(NCR. EANNINE M. PITAS).
AHarvard-based lawyer who facilitates conflict resolution workshops, the founder of a national movement focused on depolarizing conversations, and an NGO leader with international peacebuilding experience were among the featured speakers at the inaugural Paulist Summit on Polarization, held in Las Vegas April 19-21. “Polarization is a first-order crisis,” Paulist Fr. Ricky Manalo, a celebrated Catholic composer and leader of his order’s Initiative on Polarization, told NCR. “We can’t talk, debate, or dialogue about any issue until we learn how to talk with one another,” he said. “Abortion, ecology, immigration, gender and marriage, gun control — we are wasting our time trying to have meaningful discussions or debates in a toxic context where we don’t listen to one another. We need to create, nurture and promote contexts for fruitful dialogue.”