March 14, 2007

Vatican's U.N. official to speak at Purdue, tour Discovery Park

Archbishop Celestino Migliore
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Archbishop Migliore, who has championed the global causes of health, illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, AIDS, workers rights, and poverty, will speak at 8 p.m. March 26 in the Krannert Auditorium. His lecture is titled "Coming Together to Debate and Deliver on the Challenges Confronting the World."

Earlier that day, Archbishop Migliore will meet with researchers from Purdue and Notre Dame in the areas of cytometry, pharmacy, agriculture, pandemic surveillance, entomology and economic development. He also will tour the Birck Nanotechnology Center and meet with Charles O. Rutledge, Purdue's vice president of research, and Joseph Pekny, a chemical engineering professor and director of the e-Enterprise Center in Discovery Park.

"Archbishop Migliore has spent a lifetime committed to the concerns of health, poverty and AIDS in the underdeveloped parts of our world," Pekny said. "We look forward to discussions on how Purdue and Discovery Park can help advance this global mission to address the socially significant grand challenges of our time."

Discovery Park and the Aquinas Educational Foundation are sponsoring Migliore's visit.

Ordained a Catholic priest in 1977, Migliore received a master's degree in theology at the Center of Theological Studies in Fossano, Italy. He continued his studies at the Pontifical Lateran University in Vatican City, where he earned a doctorate in canon law before joining the Vatican's diplomatic service in 1980. The late Pope John Paul II appointed him as apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in October 2002.

"The Aquinas Educational Foundation's mission is to foster learning on such topics as science and faith and how church and state can work together to address the challenges we face in our world today," said Janice Lauer Hutton, president of the Aquinas Educational Foundation and distinguished professor emeritus of English at Purdue.

Migliore had assignments in Angola, Egypt, Poland and France before his Vatican appointment as undersecretary of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State. In that role, he also was in charge of fostering relations with several Asian countries that do not yet have formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

The archbishop led a Vatican delegation at the U.N. conference on illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in July 2001. He also represented the Vatican at several conferences and panels in Europe on issues related to the World Trade Organization, Economic Commission for Europe, European Union and the Middle East.

Addressing the U.N.'s 45th session of the Commission for Social Development in early February, Migliore said it is imperative for the international community to enable economic growth through the availability of decent work and wages. He also emphasized equal pay for women, who he said continue to be overlooked or undervalued in rich and poor countries.

"The equality of women and men should be evident also in their treatment in the workplace, in salaries and in the acquisition of pensions," he said. "Equality will be seen immediately through equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers and fairness in career advancement."

Last October, Migliore spoke at a session of the U.N. General Assembly devoted to the New Partnership for Africa's Development, a program adopted by the African Union designed to encourage African governments to take more responsibility for improving their own economies.

Launched in 2002, Purdue's Discovery Park has grown into a $350 million interdisciplinary hub for research, bringing together more than 1,000 Purdue faculty and 2,500 university students to tackle solutions in areas ranging from health care, nanotechnology and life sciences to alternative energy, the environment and climate change.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, (765) 427-3009 (cell), pfiorini@purdue.edu

Sources: Joseph Pekny, (765) 497-9969, pekny@purdue.edu

Janice Lauer Hutton, (765) 743-5203, jmlauer@purdue.edu

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, (212) 370-7885

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists:  For more information, contact Phillip Fiorini, Purdue News Service, at (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu.

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