Representatives from the Nanovic Institute, the Keough School of Global Affairs, and the Department of Theology met Catholic leaders of higher education from central and eastern Europe this past week at the John Paul II Catholic University (KUL) in Lublin, Poland.
Participants included rectors and professors from universities in Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Ukraine, and the United States. Special participants included Archbishop Cyril Vasil, SJ, Secretary for the Congregation of Eastern Churches at the Vatican; Hanna Suchocka, former Prime Minister of Poland; and Scott Appleby, Marilyn Keough Dean of the new Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame (USA).
The purpose of the meeting was to reflect on issues Catholic universities face in Europe and America twenty-five years after Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Ex corde ecclesiae (“From the Heart of the Church”). In the seminar room where Fr. Karol Wojtyla taught students for twenty-four years, participants at the conference delivered papers in three sessions. The first session focused on Ex corde and Ignatian spirituality (Vasil), three issues in Euro-Atlantic culture to which Catholic universities must respond (Szostek), and the nature of the Catholic university as a place of witness and dialogue (Cavadini). The second session addressed themes such as secularism and the porous self (Appleby), the necessity of theology (Wierzbicki), and possible models of philosophy at the Catholic university (Gutowski). The last panel looked forward, focusing on the challenges of creating a new Catholic university in secular Europe (Tanjic) and the necessity of doing so in light of a global need for spiritual and intellectual liberation (Suchocka).
The conference was hosted by Vice-Rector of KUL, Prof. Urszula Paprocka-Piotrowska, and organized by Rev. Prof. Slawomir Nowosad and his assistant, Liliana Kycia, MA.
This conference marked the eleventh meeting of the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP). The next meeting is being planned by the Catholic University of Croatia in Zagreb and tentatively scheduled for spring 2016.
List of Participants
A Free Search for the Whole Truth about Nature, Man and God A Free Search for the Whole Truth about Nature, Man and God (ECE 4): St. John Paul II and the Catholic University
- Urszula Paprocka-Piotrowska, Vice-Rector of KUL
- A. James McAdams, Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame
- Rev. Sławomir Nowosad, KUL
- R. Scott Appleby, Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame
- Rev. Philippe Bordeyne, Recteur de l'Institut Catholique de Paris
- John Cavadini, Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame
- Taras Dobko, The Ukrainian Catholic University
- Piotr Gutowski, KUL
- Anthony Monta, Associate Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame
- Rev. Bohdan Prach, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University
- Hanna Suchocka, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, former Polish Ambassador to the Holy See
- Janusz Surzykiewicz, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
- Rev. Andrzej Szostek, KUL
- Rev. Anzelm Szuromi, Rector of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary
- Željko Tanjić, Rector of the Catholic University of Croatia
- Rev. František Trstenský, Vice-Rector for International Relations, The Catholic University in Ružomberok, Slovakia
- Volodymyr Turchynovskyy, Director of the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues, The Ukrainian Catholic University
- Archbishop Cyril Vasil SJ, Secretary of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, The Vatican
- Rev. Wierzbicki Alfred, KUL