The Church Properties Initiative’s next annual conference will be held April 5–7, 2027, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

Under the banner of words from Psalm 104, “You renew the face of the earth,” the conference will examine the Church as an agent of renewal for communities and environments, with particular attention to contexts of urban disinvestment and the threat of ecological degradation.

The conference brings together two concerns that are increasingly difficult to separate: long-term stewardship of the Church’s property portfolio, and social and environmental sustainability, as changes to church properties profoundly affect communities and shape places.

Pope Francis invited the faithful to develop a distinctly Christ-centered vision of sustainability through his encyclical Laudato Si’, which calls Christians to attend both to “the cry of the earth” and “the cry of the poor” in the double perspective of “integral ecology.” From urban dioceses adjusting their physical footprints to the land use decisions of large-scale faith-based property-owners like religious orders, colleges, and seminaries, the Church today has a critical opportunity to enact (or to ignore) the principles of Laudato Si’ in its own property decisions.

“Church property stewards face decisions that challenge them to incarnate the spirit of the Gospel in the use, maintenance, design, purchase, sale, and governance of property,” said CPI Program Director Madeline Johnson. “Doing so requires a theology that embraces the meaningfulness of the material world, and a disciplinary practice that is open to the transcendent dimensions of the faith.”The fifth annual Church Properties conference will set the stage for such a theology and such a practice to mutually inform one another.

The conference welcomes pastoral leaders, Church administrators, scholars, and practitioners working at the intersection of faith and real estate to attend and present. While the Catholic experience of church property is a central emphasis, presentations and attendance from other faith traditions are welcomed and encouraged. As always, the goal of the Church Properties Conference is to advance reflection on and practice of the stewardship of temporal goods in the life of the Church.

Full logistical information, including hotels, transportation, and registration timelines, will be available on the conference event page. Registration is expected to open in late fall 2026, to be announced in CPI’s newsletter.

Sign Up to Receive Email Updates