Gianna Van Heel has served the project Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries since its inception, coordinating the international team of collaborators and working closely with Don Sergio and her colleagues in the Migrants & Refugees Section to ensure each phase of the project was successfully completed. She previously worked in the Covid-19 Commission at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and is also a freelance writer and translator. Gianna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Italian Literature with a minor in Philosophy, Theology, and Literature from the University of Notre Dame. 

“For me, ‘doing theology from the existential peripheries’ has been a hopeful example for an inclusive Christian faith. Above all else, it has modeled seeking for truth where God is most vibrant, alive, and at work: within the loving relationships and encounters among God’s children.” 

Agnes M. Brazal is holder of the Br Adelino Manuel fsc Professorial Chair for Religious Studies and Br Flanan Paul fsc Professorial Chair for Rhetoric at the De la Salle University, Philippines. She is author of two books and more than seventy journal articles and book chapters as well as editor of eight anthologies, dealing largely with issues of liberation/postcoloniality, migration, women, and the cyber context in relation to ethics/theology. She is founding member and past President of the Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines (DaKaTeo) and a former Coordinator of the Ecclesia of Women in Asia.

“The project is for me a way to support Pope Francis’s vision of synodality by serving as a means for the stories of  those in the existential peripheries of both church and society to reach the Vatican and the Pope, stir our hearts, and challenge us to become a more inclusive church.”

Stan Chu Ilo is a priest of Awgu diocese, Nigeria. He is a research professor of World Christianity, Ecclesiology, and African Studies at the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, DePaul University, Chicago, USA. He is the Coordinating Servant of the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network, and a member of the Board of Editors of Concilium International Catholic Journal.

“Listening to our brothers and sisters at the existential peripheries was the most transformative experience for me as both a priest and theologian. I learned more from these encounters than all my studies in the seminaries and in the theology faculties. Following the wisdom of the Lord Jesus and Pope Francis, I learned that the best method to accompany so many of our siblings who are often forgotten, judged, condemned and abandoned is to step into their shoes with reverence and respect, and listen to them so as to hear the voice of God speaking to me in a most eloquent and convincing way.”

Lorena Basualto Porra is a Professor of Religion and Morals and Licentiate in Religious Sciences from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. She has a Masters in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, a Masters in Education from the Andrés Bello University, and a Doctorate in Practical Theology from Pontifical University of Salamanca, Spain. She is currently an academic at the Egidio Viganó Theological Institute of the Catholic University Silva Henríquez in Santiago, Chile and coordinator of the evangelization and catechesis area of the Youth Pastoral Team of the Provincial Team of Youth Ministry of the Salesian Congregation in Chile. She is a member of the interdisciplinary research team GENSEX: « Gender, sexualities and cultural diversities » of the Universidad Autónoma de Chile.

“The project Doing theology from the existential peripheries has been an opportunity to go to encounter the existential peripheries of so many brothers and sisters who feel invisible in the church and in society but who, at the same time, have so much to contribute from their lived experience of the Gospel. It is interesting to be able to appreciate the richness of their faith and also their perception that the Church needs to transform itself to be closer to the people. They see in Pope Francis a hope for renewal, but one that needs the co-responsibility of all the people of God to achieve the transformations needed.”

Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, S.J., is a Congolese Jesuit priest, the Director of the Centre Arrupe pour la Recherche et la Formation in Lubumbashi, and a professor of political science at Université Loyola du Congo (ULC). A member of several national and international scholarly networks, he also serves as the current president of the African Studies Association of Africa. 

“This project revealed to me the multiple ways in which God is present and acting in the world and in individual human beings giving meaning to their faith, hope, and love through Christ.”

Inspired by Pope Francis and his vision in Laudato Si’ – On Care for Our Common Home, Adele works through her advisory and communications roles on developing an integral ecology to support new action to reverse the damage of global warming and to respond to ‘the cry of earth and the cry of the poorest.’ Adele is an experienced Educator, Presenter and Digital Media Producer with advanced qualifications in Theology and also in Media Arts. Adele is an Honorary Fellow of Australian Catholic University, in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy. A member of the Sisters of Mercy, Adele has worked with the Ecology Sector of the Vatican Dicastery (DPIHD) this year, as well as being a member of the Australian Advisory Council for The Global Foundation with its Assisi Accord.

“This project has offered me the opportunity to listen, in the light of the Gospel, to the voices of Oceania, to reflect theologically on their serious concerns about loss of life, loss of culture and loss of home and to widely communicate their calls for action to save our common home.”