A Centre for Interconfessional and Interreligious Dialogue to be opened in Lviv, Ukraine

On May 6-7, 2013 an interfaith centre Libertas will be inaugurated in Lviv, Ukraine.

The opening of a centre coincides with the fact that this year Ukraine chairs the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It is expected that the inauguration ceremony will be commenced by Ukraine’s Ambassador to the Vatican, Tetiana Izhevska, who is also a Personal Representative of the Delegate to the OSCE on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions.

The two keynote speakers are Most Reverend Charles Morerord, bishop of Fribourg, Lausanne and Geneva in Switzerland, and Dr. Anthony Cernera, President of the International Federation of Catholic Universities and President Emeritus of the Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, U.S.A.

Bishop Morerord will be the main speaker during the interconfessional part of the inauguration. Author of many philosophical, theological and ecumenical works, Morerord has served as a dean and as rector at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, and, among other positions in the Vatican, has held the position of Secretary General of the International Theological Commission for Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue. In November 2011 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Morerord to his present bishopric in Switzerland.

Dr. Anthony Cernera will deliver the talk for the interreligious part of the inaugural lecture. Cernera founded a center for Jewish-Christian dialogue in the U.S. and is one of the key players in the interfaith dialogue on an international level. 

Many guests, bishops, diplomats, representatives of Churches and religious organizations from Ukraine and abroad are expected to take part in the inauguration.

The full program of the inauguration will be released in March 2013 on the centre’s web-site: www.libertas.infolviv.eu
 

About the Libertas Center: The Libertas Centre is a non-profit organization which aims at promoting interconfessional and interreligious dialogue and understanding in Ukraine and abroad. By applying scholarly research and innovative thinking to interfaith issues, the center aims at the objective of protecting the right to and the exercise of religious freedom, establishing connections among confessions and religions in the area of academic learning, respect, and cooperation in social projects. The Libertas Centre promotes interfaith dialogue on an academic and practical level: academically, the center organizes conferences, seminars and lectures where issues concerning and religions can be studied, learned, and brought into the public forum. On the practical level, the center’s goal is to engage in various social projects involving members and leaders of different confessions and faiths for the sake of understanding, cooperating and promoting common human values in a multi-cultural and multi-religious society.