The University of Notre Dame has received a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment to fund the new Pathways to Communion Program at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. This program aims to strengthen the ecosystem of theologically informed service opportunities for young Catholics in the United States.

More than 1,200 scholars, students and guests from around the world will attend the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture’s 24th annual Fall Conference, “Ever Ancient, Ever New: On Catholic Imagination.” The conference features more than 175 papers, panels and performances across three days of conversation on the enduring and inexhaustible nature of the Catholic imagination.

The Notre Dame Award for Outstanding Contributions to Catholic Education, awarded by the Alliance for Catholic Education, honors those who have made generous, lifetime commitments to sustain and strengthen Catholic schools. As executive director of the African Sisters Education Collaborative, Sister Draru oversees the education for Catholic sisters in 10 African countries. She has spent much of her life working to expand women’s education in Uganda and elsewhere on the African continent.

Honoring the legacy of legendary University of Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum will host “Fr. TED Talks: Ideas from the Catholic Social Tradition That We Find Inspiring,” a two-night festival on Oct. 28 and 29.

The University of Notre Dame has been awarded a $539,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support Faith-Based Frameworks for AI Ethics, a one-year planning project that will engage and build a network of leaders in higher education, technology and a diverse array of faith-based communities focused on developing faith-based ethical frameworks and applying them to emerging debates around artificial general intelligence.

The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture will award the 2025 Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal — awarded to heroes of the pro-life movement — to Anthony J. and Phyllis W. Lauinger of Tulsa, Oklahoma, at a Mass and dinner on May 3, 2025, at the University of Notre Dame.

Cyril O’Regan, the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, has been selected to receive the 2024 Ratzinger Prize in Theology, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the field. Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, will present the award to O’Regan and to sculptor Etsurō Sotoo during a ceremony at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on Nov. 22. Both winners will also have an audience with Pope Francis earlier that day.

The Keough School of Global Affairs will observe the International Day of Peace with two campus events: a prayer service featuring University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., on Friday (Sept. 20) and a talk by a Notre Dame graduate who serves in the Sierra Leone government on Tuesday (Sept. 24). Both events are free and open to the public.

To commemorate the 800th anniversary of his birth, the University of Notre Dame will host a conference Sunday through Wednesday (Sept. 22-25) celebrating Aquinas’ enduring importance to contemporary cultural, philosophical and theological discussions. “Aquinas at 800: ‘Ad multos annos’” will be the largest conference of its kind, with more than 500 in-person attendees and more than 150 speakers.

The University of Notre Dame will serve as a host site for Catholic pilgrims on Friday (July 5) as they journey to Indianapolis, Indiana, for the National Eucharistic Congress on July 17-21. Inspired by their visit, several public events are planned for July 5-6, including the world premiere of a musical.

The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture presented the 2024 Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal — the nation’s most important award for heroes of the pro-life movement — to Dr. Elvira Parravicini, founding director of the Neonatal Comfort Care Program and professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center, at a Mass and dinner attended by more than 500 guests on Saturday (April 27) at the University of Notre Dame.

Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the chief executive officer of Feeding America, will receive the University of Notre Dame’s 2024 Laetare Medal — the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics — at Notre Dame’s 179th University Commencement Ceremony on May 19 (Sunday).

The webinars, which are free and open to the public, will begin Thursday (March 7) from 3 to 4:30 p.m. EST. Future sessions will take place on March 14 and 21 and April 11, 18 and 25.

The University of Notre Dame has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to create a three-year research and education initiative intended to foster children’s participation in worship in the context of late modernity. Lilly Endowment made the grant through its Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.