As we mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Peace Accords, religion is often cited as part of the problem of conflict in Northern Ireland. But can religious actors also be part of the solution in building peace in Ireland?

Gerard Powers, Professor of Practice, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, will talk with Dr. Maryann Love, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics, The Catholic University of America, about the prospects for religious peacebuilding. Professor Powers engaged in peacebuilding in Northern Ireland while working with the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference Office of International Justice and Peace.

Professor Powers is director of Catholic peacebuilding studies for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is also coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, which links twenty-one bishops’ conferences, Catholic development agencies, universities, and independent peace organizations in an effort to enhance the study and practice of conflict prevention, conflict management, and post-conflict reconciliation in war-torn areas. He is co-editor (with R. Schreiter and S. Appleby) of Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics and Praxis (Orbis, 2010); co-editor (with D. Philpott) of Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World (Oxford 2010); and co-editor (with D. Christiansen and R. Hennemeyer) of Peacemaking: Moral and Policy Challenges for a New World (1994). From 1998-2004, Powers was director of the Office of International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.