Berkley Center

The acclaimed theater troupe Compagnia de' Colombari gave a dramatic performance of Flannery O'Connor's classic short story "Everything that Rises Must Converge," directed by Karin Coonrod. In this story written in 1964 and set in the newly integrated South, O'Connor made an encounter between white and black passengers on a city bus come to represent the struggles over love and justice that animate literature and culture in her time and ours.

The performance was one of the cultural events around Georgetown's Faith, Culture, and the Common Good conference, which explored how people of different faith traditions, as well as those who claim no religious affiliation, can work together to enrich civic life in America. The conference was part of the Courtyard of the Gentiles initiative, a structure for permanent dialogue created by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture in 2010.

This conference was cosponsored by Georgetown University, the Pontifical Council for Culture, and the Archdiocese of Washington.

related | Faith, Culture, and the Common Good
related | Resources on previous Courtyard of the Gentiles meetings