On the eve of the U.S. presidential election, two major Chicago Catholic institutions—DePaul University and Catholic Theological Union (CTU)—will convene an international conference on Catholic social teaching, Oct. 29-31.  Drawing on the pastoral leadership of Latin America, Canada, and the United States, the conference will contribute to a renewed engagement of the Catholic Church with major social questions that have an impact on the entire hemisphere, including immigration, economic justice, globalization, human rights and the environment. 

For DePaul, the conference is an inaugural event for its new Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (CWCIT).  At a time when Catholic identity is being examined against the church’s shifting global presence, the university, under the leadership of director Peter Casarella, professor of Catholic studies at DePaul, has launched CWCIT to promote scholarship on Catholicism and intercultural theology. The center, situated at the largest Catholic university in the country, is partnering with CTU, the largest Catholic graduate school of theology in the United States, to co-sponsor the three-day conference. 

           
“It is an exciting time to have formulated such a center,” said Casarella. “Seventy percent of Catholics worldwide now belong to regions referred to as ‘the global South,’ yet there isn’t a lot of research on the Catholic Church of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Intercultural thought will allow scholars and experts across disciplines to engage in theological discourse at a time when the Christian missions of the so-called Third World have become more of a center of the church.”

           
The conference, entitled “Transformed by Hope: Building a Catholic Social Theology for the Americas” seeks to address similar issues from the perspective of the Catholic Church in North and South America. It opens at CTU, 5416 S. Cornell Ave., Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. with a plenary session, “Forty Years After Medellín: Ecclesial Solidarity Across Borders,” featuring Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Most Rev. V. James Weisgerber, Archbishop of Winnipeg and president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; and the Rev. Sidney Fones, secretary general adjunct of the Latin American Bishops Conference (CELAM). The moderator will be Margaret Ramirez, religion writer at the Chicago Tribune.

           
The historic 1968 meeting in Medellín, Colombia was an unprecedented gathering of Latin American bishops that committed the church to a preferential option for the poor.

             
“While the 40th anniversary of Medellín prompted us to create the conference, its intent is not retrospective,” explained Rev. Donald Senior, C.P., president of CTU. “At a critical time for all of us in the Americas, our goal is to draw on the deep wellsprings of Catholic social theology to address the issues of justice that face us today.  Pope John Paul II challenged the church in this hemisphere to transcend political boundaries to truly become the ‘church of the Americas’ and in his recent pastoral visit to Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed that perspective. It is in this spirit that the conference will draw on leaders and experts from across the Americas. With the long history of collaboration between CTU and DePaul, this was an excellent opportunity for us to join with their new center to advance this important initiative.”

“Transformed by Hope” moves to DePaul on Thursday, Oct. 30 in the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Room 120, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The founder of liberation theology, the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., John Cardinal O’Hara, professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame, will give the morning keynote address, “Medellín, Aparecida and the Future,” from 9 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. The morning will continue with six concurrent sessions led by 12 leading theologians and pastoral agents from throughout the Americas. The afternoon plenary, “Catholic Social Theology: Perspectives Across the Americas,” from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., will focus on a conversation between the Rev. Kenneth Himes, O.F.M., chair of the theology department, Boston College and Laura Vargas Valcárcel, executive secretary, Peruvian Bishops Social Action Committee. A response will be given by Casarella.

           
The conference moves back to CTU on Friday, Oct. 31 with six additional concurrent sessions beginning at 8:30 a.m. The concluding plenary, “Enlace: Theological Voices from a Globalized American Hemisphere,” will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will feature panelists Maria Clara Bingemer, associate professor of theology and dean of faculty of theology, Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro; Bryan Massingale, associate professor of theology, Marquette University, convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium and president-elect, Catholic Theological Society of America; Carmen Nanko-Fernández, assistant professor of pastoral ministry, CTU and president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States; and John Allen, senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.

           
The conference is the first of several nationally focused events that will involve DePaul’s new Center for World Catholicism. In addition to developing co-curricular programs on world Catholicism, the center is engaged in hiring faculty and research scholars who will contribute to the university’s on-going effort to educate students for an increasingly globalized world and establish DePaul’s leadership in this area.

Casarella came to DePaul in 2007 from the Catholic University of America, where he was associate professor of systematic theology and served as director of the university’s Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies.           In his capacity as director of the CWCIT, he has overseen the hiring of Gemma Cruz, visiting assistant professor of Catholic Studies and an expert on Asian Catholic theology, global immigration and feminist theology; and the Rev. Emmanuel Katongole, associate research professor of theology, Duke University, who will serve as a senior research scholar and consultant in the center, beginning in January 2009.

           
For more information about the conference or to register, call 773/325-7660, e-mail Hope08conference@depaul.edu or visit the Web site at: http://hope08conference.depaul.edu.