ND Law to hold fourth annual Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit at the University of Notre Dame
The Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative will host the fourth annual Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit from July 9-11 at the University of Notre Dame. The summit is an annual gathering of the world’s leading defenders of religious freedom.
The theme this year is “Depolarizing Religious Liberty.” This theme acknowledges that religious liberty is currently among the key issues on which many individuals are polarized politically and culturally. One of the key historic purposes of religious liberty, however, is to assure people that they all have the freedom to live according to their deepest beliefs and identities, thereby helping people of differing views and belief systems to coexist. Embracing this notion, the summit seeks to demonstrate that religious liberty is a fundamental human right that cuts across ideological divides.
“Everyone around the world has the God-given right to live their lives as their beliefs require — proudly and without fear,” said G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. “The protection of religious liberty is a global issue. The Religious Liberty Initiative at Notre Dame Law School has the potential to change the world by promoting and defending freedom of conscience for people and institutions around the world.”
“In addition to bringing faith leaders and advocates together from around the world, we want to bring them to Notre Dame,” Cole added. “Bringing people to Notre Dame means exposing the world to our global footprint as a university. There is no other university that has a presence all around the world the way the University of Notre Dame does.”
Through panel discussions, keynote speeches, and cultural experiences, the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit stimulates engaging conversations between religious leaders, scholars, and advocates about the future of religious liberty.
Over the three days of the summit, more than 50 speakers will participate in 16 panel discussions on topics such as “Muslim and Jewish Voices Finding Common Ground After October 7th,” “The State of Ukrainian Religious Freedom: Then and Now,” and “The Rise of Antisemitism and Islamophobia in France.”
The programming on July 11 will include a keynote address by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, the bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Currently, he serves as chair-elect of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Religious Liberty. He is also a member of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine and the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism.
The summit's culminating event will be a gala and awards presentation on July 10. Each year, one individual is honored with the Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty in recognition of their achievement and support in preserving religious liberty.
The 2024 Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty will be presented to Nazila Ghanea, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Director of International Human Rights Law Programmes at the University of Oxford. With decades of experience teaching at the University of Oxford, University of London, and Keele University, Ghanea continues to support networks that are interested in the freedom of religion or belief and its interrelationship with other human rights all across the world. She has supervised well over 100 master’s dissertations and doctorates and served on doctoral panels internationally. She has also co-authored a 700-page publication by Oxford University Press that addresses freedom of religion or belief and is focused on the UN record.
Also at the gala, the 2024 Religious Liberty Scholarship Award will be presented to Thomas C. Berg, the James L. Oberstar Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. The award recognizes Berg’s scholarly accomplishments in the field of law and religion, and the many contributions made to theoretical thinking about religious liberty. Berg has written six books, 75 book chapters and journal articles, and dozens of opinion pieces on religious freedom, constitutional law, and the role of religion on law, politics, and society. His most recent book, “Religious Liberty in a Polarized Age,” conducts an erudite consideration about why religious liberty should be protected, concurrently speaking to both sides of the political divide.
Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative has leveraged the University of Notre Dame’s global network to hold the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in a different city each year. The inaugural summit in 2021 was held on Notre Dame’s main campus, the 2022 summit was held in Rome, and last year’s summit was held in London.
“While this fight for religious freedom is a global fight, our fight for religious freedom starts here at the University of Notre Dame,” said Cole. “We are proud to return to the Notre Dame campus for the 2024 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit. The University of Notre Dame offers a platform from which we can conduct this global fight for religious freedom.”
More information about the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit can be found at https://religiousliberty.nd.edu/events/religious-liberty-summit/religious-liberty-summit-2024/.
About the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative
Established in 2020, the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative promotes and defends religious freedom for all people through advocacy, formation, and thought leadership. The initiative protects the freedom of individuals to hold religious beliefs as well as their right to exercise and express those beliefs and to live according to them.
The Religious Liberty Initiative has represented individuals and organizations from an array of faith traditions to defend the right to religious worship, to preserve sacred lands from destruction, to promote the freedom to select religious ministers, and to prevent discrimination against religious schools and families.
Learn more about the Religious Liberty Initiative at religiousliberty.nd.edu.