March 20, 2026 // Diocese

Notre Dame Partners with Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center

OSV NEWS

The University of Notre Dame’s Just Transformations to Sustainability (JTS) Initiative has partnered with the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education to establish the Global Alliance for Laudato Si’, an international network dedicated to supporting integral ecology and global sustainability. The alliance will serve as a hub for connecting, amplifying, and spearheading research, curriculum, and action initiatives for supporting a sustainable future, as inspired by the principles articulated by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) and embraced and amplified by Pope Leo XIV.

The Global Alliance was created to strengthen cooperation among universities worldwide and connect sustainability leaders in academia and beyond to advance a shared vision for transformative change. Responding to Pope Francis’ call to “hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” the partners hope their combined efforts will effectively address global environmental degradation, inequality and ecological injustice.

The alliance launched with an inaugural meeting on March 9-10 at the Laudato Si’ Village in Castel Gandolfo, the pontifical summer residence outside of Rome. Nearly 100 researchers and institutional leaders – representing more than 60 universities across Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, as well as major international organizations – gathered to develop a shared research and action agenda and a long-term vision for the alliance.

Speakers and participants stressed the need for collaboration that connects the natural and applied sciences with philosophy, anthropology, the social sciences, and theology to build research networks that generate cutting-edge knowledge, inform public debate, and contribute to the development of policies and strategies for sustainable development.

“We emerge from this first gathering of the Global Alliance with a renewed sense of purpose and hope,” said Holy Cross Father Robert A. Dowd, president of the University of Notre Dame. “These interdisciplinary research and education initiatives reflect our commitment to an integral ecology that recognizes the deep connections between environmental sustainability and human dignity and flourishing. We look forward to the many ways this collaboration will serve the common good and advance care for our common home in the days ahead.”

Representatives from both Notre Dame and the Vatican attended the meeting at the Laudato Si’ Village, including Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director general of the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and one of the founders of the Global Alliance, and Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and member of the board of directors for the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education.

A newly-constructed greenhouse, which is part of Borgo Laudato Si’, stands on the papal property in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sept. 2, 2025. Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to inaugurate the site Sept. 5, 2025, which includes gardens, farmland, historic villas and educational spaces dedicated to being a model where the care of creation and the defense of human dignity are taught and lived, and are open to all. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

The convening will serve as a catalyst for significant positive action at the local, regional, and global levels, and the insights that emerged will provide a roadmap for the alliance to follow.

“This enthusiasm must now be translated into concrete objectives through working groups that will continue beyond the conference, launching a lasting process of collaboration among research centers and institutions,” Cardinal Baggio said.

Arun Agrawal, founding director of Notre Dame’s JTS Initiative and a professor of development policy at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, said Notre Dame’s research expertise and mission-driven approach to addressing environmental issues make it uniquely suited to help advance this effort.

“We feel that Notre Dame, a leading Catholic research university, is positioned to assist the Holy See in its objective to seek transformative change in a manner consistent with the best available science as well as the foundational elements of integral ecology and integral human development,” Agrawal said.

Holy Cross Father Daniel Groody, vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of theology and global affairs, said that it was important for the alliance members to gather together as a global community because the issues being faced are shared.

“The environment is something that affects all of us,” he said. “We can come together as a human community before God and reflect on how we can work together to preserve our common home.” He continued, saying: “It’s also important to see how Notre Dame can be at the service of the Church. We can connect the research engine of Notre Dame with the research needs of the Church, especially as we’re looking at the problems of the world and helping those who are afflicted, particularly the most vulnerable members of our human community.”

Together, the Global Alliance hopes to advance three main goals: to form a global network of leaders and institutions focused on sustainability, to create thematic working groups for developing research plans and educational curricula on sustainability, and to strengthen Catholic visibility and contributions to international sustainability dialogue.

Six interdisciplinary working groups will advance the main research areas of the Global Alliance in the coming years. Their work will focus on strategic priorities that include removing barriers to access to water, energy, and food security; transforming economic systems toward more sustainable and just models; and developing best practices and tools to promote collective action

“There is already so much inspiring work being done all over the world,” Agrawal said, “and the goal of the Global Alliance is not to substitute for any of that work but rather to share, to learn, to connect, and to support what is already going on and to provide a space in which anyone who is interested in sustainability and integral ecology can learn from what others have done and to build on that.”

A key element of Notre Dame’s strategic framework, the JTS Initiative, is the university’s far-reaching response to the urgent and cascading effects of sustainability challenges on food, energy, water, and infrastructure – all of which threaten the well-being and dignity of people everywhere. The initiative brings together interdisciplinary scholars, dedicated students, and action partners from around the world to advance transformative solutions for a more just and sustainable future.

“We look forward to cultivating these new relationships with other global leaders in the sustainability field and operationalizing the interdisciplinary research needed to effect this deep and lasting change in our world,” Agrawal said.