College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences > Centers & Institutes > Center for World Catholicism & Intercultural Theology > World Catholicism Week > Past World Catholicism Weeks > 2025: Signs of Hope

World Catholicism Week 2025

​​​​​​​​​Read: World Catholicism Week 2025 May 1-2 DePaul University

View conference videos here.

Signs of Hope: Finding Jubilee in a Fractured World

In Spes Non Confundit ("Hope does not disappoint," Romans 5:5), Pope Francis declared hope the central message of the 2025 Jubilee year. This conference looked for signs of hope amid mounting global challenges that drive many to anxiety, cynicism, and despair. Coming from a variety of disciplines, our speakers discussed the following topics:

  • Theologies of hope
  • Politics, violence, and resistance
  • Caring for creation
  • Ecclesial practices of community and culture

David Buckley (Associate Professor; Paul Weber Endowed Chair in Politics, Science, and Religion; Director, Center for Asian Democracy, University of Louisville — Louisville, KY, USA) 

Min-Ah Cho (Assistant Professor of Theology & Religious Studies, Georgetown University — Washington, DC, USA) 

Dylan Corbett (Founder & Executive Director, Hope Border Institute — El Paso, TX, USA)

Debra Dean Murphy (Professor; Co-Director, Center for Restorative Justice, West Virginia Wesleyan College — Buckhannon, WV, USA)

Rev. Yara González-Justiniano (Assistant Professor, Affiliated Faculty, Vanderbilt University — Nashville, TN, USA)

Léonard Katchekpele (Associate Pastor & Diocesan Tribunal Judge, Diocese of Speyer — Speyer, Germany; Visiting Lecturer, Catholic University of West Africa — Lomé, Togo) 

Emmanuel Katongole (Professor, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame — Notre Dame, IN, USA; Extraordinary Professor, University of Stellenbosch — Stellenbosch, South Africa) 

Cesar Kuzma (Professor, Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná — Curitiba, Brazil) 

Mwila Mulumbi (Head of Africa Church Advocacy Programme [ACAP), Catholic Agency for Overseas Development [CAFOD] — London, UK) 

Vien V. Nguyen, SCJ (Provincial Superior, Priests of the Sacred Heart [Dehonians] — Hales Corners, WI, USA)

Elizabeth O'Donnell Gandolfo (Edith B. & Arthur E. Earley Assoicate Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Wake Forest University School of Divinity — Winston-Salem, NC, USA)

Atalia Omer (Professor, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Keough School of Global Affairs — Notre Dame, IN, USA) 

Antonio D. Sison, CPPS (Professor, Vatican Council II Chair of Theology, Catholic Theological Union [CTU] — Chicago, IL, USA) 

Thursday, May 1

Undergraduate Research Poster Presentation

Respondents: Min-Ah Cho, Emmanuel Katongole, Yara González-Justiniano

Undergrad Presenters & Topics

  • Jesse Arroyo: "Life Hangs by a Thread" (poster)
  • Jules Cisneros: "Hope in the Face of Genocide" (poster)
  • Larissa Díaz: "Why Did Catholic Timorese Possess an 'Unbreakable Spirit'?" (poster)
  • Sephi Favela: "Hope Through Environmental Justice" (poster)
  • Devyn O'Keefe: "Catholicism and Hope in Vietnam" (poster)
  • Julia Staufer-Kaminski: "Not Just a Teacher, But a Mother: Maggy Barankitse" (poster)
  • Izabela Suszko: "Fighting an Oppressive Regime Through the Sebastian Acevedo Movement Against Torture" (poster)
  • Annabelle Tornio: "The Vicariate of Solidarity: A Beacon of Hope in Pinochet's Chile" (poster)
  • Seth Vasquez: "Paride Taban's Holy Trinity Peace Village" (poster)
  • Maro Vogel: "Hope Across the Islands: Catholic Resilience in Indonesia" (poster)

KEYNOTE — Eschatology at the Border

Dylan Corbett — Founder & Executive Director, Hope Border Institute


ROUNDTABLE—Politics, Violence, and Resistance 

  • David Buckley—Protection at the Margins: The Catholic Church and the Drug War in the Philippines
  • Atalia Omer—Jewish Interrogation of Jewish Violence in Palestine/Israel: The Yeshivah of Unlearners
  • Mwila Mulumbi—Resisting Despair: How Zambia’s Debt Crisis Fuels the Practice of Hope Through Community Solidarity, Spiritual Resilience, and Advocacy


Friday, May 2

ROUNDTABLETheologies of Hope

  • Léonard Katchekpele—When Hope Has No Time: On Hope as a Gift of Conviviality 
  • Vien V. Nguyen, SCJ—The Kingdom of God: From Scripture to Social Justice 
  • César Kuzma—Hope, Resistance, and New Possibilities from the Brazilian Reality: Ethical-Theological Implications and Performativity 

ROUNDTABLE—Caring for Creation

  • Emmanuel Katongole—Sowing Hope at Bethany: On Being Driven to Hopes the Wrong Size for this World 
  • Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo—Wellsprings of Hope: Ecomartyrs in the Fight for Our Common Home 
  • Debra Dean Murphy—What Is It Like to Be You in this Place? Climate Grief and Radical Hope in the Heart of Appalachia 

ROUNDTABLE—Ecclesial Practices of Community & Culture

  • Min-Ah Cho—Wounds that Bind: Eucharist, Historical Trauma, and South Korea’s Pursuit of Democracy 
  • Yara González-Justiniano—Reasons to Hope: Defiant Joy and Ecclesial Frameworks for a Sustainable Hope 
  • Antonio D. Sison, CPPS—Inculturation and the Epiphany of Surprise: Serendipitous Currents in Mexican and Filipino Catholic Faith 
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