The international conference on “Religious freedom and Integral Human Development”, organized by the Order’s Embassy to the Holy See, Atlantic Council, Notre Dame University, University of Sussex, John Cabot University and Pontifical Urban University, took place in the Magistral Villa, one of the government seats of the Sovereign Order of Malta.

Some 60 academics were present, including university professors and researchers, from 19 countries and representing various governments and religions. Also present were influential personalities of the Holy See and the Order of Malta, including the Grand Master, Fra’ John Dunlap, who concluded the meeting.

The conference was the result of in-depth collaboration between different institutions and aimed to offer a new platform for open and balanced dialogue on urgent issues such as religious persecution and discrimination and complex issues such as alignment of advocacy and international coordination efforts to promote religious freedom with reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The one-day conference was opened by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States, and included four seminar sessions. The meeting concluded with a round table introduced by the Order of Malta’s Grand Chancellor, Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, took the floor at the end of the event.

The conference was organized by a “Steering Committee”, composed of Prof. Dan Negrea of the Atlantic Council, Antonio Zanardi Landi, Ambassador of the Order of Malta to the Holy See, Prof. Fabio Petito of the University of Sussex and Prof. Scott Appleby of the Notre Dame University, and a Scientific Committee with Prof. Petito and Prof. Appleby, Prof. Silvio Ferrari of the University of Milan,  Prof. Michael Driessen of John Cabot University and Prof. Vincenzo Buonomo, Rector of the Pontifical Urban University.