CMN Hosts Third National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice
On September 25 to September 27, Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) hosted the biennial National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference brought together Catholic ministry leaders, academic and legal professionals, restorative justice practitioners, and people directly impacted by harm, crime, and incarceration to build capacity within communities and the Church to advance healing approaches to harm, crime, and injustice. The theme, “Tangible Signs of Hope”, drew inspiration from the special Jubilee Year 2025.
The conference was hosted at Emory University with the collaboration of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Aquinas Center of Theology at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
Participants began their journey early Thursday morning embarking on a tour through the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Park. With the guidance of representatives from the Archdiocese of Atlanta, they visited The King Center, the tomb of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. This was followed by an Ecumenical Prayer Service with Rev. John Vaughn — Executive Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church — and the Music Ministry from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, the mother Church of Black Catholics in Atlanta.
The opening plenary of the conference surveyed the current landscape of restorative justice in the world and highlighted stories from individuals who were deeply involved in the work. Participants were invited to reflect among themselves on the opening plenary and their hopes for the conference. Later, an Opening Mass was celebrated by Most Rev. Gregory J. Hartmayer, O.F.M. Conv., the Archbishop of Atlanta.
The second day of the conference was packed with plenaries, participatory experiences, and breakout workshops. Topics ranged from dissecting the harm caused by the criminal justice system through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching to hearing how community organizers from Dekalb County Georgia were implementing restorative solutions in their work.
An afternoon panel co-sponsored by the Georgetown Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life was livestreamed to a national audience, bringing in more than 1,000 additional viewers. This panel featured a dialogue on how restorative justice creates conditions for solidarity, subsidiarity, and human flourishing in communities and systems.
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, M.T.S.
The final day of the National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice had participants looking ahead to the future of restorative justice work. The last panel featured legal system actors who shared about their efforts to build open windows of hope for those impacted by crime and incarceration.
Afterwards, participants broke into affinity groups by ministry or work area to reflect and share what they learned and heard from one another. The final plenary session continued this synodal sharing by inviting participants to work together to answer the difficult questions that came to mind over the course of the past days.
The conference ended with a prayer service presided by Most Rev. Bernard E. Shlesinger III, Auxiliary Bishop of Atlanta.
