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Two Notre Dame faculty members and University Trustee appointed by Pope Leo XIV as consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

Author: Carrie Gates

Three headshots of smiling people: A man in a dark suit with clerical collar; A man in dark suit and light green dotted tie; And a woman in a leather jacket.

On Tuesday (Aug. 18), Pope Leo XIV appointed two University of Notre Dame faculty members, Emmanuel Katongole and Clemens Sedmak, as consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. University Trustee Kathryn “Katie” Koch, president and CEO of TCW, a global investment management firm, was also named a consultor.

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The Twilight of Constantinople and the New Dawn of Nostalgia

Author: Joshua Barnard

A group of pedestrians walk away from the foreground along a paved walkway toward the monumental Imperial Gate of Topkapı Palace, which features classic Ottoman brickwork, arched passageways, and intricate gold Arabic calligraphy set against a brilliant blue sky. Photo credit Stephanie Mirza.

Many modern secularists and so-called enlightenment thinkers made the mistake of assuming that progress required a complete sterilization of the premodern world, that the more archaic practices and undesirable elements of the past somehow meant that all premodern values must be false or a hindrance to the future. Turkey is a prime example of this.

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Two Lamps, One Light: Religious Identity and Coexistence in Turkey

Author: Aicha Samake

A diverse group of thirteen people stand lined up together in a sunlit, stone-paved courtyard directly in front of a historic, rustic stone building surrounded by lush green foliage. Photo credit Stephanie Mirza.

Before traveling to Turkey, I understood Greek-Turkish relations primarily through stories of conflict. Much of what I knew came from theology classes and conversations with a former professor who was himself a Greek Orthodox priest. Throughout this course, we discussed the population exchanges of the twentieth century and the changing identity of Hagia Sophia. Those conversations gave me an important historical foundation, but they also shaped the way I imagined the relationship between Greeks and Turks. I understood that Christians and Muslims had lived alongside one another for centuries, yet I assumed the wounds of history were too deep for genuine coexistence in the present.

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Notre Dame symposium explores religion’s role in supporting democracy

Author: Joshua Lupo

In a indoor panel setting featuring name cards reading "Timothy Matovina," a dark-haired woman with glasses, red lipstick, and a sleeveless dark green top speaks into a microphone held near her mouth while gesturing with her hand, turning slightly toward an older man seated beside her in a light-colored button-up shirt in front of a backdrop depicting the Colosseum in Rome. Photo credit Alessandro Sgarito.

Scholars and practitioners from the University of Notre Dame and across the globe recently gathered in Rome to examine how religion can serve as a resource for democratic renewal amid authoritarian attempts to weaponize it. The convening aligns with larger work of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. 

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Events

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Palestine

Time: Thu Sep 24, 2026, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Location: Jenkins Nanovic Halls, Room 1030

This split-screen graphic features a color portrait on the left of a man with short grey-and-black hair in a dark blazer and white shirt with his arms folded, paired on the right with a book cover titled "Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine" by Mostafa Hussein, overlaid upon a black-and-white historic street scene.

Please join us as Professor Mostafa Hussein, Professor and Associate Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, discusses how Jewish writers in late Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine used Arabo-Islamic culture to advance Zionism's goals in the decades leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Alex de Waal: Three Years Into the Sudan Civil War

Time: Tue Sep 29, 2026, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location: Hesburgh Center for International Studies, Auditorium

Famine and Horn of Africa expert Professor Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, will join Professor Ebrahim Moosa to discuss the Sudan War. The conflict raises questions about genocide by attrition and state intent and the role of the international community in perpetuating the resource-driven violence into a third year.

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Monday, October 5, 2026

Catholic Leadership, Integral Ecology, and the Call of Laudato Si’

Time: Mon Oct 5, 2026, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Location: Smith Ballroom, Morris Inn

In an era of accelerating climate change, widening inequality and geopolitical uncertainty, how are Catholic institutions called to respond to the world’s most pressing challenges? Join Cardinal Peter Turkson and Mary Gallagher, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs, for a conversation on Catholic Leadership, integral human development and the role of faith, scholarship and research in advancing justice and peace.

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