The Ravarino Family Director of the Center for Italian 91视频 and the聽聽Professor Theodore Cachey聽has been invited to sit on the for the 2021 Dante centenary organized by the .
For the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri (1321-2021), the Pontifical Council for Culture will celebrate the "profound link between the poet and the Holy See and between his literary production and the Catholic faith."
Professor Cachey, who teaches Dante in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, is the sole representative of Dante 91视频 outside of Italy to participate in the deliberations of the planning committee, which includes scholarly representatives from universities across Italy and is presided over by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi.
He says of his participation on the committee: "I am humbled by the honor of having been invited to join the committee. I hope that Notre Dame students and faculty, both here and at the Rome Global Gateway, will have the opportunity to participate in the Vatican commemorations of the Dante centenary."
The Center for Italian 91视频 and the Devers Program in Dante 91视频 is also organizing a series of local, national聽and international events to celebrate the Dante centenary. More information on Notre Dame's initiatives is available . Dante has been at the heart of since its very beginning.
The council will sponsor exhibits, conferences, readings聽and publications on Dante for the year 2021 and following. "The conference, sponsored by the Pontifical Council of Culture," Cachey聽added, "will be one of the most important of the worldwide events celebrating Dante and his Commedia scheduled for 2021. I am especially looking forward to what promises to be a landmark exhibition of rare codices of Dante鈥檚 works from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana."
The council publishes in English, which provides regular updates on the council's many initiatives. The Vatican Council for Culture was created by Pope John Paul II in 1982, "with the aim of establishing dialogue between the Church and the cultures of our time, so that they could open themselves up to the Christian faith, which is a creator of culture as well as a source of science, letters and the arts." In 1993, Pope John Paul II united it with the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-believers and, in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI united it with the Council the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Goods of the Church. More details on the council and its mission can be found on its .
Originally published by at on July 20, 2020.