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.