Villanova University’s Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration to Host Global Summit in Rome, Italy, to Address Critical Issues Facing Migrants and Refugees

VILLANOVA, Pa.-Villanova University's Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration is leading a three-year global initiative, Refugees & Migrants in Our Common Home, aimed at addressing critical challenges faced by the world's migrants and refugees by uniting academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and community partners.

The initiative's inaugural event, a conference of the same name organized by the Mother Cabrini Institute, will take place in Rome from Oct. 1-3 at the Instituto Patristico Augustinianum, and will serve as a forum to kick-start the project's Action Plan. The conference immediately precedes the Catholic Church's Jubilee of Migrants, a pilgrimage and celebration of migrants' courage, faith and resilience.

The Refugees & Migrants in Our Common Home initiative is inspired by the late Pope Francis, who encouraged Catholic colleges and universities worldwide to address immigration-related issues through tangible action, and it is guided by the words of Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova alumnus and Augustinian friar, who has called upon the world to build communities that reflect dignity, compassion and shared humanity. Pope Leo will receive participants of the conference in a private audience on its second day.

"As an institution founded to educate immigrants, this is an issue that is inherently tied to our history as a University," said Villanova University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD. "Villanova is proud to take purposeful action in an initiative that reflects our core values by seeking to uphold the dignity of every person, foster community and advocate for justice for migrants and refugees."

The inaugural conference will bring together more than 225 participants from 40-plus countries to draft foundational action plan to strengthen and coordinate academic response to challenges facing migrants and refugees in ways that reflect the project's four pillars of teaching, research, advocacy and service with migrants and refugees. Participants will be organized into action-oriented working groups that align with these pillars.

"This summit is about more than dialogue-it's about building the frameworks and relationships that will sustain change for decades to come," said Michele Pistone, JD, LLM, founder and faculty director of The Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration, professor of Law in the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and chair of the conference.

Professor Pistone, an internationally renowned scholar and advocate in this field, will deliver a keynote address. Overall, more than two dozen members of the Villanova community will represent the University in attendance, including the following presenters:

• Lorena Ávila, PhD, assistant professor of Sociology & Criminology
• Timothy Brunk, PhD, associate professor of Systematic/Constructive Theology and Practical Theology
• Pina Cirillo, adjunct professor, College of Professional Studies
• David Dinehart, PhD, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Robyn Lieberman, Associate Director for External Affairs, Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration
• Marlee McCadden, fellow, Charles Widger School of Law
• Colleen Mitchell, PhD, associate director of outreach for the Augustinian Institute and assistant teaching professor
• Tania Romero, PhD, assistant professor of Communication
• Catherine Wilson, PhD, associate professor of Public Administration
• Stephanie Wong, PhD, assistant professor of Comparative Theology, East Asian Religions, Systematic and Constructive Theology

Other keynote speakers for the summit include Amy Pope, Director General, International Organization on Migration (IOM); Cardinal Fabio Baggio, CS, Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Msgr. Paul Desmond Tighe, Secretary, Dicastery on Education and Culture; Lana Cook, PhD, Associate Director, MIT Systems Awareness Lab; and Massimo Faggioli, PhD, professor in Historical and Contemporary Ecclesiology in the Loyola Institute at Trinity College in Dublin.

Key partners of the Institute for the Rome summit include the Center for Migration Studies (CMS), the Dicastery for Promoting Internal Human Development, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the International Federation of Catholic Universities, Jesuit Refugee Services, the MIT Systems Awareness Lab, Scalabrini International Migration Institute (SIMI) and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB), among others.

For more information on Refugees & Migrants in Our Common Home, as well as a full schedule of events and speakers in Rome, please click here.

About the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration: The initiative's organizer, Villanova University's Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration, draws from Villanova's mission, values and history to engage University and community partners in teaching, scholarship, advocacy and service with migrants and refugees-key tenets of the global Refugees & Migrants in Our Common Home project. Rooted in Villanova's Augustinian values of Veritas, Unitas, Caritas (Truth, Unity, Love), the Institute advances the University's mission, while honoring Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, patroness of immigrants. This interdisciplinary, university-wide institute builds upon and combines the foundational work of Villanova's Strategic Initiative for Migrants and Refugees and Cabrini University's Center on Immigration.

The Institute's leadership role in both the conference and global initiative underscores the University's unwavering commitment to protecting the most vulnerable among us and serving the greater good. This commitment is also reflected in numerous related programs on campus, as well as in research and scholarship.

About Villanova University: Ranked among the top universities in the United States, Villanova University is known for its distinguished faculty, personalized learning environment and Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition, which is the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six colleges-the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Villanova supports its students' intellectual growth and prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit https://www.villanova.edu.