Father Santos’ book seeks to understand the intellectual and spiritual threads that underlie the 2000 year-old Catholic endeavor “to love as Jesus loves”, most especially those who are nearest and dearest to God’s heart, namely, the poor. The work attempts to do this by first entering into an “encounter” and “dialogue” with modes of thought that, on the surface at least, present a challenge and even a serious critique of the manner by which the Church has understood and sought to live Jesus’ New Commandment. By entering into a respectful dialogue with non-religious and secular thinkers, the work seeks not only to show what sets Catholicism’s “social theory” apart, thereby distinguishing it, from secular social theories, but to also lay bare, lines of similarity between them, thus opening the possibility, not only for authentic dialogue, but even sincere cooperation. At the heart of this encounter between the uniquely Catholic approach to social concern and the more secular, non-religious type, is the thread running through the entire work. It’s one inspired by Pope Francis himself as well as the consistent papal magisterium of the last hundred years. This is the idea that what runs through “our veins”, not just as Christians, but as human beings, is something that was taught, mirrored, lived and incarnated by Jesus himself: love, care and concern for one’s fellow human being, especially those who need us most.”

From the Foreword by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle,
Pro-Prefect for the Section of Evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization

Ferdinand Santos was Rector-President of St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, Florida. He was also Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Pre-Theology Program at St. John Vianney and taught Philosophy and Theology (in the Permanent Diaconate Program) at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida. He was also Spiritual Director at Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Providence, Rhode Island and taught Philosophy and Theology at Providence College, RI. He was previously the Director of the College Department of San Carlos Seminary in Makati and the Director of the Archbishop Gabriel Reyes Memorial Library. He taught

Philosophy at the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary in Bulacan, the Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University while also serving as Catholic Chaplain at the University of the Philippines.  He currently serves the People of God in the Parish of Santa Ursula in Binangonan, Rizal and is likewise the Dean of Studies at St. John Paul II College Seminary in the Diocese of Antipolo in the Philippines.