk, but to insist upon a stoical indifference to the fright afterward.


title: Varina Davis

text: In keeping with custom, Davis sought the permission of Howell's parents before beginning a formal courtship. They initially disapproved of him due to the many differences in background, age, and politics. Davis was a Democrat and the Howells, including Varina, were Whigs. In her memoir, Varina Howell Davis wrote that her mother was concerned about Jefferson Davis's excessive devotion to his relatives (particularly his older brother Joseph, who had largely raised him and upon whom he was financially dependent) and his near worship of his deceased first wife. The Howells ultimately consented to the courtship, and the couple became engaged shortly thereafter.


title: Varina Davis

text: Their wedding was planned as a grand affair to be held at Hurricane Plantation during Christmas of 1844, but the wedding and engagement were cancelled shortly beforehand, for unknown reasons. In January 1845, while Howell was ill with a fever, Davis visited her frequently. They became engaged again. When they married on February 26, 1845 at her parents' house, a few relatives and friends of the bride attended, and none of the groom's family.


title: Varina Davis

text: Their short honeymoon included a visit to Davis's aged mother, Jane Davis, and a visit to the grave of his first wife in Louisiana. The newlyweds took up residence at Brierfield, the plantation Davis had developed on loaned to him for his use by his brother Joseph Davis. Their first residence was a two-room cottage on the property and they started construction of a main house. It became a source of contention.


title: Varina Davis

text: Soon after their marriage, Davis's widowed and penniless sister, Amanda (Davis) Bradford, came to live on the Brierfield property along with her seven youngest children. Her brothers decided that she should share the large house which the Davises were building, but they had not consulted Varina Davis. It was an example of what she would later call interference from the Davis family in her life with her husband. Additionally, her brother-in-law Joseph Davis proved controlling, both of his brother, who was 23 years younger, and the even younger Varina - especially during her husband's absences. At the same time, her parents became more financially dependent on the Davises, to her embarrassment and resentment. Their youngest son, born after her own marriage, was named Jefferson Davis Howell in her husband's honor.


title: Varina Davis

text: The couple had long periods of separation from early in their marriage, first as Jefferson Davis gave campaign speeches and "politicked" (or campaigned) for himself and for other Democratic candidates in the elections of 1846. He was also gone for extended periods during the Mexican War (1846–1848). Varina Davis was put under the guardianship of Joseph Davis, whom she had come to dislike intensely. Her correspondence with her husband during this time demonstrated her growing discontent, to which Jefferson was not particularly sympathetic.


title: Varina Davis

text: Jefferson Davis was elected in 1846 to the U.S. House of Representatives and Varina accompanied him to Washington, D.C., which she loved. She was stimulated by the social life with intelligent people and was known for making "unorthodox observations". Among them were that "slaves were human beings with their frailties" and that "everyone was a 'half breed' of one kind or another." She referred to herself as one because of her strong family connections in both North and South. The Davises lived in Washington, DC for most of the next fifteen years before the American Civil War, which gave Varina Howell Davis a broader outlook than many Southerners. It was her favorite place to live. But, as an example of their many differences, her husband preferred life on their Mississippi plantation.


title: Varina Davis

text: Soon he took leave from his Congressional position to serve as an officer in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). Varina Davis returned for a time to Briarfield, where she chafed under the supervision of her brother-in-law, Joseph. The surviving correspondence between the Davises from this period expresses their difficulties and mutual resentments. After her husband's return from the war, Varina Davis did not immediately accompany him to Washington when the Mississippi legislature appointed him to fill a Senate seat.


title: Varina Davis

text: Ultimately, the couple reconciled. She rejoined her husband in Washington. He had unusual visibility for a freshman senator because of his connections as the son-in-law (by his late wife) and former junior officer of President Zachary Taylor. Varina Davis enjoyed the social life of the capital and quickly established herself as one of the city's most popular (and, in her early 20s, one of the youngest) hostesses and party guests. The 1904 memoir of her contemporary, Virginia Clay-Clopton, described the lively parties of the Southern families in this period with other Congressional delegations, as well as international representatives of the diplomatic corps.


title: Varina Davis

text: After seven childless years, in 1852, Varina Davis gave birth to a son, Samuel. Her letters from this period express her happiness and portray Jefferson as a doting father. The couple had a total of six children:


title: Varina Davis

text: The Davises were devastated in 1854 when their first child died before the age of two. Varina Davis largely withdrew from social life for a time. In 1855, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Margaret (1855–1909); followed by two sons, Jefferson, Jr., (1857–1878) and Joseph (1859–1864), during her husband's remaining tenure in Washington, D.C. The early losses of all four of their sons caused enormous grief to both the Davises.


title: Varina Davis

text: During the Pierce Administration, Davis was appointed to the post of Secretary of War. He and President Franklin Pierce also formed a personal friendship that would last for the rest of Pierce's life. Their wives developed a strong respect, as well. The Pierces lost their last surviving child, Benny, shortly before his father's inauguration. They both suffered; Pierce became dependent on alcohol and Jane Appleton Pierce had health problems, including depression. At the request of the Pierces, the Davises, both individually and as a couple, often served as official hosts at White House functions in place of the President and his wife.


title: Varina Davis

text: According to diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut, in 1860 Mrs. Davis "sadly" told a friend "The South will secede if Lincoln is made president. They will make Mr. Davis President of the Southern side. And the whole thing is bound to be a failure."


title: Varina Davis

text: Jefferson Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded. Varina Davis returned with their children to Brierfield, expecting him to be commissioned as a general in the Confederate army. He was elected as President of the Confederate States of America by the new Confederate Congress. She did not accompany him when he traveled to Montgomery, Alabama (then capital of the new country) to be inaugurated. A few weeks later, she followed and assumed official duties as the First Lady of the Confederacy.


title: Varina Davis

text: Davis greeted the war with dread, supporting the Union but not slavery. She was known to have said that:


title: Varina Davis

text: the South did not have the material resources to win the war and white Southerners did not have the qualities necessary to win it; that her husband was unsuited for political life; that maybe women were not the inferior sex; and that perhaps it was a mistake to deny women the suffrage before the war.


title: Varina Davis

text: In the summer of 1861, Davis and her husband moved to Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy. They lived in a house which would come to be known as the White House of the Confederacy for the remainder of war (1861–1865). "She tried intermittently to do what was expected of her, but she never convinced people that her heart was in it, and her tenure as First Lady was for the most part a disaster," as the people picked up on her ambivalence. White residents of Richmond criticized Varina Davis freely; some described her appearance as resembling "a mulatto or an Indian 'squaw'."


title: Varina Davis

text: In December 1861, she gave birth to their fifth child, William. (Due to her husband's influence, her father William Howell received several low-level appointments in the Confederate bureaucracy which helped support him.) The social turbulence of the war years reached the Presidential mansion; in 1864, several of the Davises' domestic slaves escaped. James Dennison and his wife, Betsey, who had served as Varina's maid, used saved back pay of 80 gold dollars to finance their escape. Henry, a butler, left one night after allegedly building a fire in the mansion's basement to divert attention.


title: Varina Davis

text: In spring 1864, five-year-old Joseph Davis died in a fall from the porch at the house in Richmond. A few weeks later, Varina gave birth to their last child, a girl named Varina Anne Davis, who was called "Winnie". The girl became known to the public as "the Daughter of the Confederacy;" stories about and likenesses of her were distributed throughout the Confederacy during the last year of the war to raise morale. She retained the nickname for the rest of her life.


title: Varina Davis

text: When the war ended, the Davises fled South seeking to escape to Europe. They were captured by federal troops and Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Phoebus, Virginia, for two years. Left indigent, Varina Davis was restricted to residing in the state of Georgia, where her husband had been arrested. Fearing for the safety of their older children, she sent them to friends in Canada under the care of relatives and a family servant. Initially forbidden to have any contact with her husband, Davis worked tirelessly to secure his release. She tried to raise awareness of and sympathy for what she perceived as his unjust incarceration.


title: Varina Davis

text: After a few months Varina Davis was allowed to correspond with him. Articles and a book on his confinement helped turn public opinion in his favor. Davis and young Winnie were allowed to join Jefferson in his prison cell. The family was eventually given a more comfortable apartment in the officers' quarters of the fort.


title: Varina Davis

text: Although released on bail and never tried for treason, Jefferson Davis had temporarily lost his home in Mississippi, most of his wealth, and his U.S. citizenship. In the late 20th century, his citizenship was posthumously restored. The small Davis family traveled constantly in Europe and Canada as he sought work to rebuild his fortunes. Davis accepted the presidency of an insurance agency headquartered in Memphis. The family began to regain some financial comfort until the Panic of 1873, when his company was one of many that went bankrupt. In 1872 their son William Davis died of typhoid fever, adding to their emotional burdens.


title: Varina Davis

text: While visiting their daughters enrolled in boarding schools in Europe, Jefferson Davis received a commission as an agent for an English consortium seeking to purchase cotton from the southern United States. He returned to the US for this work. Varina Davis remained in England to visit her sister who had recently moved there, and stayed for several months. The surviving correspondence suggests her stay may have been prompted by renewed marital difficulties. Both the Davises suffered from depression due to the loss of their sons and their fortunes.


title: Varina Davis

text: She resented his attentions to other women, particularly Virginia Clay. Clay was the wife of their friend, former senator Clement Clay, a fellow political prisoner at Fort Monroe. During this period, Davis exchanged passionate letters with Virginia Clay for three years and is believed to have loved her. In 1871 Davis was reported as having been seen on a train "with a woman not his wife", and it made national newspapers. Still in England, Varina was outraged.


title: Varina Davis

text: For several years, the Davises lived apart far more than they lived together. Davis was unemployed for most of the years after the war. In 1877 he was ill and nearly bankrupt. Advised to take a home near the sea for his health, he accepted an invitation from Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey, a widowed heiress, to visit her plantation of Beauvoir on the Mississippi Sound in Biloxi. A classmate of Varina in Philadelphia, Dorsey had become a respected novelist and historian, and had traveled extensively. She arranged for Davis to use a cottage on the grounds of her plantation. There she helped him organize and write his memoir of the Confederacy, in part by her active encouragement. She also invited Varina Davis to stay with her.


title: Varina Davis

text: Davis and her eldest daughter, Margaret Howell Hayes, disapproved of her husband's friendship with Dorsey. After Varina Davis returned to the United States, she lived in Memphis with Margaret and her family for a time. Gradually she began a reconciliation with her husband. She was with him at Beauvoir in 1878 when they learned that their last surviving son, Jefferson Davis, Jr., had died during a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis. That year 20,000 people died throughout the South in the epidemic. During her grieving, Varina became friends again with Dorsey.


title: Varina Davis

text: Sarah Dorsey was determined to help support the former president; she offered to sell him her house for a reasonable price. Learning she had breast cancer, Dorsey made over her will to leave Jefferson Davis free title to the home, as well as much of the remainder of her financial estate. Her Percy relatives were unsuccessful in challenging the will.


title: Varina Davis

text: Her bequest provided Davis with enough financial security to provide for Varina and Winnie, and to enjoy some comfort with them in his final years. When Winnie Davis completed her education, she joined her parents at Beauvoir. She had fallen in love when at college, but her parents disapproved. Her father objected to his being from "a prominent Yankee and abolitionist family" and her mother to his lack of money and being burdened by many debts. Forced to reject this man, Winnie never married.


title: Varina Davis

text: Dorsey's bequest made Winnie Davis the heiress after Jefferson Davis died in 1889. In 1891, Varina and Winnie moved to New York City. After Winnie died in 1898, she was buried next to her father in Richmond, Virginia. Varina Davis inherited the Beauvoir plantation.


title: Varina Davis

text: After her husband died, Varina Howell Davis completed his autobiography, publishing it in 1890 as "Jefferson Davis, A Memoir". At first the book sold few copies, dashing her hopes of earning some income.


title: Varina Davis

text: Kate Davis Pulitzer, a distant cousin of Jefferson Davis and the wife of Joseph Pulitzer, a major newspaper publisher in New York, had met Varina Davis during a visit to the South. She solicited short articles from her for her husband's newspaper, the "New York World". In 1891 Varina Davis accepted the Pulitzers' offer to become a full-time columnist and moved to New York City with her daughter Winnie. They enjoyed the busy life of the city. White Southerners attacked Davis for this move to the North, as she was considered a public figure of the Confederacy whom they claimed for their own.


title: Varina Davis

text: As Davis and her daughter each worked at literary careers, they lived in a series of residential hotels in New York City. (Their longest residency was at the Hotel Gerard at 123 W. 44th Street.) Varina Davis wrote many articles for the newspaper, and Winnie Davis published several novels.


title: Varina Davis

text: After Winnie died in 1898, Varina Davis inherited Beauvoir. In October 1902, she sold the plantation to the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for $10,000. She stipulated the facility was to be used as a Confederate veterans' home and later as a memorial to her husband. The SCV built barracks on the site, and housed thousands of veterans and their families. The plantation was used for years as a veterans' home.


title: Varina Davis

text: Since 1953 the house has been operated as a museum to Davis. Beauvoir has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The main house has been restored and a museum built there, housing the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library.


title: Varina Davis

text: Varina Howell Davis was one of numerous influential Southerners who moved to the North for work after the war; they were nicknamed "Confederate carpetbaggers". Among them were the couple Roger Atkinson Pryor and Sara Agnes Rice Pryor, who became active in Democratic political and social circles in New York City. After working as an attorney, Roger Pryor was appointed as a judge. Sara Pryor became a writer, known for her histories, memoirs and novels published in the early 1900s.


title: Varina Davis

text: In the postwar years of reconciliation, Davis became friends with Julia Dent Grant, the widow of former general and president Ulysses S. Grant, who had been among the most hated men in the South. She attended a reception where she met Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute, then a black college. In her old age, Davis published some of her observations and "declared in print that the right side had won the Civil War."


title: Varina Davis

text: Although saddened by the death of her daughter Winnie in 1898 (the fifth of her six children to predecease her), Davis continued to write for the "World". She enjoyed a daily ride in a carriage through Central Park.


title: Varina Davis

text: She was active socially until poor health in her final years forced her retirement from work and any sort of public life. Davis died at age 80 of double pneumonia in her room at the Hotel Majestic on October 16, 1906. She was survived by her daughter Margaret Davis Hayes and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.


title: Varina Davis

text: Varina Howell Davis received a funeral procession through the streets of New York City. Her coffin was taken by train to Richmond, accompanied by the Reverend Nathan A. Seagle, Rector of Saint Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church, New York City which Davis attended. She was interred with full honors by Confederate veterans at Hollywood Cemetery and was buried adjacent to the tombs of her husband and their daughter Winnie.


title: Varina Davis

text: A portrait of Mrs. Davis, titled the "Widow of the Confederacy" (1895), was painted by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947). It is held at the museum at Beauvoir. In 1918 Müller-Ury donated his profile portrait of her daughter, Winnie Davis, painted in 1897–1898, to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.


title: Varina Davis

text: On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused extensive wind and water damage to Beauvoir, which houses the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. The home was restored and reopened on June 3, 2008. Varina Howell Davis's diamond and emerald wedding ring, one of the few valuable possessions she was able to retain through years of poverty, was held by the Museum at Beauvoir and lost during the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. It was discovered on the grounds a few months later and returned to the museum.


title: Tribunal

text: A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title.


title: Tribunal

text: For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single judge could describe that judge as "their tribunal." Many governmental bodies that are titled as "tribunals" are described so in order to emphasize that they are not courts of normal jurisdiction. For example, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was a body specially constituted under international law; in Great Britain, employment tribunals are bodies set up to hear specific employment disputes. In many (but not all) cases, the word "tribunal" implies a judicial (or quasi-judicial) body with a lesser degree of formality than a court, in which the normal rules of evidence and procedure may not apply, and whose presiding officers are frequently neither judges, nor magistrates. Private judicial bodies are also often styled "tribunals." The word "tribunal", however, is not conclusive of a body's function—for example, in Great Britain, the Employment Appeal Tribunal is a superior court of record.


title: Tribunal

text: The term is derived from the tribunes, magistrates of the Classical Roman Republic. "Tribunal" originally referred to the office of the tribunes, and the term is still sometimes used in this sense in historical writings. The tribunal was the platform upon which the presiding authority sat; having a raised position physically as symbolic of his higher position in regard to the adjudication of the law.


title: Tribunal

text: In Australia, the term "tribunal" generally implies a judicial body with a lesser degree of formality than a "court", with a simplified legal procedure, often presided over by a lawyer (solicitor or barrister) who is not a judge or magistrate (often referred to as a "member" of the tribunal). In many cases the lawyers who function as tribunal members do so only on a part-time basis, and spend the greater part of their time carrying out other aspects of legal practice, such as representing clients. In many cases, the formal rules of evidence which apply in courts do not apply in tribunals, which enables tribunals to hear forms of evidence which courts may not be allowed to consider. Tribunals generally deal with simpler matters; while legal representation is permitted and not uncommon, self-representation is much more common in tribunals than in courts, and tribunal members and registry staff are generally more accustomed to dealing with self-represented parties than courts are. Appeal from a tribunal is to a court.


title: Tribunal

text: In the context of sport, "tribunal" frequently refers to the AFL Tribunal, the disciplinary body of the Australian Football League.


title: Tribunal

text: In Bangladesh, "tribunal" refers to a court that serves some special purpose, of which Bangladesh has several. These have been set up to ensure speedy trial and reduce case congestion in the normal courts. Beside this, Article 117 of the Constitution of Bangladesh empowers the parliament to set up one or more administrative tribunals. No court can entertain any proceeding or make any order in respect of any matter within the jurisdiction of such tribunal.


title: Tribunal

text: In the judicial system of Belgium, the names of the lower trial courts can be translated into English as "tribunals" (, , ), whilst the higher appellate courts can be translated as "courts" (, , ).


title: Tribunal

text: The Judiciary of Brazil officially names "tribunal" the appeal court and the ones above it, always with more than one judge. The higher court is the Supremo Tribunal Federal (Supreme Federal Court), followed by the superior tribunals (Superior Tribunal de Justiça, Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, Superior Tribunal Militar). The federal justice is divided into regions; each region has its Tribunal Regional Federal (Regional Federal Court). Also, each state has its own Tribunal de Justiça (Justice Court).


title: Tribunal

text: The following tribunals exist within the Judiciary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China: Lands, Small Claims, Labour, Obscene Articles. For public inquiries, commissions are set up instead, under the Commissions of Inquiry Ordinance.


title: Tribunal

text: There are tribunals for settling various administrative and tax-related disputes, including Central Administrative Tribunal, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, National Green Tribunal, Competition Appellate Tribunal and Securities Appellate Tribunal, among others.


title: Tribunal

text: The National Company Law Tribunal is a quasi-judicial body in India that adjudicates issues relating to Indian companies.


title: Tribunal

text: National Company Law Appellate Tribunal was constituted under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of National Company Law Tribunal, with effect from 1 June 2016.


title: Tribunal

text: In several states, Food Safety Appellate Tribunals have been created to hear appeals against orders of adjudicating officers for food safety (additional deputy commissioners).


title: Tribunal

text: Armed Forces Tribunal is a military tribunal in India. It was established under the Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007.


title: Tribunal

text: Permanent Lok Adalat (PUS) is a law court (also known as People's Court) and special tribunal set up in a number of districts throughout the country. It has been established under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.


title: Tribunal

text: In the Republic of Ireland, "tribunal" popularly refers to a "public inquiry" established under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921. The main difference between a Parliamentary Inquiry (non statutory) and a Tribunal of Inquiry in Ireland is that non-statutory inquiries are not vested with the powers, privileges, and rights of the High Court. Tribunals of Inquiry are. Tribunals are established by resolution of the Houses of the Oireachtas to enquire into matters of "urgent public importance". It is not a function of Tribunals to administer justice, their work is "solely inquisitorial". Tribunals are obliged to "report their findings to the Oireachtas". They have the power to enforce the attendance and examination of witnesses and the production of documents relevant to the work in hand. Tribunals can consist of one or more people. A layperson, or non-lawyer, may be the Sole member of a tribunal.


title: Tribunal

text: Historically, in the Netherlands, before the separation of lawmaking, law enforcement, and justice duties, all sentences were delivered by a tribunal of seven "schepenen", or magistrates, appointed by the local count. Such a tribunal was called a "Vierschaar", so called for a rope—or cord—that was drawn ("schaar" or "scheren") in a four-square dimension, wherein the judges sat on four benches. These benches were positioned in a square as well, with the defendant standing in the middle. Towns had the "Vierschaar" privilege to hear their own disputes. The "Vierschaar" was usually located in the town hall, and many historic town halls still have such a room, usually decorated with scenes from the Judgment of Solomon.


title: Tribunal

text: The "tribunal" system of the United Kingdom is part of the national system of administrative justice. Though it has grown up on an "ad hoc" basis since the beginning of the twentieth century, from 2007 reforms were put in place to build a unified system with recognised judicial authority, routes of appeal and regulatory supervision.


title: Tribunal

text: "Tribunal" is used in the U.S. generally to refer to courts or judicial bodies, as in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct, for instance, define "tribunal" as "a court, an arbitrator in a binding arbitration, or a legislative body, administrative agency, or other body acting in an adjudicative capacity."


title: Tribunal

text: In the Catholic Church, ecclesiastical courts are called tribunals. Tribunals are distinguished by grade, while proceedings are distinguished by instance; for example, an archdiocesan tribunal may hear a cause in first instance if the cause is first brought before the archdiocesan tribunal, or, if the cause was first heard before the diocesan tribunal and is now appealed to the archdiocesan tribunal, the latter may hear the cause in second instance. Only the Roman Rota is competent to hear causes in third instance, with limited exceptions. Other tribunals are incompetent in third instance by reason of grade ("ratione gradus"), since they do not have the jurisdiction to judge in third instance. Tribunals include:


title: Tribunal

text: Tribunals also play an integral role in health sectors both within and across nations. Often referred to as "adjunctive tribunals", these quasi-judicial bodies possess regulatory, oversight, and dispute resolution powers to aid in health decision-making and governance. At the same time, the actual effects of adjunctive tribunals on health services are disputed, as little evidence exists to evaluate their efficacy. More empirical evaluations are needed to ensure that tribunals operate in a more evidence-based, systematic manner within the health sector.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: He is known for his roles as Buliwyf in the film "The 13th Warrior", Tiberius in the film "Ironclad", Erik in the television series "Vikings", as well as the voice of Ulfric Stormcloak in "" and as The Beast in the television series "Angel". In 1995 he appeared as Olafsson in the "X-Files" episode "Død Kalm."


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: While living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as a young adult, he was a professional ice hockey player. He has often volunteered in celebrity charity games including skating with the Los Angeles Kings Alumni Association.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Kulich was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia to a family that was already involved in the acting industry. His uncle operated a theater company in the city, which allowed the young Kulich to experience what the stage was like. Kulich visited the theatre often, and when he was approximately five years of age, his uncle allowed him to run errands, which mostly involved fetching pitchers of beer between intermissions. Kulich became interested in acting and believed that an acting career would be his future. He began by performing in various small parts in the State Theatre of Czechoslovakia. His first paying job as an actor was in a low-budget Czech film as a crying boy who had lost his balloon. However, his acting career was soon set back by his parents' divorce and the subsequent relocation of Kulich and his mother to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Kulich was twelve years old when he and his mother settled in Quebec. He and his mother eventually took up residence in a tenement located in the poorest segment of their otherwise financially comfortable neighborhood. However, Kulich was disheartened to discover that no theaters or other acting opportunities existed in the immediate area. He therefore turned to hockey as a pastime. As his mother struggled to find work, Kulich became more engaged in the sport.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: As Kulich became more dedicated to ice skating, he temporarily gave up acting. In his ice skating, he was offered additional encouragement from John Ferguson, Sr., who was a notable Montreal Canadiens' player and frequent audience member of Kulich's games. Ferguson developed an affinity for the boy, and, upon becoming head coach for the New York Rangers, he offered Kulich the opportunity to try out for the team. Kulich failed to make the cut, but soon he began playing for one of the team's minor league farming affiliates at Port Huron, Michigan. Despite the continued possibility of being called up, Kulich opted to retire from professional hockey after a year at 21 years of age.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: After voluntarily ending his hockey career, Kulich explored a variety of callings. He took a job at a summer camp that catered to handicapped children, began reading more, and tried his hand at painting. Unable to find a definite focus, Kulich eventually moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he started a whitewater river rafting business located near Chilliwack, B.C. Kulich would serve as owner, operator, and occasional guide for the rugged outings over the course of the next ten years. In time, it was this venture that helped to reopen another important door. In Vancouver, the acting industry was gaining momentum. Some had even dubbed the city "Hollywood North" because of the burgeoning number of television and film projects in development there. One weekend, a couple of producers from the program "21 Jump Street" scheduled a whitewater rafting trip with Kulich's company and were impressed by the unique look of the Czech-Canadian. They offered to give him a small role on an episode of their show, which Kulich accepted. The part was nothing of note. Kulich appeared as a doorman, speaking only a single word of welcome to those with whom he shared the scene. Still, it was enough to reintroduce Kulich to the world of acting and put him on the road to even greater recognition.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Before long, Kulich began to land guest-starring roles on other television programs such as "MacGyver" and "Wiseguy". In January 1990, he decided to try his luck in Hollywood and drove from Vancouver to Los Angeles, California with the intention of giving himself one month to get his foot in the proverbial door. Relying on his rafting business to keep him grounded, Kulich knew he would need to return to Canada in the spring to get the operation up and running if the move didn't work out. The month had nearly drawn to a close when Kulich finally received a call indicating that he had been accepted by an agent. Still constrained by practicality, Kulich decided to give himself an additional month to find work. His agent directed him to an audition for the television miniseries "". The experience left Kulich feeling somewhat daunted due to the perceived lack of interest his efforts had been shown, and he elected to return to Vancouver a few days earlier than originally planned. Despite his departure, the undertaking still proved successful. As the month was ending, he received a call informing him that he was needed back in L.A. He had gotten the part.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Through the mid-1990s, Kulich continued to pursue work in feature film projects as well as guest-starring roles on various television programs. Opting to remain based primarily in Vancouver, he worked steadily, making appearances on such shows as "The Commish" and . He made the most memorable appearance of his early career on "The X-Files", portraying the only unaffected crewmember of a ship caught up in supernatural circumstances. The episode, which required Kulich to learn lines in Norwegian, was to be the actor's first truly rewarding production experience. Once again, his thoughts turned irresistibly to Hollywood. Though he enjoyed living in Canada, the allure of L.A. and the possibility of achieving even greater success there simply could not be ignored. Kulich obtained his green card and made his move to the US soon after.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Upon relocating, Kulich found himself struggling financially. After repeatedly being sent to audition for roles as Nazis and terrorists he had grown so dissatisfied with his agent that he fired him without bothering to arrange for other representation first. Shortly thereafter, as Kulich was considering his options, his ex-agent contacted him. Though Kulich was technically no longer his client, a Viking-themed film had just come to his attention for which he felt the actor might be perfect. The project was called "Eaters of the Dead", though the title would later be changed to "The 13th Warrior". Kulich was told very little about the production and the audition was similarly low-key. Two months passed before he was informed that the director, John McTiernan, wished to meet with him. By the time of his screen test, Kulich had recognized the potential of the high-profile project and had hopes that it would provide him with the "big break" he needed. Filming was lengthy and arduous at times, taking place amongst the familiar landscapes of British Columbia. Despite having never ridden a horse prior to portraying Buliwyf, a character based loosely upon the mythical hero Beowulf, Kulich naturally took to the role. When the movie finally hit theaters in the summer of 1999, his contributions did not go unnoticed by audiences and critics alike. Unfortunately, the film never lived up to its initial promise due in part to creative differences between producer/author Michael Crichton and McTiernan, the eventual departure of the latter from the project, and the studio's resultant hesitancy to promote the finished product. Still, the experience was a favorable one for Kulich, earning him newfound recognition and a larger, more pronounced fan base. In subsequent years, his performance would prove to be a veritable stepping stone on the path to other significant roles as well.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: After completing work on "The 13th Warrior", Kulich returned to the Czech Republic with his earnings and considered buying a home there and quietly retiring. In the end, he decided to continue his US acting career, though the trip did serve to reignite his interest in his heritage and strengthen his ties to his homeland.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Once back in LA, Kulich resumed his search for prominent film and television roles. In 2002, he received a call regarding just such a part. When casting agents for the television series "Angel", a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spin-off, first contacted Kulich about portraying The Beast, the actor knew little about the show. He was aware of it, however, thanks to having shared the same manager as the program's star, David Boreanaz, for a year. Upon reading for the role, Kulich was shown concept art depicting the character. Initially, he was a bit apprehensive. The part would oblige him to be buried in prosthetics, make-up and an elaborate costume, the combination of which would render him utterly unrecognizable. Only his voice would remain unaltered. Still, he realized that being considered for such a role demonstrated an inherent trust in his acting abilities with little regard for much else. After arriving for a subsequent reading, Kulich was approached by the show's executive story editor, Mere Smith, who took a moment to express her appreciation for his performance in "The 13th Warrior". Though he was still less-than-excited about what was sure to be an exhausting production schedule, Kulich was reassured by the compliment and accepted the part. The recurring role of The Beast spanned eight episodes during "Angel"'s 2002-2003 season, with the shooting taking place over an 11-week period in the fall. Kulich’s on-set transformations involved a fiberglass bodysuit which weighed roughly 50 lb and took an hour to don in addition to the elaborate make-up and prosthetics, which required four hours to apply. But it was the accompanying silver dollar-sized contacts that caused him the most anxiety. Kulich had recently undergone laser eye surgery to correct a vision problem and was worried that the contacts might inadvertently cause damage. Though the costume left him feeling cocooned, the experience was ultimately a positive one, providing Kulich with a great deal more promotion as an actor than he had received for "The 13th Warrior". Additionally, it gave him the opportunity to share his first on-screen kiss with "Angel" co-star Charisma Carpenter.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: In the wake of his stint on "Angel", Kulich appeared at a few fan gatherings and conventions including the February 2003 Posting Board Party that raised $30,000 for the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He was also a noted guest at the June 2005 Starfury: Quor'Toth convention in London, England. In May 2004, Kulich again signaled his intention to give back to fans and aspiring artists alike by signing on as a guest speaker for 15 Minutes Plus, an entertainment industry symposium that took place at the University of Southern California and offered workshops and demonstrations on such topics as film, theatre, music, animation and screenwriting.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Kulich returned to acting in late 2005 when he was offered the role of the enigmatic character known only as The Swede in the action movie "Smokin' Aces". Though his screen time was limited, he was a significant figure within the context of the film's story. Upon first meeting with Kulich, Joe Carnahan, the project's writer and director, professed his admiration for the actor's work in "The 13th Warrior" and did not hesitate in offering him the job. When released in theaters in early 2007, "Smokin' Aces" was considered a moderate financial success and has since garnered even greater attention on DVD. A direct to DVD prequel has been announced for which Kulich has been approached.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: In 2006, Kulich initiated a meeting with his two half-brothers, his father's sons from a subsequent remarriage. Prior to establishing contact, the three had never met or spoken, and Kulich had known little about them beyond the fact that they shared his last name. Once the siblings had taken the time to become acquainted, they agreed to cement their new relationship by forming a production company, Charles Bridge Productions, based in Prague. The name refers to the Charles Bridge, a historic structure within Prague which dates back to 1357 and is one of the city's most famous landmarks. Kulich intends for the venture to provide assistance to foreign companies seeking to utilize his homeland for future film projects.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Kulich portrayed the leader of the Danish mercenaries, Tiberius, in the 2011 independent film "Ironclad". The movie's plot centers on King John's siege of Rochester Castle in the year 1215.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: In 2011, Kulich voiced Ulfric Stormcloak, the leader of the Stormcloak rebellion, in Bethesda Softworks' critically acclaimed video game "".


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: As a result of his travels, Kulich speaks four languages fluently—Czech, French, English, and Hungarian. He has expressed an interest in someday writing and developing his own film projects and possibly taking a turn in the director's chair as well. But Kulich has also never forgotten the athletic pursuits of his youth. Though he no longer plays hockey professionally, he remains an avid fan of the sport. Of late, Kulich has made a return of sorts to the game, which he considers to be a form of nostalgic physical therapy. His talents have been put to good use as a participant in numerous charity match-ups sponsored by the LA Kings and the LA Kings Alumni Association. Among the more prominent of these were the 2005, 2006, and 2007 "Freeze the Disease" Pro/Celebrity Hockey Games. The Freeze the Disease Foundation is a volunteer organization that sponsors an annual "friendly" hockey match-up benefiting children and young adults suffering from cystic fibrosis.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: A devout dog lover, especially of large breeds Kulich has adopted multiple dogs from animal shelters over the years. His dog Spanky, a 95 lb pit bull terrier, was permitted to visit Kulich on the set of "Angel" during his last day of filming for the series and was welcomed warmly by series star David Boreanaz, who also has a soft spot in his heart for canines. Kulich has been known to lend his time to a rescue organization that uses behavioral psychology to rehabilitate pit bulls that have been abused. Additionally, the actor has developed a profound appreciation for architecture, and has participated in several house renovation projects. Though he has been trained to tackle woodworking and electrical tasks, his favorite aspect is house redesign, which includes such major alterations as removing walls to add more space. The work has helped to supplement his income at times and has proven to be therapeutic as well. Kulich has also taken the time to indulge his musical side by learning to play the guitar. He has written songs for the instrument, though strictly for his own amusement.


title: Vladimir Kulich

text: Kulich has been an aficionado of motorcycles for many years, an interest that his father also shared. The actor did, however, suffer a rather serious motorcycle accident in late April 2007 while riding in Prague. His injuries, which included a ruptured spleen and five broken ribs, required a three-day hospital stay that was extended to ten days after he suffered an allergic reaction to the pain medication he was being given. On reflection, Kulich views the incident as a life-changing experience and has stated his gratefulness for having survived it.


title: Incentive

text: In general, incentives are anything that persuade a person to alter their behaviour. It is emphasised that incentives matter by the basic law of economists and the laws of behaviour, which state that higher incentives amount to greater levels of effort and therefore, higher levels of performance.