Featuring: Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, Archbishop of Washington In Conversation With: Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., University President In a political landscape where many Americans believe political discourse has become unproductive, stressful, and disrespectful, where do we find reason for hope? Join us for a timely conversation that will explore the roots of our societal divides and offer strategies to move forward together toward a more unified future. The livestream feed will be posted to this page prior to the event. About Cardinal Robert W. McElroy Robert Cardinal McElroy is the eighth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. Upon graduation from high school, Cardinal McElroy was committed to seeking a life in the priesthood but concluded that it would be best to pursue his vocation in a college outside the seminary system. He received a bachelor’s degree in American history from Harvard College and received a master’s degree in American history and a doctorate in political science from Stanford University. He also earned a master’s degree in divinity (M.Div.) at St. Patrick’s Seminary, a licentiate in sacred theology (STL) from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and a doctorate in moral theology (STD) from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco on April 12, 1980. His first assignment was St. Cecilia Parish in San Francisco, which was the parish where both of his parents had grown up, attended grammar school, and were later married. Parish work has always been his first love. In 1989, Cardinal McElroy served as parochial vicar at St. Pius Parish in Redwood City. In 1995, Archbishop Quinn appointed then-Father McElroy vicar general of the Archdiocese, a post he continued to hold under Cardinal William Levada, who succeeded Archbishop Quinn. The following year, then-Father McElroy was made a prelate of honor by St. John Paul II and appointed pastor of St. Gregory Parish in San Mateo by Cardinal Levada. He had the immense happiness of serving in this same parish for more than 15 years. Then-Bishop McElroy was appointed auxiliary bishop of San Francisco by Pope Benedict XVI on July 6, 2010, and was ordained at St. Mary’s Cathedral on September 7, 2010. He became the Archdiocesan Vicar for Parish Life and Development and served in that role until his appointment to be the sixth bishop of San Diego in March 2015. Pope Francis appointed then-Bishop McElroy to the College of Cardinals on May 29, 2022. He was installed in a consistory on August 27, 2022, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Pope Francis appointed Cardinal McElroy the eighth Archbishop of Washington on January 6, 2025. Cardinal McElroy is a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life. Originally published at forum2025.nd.edu.

Saturdays with the Saints has established itself as a popular Notre Dame football pregame ritual that combines the University’s rich traditions of Catholic faith and spirited game days. In this lecture, Michael Baxter, associate professor of the practice, McGrath Institute for Church Life, will present on "Julia Greeley of Denver: A Black Woman, A White Angel, and a Red Wagon for the Works of Mercy on Wheels." The lectures take place in the Andrews Auditorium, located on the lower level of Geddes Hall, adjacent to the Hesburgh Library. The talks are free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early as the events tend to fill to capacity.Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.

Over the past year, CPN has worked with the Laudato Si' Research Institute (LSRI), Campion Hall, University of Oxford on a series of consultations on the Catholic Church and mining, including a conference in Bogotá, Colombia in June 2025. That process will result in the upcoming publication of the report "Catholic Approaches to Mining: A Framework for Reflection, Planning, and Action." The report is a collaboration between CPN, LSRI, Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, the Holy See Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Caritas Internationalis. A virtual launch event will be held October 21, at 3:00 pm CEST / 1:00 pm GMT / 9:00 am EDT. The panel will feature speakers from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Caritas International Federation, CPN, LSRI, and others. The event will be in English, but will include simultaneous translation in Spanish and French. The event will include:Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human DevelopmentElena Sofia Fanciulli, Caritas InternationalisJing Rey Henderson, Caritas PhilippinesLiliana Zamudio Vaquiro, Caritas ColombiaRev. Rigobert Minani, SJ, Centre d'Etudes pour l'Action Sociale (DRC) Séverine Deneulin, Laudato Si' Research Institute, Campion Hall, University of OxfordCaesar A. Montevecchio (moderator), Catholic Peacebuilding Network, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre DameRegistration Required Originally published at cpn.nd.edu.

This year’s Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion, and Peace, one of the Kroc Institute’s annual signature events, features John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker from the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Their talk -- "Integral Ecology for a Flourishing Earth Community" --  will highlight the inspiration of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry, linking it to the integral ecology of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato si'. Drawing on Teilhard’s evolutionary spirituality and Berry’s insight, Grim and Tucker will describe how there can be no lasting peace without peace with the Earth. The Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion, and Peace, which began in 1999, were established through a gift to the Kroc Institute from Mrs. Anne Marie Yoder and her family. Each year, the Kroc Institute invites a leading thinker, writer, scholar, and/or peace advocate to deliver a lecture related to nonviolence, religion, and peace. Following the lecture, audience members join in informal dialogue and discussion with the speaker and with each other. Speakers/Panelists:John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion and EcologyMary Evelyn Tucker, Yale Forum on Religion and EcologyOriginally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Christopher J. Fettweis is a professor of political science at Tulane University. His most recent book is The Pursuit of Dominance: 2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy (Oxford UP, 2022).   Download the event flyer. Join us via Zoom. Originally published at ondisc.nd.edu.

"The Vanquished, The Office for the Dead," by Vasily Vereshchagin (1842-1904). Tretyakov Gallery. Image from artlib.ru via Wikimedia Commons.Save the date for the fifth annual Mathews Byzantine Lecture with Prof. Zachary Chitwood of The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Prof. Chitwood will be speaking on "The Invention of Prayer for the Dead in the Byzantine Tradition." About the Talk Far from being a primitive Christian practice, prayer for the dead and, just as importantly, the belief that such prayer could better the postmortal fate of the deceased, was not uncontested, and attracted critique as early as Late Antiquity. This story of the development of the commemoration of the dead in Byzantium is one full of surprising twists and turns. Studying the development of commemorative prayer in Byzantium not only allows us to glimpse a truly medieval innovation, it also offers a way of examining Byzantine history via a particular concept and its manifold interactions with politics, religion, law and culture, very much in the sense of a Maussian “total social phenomenon.” About the Speaker Zachary Chitwood is professor of Byzantine studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His research interests include Roman and Byzantine law, the history of monasticism (especially Mount Athos) and the use of digital humanities (databases and AI-assisted text recognition). He is editor of the journals Byzantinische Zeitschrift and Endowment Studies. About the Series The Mathews Byzantine Lectures, begun in the 2021–22 academic year, bring a distinguished scholar of Byzantine studies to campus each year to deliver a talk, supported by the Rev. Constantine Mathews Endowment for Excellence in Byzantine Christianity in the Medieval Institute. Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.