Third Pan-African Catholic Congress Held in Abidjan

August 5-10, 2025
Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO)
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

Organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN—an outgrowth of CWCIT's African Catholicism network begun in 2017)—and cosponsored by CWCIT, the third Pan-African Catholic Congress was held this August in Abidjan and centered on the theme, “Journeying Together in Hope as God’s Family.”

Principal convener Stan Chu Ilo focused, in his opening remarks, on the African Church’s need for self-reliance. He said the Church in Africa must move beyond “a culture of aid dependency” to a “spiritual and structural reawakening where local communities become the drivers of their development, where dioceses and religious congregations invest in local talent and resources, and where the Gospel of dignity inspires a new asset-based model of Church stewardship, accountability and transparency.” (Read more in this ACI Africa article.)

CWCIT Professors React to Election of American Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV

"Stunned and delighted" is how William T. Cavanaugh described his reaction in this CBS Chicago interview with journalist Marissa Perlman. "I was one of the people who said there would never be an American pope...but...he is an American pope, but he's also a Peruvian pope...he has Peruvian citizenship as well, and in a lot of ways, he represents the catholicity of the Church, the global nature of the Church." (Watch the interview here.)

In this ABC7 Chicago interview (scroll down to the 3rd video), Stan Chu Ilo speaks about the significance of the name Leo chosen by Robert Prevost and the ways he seems poised to carry on much of Francis’ legacy as well as deepen the Catholic intellectual tradition through his own learnedness. Ilo also shares what it is that gives him hope as Leo XIV’s papacy begins to unfold. (To watch the interview, scroll down to the 3rd video on this page.)

Crux Interview with Stan Chu Ilo on Francis' Legacy: A Post-Colonial Pope

Following the death of Pope Francis, Stan Chu Ilo spoke with Crux’s Africa correspondent, Ngala Killian Chimtom, about the pontiff’s legacy “as a post-colonial pope who acknowledged the intertwined histories of ecclesial, political, and socio-economic forces shaped by modernity.” Ilo explains that, for Francis, “the core issue [was that]...human suffering does not come from God but is a consequence of societal structures, many of which are rooted in colonial legacies.” (Read more in the Crux interview here.)

Rome's New Catholic Institute for Nonviolence: Stan Chu Ilo among DePaul Faculty at Helm

In the early fall of 2024, Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative launched the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence in Rome, with Pope Francis’ blessing. And Stan Chu Ilo is one of two DePaul faculty members taking the lead; he serves on the advisory council. The institute’s mission is to make nonviolence research, resources and experience, more accessible to Catholic Church leaders, communities and institutions in order to deepen Catholic understanding of and commitment to the practice of Gospel nonviolence. Central to the Gospel, nonviolence is also a proven, transformative method for achieving peace, justice, and reconciliation. (Read more here about DePaul's connections to the institute.) 

Review of CWCIT's Fratelli Tutti Global Commentary: "An Instrument of Synodality"

In July, the Episcopal and Anglican online journal, Covenant, published a review of CWCIT's latest volume, Fratelli Tutti: A Global Commentary, written by Timothy F. Sedgwick, the Clinton S. Quinn professor emeritus of Christian Ethics at Virginia Theological Seminary. Sedgwick says that, in addition to being "clearly written and available to all," the book is above all "an instrument of synodality, a forum among church leaders--ordained, religious and lay, men and women, theologians, professors, and indigenous community leaders."

Cavanaugh's New Book on Idolatry: "A Must-Read for the Modern West"

In July, America magazine ran a cover story on the importance of William T. Cavanaugh’s latest book, The Uses of Idolatry, in debunking the myth that the modern West is living in a disenchanted, secular era. As Patrick Gilger, SJ, explains, Cavanaugh contends that “[w]hat has declined in the modern West is not belief in transcendence...[but rather] belief in God.” And so, in actuality, we in the West are not disenchanted but rather misenchanted, and “worship remains as prevalent as ever—it’s just that what (or who) is being worshiped has changed.” (Read the article here.)

Stan Chu Ilo Initiates Online Program to Train 100 Young Africans as Faith Influencers 

“Providing young Africans with the tools and knowledge necessary to effectively use digital platforms to spread the faith and the word of God” is the objective of a 6-month online training course that launched in February and brought together over 100 young people from 52 African countries. Spearheaded by Stan Chu Ilo, the training program is organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN), an outgrowth of CWCIT, and partners with the Vatican’s Dicasteries for Communication and for Promoting Integral Human Development, as well as several Catholic universities in Africa. (Read more about the program in this Vatican News article.)

Is War Ever Just? A Podcast Discussion with Michael Budde

There is a long history of debate among Christians regarding the use of violence. Is “turning the other cheek” an excuse to take oppression lying down? Should Christians adhere to national military obligations? Is there such a thing as a “just war,” or is all killing anti-Christian? CWCIT's Michael Budde has been studying these questions for a long time. And in this "No Small Endeavor" podcast hosted by Lee C. Camp, he discusses why he thinks Christians are called to total nonviolence, why nationalism is responsible for many of the church’s historical failings, and what a countercultural version of faith might look like. Click here to listen.

No War is Good: William T. Cavanaugh on the War in Ukraine

In a May 2023 Commonweal article, "No War is Good," CWCIT Director William T. Cavanaugh, digs into the nuts and bolts of the "just war" concept as it concerns Russia's war against Ukraine. That Russia’s invasion is unjust, “there is no question,” he writes, but as Catholics, we “must lament the slaughter on both sides, the Ukrainian children killed by Russian missiles as well as the scared Russian teenagers used as cannon fodder on the front lines.” We must strive to respond to such violence “as a follower of Jesus Christ...[who] asks us to love our enemies, to respond to an excess of evil with an excess of love.” After all, he reminds us, as did Pope Francis, that Russian communism crumbled “thirty years ago because of nonviolent protest. It is not simple naïveté to think it might be effective again.”

Violence, Empire, and Climate Change: Michael Budde's new book, Foolishness to Gentiles

In a March episode of the Dangerous Dogma podcast, Word & Way president Brian Kaylor talks with CWCIT's Michael Budde about violence, empire, climate change--all topics covered in Budde's latest book, Foolishness to Gentiles: Essays on Empire, Nationalism, and Discipleship. (Listen to the podcast here; learn more about the book here.)

In NCR Article, Stan Chu Ilo Reflects on Year of Doing Theology at the Peripheries 

In November 2022, CWCIT's Stan Chu Ilo wrote "What If the Peripheries Were Really the Center that Defines the Church Today?" for the National Catholic Reporter, reflecting on his experiences as the North America regional coordinator of the Vatican project, "Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries." (Learn more about the project here). His group of "10 theologians and pastoral ministers visited more than 72 sites and focus groups over the course of this one-year journey," meeting with the poor and marginalized "in places like Hope Border Institute in El Paso; Cook County Jail and Kolbe House in Chicago; Don Bosco Community Center in Port Chester, New York; Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles; All Inclusive Ministries in Toronto; and Casa de Misericordia in San Diego."  

In the end, Ilo says that "[b]eing with the poor and harvesting wisdom from the peripheries can give us theologians some dose of realism about what really matters, why we do what we do, and for whom. My hope is that this project will be a model of how to do consultation in the church by listening to the stories that define our church today, not in synodal halls among the church's hierarchy and elites, but among the little and forgotten ones outside the cities, the church's institutional structures, outside the walls and outside the centers of power."

North America Region's Final Report for Vatican's "Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries"

"Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries" was a research project of the Migrants and Refugees Section (M&R) of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development under Pope Francis. Through more than 500 personal interviews organized in 2022 in 6 regions across the globe, the project sought to uncover the sensus fidei fidelium of those often excluded from discourse within society and especially within the Church, thus promoting a renewal of theology and  transforming lives and hearts once again.

Our very own Stan Chu Ilo served as the North America Region’s coordinator, leading a small working group which held listening sessions in Chicago, Ciudad Juárez, El Paso, Los Angeles, Quebec, New Work, Peterborough, San Diego, and Toronto with “peoples whose voices are often muted in our churches in North America, especially the Indigenous populations, migrants and refugees, prisoners, and LGBTQ+, among others.” 

The North America Region’s final report, coauthored by Ilo, documents in 100+ pages the stories of our brothers and sisters who are the poor and marginalized that inhabit the “sacred grounds” of prisons, senior residences, rehab center, refugee/immigration camps, etc. The report is an attempt to “center the narratives of those at the existential peripheries which transformed our gaze as theologians and initiated an inner movement of conversion in us.”

Pope Francis' Zoom Meeting with African University Students

Held on November 1, 2022, "Building Bridges Across Africa" brought African university students from 10 countries together with Pope Francis for an online discussion. An expansion of Loyola University Chicago's February 2022 "Building Bridges" Zoom meeting between Francis and college students from the Americas, this event was co-organized by Stan Chu Ilo, CWCIT research professor, and was cosponsored by PACTPAN and CWCIT. (Read more in this article by Chicago Catholic.)  

2nd Biannual Pan-African Catholic Congress Held in Nairobi

July 18-22, 2022
Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Nairobi

Organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN—an outgrowth of CWCIT's African Catholicism network begun in 2017)—and cosponsored by CWCIT, this event gathered over 100 pastoral leaders and interdisciplinary scholars from more than 20 African countries and five continents. It was PACTPAN's second congress; the first was held in December of 2019.

As the National Catholic Reporter reported in an August 11, 2022 article, the event included "sessions on domestic violence, war, economic and ecological crises, child sexual abuse, human trafficking and more—all against the backdrop of the Vatican's revamped global synodal process." 

Handbook of African Catholicism Receives Award

In June, the Handbook of African Catholicism (Orbis Books, 2022) won 2nd place in the "Reference/Academic Studies" category at the national Catholic Media Associations 2023 Awards:

"Diligently researched and covering a broad scope of interests. Lucid and accessible by not oversimplified or polemical. A much-needed resource."

Laywoman and Past CWCIT Scholar Appointed by Pope to High-Ranking Position in the Vatican

In the summer of 2021, Argentine theologian and laywoman Emilce Cuda was appointed by Pope Francis as head of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and promoted later that year to co-secretary. Francis also named her a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Cuda was a research scholar here at CWCIT during the winter/spring of 2019 and formerly served as a theology and political science professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. (Read more in this National Catholic Reporter article.)

First-Ever Pan-African Catholic Congress Held in Nigeria, Spearheaded by CWCIT's Stan Chu Ilo 

"What must we do to perform the works of God?" This is what 80 African clerics, laity, and scholars set out to answer in December 2019 in Enugu, Nigeria, in the first-ever Pan-African Catholic Congress, organized by CWCIT's Stan Chu Ilo. The Conference came at a troubling time in the country, when Catholic priests had been kidnapped and even killed in several cases. Reflecting on the faith and the fate of the African people, the Congress sought to create a statement of commitment about how leaders can work together to continue to share God's work and give back to the African continent. At the Congress' closing, leaders agreed that, even though the continent is experiencing the Catholic Church's highest growth rate, "the growth of the Church will only be in number" unless theology and pastoral practice is "translated into tools of liberation." (Read more in this Crux article.)

Archdiocese of Chicago's "Mission Matters" Program Interviews CWCIT's Stan Chu Ilo

In their March 15, 2018 program, the archdiocese's "Mission Matters Live" spoke with Stan Chu Ilo about the Society for Hope and Solidarity for the Women of Central Africa, a project for which he has served as the U.S. representative; his work founding and sustaining the charity, Canadian Samaritans for Africa; and about CWCIT's work, including our April conference on women and leadership in the Church.

Women & Church Leadership Conference Featured in NCR's Global Sisters Report

Heidi Schlumpf, correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, covered CWCIT's World Catholicism Week 2018 conference, "Daughters of Wisdom," in her April 12, 2018 article, "DePaul Conference on Women in Global Church Calls for New Leadership Models."

"Fifty Minds that Matter" Includes CWCIT Friends/Collaborators

In its November 28 online issue, The Tablet published its selection of 50 Catholic women and men who are "doing the most to change the way we imagine ourselves and understand the world" and "making waves and recalibrating disciplines, and adding some Catholic salt to the contemporary cultural soup." Among them are three CWCIT friends/collaborators: Celia Deane-Drummond (2015 "Fragile World" conference keynote speaker); Emmanuel Katongole (2010 CWCIT research scholar); and Laurenti Magesa (2016 CWCIT research scholar).

U.S. Catholic Magazine Interviews Stan Chu Ilo on African Spirituality

In its September 2017 issue, U.S. Catholic published an interview with CWCIT research professor, Fr. Stan Chu Ilo, on African spirituality's unique commitment to community and the belief that everything and everyone is connected through God: "Someone has called it the moral tradition of abundant life. What is abundant life? I say it is human and cosmic flourishing, when every reality is intimately connected to every other reality in a harmonious bond." Read the full interview here.

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CWCIT's Stan Chu Ilo Receives Global Impact Award

On October 21, 2017, in Toronto, AfroGlobal Television presented Stan Chu Ilo with its 2017 Global Impact Award for the more than 20 projects in four African countries implemented through Canadian Samaritans for Africa, a nonprofit of which he is founder and president. One such project is the water and sanitation initiative and the AduAchi Women's Skills Center in Eastern Nigeria, executed in collaboration with Engineers Without Borders and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Recognized as one of the top 10 global projects at the UNESCO-sponsored Mondialogo Awards in 2009, it also won an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) award and recognition from the U.S. State Department. 

Vatican Foundation Gives International Award to Past CWCIT Scholar 

On February 26, Alexander Stummvoll was named winner of the Vatican foundation Centesimus Annus-Pro Pontifice's biannual international award (10,000 Euro) for young researchers whose work promotes Catholic social doctrine. Alex was CWCIT's 2012-13 visiting professor, and he received the award for his PhD dissertation, “A Living Tradition: The Holy See, Catholic Social Doctrine and Global Politics 1965-2000."

HuffPost Live Interviews CWCIT Professor on Pope Francis' Two-Year Tenure

Stan Chu Ilo, CWCIT research professor, gave an interview on HuffPost Live on March 19, on the two-year anniversary of Pope Francis' election. He spoke of the pontiff's legacy of simplicity, noting that "the church can only be credible when the church personifies what the church preaches." Watch the full interview and read Ilo's March 13 blog post on this topic. 

America Magazine Reports on CWCIT's Muslim-Catholic Panel

On November 12, CWCIT hosted a discussion on Muslim-Catholic dialogue in sub-Saharan Africa, which included as panelists: Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, Nigeria, and DePaul's own Dr. Babacar Mbengue. The national Jesuit magazine, America, featured the event as reported by Catholic News Service journalist, Michelle Martin. Read the full article here.

CWCIT Faculty Interviewed on New Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich

In September 2014, Pope Francis named Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, WA, as the successor to Cardinal Francis George, OMI, as archbishop of Chicago. Some of our faculty spoke to the media about this decision and transition:

• William Cavanaugh's interview on WBEZ 
• Michael Budde's comments in the Chicago Tribune

Papal Conclave Participants Include CWCIT Friends & Collaborators

On March 13, 2013, a conclave of 115 cardinals elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, archbishop of Buenos aires, as the successor to Pope Benedict XVI. The first Latin American and Jesuit pope, Bergoglio chose the name Francis. Participating in this historic conclave were the following cardinals whom CWCIT has been honored to welcome here at DePaul:

Francis Cardinal Arinze (bio)
Prefect Emeritus, Congregation for Divine Worship(Rome)
November 2009 visit to DePaul 
View photo slideshow 
Watch his interview with NBC 5 Chicago

Francis Cardinal George, OMI (bio)
Archbishop Emeritus of Chicago
February 2014 presentation: "Pope Francis & the New Evangelization"
April 2010 presentation: "Tradition & Liberation: Charity in Truth & the New Face of Social Progress"

Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson (bio)
President, Pontifical Council for Justice & Peace (Rome)
April 2010 presentation at DePaul: "Charity in Truth & the New Face of Social Progress"