June 3, 2025

Contact Anthony Slaby at 608-796-3042 or aaslaby@viterbo.edu

VITERBO UNIVERSITY TO HOST ASSOCIATION OF FRANCISCAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITES NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM JUNE 4–7

LA CROSSE, Wis. – More than 155 people from across the U.S. will attend the 2025 Association of Franciscan Colleges and Universities (AFCU) Symposium at Viterbo University Wednesday, June 4–Saturday, June 7.

The theme of the symposium is a celebration of the 800th anniversary of The Canticle of the Creatures, a hymn of praise written by St. Francis of Assisi that recounts his journey to God through the beauty and wonder of creation. The symposium will explore related topics such as stewardship, service, and peacemaking in relationship to the care of the environment, its creatures, and each other.

“Viterbo University is honored to serve as the host institution for the 2025 AFCU Symposium and demonstrate the amazing hospitality and beauty of La Crosse and the Coulee Region,” said Viterbo President Rick Trietley. “The opportunities to celebrate Viterbo’s Catholic, Franciscan identity and academic excellence while serving as an economic driver to the local area is exciting.”

The keynote speakers are Ilia Delio, OSF, a Franciscan Sister of Washington, D.C. who holds the Josephine C. Connelly Chair in Theology at Villanova University; Curt Meine, a Sauk County, Wisconsin-based conservation biologist, environmental historian, writer, and Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation; and The Very Reverend Michael A. Perry, OFM, the director of the Laudato Si' Center for Integral Ecology at Siena College in Albany, N.Y., and the president of the Board of Directors of Franciscans International.

Symposium participants come from most of the 22 Franciscan colleges and universities in the country, Franciscan religious orders, and the public. Sixteen U.S. states will be represented, including from the East and West Coasts and the South. Viterbo last hosted the national AFCU symposium in 2012.

For complete details and a full schedule of events, visit https://www.viterbo.edu/afcu-symposium-2025.

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