On 9 July 2025, a panel on “Thinking Toward a Global Catholic Intellectual Network” was convened at the European Academy of Religion (EuARe) conference in Vienna, Austria, co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California (USA) and Concilium: International Journal of Theology. Moderated by the presidents of each sponsoring institution, Richard L. Wood (University of Southern California) and Susan Abraham (Pacific School of Religion), the session brought together a diverse array of scholars across disciplines and continents to explore the possibilities, challenges, and structures of this global and coordinated network.
The panel emerged from a growing awareness that although Catholic intellectuals around the world are engaging in important work, much of this labor remains disconnected across regional, linguistic, and disciplinary boundaries. Likewise, while important scholarly networks connect Catholic intellectuals, many of these are constrained within the boundaries of disciplines, religious orders/congregations, or geographic regions. Participants were asked to reflect on whether now is the time to constitute a more focused and dynamic network of Catholic scholars as partners for ecclesial decision-making, capable of “thinking with the Church” (in the spirit of Vatican II) and “feeling with the Church” (to borrow from Romero and Gutierrez). The session was structured as a series of short interventions followed in the synodal spirit by dialogue among participants. Wood and Abraham offered initial framing for the session, noting: i) the aspiration to offer focused intellectual resources useful within the interpretive, pastoral, and strategic planning tasks of the Church (understood as the ecclesial community operating under episcopal leadership and a sacramental understanding of reality); and ii) the requirement that any such future network be ‘distributed’ rather than centered in any one region or country.
Emilce Cuda (Pontifical Commission for Latin America and Loyola University Chicago) drew on her experience of Latin American intellectual networks shaped by the language of lived experience (e.g. war, arts, marginalization, resistance movements). Cuda proposed that communication must be constitutive of the Church, and not simply a supplemental or reactive strategy. Leo Guardado (Fordham University, New York) offered a critical interrogation of the American higher education context, highlighting how its theological and intellectual formation often remains isolated from global networks. In proposing the need for collaborative partnerships between academic institutions and existing think tanks, Guardado also underscored that such efforts must contend with the challenge of building mutual trust. Luis Maria Buruchaga (Pax Romana), international chaplain of this historical Catholic movement, presented the origins of Pax Romana in the university and the emergence of liberation theology. Buruchaga affirmed that global Catholic networks not only align with Pax Romana’s mission but also offer a reciprocal opportunity: for Pax Romana to contribute its experience in lay collaboration and international engagement while rethinking its role in a changing Church. Kpanie Addy SJ (Arrupe Jesuit Institute, Ghana) reflected on the legacy of colonial fragmentation evident in Africa’s diverse linguistic zones and the challenge of cooperation amid differing theological styles and ecclesial contexts across the continent. He cited the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) as a model network which connects institutions, scholars, and church leaders to promote coordinated theological reflection, pastoral action, and the formation of a distinctly African Catholic voice. Kristina Stoeckl (LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome) reflected on the Catholic intellectual networks in Eastern Europe, highlighting the Church’s navigation between the complexities of democracy and authoritarianism. She pointed to the Russian Orthodox Church which employs a language of renewal and cultural revival to reinforce traditionalist and authoritarian values—much like a “conservative aggiornamento.” Jocelyne Cesari (Georgetown University, USA and University of Birmingham, UK) offered critical insights on the intellectual legacy of European institutions and the need to disentangle their inherited hegemonies—including the fact that the Global South is not free from this critique when it adopts Western frameworks uncritically in its theologizing. As European networks grapple with new pluralisms, Cesari encouraged them to institutionalize humility and create more polyphonic spaces that can facilitate distributive leadership and participation. Albert Alejo SJ (Gregorian University, Rome and the Philippines) recounted the Asian synodal process, highlighting contextual omissions in the Philippine church’s report (i.e. natural disasters, Duterte’s war on drugs, trafficking, and China’s regional aggression) that shape the faithful’s moral and political realities. Alejo envisioned a network that forms the Church in its prophetic mission: both to listen with discernment and to speak with courage. Finally, Susan Abraham (Pacific School of Religion, USA) reflected on the South and Southeast Asian contexts more broadly, emphasizing how internalized post-colonialism remains an enemy within, distorting self-understanding and fragmenting communities. For Abraham, a self-critical network is capable of expanding the theological discourse, in part by examining how inherited categories and ecclesial structures continue to marginalize histories and epistemologies.
Rather than offering a blueprint, this initial session created space to begin thinking together across borders, disciplines, cultures, and national/regional realities. We look forward to hosting future installments of this thinking and co-imagining process in the future, both virtually and in-person.
