The Notre Dame Center for Liturgy’s 2016 Symposium, “Liturgy and the New Evangelization,” will be held June 20-23. According to organizers, the conference “seeks to discern how liturgical prayer, sacramental formation, and liturgical catechesis can contribute to the new evangelization.” Liturgy and sacraments, while the privileged means of worshipping God, impel worshippers to spread the good news beyond the Church walls. Pope Francis himself, particularly through his 2013 apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel” (Evengelii Gaudium), emphasizes the baptismal call to go out to the peripheries.

The Symposium’s speakers include James Pauley, associate professor of theology and catechetics, Franciscan University, Steubenville OH; Anthony Ruff, O.S.B., associate professor of theology, Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, Collegeville, MN; and Christian Smith, who is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society, University of Notre Dame.

Complete information, along with registration details, is available at www.liturgy.nd.edu/.

The Society of Catholic Liturgy will host its annual liturgy conference, “The Liturgy and the New Evangelization,” September 29-October 1, 2016, at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral Conference Center, Los Angeles, CA. Distinguished speakers and topics for this year include, among others, the Most Reverend Jose H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles, who explains the necessity of popular piety for public worship and evangelization, and Bishop Abdallah Elias Zaidan of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, who explores the power of the Liturgy for the Church Persecuted.

Additional topics include the liturgical and sacramental challenges for parishes in the new evangelization; preaching the Gospel of Christ in post-Christian societies; liturgical art and popular piety in the mission of the Church today; and liturgy and religious freedom. Complete details are available at www.liturgysociety.org.