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Gelato, anyone? Good and fellowship are hallmarks of the annual weekend.(Photo: Courtesy of New York Encounter) <\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 The \u201cNew York Encounter\u201d \u2014 the annual three-day cultural conference organized by members of the lay ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation taking place this weekend in Chelsea, Manhattan\u2019s artsy West Side neighborhood \u2014 has a distinctly European feel.<\/p>\n
Outside the Metropolitan Pavillion, where the event is held, a group of young people huddled together against the cold are likely sharing a cigarette break. Italian is spoken almost as often as English, reflecting that many attendees live in the U.S. but come from Italy, where the movement began. The Italian influence extends to the food as well: white bean and escarole soup, prosciutto crudo and mascarpone sandwiches, gelato and espresso.<\/p>\n
Gelato, anyone? Good and fellowship are hallmarks of the annual weekend.(Photo: Courtesy of New York Encounter) <\/p>\n
It is not your typical American Catholic conference, to be sure. For years, though, Cardinal Timothy Dolan has celebrated Mass for the thousands who gather in faith, and papal nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre is a regular presence on the conference\u2019s panels. Pope Benedict XVI called Communion and Liberation\u2019s founder, Father Luigi Giussani (1925-2005) \u2014 whose cause for canonization was opened in 2012 \u2014 a \u201ctrue friend<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Communion and Liberation, Pope Benedict said, on the 25th anniversary of the movement\u2019s pontifical recognition, is \u201can experience of faith born not from an organizational will of the hierarchy, but from a renewed encounter with Christ, and thus, we can say, from an impulse ultimately derived from the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n What Is the \u2018New York Encounter\u2019? <\/p>\n Since 2009, members of the Communion and Liberation movement (CL) have hosted this annual conference in New York City, bringing together writers, academics, scientists and other thinkers \u2014 many of them not Catholic \u2014 to grapple with the most urgent questions of the moment. The event, which is free, and open to the public, is a smaller version of CL\u2019s annual conference in Rimini, Italy.<\/p>\n Holly Peterson, a longtime organizer of the \u201cNew York Encounter,\u201d told the Register that every March, a group of CL members get together for a weekend to pick a theme and panels for the following year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n \u201cOur starting point is reality \u2014 what\u2019s actually happening,\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n The group begins by brainstorming on a \u201cmassive\u201d whiteboard, Peterson explained, considering developments in literature, education, sports, the economy \u2014 anything that\u2019s on people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s theme, \u201cWhere Everything Is Waiting for You,\u201d begins with the observation that the world is changing but a hunger for belonging and meaning remains a constant to the human experience.<\/p>\n The Feb. 13-15 conference will begin with a reflection by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa<\/a>, patriarch of Jerusalem, and will include panel discussions on the \u201cperceived religious revival\u201d in the West, Catholic teaching on just-war doctrine, and the \u201ccrisis of globalization\u2019 with Paolo Carozza<\/a>, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame. The lineup also includes a discussion of the Church and AI, the Catholic view of immigration in the U.S., and a panel discussion on America\u2019s founding ideals with Mary Ann Glendon<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more than hot-button issues on offer \u2014 this year\u2019s conference will feature panels on art and culture, including one on Father Giussani\u2019s writing, an exhibit exploring the meaning of time, and a look at Franz and Franziska J\u00e4gerst\u00e4tter, the Austrian couple featured in the film A Hidden Life, as well as an \u201celectronic rock-pop gospel\u201d inspired by T.S. Eliot\u2019s Choruses from The Rock.<\/p>\n What Does the \u2018Encounter\u2019 Have to Do With Communion and Liberation? <\/p>\n The story of the \u201cNew York Encounter\u201d begins in Italy in 1954, when Father Giussani planted the seeds of the Communion and Liberation movement. Recently ordained and troubled by what he saw as a growing tendency among young people towards nominal Catholicism and ignorance and disengagement from their faith, he sought permission to teach religion in a public high school.<\/p>\n There, Father Giussani taught students that every person has an inherent desire to seek God (\u201cthe religious sense\u201d), that faith is reasonable, and that Christ remains present in our lives throughout history to the present day.<\/p>\n Peterson \u2014 who first encountered Father Giussani and his followers while traveling in Italy as a young woman \u2014 explained that the Italian priest\u2019s insight was to teach the faith to young people through examples drawn from their own lives rather than through abstractions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPart of Giussani\u2019s pedagogy is if I can\u2019t see what I learned in reality, I can\u2019t understand it, and I\u2019m not learning it. I\u2019ve got to see the connection with the world around me,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was always using examples from the reality the kids were living in, so they understood what he was talking about. \u201c\u00a0<\/p>\n He also, she said, used examples from his reality, including his love for classical music.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d bring in a piece of beautiful music and a gramophone to play it on and have kids listen to Chopin and Schubert and have them connect what their life was to this beautiful piece of music. Then, slowly, you\u2019d understand this need they had for a place to belong, for beauty, for truth, for goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n Later as a university professor, Father Giussani published the three books The Religious Sense, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, and The Risk of Education, which make up the foundational texts that members of Communion and Liberation read and discuss in weekly meetings called \u201cSchools of Community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In early 1980s, after Peterson and a few other disciples of Father Giussani introduced Schools of Community to the United States, the movement began to spread. While still small compared to other such lay movements \u2014 there are only about 1,500 registered members of Communion and Liberation in the U.S. \u2014 \u00a0they are active on many college campuses, which is the primary way the movement attracts new members.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Invitation to See the True, the Good and the Beautiful <\/p>\n At Schools of Community, participants gather each week to read a couple of pages from Father Giussani\u2019s writings, reflecting on their meaning and sharing insights from their own lives to illuminate the text. That same spirit animates the \u201cNew York Encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n Kristin Hurd, who leads a School of Community in the Washington, D.C., area, explained that community is central to the movement\u2019s method of looking at the world.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cCL has within [its] charism the living of the tradition of the Church and fact that the way that Jesus instituted Christianity was to be lived in communion. This is how it is expressed, and that, naturally, through the life of communion, it generates a way of looking at society, of looking at reality,\u201d Hurd said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo doing something like \u2018New York Encounter\u2019 is an opportunity for us, in terms of as a community, to look at things that are true and beautiful and good and to work on it together and help each other to see and judge what\u2019s happening,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to say, \u2018How does our experience of the tradition of the Church inform what we\u2019re seeing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Suker Li, an engineering project manager at a small tech company, came to the U.S. 14 years ago as an exchange student and attended his first \u201cNew York Encounter\u201d with his host family.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI landed in the United States in January and didn\u2019t know much English at the time. And then my host was like, \u2018We\u2019re all going to New York, if you want to come,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cI thought it was really fascinating, and it was also a beautiful way to make friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Li has since converted to Catholicism and is an active member of CL. He hasn\u2019t missed an \u201cEncounter\u201d since. He emphasized the importance of avoiding an \u201cecho chamber,\u201d where people only engage with ideas they already agree with.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the \u2018New York Encounter\u2019 is crucial because it\u2019s a moment when the movement becomes vulnerable to the world. It tests you against perspectives beyond your own. What\u2019s beautiful about it is that it\u2019s not advertised as a Catholic event in the traditional sense. It\u2019s about listening to what people find important and engaging in genuine dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We Are a Friendship\u2019 <\/p>\n Besides the weekly Schools of Community, members meet for volunteer activities, as well as go on an annual \u201csummer vacation\u201d hiking in the Rocky Mountains, with spiritual exercises while on retreat.<\/p>\n The \u201cNew York Encounter\u201d serves as a chance for CL members from across the country, who know each other from past events, to meet again.<\/p>\n Peterson emphasized that CL is not simply intellectual exercise but a lived companionship.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not a book study group. We don\u2019t get together and discuss a book, and then we pick another book and then discuss that book. We are a friendship,\u201d she said, explaining that the texts read in School of Community, and the retreats and other events, are the \u201cvehicles in which Christ has created a companionship.\u201d<\/p>\n Going to the \u201cNew York Encounter,\u201d she said, gives you an idea of what it must have been like to be an early Christian.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go there and you\u2019re friends with people who you haven\u2019t seen for a year. You\u2019re friends with people who you\u2019ve never met before because they\u2019re friends of your friend. And that\u2019s extraordinary,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dave Hazen, a member of CL who works in the communications office at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., told the Register that the \u201csifting through reality\u201d that takes place at the \u201cNew York Encounter\u201d is a product of the friendships made through the movement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the collective interest, zeal and fascination of these people who put this together, who, first of all, try to emphasize this is born of a friendship that we\u2019re living and want to live with everybody we know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Li, too, emphasized the importance of relationships with CL. He said he was looking forward to catching up with old friends and introducing them to his girlfriend.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe this is an important work, and it\u2019s put on by the people who have loved me and found me,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I think I\u2019m just happy, also, to be part of that, to build something beautiful together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The \u201cNew York Encounter\u201d \u2014 the annual three-day cultural conference organized by members of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[56233,10087,9,44159,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-131157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-catholic-life","9":"tag-catholicism","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-encounter","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026021117028_7de57f7060d0ff9892d9d80ef0055a8661b204f154b0459d41d4947a53516941.jpg\")
Author Christine Rosen speaks with high-school students at the 2025 event.(Photo: Courtesy of New York Encounter) <\/p>\n