Upcoming New York Encounter to focus on finding ‘true belonging’

Jan 8, 2026 / 13:47 pm (CNA).

Next month Catholics from across the globe will gather for the 18th annual New York Encounter dedicated to education, dialogue, and friendship.

The cultural conference is organized annually by members of Communion and Liberation, an ecclesiastical movement founded by the Italian priest Father Luigi Giussani. The event will take place Feb. 13–15 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. Several of the presentations will be livestreamed, but for those who wish to attend in person, the event is free and open to all.

The 2026 theme is “Where Everything Is Waiting for You” to address “the reemerging human desire for authentic belonging amid global isolation, emphasizing how freedom, truth, forgiveness, and dignity foster certainty and openness in true community,” Communion and Liberation reported.

The event is set to feature a number of exhibits, panels, and discussion from a wide range of speakers. Dialogue and reflection will focus on urgent questions shaping common life, the event’s website reported. The Encounter plans to bring together leading voices from culture, academia, faith, and the arts to explore how human flourishing is possible in today’s world.

Speakers and events

The Encounter will host events on “pressing social issues” to encourage “reflection that goes beyond superficial or popular judgments,” Communion and Liberation reported. Among the topics, speakers will discuss the crisis of globalization, trade wars, and immigration.

The 2026 conference will welcome dozens of well-known Catholic leaders. The event will kick off the evening of Feb. 13 with a talk by author Colum McCann followed by a reflection led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.

Feb. 14 will feature a number of panels including a discussion, “A Home in the Storm,” by Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv and Father Wojciech Stasiewicz, the director of Caritas-Spes in Kharkiv. The conversation will address the faith that sustains the Church in Ukraine and be moderated by Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio.

Another panel will tackle artificial intelligence (AI). Louis Kim, former vice president of personal systems and AI at Hewlett Packard, and Paul Scherz, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, will discuss how Catholic social doctrine is addressing the challenges of the technology.

Attendees can also start to check out the exhibits including “You Can’t Die for a Dollar” about the Catholic founder of Bank of America, Peter Giannini, or “The Matter of Time” about the meaning of time in science, history, and life.

Feb. 15 will begin in prayer with a Mass honoring the 21st anniversary of Giussani’s death, which will be celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop emeritus of New York. Following Mass, discussions and exhibits will resume.

Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., will speak alongside legal expert Ashley Feasley and executive director at the Center for Migration Studies Mario Russell to offer a Catholic view on the status of immigration in the country.

In light of the 250th anniversary of America, the Encounter will hold a panel addressing the relevance and future prospects of America’s founding ideals with Mary Ann Glendon, professor of law at Harvard, and Meir Soloveichik, an Orthodox rabbi and author.

The weekend will feature a number of other speakers and exhibits to address cultural matters and to continue to tackle the 2026 theme of “Where Everything Is Waiting for You.”

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/268953/new-york-encounter-2026