In collaboration with NYU Global Spiritual Life, NYU Buenos Aires and NYU Washington, D.C. co-hosted a panel discussion on the theme “Social Justice and Religion in the Age of Pope Francis” on September 30, 2015. The event brought together community activists, religious leaders, policy makers and other stakeholders to discuss themes of social justice and interfaith collaboration.
This event, which was held simultaneously at NYU Buenos Aires and NYU Washington, D.C., emphasized the importance of inter-faith conversations about social justice and religion, with focus on the social and religious landscape Pope Francis brings to the global sphere and fosters both in word and action. The event was scheduled to build off of the Pope’s visit to the United States from September 22-27, 2015. The Pope’s itinerary and his actions revealed a balance between statesmanship, religious ceremony, and social action. This was explored during the dialogue and came as no surprise to those familiar with his time in Argentina.
The majority of Pope Francis’s work as Archbishop in Buenos Aires was not only to promote religious values but also to prioritize hands on fieldwork himself in the poverty-ridden areas around the city. In this sense, the priests that worked then and still work today among the poor and marginalized are a cause for continued dedication and constant preoccupation. Pope Francis has also given tangible and clear evidence that sharing a space of reflection and communication with other religious traditions around the world is of vital importance for an existential and political equilibrium.
In addition to the connecting global sites, attention to students was very much included in planning this event. The panel discussion was a co-curricular activity for two distinct NYU Buenos Aires courses. The cross-site engagement enriched not only the experience for students, faculty, and panelists, but also was a positive academic outcome reflecting NYU’s global nature. Politics and policy, activism and social justice are very much part of the identity of both NYU Buenos Aires and NYU Washington, D.C.
NYU Washington, D.C. and NYU Buenos Aires intended that the panel stimulate both faculty and students through its discussion, and thus invited a lively and diverse group of participants. The moderator for the cross-site event was Victoria Kiechel, architect and urban planning expert, who teaches “Globalizing Social Activism: Sustainable Development in Urban Areas” at NYU Washington, D.C.
In Buenos Aires, the panelists included a prominent journalist, Marina Artusa, who often reports on the activities of Pope Francis. She was joined by Rabbi Ernesto Yattah, Dean of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Rabbinical School at the Seminario Rabínico Lationamericano Marshall T. Meyer, where he also teaches Bible and Jewish Philosophy. In addition to his academic work, Rabbi Yattah works as a volunteer in community settings and as a core participant in the City of Buenos Aires’ Inter-religious Dialogue initiatives. A key member of the panel in Buenos Aires was Father Gustavo Oscar Carrara, a Catholic priest dedicated specifically to communities in situations of poverty and marginalization. He and others like him are known here as “The Shantytown Priests.” This choice of service in and for people in the slums reflects the commitment forged by Argentine priests in 1970s when Argentina was under dictatorship. Both as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and as Pope, Francis recognizes and mentors the “shantytown priests.” Father Gustavo Carrara’s parish is Buenos Aires shantytown number 1-11-14, where nearly 40,000 people live in miserable conditions. His work there has forged a hub for community building, education and solace in a zone that typifies the challenges today’s societies face in many places around the world.
In Washington, D.C., the panelists were John Gehring, the Catholic Program Director for Faith in Public Life. Mr. Gehring has recently authored a book: The Francis Effect: A Radical Pope’s Challenge to the American Catholic Church. He was joined by Saif Inam, the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Policy Analyst in the Washington, DC, office. Inam engages members of Congress and their staff on legislation and current affairs, organizes briefings on various domestic and foreign policy issues for the Capitol Hill community, and creates memos and policy papers for policy-makers.
On the evening of September 30th, spanning the hemisphere of the Americas by talking across Washington DC and Buenos Aires, this distinguished group of panelists engaged in an illuminating discussion on social justice and religion, where DC-based moderator Victoria Kiechel, enabled a broadly inclusive hemispheric mode and stimulated agile exchange across the locations. Father Gustavo Oscar Carrara, in Buenos Aires, especially echoed Pope Francis’s unremitting invitation to social consciousness and public-spiritedness towards the most marginalized of our global society. This provided a refined dialogue throughout the discourse between the panelists, including a strong conclusion with questions and answers from the students present at each site.
The discussions at the event focused on themes of social justice and interfaith collaboration in the same ways Pope Francis has prompted today’s world to consider the same issues. Moreover, these important topics were explored in a manner that highlights the importance of NYU’s vibrant global network. NYU Buenos Aires Site Director Anna Kazumi Stahl described the cross-site experience as “galvanizing and rewarding,” noting that “it truly felt like [a collaboration] that spoke to the heart of the university’s using its global network – in that it purposefully connected two very different parts of the world in ways that showcased all sectors having a voice.”

Even if you missed the panel, you can watch the conversation any time online. The full video may be accessed through either global site’s webpage. For example, click on DC’s link here. Or click on BA’s link here.