CNA Staff, May 7, 2025 /
10:08 am
Theologians from around the world will gather at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, this summer for the fifth annual Truth of Love Conference.
This year’s emphasis — the relationship of truth and love — takes inspiration from the past three pontificates.
To be held at Franciscan University from July 11–14, the conference “will tackle some of the most pressing theological issues of our times,” according to organizers.
Sponsored by the university and the Veritas Amoris Project, the conference will highlight various topics including creation, sexual difference, culture, synodality, and politics.
The intersection of charity, truth, and theology will be the central topic for the two keynote speakers: Deacon Frederick Bauerschmidt, professor of theology at Loyola University of Maryland, and Father José Noriega, co-founder of the Veritas Amoris Project.
Stephen Hildebrand, event speaker and vice president for academic affairs at the university, said the conference is an “ongoing witness to the chief doctrinal pastoral concerns of the last three pontificates.”
“Pope St. John Paul II highlighted the splendor of truth, without which our efforts to do good are futile,” Hildebrand told CNA. “Pope Benedict taught us the primacy of love; and Pope Francis reminds us that love demands accompaniment.”
Hildebrand noted that truth and accompaniment in love “drive to the heart of the Gospel” and “stand behind the vision of every Truth of Love conference.”
Conference organizer Jacob Wood, associate professor of theology and director of the doctoral program in sacred theology at Franciscan University, said participants will “seek a renewed understanding of the relationship between truth and love in Catholic theology today.”
“In recent years, Christians have struggled with many tensions between truth and love,” Wood told CNA.
“Is truth ‘pastoral’? Does love relax us from what truth demands?” Wood asked. “And if love is truthful, then in what sense is love powerful? Does its power come solely from within, or does the truth of love also manifest itself in the wider structures of culture and society?”
Wood noted that they will be “debating a lot [of] theological questions that don’t have predetermined answers.”
“The goal is really seeking the truth together in an atmosphere of faith, hope, and charity.”
Catholic speakers at the conference include D.C. Schindler, associate professor of metaphysics and anthropology at the John Paul II Institute; Oana Gotia, professor of moral theology at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary; and Matthew Muller, director of the Symposium on Transforming Culture at Benedictine College.
Father Edmund Waldstein, a monk of the Cistercian Abbey of Stift Heiligenkreuz in Austria and lecturer in moral theology at the abbey’s theological college, will also be speaking at the event.
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Several professors from Franciscan University will speak at the conference including Scott Hahn, who is the Father Michael Scanlan professor of biblical theology and the new evangelization at the university; John Bergsma, a Franciscan University theology professor; and several others.
The conference will have “an atmosphere of prayer and contemplation” for participants, Wood said.
“Formed by faith, hope, and charity, they’ll discuss and debate what it means to live, think, and act from the heart of the Church; and to bear witness to Christ at this critical moment in the history of the world and of the Church of Christ,” Wood said.
Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.
