Religious Liberty Summit 2022

Some of the world’s leading defenders of religious freedom gathered in Rome for the second annual Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit, hosted by the Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative.

The summit’s theme was Dignitatis humanae — the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on religious freedom that spelled out the Catholic Church’s support for the protection of religious liberty and set the ground rules for how the Church would relate to secular states.

The inaugural Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in 2021 was held on the University of Notre Dame’s campus. The summit in Rome underscored the Religious Liberty Initiative’s global reach.

“Religious liberty is a fundamental human right, and the protection of religious liberty is a global issue,” said G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School.

“Everyone around the world has the God-given right to live their lives as their beliefs require — proudly and without fear,” Cole said. “The Religious Liberty Initiative at Notre Dame Law School has the potential to change the world by promoting and defending freedom of conscience for people and institutions around the world.”

Watch the full recordings of the Religious Liberty Summit panel discussions below.

Protecting Religious Minorities

Highlights:

• Nury Turkel, Hudson Institute: "Until the United States and our allies can come together to create a clear legal framework to deal with China’s dissemination of malicious technology, the world's despots will continue to have access to cutting-edge innovations to use at their will."
• Farahnaz Ispahani, The International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief: "Of paramount importance today is creating local and global partnerships between religious and secular human rights advocates.”
• Samah Norquist, The Wilson Center: "Religious freedom is on the retreat across the globe. Religious violence has risen to historic levels over the past decade affecting nearly all religious groups. Believers of nearly all faiths including Christians, Muslims, and Jews, Buddhists, Yazidis, Baha’i have faced discrimination, harassment repression and, of course, persecution by state and non-state actors well as ideological movements.” 

Bioethics

Highlights:

• Andrea Simoncini, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Florence: “Religious freedom designates a two-dimensional liberty: firstly, it is the freedom of asking questions in front of reality - questions that can have either pure materialistic or transcendent answers - and secondly, it is the freedom of living according to those found answers.”
• Laura Palazzani, Professor of Philosophy of Law, LUMSA University of Rome: “Dignitas Humanae underlines the role of education to respect the moral order and ‘true freedom’, as ‘responsibility in fulfilling their duties in the community life.' ‘The right of man to religious freedom has its foundation in the dignity of the person.'”

Keynote

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Highlights:

• President Oaks called on religious leaders and organizations to come together to seek peaceful resolution to the “painful conflicts between religious freedom and nondiscrimination.” In closing, President Oaks left the audience with the following four suggestions to consider ways religious institutions and believers can strengthen religious liberty worldwide: 

  1. Recognize that we need each other and are all subject to law

  2. Urge religious tolerance

  3. Let the world know of the good that religion does

  4. Unite and find common ground to defend and promote religious liberty

You can read President Oaks' full remarks here.

Interreligious Dialogue

Highlights:

• Imam Dr. Nader Akkad, Grand Mosque of Rome, Co-President of International Marian Muslim Christian Commission: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom either alone or in community, with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” 
• His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos OBE, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, Papal Legate to the United Kingdom: “We need to change the narrative. We need to change the expectation from one of hopelessness and conflict to one of the effectiveness of the religious voice, and one of hope and promise. It's not enough for us to lead only when things are good. It's not about us having legitimacy and having doors open because of who we are as religious leaders, but it is accountability and the use of that authority and that legitimacy for the sake of the whole of humankind.”

Education

Highlights:

• Fr. Friedrich Bechina, F.S.O., Undersecretary for Congregation for Catholic Education: ​​“I shall not provide a complete and extensive answer to the question of religious liberty in the context of education, but hope that our discussion will help to understand both the complexity of this question as well as some possible and pertinent answers to it.”
• Nicole Stelle Garnett, John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law for Notre Dame Law School: “What I’ve learned working globally … is that in many other parts of the world public funding is available, but faith-based schools don’t have freedom.”

Keynote

Highlights:

• Dr. Barbara Jatta delivered a lunch keynote address about the current status and mission of the Vatican Museums, the services they offer, and the connection with the University of Notre Dame.

Press

Highlights:

• Eric Rassbach, Vice President and Senior Counsel of the Becket Fund: “Religious actors have to make peace with the fact that they are newsmakers and news distributors — and in some sense, they are part of the press.”
• Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News: “I think the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken a lot of people and a lot of journalists to their soul and made them question, ‘How am I spending my time at work? How am I spending my time at home? How can I be a more positive force in the world?’ … I think that more people are interested in that concept. For every controversial story I’m telling, I’d love to find a way to infuse more hope and joy into the world.”
• Ines San Martin, Crux: “I can’t think of a single journalist who, when offered a trip to cover real human stories, is going to say no. I remember I spent two weeks in Iraq and a lot of the people I spoke with told me ‘Emma Green from The Atlantic was here a month ago.’ So that’s secular, and that’s big and that’s mainstream — we’re all interested.”

Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty

Highlights:

• Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, emerita, Harvard Law School and Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See: “We need to demonstrate, convincingly, that religious freedom is not just about protecting religious people and institutions. We need to demonstrate, convincingly, that religious freedom is conducive to the maintenance of democracy, peace and healthy economies. And religious leaders need to motivate their followers to exercise their freedom in ways that actually show the value of religion and religious freedom to society.”

You can view a video about Ambassador Glendon’s life and work here.

Religious Liberty Initiative Scholarship Award

Highlights:

• Steven Smith, Professor of Law and Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Law & Religion at the University of San Diego School of Law: “This is the highest academic honor I have received in my career, and I was especially honored by the association with Professor Glendon, of whom I have the greatest respect, and Justice Alito, who is my favorite justice. I’m honored to be included in a distinguished group of people who do so much in such an important area of work.”

While Professor Smith wasn’t able to join us in person at the gala, RLI Director Stephanie Barclay shared an overview of his accomplishments and read a brief message from Professor Smith that can be viewed here.

Keynote

Highlights:

• Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Professor of Politics and Director of James Madison Program at Princeton University: “Dignitatis humanae teaches us that for the sake of genuine faith, people have to be free to live lives of authenticity and integrity in line with their best answers to the great questions of meaning, value, nature, dignity and destiny.”
• Cornel West, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Philosophy & Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary: “I think that American democracy is not just in deep trouble, but I think there is a pervasive spiritual decay and more decrepitude. It’s not confined to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion – it cuts across every nook and cranny of the culture and civilization.”

Additional Highlights from the Gala

• Rick Garnett, director of ND Law School’s Program on Church, State & Society, took a moment to honor Michael Bradley during the gala. Bradley is a 2022 graduate of Notre Dame Law School and winner of the Program on Church State & Society’s annual writing competition.

You can view a recording of Professor Garnett’s remarks here.

Select Media Coverage of the Religious Liberty Summit

• The Salt Lake Tribune: Religious rights ‘cannot be absolute,’ LDS apostle Dallin Oaks says, in call for a global movement
• The Daily Universe: President Dallin H. Oaks speaks at Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in Rome
• The Catholic Review: U.S. citizens have responsibility to promote religious freedom, speaker says
• Deseret News: In Rome, President Oaks continues Latter-day Saint effort to champion religious liberty worldwide
• Crux: Experts warn that religious freedom is under fire across the globe

2022 Schedule

Wednesday, July 20

Event	Summary
Panel  Discussion	Protecting Religious Minorities Nury Turkel Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Farahnaz Ispahani The International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief Senior Fellow, Religious Freedom Institute Former Member, Parliament of Pakistan Rodrigo Vitorino Souza Alves Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights, Federal University of Uberlandia Lead Researcher, Brazilian Center for Studies in Law and Religion Samah Norquist (moderator) Public Policy Fellow, The Wilson Center Former Chief Advisor for International Religious Freedom to the Administrator, USAID
Panel  Discussion	Bioethics Laura Palazzani Professor of Philosophy of Law, LUMSA University of Rome Lorenza Violini Professor of Constitutional Law University of Milan Andrea Simoncini Professor of Constitutional Law University of Florence Stefan McDaniel (moderator) Visiting Assistant Professor of Law Notre Dame Law School
Lunch  Keynote	President Dallin H. Oaks First Counselor in the First Presidency The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Thursday, July 21

Event	Summary
Panel  Discussion	Interreligious Dialogue Imam Dr. Nader Akkad Grand Mosque of Rome Co-President, International Marian Muslim Christian Commission His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos OBE Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London Papal Legate to the United Kingdom Grandmother Mona Polacca International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers Fr. John Paul Kimes (moderator) Associate Professor of the Practice Notre Dame Law School
Panel  Discussion	Education Ana María Celis Brunet Professor of Law Director, Center for Law and Religion Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Augusta Muthigani National Executive Secretary Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops Very Rev. Fr. Friedrich Bechina, F.S.O. Undersecretary, Congregation for Catholic Education Brett Scharffs Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies Brigham Young University Law School Nicole Stelle Garnett (moderator) John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law Notre Dame Law School
Lunch  Keynote	Dr. Barbara Jatta Director, Vatican Museums
Panel  Discussion	Press Eric Rassbach Vice President and Senior Counsel Becket Fund for Religious Liberty John L. Allen Jr. Editor, Crux Fr. James Martin, SJ Editor-at-Large, America Magazine Kelsey Dallas Religion reporter and editor, Deseret News Richard Garnett (moderator) Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corp. Professor of Law Notre Dame Law School
Gala and  Awards  Presentation	Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty Mary Ann Glendon Learned Hand Professor of Law, emerita, Harvard Law School Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Religious Liberty Initiative Scholarship Award Steven Smith Professor of Law and Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Law & Religion University of San Diego School of Law

Friday, July 22

Event	Summary
Keynote  Discussion	Robert P. George McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Professor of Politics Director, James Madison Program Princeton University Cornel West Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Philosophy & Christian Practice Union Theological Seminary G. Marcus Cole (moderator) Joseph A. Matson Dean & Professor of Law Notre Dame Law School

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