Why do we gather?

The biennial National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice from Catholic Mobilizing Network brings together Catholic ministry leaders, academic and legal professionals, restorative justice practitioners, and directly impacted persons to build capacity within communities and the Church to advance healing approaches to harm, crime, and injustice.

Save the Date

The National Catholic Conference on Restorative Justice will return in the fall of 2025. Stay tuned for more details.

Past Themes

In 2020, CMN convened the first National Conference on Restorative Justice hosted entirely virtually at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The conference took on the theme “Harm, Healing, and Human Dignity.” It invited a renewed exploration of the vital intersections between Catholic Social Teaching and restorative justice practices, and created opportunities for life-giving responses to harm and injustice to flourish.

In 2023, CMN hosted the first ever in-person National Conference on Restorative Justice in collaboration with the Initiative on Restorative Justice and Healing at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. The 2023 conference took on the theme “Journeying Toward Restoration.” Ever aware of past and ongoing violations of dignity and relationships, this theme signified a renewed promise for restorative justice as an instrument for human flourishing both within and beyond the institutional Church. This conference focused on four key focal areas: criminal legal system transformation, clergy sexual abuse and healing, racial injustice and healing, harms against native peoples.