World Religions World Church Conference: "The Whole is Greater Than its Parts": Christian Unity and Interreligious Encounter Today

January 8 - 10, 2018

The Catholic Church is fully committed to the twin tasks of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, having established offices to advance relations among Christians (The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) and among believers of different faiths (Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue).  At its second international conference – “’The Whole is Greater than Its Parts’: Christian Unity and Interreligious Encounter Today” -- the World Religions World Church (WRWC) program of the University of Notre Dame will bring together experts to study more closely the contemporary state of these two dialogues.  Held at Notre Dame’s Global Gateway in Rome, Italy, the conference will feature diverse presentations by Church leaders, theologians, and scholars of global religion on topics including Muslim-Christian relations, the Catholic-Orthodox-Protestant dialogue, the relationship between dialogue and evangelism, and other contemporary questions of religion and culture.

We are pleased to announce that our keynote speaker will be Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria.  Other presenters include Gavin D’Costa, professor of Catholic theology at the University of Bristol; Francis Clooney, professor of comparative theology and director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University; and John Cavadini, director of the Institute of Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.