Father Norbert Hofmann, Secretary of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews:
"The future of interreligious dialogue is in the hands of young people, the students. And I appreciate very much that the Russell Berrie Foundation is educating young people regarding interreligious dialogue. The new generation of religious leaders will be very important in promoting the interreligious dialogue in the future. Therefore I'm very grateful to what the Russell Berrie Foundation is doing, and for the Program in Interreligious Studies at the Angelicum University.
I hope that this Program will be continued, and also that it will be intensified, and maybe also that other universities here in Rome will start such a Program because it's a great experience. We always work and cooperate with the alumni of the Russell Berrie Program."
*On March 15th 2016, Lidiia Batig (Cohort VIII, Ukraine), interviewed Fr. Hofmann. To read the whole interview, please click
here
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Russell Berrie Alumni Grant Program 2016-2017!
Since 2008, through the Berrie Fellowship Program, almost 70 fellows have pursued studies at the Angelicum and participated in programs of The John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue. Now, The John Paul II Center aims to support and promote the work of Russell Berrie Alumni as they engage in interreligious dialogue, teach interreligious dialogue in academic settings and implement interfaith action projects in their communities.
The goal of The John Paul II Center Russell Berrie Fellowship Alumni Grant Program is to foster outstanding, innovative, creative, high-quality interreligious dialogue (IRD) and interfaith action projects, academic research, and other activities that will have a positive impact on improving interreligious understanding in their own communities, with other communities, and in this field overall. With grant applications due on September 15, 2016, grant decisions will be made in the fall. At the beginning of 2017, Russell Berrie alumni will start to implement interfaith projects.
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2016-2017 Russell Berrie Fellows Announced
As the beginning of the new academic year is approaching, we are happy to announce winners of the Russell Berrie Fellowship in Interreligious Studies. The 2016 Russell Berrie
Fellows are:
- Mr. Ali Chemseddine - STL first year (France/Lebanon)
- Sr. Anie Deepa - STL first year (India)
- Mr. Christos Kalaitzidis - Diploma (Greece)
- Ms. Bruna Kesserwani - Diploma (Lebanon/USA)
- Ms. Christine Lim - Diploma (Malaysia)
- Ms. Samantha Lin - Diploma (USA/Canada)
- Ms. Linda Middleton - Diploma (USA)
- Mr. Rafiqur Rahman - Diploma (USA)
- Mr. William Stainsby - STL first year (Ireland)
- Ms. Su Chin Yang - Diploma (Malaysia)
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Cardinal Secretary of State visit to Ukraine
F
rom June 15 till June 22, His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of the Vatican City-State, visited Ukraine. With the ongoing crisis in the country, Pope Francis has launched a unique humanitarian initiative to support Ukraine in the face of disaster and crisis. This initiative began on April 24, 2016 with charity donations in all Catholic churches in Europe to provide assistance to the victims of the humanitarian crisis in the east of the country.
During his visit to the Lviv City Council, Cardinal met with the city's religious and civil authorities and was informed about the ecumenical and interfaith situation in Ukraine and in Lviv particularly. As adviser to the Mayor in religious issues, Berrie alumni Taras Dzyubanskyy had a chance to speak with Cardinal Parolin about interfaith activities in the city.
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Gracy Vadakara meeting Pope Francis
On May 25th, Sr. Gracy Vadakara (Cohort III, India), along with various representatives of her community
(
parish of  Santa Maria in Aquiro
in Rome), participated in a Mass with Pope Francis in his private chapel of Santa Marta in the Vatican. Following the prayer service, each of the catechists had a chance to meet with the Pope. Sr. Gracy presented the Pope a copy of her Doctoral thesis and received a papal blessing for her ecumenical and interreligious work.
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Kurian Benoy's appointment
On February 24, 2016, Kurian Benoy (Cohort I, India) defended his Doctoral thesis at the Angelicum. The
title of
his
thesis was ''Culture of Dialogue' of the St. Thomas Christians: The pre-sixteenth century 'Pancha Kosa Margam' in Interreligious Dialogue."
Fr. Kurian is now back in India, and, as of May 10, 2016, he is
working as the Diocesan
D
irector of Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue and the director of the Department of Pastoral Animation.
We congratulate Fr. Benoy with his new appointment and wish him much success in his new work.
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Alumni Activities: ISRAEL, NIGERIA, INDIA
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ISRAEL
Two Russell Berrie Alumni participate in the 2016 Emerging Leaders Conference
Two Berrie Alumni, Rebecca Cohen (Cohort VI, U.S.A.) and Lidiia Batig (Cohort VIII, Ukraine) participated in an interreligious gathering in Israel.
The event titled
"Religions and politics:  addressing religious extremism,"
took place from June 26-30 and it was organized by the V
atican Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC).
The Russell Berrie Foundation was a sponsor of this conference.
The conference brought together fifty young people of which 25 were Catholics and 25 were Jews.
During the conference the participants had a chance to meet with prominent leaders of Catholic and Jewish communities and to discuss pressing issues and challenges that religious people face tod
ay in the face of violence and extremism. Rebecca Cohen presented a paper. Please click
here
to read about the conference.
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Fr. Louis Taiwo Omojola (Cohort IV, Nigeria) is a Catholic
 priest of the Diocese of Ekiti. Having finished his stu
dies in Rome, he returned to his country and started to work as a parish priest at St. Columba's Church. You can read about Fr. Louis' ministry and about his interfaith initiatives with Muslim communities
here.
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INDIA
Since 2014 Fr. Mathew Bovas (Cohort III, India) has been working at his Diocese in India. Much of his work is connected with the Malankara Social Service Society,
whose vision is to create a just society built on respect, dignity, justice and equity for all, where human rights are protected and valued.
This vision is evolved from the development philosophy that the poor are the real owners of the land and they are to be placed at the centre of the development process enabling them to realize their full potential. On August 23rd, 2016, this organization was granted a special consultative status within one of the agencies of United Nations that works for human development. Please click
here to read about the MSSS.
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Alumni Publications and Presentations
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Paola Bernardini (Cohort II, Italy):
On October 3rd, 2015,
Paola
participated in the international conference "Man, Society, and Peace" organized by the association "Human Rights for Life, Justice, and Peace" in Monaco. The topic
she
was asked to address was the role of religions in promoting peace and justice.
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Louis Omojola (Cohort IV, Nigeria):
Recently Fr. Omojola published t
he first edition of
his
work on the documentations of the past and present of the Catholic Church in Ekitiland.
The book is titled "Catholic Church in Ekitiland: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and i
t is a work of 544 pages on comprehensive history of the Catholic Church in Ekitiland from the advent of the Catholic Church in the land in 1913 till date. It contains the history of the Churches
(Parish Churches and outstations), chaplaincies, educational and health institutions, diocesan institutions, lay and pious associations, names of priests with their towns, dates of births and ordinations, names of members of indigenous religious congregations in Ekiti, and names of all catechists and evangelizers in Ekiti.
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Elena Dini (Cohort VII, Italy):
"
Giving the other a face. Remaz' story at the discovery of Shoah." This is a
n article in Italian about the story of a young Muslim student who started learning about the Shoah, was profoundly moved and became engaged in practical interfaith activities
. The article appeared on July 22, 2016 at the popular Italian Catholic Resource VinoNuovo
.
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We would like to hear from you! If you would like to share your interfaith activities or publications, please contact us!
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Please send us your feedback about the Alumni Newsletter!
Taras Dzyubanskyy | Alumni Coordinator | +380 67 88 32 009 |
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