His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, will formally launch “Within Your Gates: The Forum for the Universal Vocation of Jerusalem” on Sept. 7 in partnership with , the University of Notre Dame’s academic center in Jerusalem.

The forum is an interdisciplinary research initiative that will bring together scholars and practitioners from different faith traditions and disciplines to engage with Jerusalem's universal mission and its significance for those who reside within the Holy Land and beyond.

Led by , director of Notre Dame Jerusalem, the forum grows out of more than three years of close cooperation with Cardinal Pizzaballa; , director of the; , director of the; Notre Dame Jerusalem; and other Notre Dame colleagues.

“One of our most important responsibilities as Christians is to discern God’s call for us and to use our talents and gifts to serve Him and the world,” said , vice president for mission engagement and church affairs. “This forum creates a space for us to discern Jerusalem’s unique vocation of bringing together peoples of many faiths to build bridges and to receive God’s call to be peacemakers. I am proud that Notre Dame is working with Cardinal Pizzaballa to realize this vision of how discovering Jerusalem’s vocation can lead us to knowledge of our own.”

The forum will produce applied interdisciplinary research rooted in Jerusalem’s particular realities and oriented toward questions of daily life that resonate beyond the city and the surrounding region, exploring themes such as the theological significance of Jerusalem, the city's universal vocation, the language of conflict and reconciliation, and agency under conditions of constraint.

Cardinal Pizzaballa, who will chair the forum’s Board of Promoters, will share his vision for the initiative at the Sept. 7 launch event at the University’s Tantur campus. “The mission of earthly Jerusalem is to become the image and mirror of heavenly Jerusalem, a prophecy and promise of that universal reconciliation and peace which God desires for the whole human family,” he said. “It is to this mission that we must return.”

The Sept. 7 launch event will include remarks from Cardinal Pizzaballa as well as scholars and practitioners who serve on the forum’s Board of Promoters or the Advisory Committee.

For more information about the forum, visit . Questions about the launch event can be directed to jerusalem@nd.edu.

Originally published by Notre Dame Jerusalem at on Sept. 1.