Over the course of 2022, its inaugural year, the Culture of Encounter and the Global Agenda Project addressed the ongoing digital revolution and its implications, both positive and negative, for bridging deep political and ideological divides. Through essays, interviews, dialogues, and a conference in Rome, project participants reflected on the potential of digital platforms to enhance transnational dialogue among young people from different backgrounds and promote their formation as global citizens and future leaders.
Pope Francis and many others have underscored the negative impact of digital technologies in isolating people from one another and driving fragmentation and polarization across our societies – the very opposite of a culture of encounter. At the same time, the experience of the COVID-19pandemic has highlighted the capacity of online platforms to connect people at great distances. In this working paper Thomas Banchoff contends that digital connectivity gives colleges and universities the opportunity to convene students from around the world to listen to and learn from one another, fostering a culture of encounter and advancing education for global citizenship in new ways.
Working Paper December 21, 2022
April 4, 2022
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Through the COVID-19 pandemic Pope Francis has powerfully advocated for a culture of encounter to help bridge the divisions that increasingly plague our world. Only when we fully recognize our shared humanity and engage one another with humility, generosity, and patience—from the local to the international level—will we be able to address global challenges together. The ongoing Russian war against Ukraine underscores the importance of a culture of encounter as the most appropriate and legitimate…
A signature contribution of Pope Francis's pontificate is the concept of a culture of encounter. Rooted in his experience as a Jesuit and as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the concept emphasizes humility, generosity and patience as foundational for productive dialogue across cultural, religious, and political divides. In his October 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Francis made an impassioned plea for a culture of encounter in a global society torn by the pandemic and increasingly fragmented along…
