Xavier University of Louisiana and Loyola University New Orleans are jointly hosting a three-day event, The Catholic Business Leader: A New Orleans Symposium. With resource assistance from the Catholic Community Foundation of New Orleans, the symposium will gather Catholic business educators, business executives, and civil leaders to generate dialogues acknowledging Catholic business leadership as a vocation. The event kicks off Thursday, September 29 on Xavier’s campus with an opening ceremony, prayer service and keynote starting at 4 p.m. and concludes on Saturday, October 1, with a vigil mass at the award-winning Xavier University St. Katharine Drexel Chapel.

The event includes several panels, discussions, and services that will take place on both Xavier’s and Loyola’s campuses over the three days. Cardinal Peter Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academies for Sciences and for Social Sciences, will serve as the first keynote speaker at Xavier’s St. Katharine Drexel Chapel during the opening event. The sessions on Friday, September 30, will occur on the Loyola University campus, and the last day of celebration will be hosted at Xavier University of Louisiana.

“This symposium is intended to initiate a much-needed dialogue amongst business leaders, educators, and clergy to instill the importance of integrating business practices and applications of the faith. Business operations and the practice of one’s faith have been considered as mutually exclusive endeavors where there is little or no common ground, said Dr. Jose Bautista, Professor in Xavier’s Department of Business. “Through an understanding of the Catholic Social Principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, the operation of a business should evolve into a vocation rather than just an occupation.”

Four consecutive panel sessions will be held at various locations on Loyola’s campus on the second day. Between sessions, Cardinal Turkson and New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond will lead the celebration during a Holy Mass at Holy Name of Jesus Church on Loyola’s campus starting at noon. The final panel of the day will be followed by a second keynote delivered by Dr. Lowney and then a reception.  

On Saturday, October 1, the congregation returns to Xavier’s campus with two morning panel sessions. Dr. Kathleen Bellow, Director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, will be participating in the first panel of the day: “New Orleans Black Catholics and Catholic Social Teaching.” The third and final session of the institute will be followed by a vigil mass at the St. Katharine Drexel Chapel.

Best-selling author Dr. Chris Lowney, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, and other Catholic intellectuals and business leaders from New Orleans and around the country will also attend and participate in the various panel discussions.

For more information and to register for the event, click here.