In alliance with the John J. Reilly Center of the University of Notre Dame, in the heart of North America, STOQ is expanding the quest's study, research, dialogue and interaction with the mainstream culture.

Four conferences are planned on the topic of evolution, three in Rome and one at the University of Notre Dame, covering the bicentennial year of Darwin's birth and the sesquicentennial of the publication of his famous work On the Origin of Species. The 2009 "Darwin Year" anniversary provides the Church with the compelling opportunity to communicate to the world its understanding of the relationship of faith and science, and redirect the intense and heated public debate over the perceived tension between the two. That debate has been damaging to both faith and science, and to the modern culture.

Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have strongly encouraged the work of scientists, theologians and philosophers studying the legitimate theories of evolution and the role of providence in creation. These conferences advance what the Second Vatican Council called for in the constitution Gaudium et Spes, which is proper and methodical scientific research that respects the moral law (cf. n. 36).

In recent years, Pope Benedict has stressed the urgent need for intellectual clarity now that our technological reach threatens to exceed our moral grasp. "The new dialogue between faith and reason which is needed today cannot come about in the terms and ways it did in the past," Pope Benedict said in June 2008, addressing university professors in Rome. "If it does not want to see itself reduced to the status of sterile intellectual exercises, it must start from the current real situation of mankind, and upon that build a reflection that embraces man's ontological and metaphysical truth."

In light of these calls, STOQ presents our series of conferences.