Set the Table Before the Argument: Hospitality as a Moral Act in Catholic Christian Care

A recent commentary in the National Catholic Register argues that Catholics must look beyond disagreement to find common ground — beginning, of all places, at dinner. The claim is modest in form but carries real anthropological weight: the shared meal is a site of genuine human encounter, not merely a social courtesy. What holds for civic life holds equally in the counselor's office, the spiritual direction room, and anywhere else a Catholic Christian understanding of the person shapes how two people meet.