Art in the Ruins: Engaging Secular Culture

Experience the Event

Presented by de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture

Join a Cambridge scholar and former Sons of Bill guitarist, a surf-instructor-turned-governance expert, and a missionary priest as they navigate secular culture. From “balancing the ship” of institutions to finding grace in pop music, this panel reveals how to engage the world with intellectual humility and bold faith.

Men and women of faith continue to draw on the wisdom, wonder, and beauty of the evergreen Catholic tradition to inform a particular mode of understanding and engaging with the world around them. Inspired by a sacramental vision of reality, the Catholic arts in particular grapple with the mystery and meaning that permeate the created order, giving shape and expression to the transcendent.

At its 24th annual Fall Conference, the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture considered the idea of the Catholic imagination, its enduring and inexhaustible nature, and how it continues to illumine our modern world. With a particular focus on the literary arts, the conference explored unique expressions of the Catholic imagination in more than 150 presentations, performances, and discussions across the disciplines, including philosophy, theology, ethics, law, history, and the natural and social sciences, as well as the creative domains of film, music, theater, and the visual arts.

For 2024’s Fall Conference, the de Nicola Center was pleased to partner with the Biennial Catholic Imagination Conference, which aims to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the richness and variety of contributions by Catholic artists; to explore the critical and theoretical foundations of the Catholic imagination; and to foster community and collaboration among writers and readers who share a knowledge of and respect for the Catholic tradition.

Meet the Moderator: Santiago Legarre

Dr. Santiago Legarre studied for his LL.B. at Universidad Catolica Argentina. Thereafter he pursued a Master of Studies in Legal Research (M.St.) at the University of Oxford, which was conferred with distinction in 2004. His dissertation title was “The Historical Background of the Police Power in American Constitutional Law” and his supervisor was Professor John Finnis. He holds a PhD from Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Dr. Legarre is currently a Professor of Law at Universidad Católica Argentina and works at CONICET (Argentine National Council for the Research in the Humanities). He is also a Visiting Professor at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University and at the Valparaiso University Law School (Indiana). He has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University, the University of Oxford and the University of Notre Dame.

Meet the Speaker: James McFetridge Wilson

James McFetridge Wilson is a PhD student in Theology at the University of Cambridge. He joined the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame in the fall of 2025 for his post-doctoral fellowship. Here he will to continue his work on metaphysics and modernism, with a focus on American modernist, William Faulkner.

Meet the Speaker: Patrick Langrell

Patrick Langrell is Director of the Governance and Public Affairs Centre (GPAC) at the Australian Catholic University. He is also Convenor of the Executive Forum, a monthly discussion held under Chatham House Rule with senior business leaders across the political and ideological spectrum. He is also a Research Associate in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America.

For the past three years, Patrick has been collaborating with global business leaders, heads of universities, politicians, and governance bodies in the US, UK, EU and Australia on the positive role corporations can play in addressing polarisation and social division around issues of public interest. His articles have been published in the Australian Financial Review, the Australian Institute of Company Directors Magazine, and the Australian Shareholder’s Association Equity Magazine.

Patrick has extensive experience in conceiving, directing and overseeing a wide range of organisation-wide strategies and projects, external partnerships, and public programming in ethics, politics and corporate affairs. Combined with his teaching experience in philosophy and close working relationships with institutional leaders in several sectors, he is regularly consulted on how to bring ethical and strategic thinking to bear on commercial imperatives in different business environments.

Meet the Speaker: Rev. Damian Ference

Father Damian Ference is a priest of the diocese of Cleveland.  He serves at Borromeo Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio as Director of Human Formation and Assistant Professor of Philosophy.

Father Ference graduated from Borromeo Seminary/John Carroll University in 1998, and after earning his M.A. and M.Div. from Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology he was ordained for the diocese of Cleveland in 2003.  He served as parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish in Hudson, Ohio from 2003-2007.  In 2009 he earned his licentiate in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  Ference has been part of the formation faculty at Borromeo Seminary since 2009.

In addition to writing for Word on Fire, Father Ference has published articles in a wide variety of periodicals, including America, Catholic Universe Bulletin, Commonweal, Dappled Things, Emmanuel, FirstThings.com, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Human Development, Pastoral Life, Seminary Journal, The Plain Dealer, The Priest, U.S. Catholic and Worship.  Ference also regularly preaches retreats and parish missions.  He is the founder and director of {TOLLE LEGE} Summer Institute and is a lifetime member of the Flannery O’Connor Society.