International Encounter for Peace and Reconciliation

March 7, 2026

9am–6pm CT

Loyola University Chicago, Lake Shore Campus

This event, part of the Building Bridges Initiative, invites students, faculty, and practitioners to gather for a day of peacebuilding in the synodal spirit. The main objective is to explore, discuss, and propose interdisciplinary avenues on how to promote peace among peoples of the human family. We will share information for reflection in advance, host a pre-meeting on Zoom, and then gather for structured dialogues similar to Conversations in the Spirit on these themes. What is the relationship between politics and peace? ... economies and peace? Religions and peace? AI and media and peace? These topics will be introduced and facilitated by specialists in each of these areas in dialogue with university students from across the Americas.

Topics

• Peace and the Church
• Peace, Law, and Migration
• Peace and the Economy
• Culture & Art Inspiring Peace
• Peace, Truth, and Justice in an AI era

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Schedule

9:00am Registration, Coffee and light Breakfast

9:30am Welcome and prayer

10:00am Opening Remarks and Prayer: Cardinal Blase Cupich

10:15am Panel presentation

• Bishop Oscar Cantú, Diocese of San Jose
• Miguel Díaz, Ambassador to the Holy See, Ret. John Courtney Murray, SJ University Chair in Public Service; Loyola University Chicago; Senior Fellow for Religion and Peacebuilding, Alliance for Peacebuilding.
• Preston Lindsay, Spatial Peacebuilder
• Anita Marie Maddali, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
• Vicente del Real, Founder of Iskali
• Ken Butigan, Professor of Practice in the Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul University
• Michael P. Murphy, Director, Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage

11:30am Discussion Groups for topics

12:30pm Lunch

1:30m Plenary and response to topics, with breaks

4:00pm Conclusions

• Emilce Cuda, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

5:00pm Mass, Presided by Bishop Oscar Cantú

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Speakers

Ken Butigan

Professor of Practice in the Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul University

Ken Butigan taught for 20 years at DePaul University in the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Program and for seven years at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago. He is a long-time change-maker who has been an organizer in a series of nonviolent social movements for justice and peace focused on resisting war, promoting justice for the unhoused, and advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons. He is a senior advisor to Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and a co-founder and co-director of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, which was launched with Pope Francis’ blessing in 2024. He is also a senior advisor to Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service. He has published a series of books on peace and nonviolence, including Pilgrimage Through a Burning World: Spiritual Practice and Nonviolent Protest at the Nevada Test Site and Nonviolent Lives.

Bishop Oscar Cantú

Diocese of San Jose, CA

Bishop Oscar Cantú has served the Catholic Church with great dedication and leadership throughout his priestly and episcopal ministry. Born on December 5, 1966, in Houston, Texas, to Ramiro and Maria de Jesus Cantú, Bishop Cantú is the fifth of eight children in a deeply faithful family. His parents, originally from small towns near Monterrey, Mexico, instilled in him a strong commitment to his faith and community.

In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio, and he was ordained a bishop on June 2 of that year. In 2013, he became the Bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he served until 2018 when Pope Francis appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of San José. On May 1, 2019, Bishop Cantú became the third Bishop of San José, guiding the diocese with a pastoral heart and a commitment to spiritual renewal and growth.

Bishop Cantú holds key leadership roles within the U.S. Church. He currently serves as the Chairman for the USCCB Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs and as the President of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops. His leadership extends beyond the U.S. borders, as he recently represented the USCCB at the CELAM (Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano y Caribeño), working alongside bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean to strengthen the Church’s mission and outreach in the region.

Emilce Cuda

Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America

Vincente Del Real

Founder of Iskali

Vicente Del Real is a Mexican immigrant that migrated to the United states at the age of fifteen. He began his career as a community organizer right after high school, coordinating a civil engagement campaign to increase Hispanic participation in the elections. Vicente is currently the executive director and founder of Iskali and his vision is to expand Iskali to other dioceses in the US where the need to minister to Hispanics is present. Vicente is very passionate about the development of young leaders in the Church and has devoted his life to creating space for young people to transform their lives guided by the Holy Spirit.

Miguel H. Díaz

Ambassador to the Holy See, Ret. John Courtney Murray, SJ University Chair in Public Service; Loyola University Chicago; Senior Fellow for Religion and Peacebuilding, Alliance for Peacebuilding.

Dr. Miguel H. Díaz is the John Courtney Murray, S.J. University Chair in Public Service at Loyola University Chicago. He served under President Barack Obama as the 9th U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. He is co-editor of the series from Fordham University Press titled Disruptive Cartographers: Doing Theology Latinamente. He is the editor of the multi-authored first volume, The Word Became Culture (2024) and is the author of the third volume, Queer God de Amor (2022). As a public theologian, he engages print, radio, and television media. He participates in several diplomatic initiatives in Washington, D.C., including being a member of the Board and Senior Fellow for Religion and Peacebuilding for the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP).  

Preston Lindsay

Spatial Peacebuilder

Preston Lindsay is a peacebuilder working at the intersection of peace education, infrastructures and cultures of positive peace, urban planning, environmental psychology, social innovation and change, and embodied spatial peace. His current work focuses on facilitating tangible co-created peacebuilding strategies within communities. Previously as part of his doctoral research, he and his research colleagues developed the peace poles, a collection of over 100 social impact measures drawn from across the peace and conflict studies literature. The peace poles exist to empower communities to lead, participate in, and understand the diverse states and impacts of peace in their lives everyday, making the levers of social change accessible for everyone.

Anita Maddali

Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Anita Maddali is a Visiting Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Interim Director for the Center for Externships at the Bluhm Legal Clinic. Her teaching and research interests include Clinical Teaching and Immigration. Prior to joining Northwestern, Anita served in various capacities within law schools, including as an Associate Professor of Law with tenure, Dean of Students, and Director of Clinics. Anita began her career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Children and Family Justice Center and later worked as a Staff Attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Anita’s research on Immigration Law has been published in the Indiana Law Journal, Michigan Journal of Law Reform and the American University Law Review among others.

Michael Patrick Murphy

Director, Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage

Michael P. Murphy is Director of Loyola’s Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. His research interests are in Theology and Literature, Systematic Theology, and the literary/political cultures of Catholicism—but he also thinks and writes about issues in eco-theology, social ethics, and new media ecologies. Mike's first book, A Theology of Criticism: Balthasar, Postmodernism, and the Catholic Imagination (Oxford), was named a "Distinguished Publication" by the American Academy of Religion. His most recent scholarly work includes “Tinderization and Transcendence: Girard, McLuhan, and the Apocalyptic Imagination" in Theological Discourses on Social Media (Routledge, 2025) and "Technologies of the Incarnation: Catholic Cosmotechnics and New Horizons for Liturgical Participation" in Catholic Cosmotechnics in the AI Age (forthcoming from St. Augustine's Press, spring, 2026). Mike's more occasional pieces have appeared in America, NCR, and First Things, among other venues.

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Support the Building Bridges Initiative

Partnering organizations at Loyola University Chicago are sponsoring this event, enabling us to host this with no registration fee. If you would like to support this work and help us host more events like this one, we invite you to contribute to the Building Bridges Initiative. You’ll find a donation link here or you can go directly to the giving page.

Co-Hosts and Sponsors

This event is jointly hosted by the Institute for Pastoral Studies, the Hank Center, the Division of Mission Integration, and the Department of Theology at Loyola University Chicago.

The event is supported by:

• Catholic Extension
• The Lilly Endowment (Haciendo Caminos Fellowship)
• The John Courtney Murray, S.J. University Chair in Public Service at Loyola University Chicago
• Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN)
• Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano y Caribeño (CELAM)
• Dicasterium de Cultura et Educatione
• Pontifical Commission for Latin America