• This is a fully virtual event, but registrations are limited.
• Plenary sessions will be in English with simultaneous translation in Spanish and French.
• Breakout sessions will be in English, Spanish, and French with simultaneous translation for select sessions.

The world is emerging from an historic health crisis that has exacerbated existing conflicts, poverty, inequalities, polarization, and threats to the environment. While the pandemic led to unprecedented cooperation and heroic responses by many, it also exposed deficits in leadership and emboldened authoritarians, demagogues, and chauvinistic nationalists. Just as the world hopes to move beyond the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens global peace in ways thought unimaginable when the pandemic began. The challenge to Catholic peacebuilders is clear: we must ensure that the post-pandemic return to “normal” does not look like the pre-pandemic status quo, or worse. That will require an integral and integrated approach to peace, development, and ecology because the cry of war’s victims, the cry of the poor, and the cry of the earth rise as one (Laudato Si’, no. 49).

This conference will convene a wide range of Catholic peacebuilders – Church leaders, scholars, peacebuilding specialists and other practitioners – from around the world. It will allow participants to learn from their rich and diverse experiences in confronting challenges to peace around the world and help them discern new and creative ways to respond to the historic challenges to peace that we now face.

PLENARY SESSIONS

Hope in Times of Crisis

The world is confronted with daunting crises: the pandemic and climate change; inequalities and refugees; failed states and the resurgence of authoritarianism; and new and old conflicts that threaten whole populations and international stability. The sheer magnitude of the world’s interconnected crises can lead to denial, indifference, despair, and fatalism. Countless artisans of peace around the world offer an antidote: concrete and sustained social action grounded in a theology, ethics, and spirituality of hope. 

Introduction:
Gerard F. Powers, Catholic Peacebuilding Network

Welcome:
Archbishop Luis José Rueda Aparicio (Bogotá), Episcopal Conference of Colombia

Presenter:
Cardinal Charles Bo (Yangon), Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences 

Respondents:
R. Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame 
Marguerite Barankitse, Maison Shalom

Ethics of Nonviolence, Peacebuilding, and War: Future Challenges 

In Fratelli Tutti and other documents, Pope Francis has brought renewed attention to and debate about the ethics of nonviolence, peacebuilding, and war. In light of the encyclical and recent developments, from Ukraine and Afghanistan to Syria and Ethiopia, this moderated discussion will consider the current state of the debate and future directions for Catholic teaching and action on war, nonviolence and peace. 

Moderator:
Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College

Panelists:
Pat Gaffney, Pax Christi United Kingdom 
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Robert Latiff, University of Notre Dame
A. Rashied Omar, University of Notre Dame
Alessio Pecorario, Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Holy See
Pavlo Smytsnyuk, Ukrainian Catholic University

Catholic Church and Peace Processes 

Across the world, the Catholic community has been centrally involved in multiple facets and phases of formal peace processes. This roundtable discussion will bring together perspectives from Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and the Philippines. Discussants will address ways in which the Catholic Church brings distinct strengths to these processes, and ways in which it can adapt to emerging challenges and new contexts to become an ever more effective agent of peace.

Moderator:
Amb. (ret.) Susan Page, University of Michigan

Roundtable Discussants: 
Josefina Echavarría Álvarez, University of Notre Dame 
Rev. Héctor Fabio Henao, Episcopal Conference of Colombia 
Paolo Impagliazzo, Community of Sant’Egidio 
Myla Leguro, Catholic Relief Services 
Bishop Jean-Bertin Nadonye Ndongo, OFM Cap (Lolo), National Episcopal Conference of the Congo Justice and Peace Commission

Climate, Development, and Peace 

As Pope Francis emphasized in Laudato Si’, “everything is connected.” The Church's long-standing work to connect integral human development, integral peace, and integral ecology is all the more urgent given the existential threat posed by climate change. This panel examines how the Church is responding to these complex dynamics.

Principal Presenter:
Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Holy See

Moderator:
Laurie Johnston, Sant'Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue; Emmanuel College

Presenters:
Aloysius John, Caritas Internationalis
Katherine Marshall, Georgetown University 
Joseph Muyango, Catholic Relief Services