His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, will formally launch “Within Your Gates: The Forum for the Universal Vocation of Jerusalem” on September 7, 2026.  

Developed in partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s academic center in Jerusalem, the Forum is established as an interdisciplinary research initiative that will bring together scholars and practitioners from different faith traditions and disciplines to engage with Jerusalem's universal mission and its significance not only for those who reside within the Holy Land but for all humanity. 

In light of the tragic events that continue to haunt the Holy Land, Cardinal Pizzaballa sees this Forum as a way to engage with the hard realities and collaboratively imagine a better future for all of Jerusalem’s residents. “The mission of earthly Jerusalem is to become the image and mirror of heavenly Jerusalem, a prophecy and promise of that universal reconciliation and peace which God desires for the whole human family,” said Cardinal Pizzaballa, who will serve as the Chair of the Board of Promoters. “It is to this mission that we must return.” 

The Forum will produce applied interdisciplinary research rooted in Jerusalem's particular realities and oriented toward questions of daily life that resonate beyond the city and the surrounding region, exploring themes such as the theological significance of Jerusalem, the city's universal vocation, the language of conflict and reconciliation, or agency under conditions of constraint. Sponsored by Cardinal Pizzaballa and developed in partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s academic center in Jerusalem, it will be led by Dr. Daniel Schwake. The Forum is based on more than three years of close cooperation with the academic center and other colleagues from the leading Catholic University. The Forum will bring together scholars and practitioners from different faith traditions, disciplines, and communities who are united by the conviction that Jerusalem’s complexity is not an obstacle to its mission but the very condition that allows it to serve as an inspiration to humankind. 

His Beatitude Cardinal Pizzaballa will also share his vision and thoughts about Within Your Gates in a launch event in Jerusalem on September 7, 2026. The event will feature leading scholars and practitioners in their diverse fields who are also members of the Board of Promoters or the Advisory Committee of the Forum.