For Our Midwest Readers: The Edith Stein Project at Notre Dame

The Edith Stein Project of the University of Notre Dame
is an annual conference that seeks to articulate the authentic meaning of human
dignity and sexuality. This year’s conference is on “Relationships and the Call
to Love” and it’s keynote address will be given by Alasdair MacIntyre on “Edith
Stein on Empathy.”

Caroline Reuter, a senior at Notre Dame and one of the
Project’s chairs this year, explained the purpose of the
Edith Stein Project and this year’s conference theme:

The Edith Stein Project provides a venue for exploring issues that are
deeply relevant to college students, but which they may not frequently discuss.
This year, we will be looking at each person’s call to love in and through
relationships. How can the relationships that fill our lives be informed
by the Catholic perspective of the human person? How can we look at the
practical side of our relationships while remaining rooted in the truths of who
we are as men and women?

With a wide range of topics, from the problem of pornography and the
hook-up culture on college campuses to presentations on the thought of Edith
Stein and John Paul II, Madeline Gillen, conference chair and senior
undergraduate student, recognizes Christ and his Resurrection,
in union with the teachings of the Church, to be at the heart of the
conference’s mission to provide students with an authentic understanding of the
human person.

Other conference presenters include First Thoughts and Spiritual
Friendship blogger Ron Belgau, Elise Italiano, a contributor to Breaking
Through: Catholic Women Speak For Themselves, and Gina Loehr, 2013 delegate for the Pontifical Council
for the Laity seminar on Mulieris
Dignitatemi, and myself, presenting a paper on “The Noble Vocation of Women:
Love and Friendship in Alice von Hildebrand.” Carmelite prioress and musician
Sr. Claire Sokol will also speak, and the conference will have a display to honor the memory of Bishop John D’Arcy, bishop
of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend and enthusiastic supporter of the Edith
Stein Project since its founding, who passed away last year.