Healing our National Dialogue and Political Life

Experience the Event

Presented by The Office of the President

In a political landscape where many Americans believe political discourse has become unproductive, stressful, and disrespectful, where do we find reason for hope? As part of the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum on Cultivating Hope, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., joined University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., on October 17, 2025 for a conversation titled “Healing Our National Dialogue and Political Life.”

A member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal McElroy explored the roots of America’s societal divides and offered strategies to move forward together toward a more unified future.

Since its establishment in 2005, each year the Notre Dame Forum invites campus-wide dialogue about issues of importance to the University, the nation, and the larger world.

This year’s theme is Cultivating Hope. In a world where hope is too often in short supply, our goal is to invite reflection about how each of us can be “seekers of truth, sustainers of hope, and builders of bridges.”

To learn more about the Notre Dame Forum 2025-26, please visit the Forum website.

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Meet the Speaker: President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.

In December 2023, the University’s Board of Trustees elected Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., as Notre Dame’s 18th president, effective June 1, 2024. He also serves as professor of political science. Prior to serving as president, he was vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives.

In his role as vice president and associate provost, he oversaw the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, iNDustry Labs, the Institute for Educational Initiatives, the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, the McGrath Institute for Church Life, the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center, the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, the ROTC programs, and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. He also directed the approval and review process of institutes and centers more generally.

Father Dowd was previously an assistant provost for internationalization with Notre Dame International, where his primary responsibilities included leadership of the Dublin Global Gateway, Kylemore Abbey Global Centre, and the São Paulo Global Center along with planning for future engagement with Africa.

The author of the book Christianity, Islam, and Liberal Democracy: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa, Father Dowd focuses his research on African politics, ethnic politics, and the relationship between religion, political institutions, national identity, and human development. His current research explores religion and the integration of migrants/refugees in Europe and North America and the effects of faith-based schools on citizenship and civic engagement in Africa.

He is the founder of Notre Dame’s Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity and a fellow of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies in the University’s Keough School of Global Affairs.

A Notre Dame alum, Father Dowd earned an M.Div. from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and was ordained a Holy Cross priest in 1994. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

Meet the Speaker: Cardinal Robert W. McElroy

Cardinal Robert W. McElroy was appointed by Pope Francis to be the sixth bishop of San Diego in 2015, where he led a diverse community of nearly 1.4 million Catholics. Pope Francis then elevated him to the College of Cardinals in May 2022 and named him the eighth archbishop of Washington on Jan. 6, 2025.

A member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal McElroy is a steadfast advocate for the Church’s social justice mission, seeking to address the causes of social inequality, homelessness and immigration reform.

In his installation homily delivered at the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., on March 12, Cardinal McElroy emphasized the role of the Church in addressing suffering, saying, “We are called to be pilgrims of hope in a wounded world, not ignoring the suffering that abounds, but seeing it as a call to strive even more deeply to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives and our nation and our world.”

Cardinal McElroy, who was born in San Francisco and grew up in nearby San Mateo County, has said he felt called to the priesthood from a young age. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American history from Harvard University and a master’s degree in American history from Stanford University before entering St. Patrick’s Seminary, where he earned a master’s degree in divinity.

Following his ordination in 1980, Cardinal McElroy continued to pursue advanced studies and received a licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, a doctorate in political science from Stanford University and a doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He has written two books, “The Search for an American Public Theology” and “Morality and American Foreign Policy.” He has also written articles on theology and public policy for a variety of journals.

Cardinal McElroy is no stranger to Notre Dame. In August, he, along with Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, led a delegation, including Father Dowd, to Japan as part of a “Pilgrimage of Peace” to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The pilgrimage included Notre Dame faculty, staff and students, along with representatives from other U.S. Catholic universities. In 2023, then-Bishop McElroy came to the University of Notre Dame to lead a discussion on the moral challenges of war and nuclear arms, as part of the 2022-23 Notre Dame Forum on the theme “War and Peace.”