2024 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit: Dean G. Marcus Cole’s welcome remarks

Good morning, and welcome to the fourth annual Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit. I am Marcus Cole, Dean of Notre Dame Law School, and I want to welcome you to the University of Notre Dame, for what I hope will be a fruitful series of discussions.

The theme of this year’s summit is “Religious Freedom in a Polarized World.” It goes without saying that the world is perhaps more polarized today than it has been for decades. Over fifty percent of the world’s population is electing its national leadership in 2024. France, Britain, and India have just had their elections, and the United States will elect its President this November.

These elections are all influenced by global events. Just eight months ago, the October 7 attack on Israeli’s by Hamas has triggered a devastating war and humanitarian crisis. The war in Ukraine drags on, approaching its fourth year, or its tenth year, depending upon your perspective, bringing death and destruction to thousands, and crippling energy and food prices to millions.

These events have inflamed political passions about everything, including religion. The challenge for those of us who know the importance of religious freedom is to take religious liberty out of politics. For religious liberty to flourish, it cannot be an issue for the right or for the left. It cannot be the property of conservatives or liberals. It cannot be valued by some, and derided by others. It cannot be wielded as a tool of oppression, or exiled as an object of hate.

For religious freedom to flourish, and for humans to flourish as a result, we must de-politicize it. We must re-capture the true meaning of religious liberty, and reclaim it from those who would use it for political purposes. We must champion religious liberty for all people, of all faiths, and especially for those of no faith at all.

In many ways, it is the people of no faith for whom religious liberty matters the most, and who are most threatened by its absence. Let’s not forget that there are thirteen countries around the world where atheism is a crime punishable by death, and there are dozens more where blasphemy laws impose the same penalty.

The purpose of the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit is to explore issues, ideas, and strategies toward the protection and promotion of religious liberty, here in the United States and around the world. As the leading Catholic research university in the world, the University of Notre Dame, and Notre Dame Law School, is proud to host you, and to facilitate these discussions.

It is our mission to work towards a world where everyone is free to worship God, each in his or her own way. It is just as important that every person be free to live their lives according to their beliefs, as a living sacrifice and testimony to the greater glory of God.

Thank you, and welcome to Notre Dame.