In the News

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 on Theology, Society, and Pastoral Life: "Walking Together for a Vital Church in Africa and in the World"

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 Catholiism network begun in 2017)—and cosponsored by CWCIT, this event gathered over 100 pastoral leaders and interdisciplinary schoalrs 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 gobal 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 Enugu, 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. Relfecting 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 its April conference on women and leadership in the Church.

Women & Church Leadership Conference Covered in National Catholic Reporter'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" Include CWCIT Friends/Collaborators

In its November 28, 2018 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, Rev. 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.

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, 2015, Alex 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

Rev. Stan Chu Ilo, CWCIT research professor, gave an interview on HuffPost Live on March 19, 2015, the two-year anniversity 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 Chu's march 13 blog post on this topic. 

America Magazine Reports on CWCIT's Muslim-Catholic Panel

On November 12, 2015, 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 Spakane, Wash., 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:

Mar George Cardinal Alencherry (bio)
Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church (Kochi, Kerala, India)
October 2011 presentation at DePaul: "Catechesis in the World Church"

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"