On Tuesday 18 August, Professor Clemens Sedmak (Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame, and Senior Research Associate of the Von Hügel Institute) has been appointed by Pope Leo XIV as consultor to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Established by Pope Francis in 2016, the Dicastery for Integral Human Development supports the Pope and the Bishops – the particular Churches, the Episcopal Conferences, their regional and continental unions, and the Eastern hierarchical structures – in overcoming the many obstacles to people’s integral human development. Among others, these include violence and war, human rights violations, humanitarian emergencies, environmental degradation, unemployment, inaccessible healthcare and forced migration.
Consultors to the Dicastery may be religious or lay people who are distinguished by their expertise and commitment in supporting the Church’s worldwide efforts in promoting human dignity and human rights, health, justice, care for creation, and peace.
About Professor Clemens Sedmak
Sedmak is Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and Professor of Social Ethics in the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame (USA), where he holds a joint appointment with the Institute for Social Concerns. He is also a concurrent Professor of Theology at Notre Dame and a Senior Research Associate of the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College. Prior to his appointment at the University of Notre Dame, Sedmak was F. D. Maurice Professor for Moral and Social Theology at King’s College London and has held multiple positions at the University of Salzburg, serving as Director of the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research and Chair for Epistemology and Philosophy of Religion, and as President of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Ethics.
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