FRI, FEB 17, 2023
6:30 PM ET | FLOOR 1

‘Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.’
(Pope Benedict XVI)

The Encounter opens with poetry, music, and a conversation in memory of Pope Benedict XVI with Steven Brown, Dean of Graduate Studies at The Catholic University of America, Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, Most Reverend Steven J. Raica, Bishop of Birmingham, and Fr. Alex Zenthoefer, rector of St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville, and music played by Christopher Vath, pianist

"The whole cosmos reaches a certain point of evolution, at which it becomes self-awareness: that point is called "I." The "I" is self-awareness of the world, of the cosmos, and of oneself. The cosmos is the context in which the relationship with the Mystery, lives.

The Psalmist asks, "Lord, what on earth is man that You keep him in mind, that you remember him?" Among all the animals and little creatures of the cosmos, man is one-hundredth, a thousandth, a ten-thousandth. But the greatness of man, the honor and glory of man, lies in the fact that man, the individual man, is in relationship with the infinite" - Luigi Giussani, The Psalms, Crossroad, 2004,

Accompanied by the memory of Pope Benedict XVI, we will begin our 3-day journey to explore the question "Who am I that you care for me?".