By Jay Sorgi • Posted September 15, 2026

Villanova University will award its first Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal to Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, known for his ministry focused on social justice, human rights, migration and refugees, and in service of care for creation.

Augustinian Father Peter Donohue, president of the university that is Pope Leo’s alma mater, announced the news in Rome on Monday, Sept. 14.

The medal will be given during the Villanova University International Sustainability Conference, scheduled for Oct. 12-15 in Rome.

At the announcement, Cardinal Czerny, who is prefect emeritus of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, expressed his gratitude toward Villanova’s commitment to preparing students to answer what he calls serious questions about the future of our world.

“The meaning of that offer is all the more eloquently expressed by Pope Leo in ‘Magnifica Humanitas,’ where he dares to ask the question, ‘What kind of a world are we building?’ Villanova is saying with the medal that we are willing to face that question,” Cardinal Czerny said.

“We’re willing to face the question (because) we are committed to preparing young people, whatever their faith background, but especially in the Catholic tradition, to prepare people to live in (a) difficult and challenging world.”

Cardinal Czerny was born in the former Czechoslovakia, emigrated to Canada, joined the Jesuits in 1963, and received his doctorate from the University of Chicago.

He founded the Centre of Jesuits for Faith and Social Justice, helped the United Nations’ efforts to end a civil war in El Salvador, founded the African Jesuit AIDS Network and consulted for the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Pope Francis ordained him a bishop and elevated him to cardinal in 2019, and he led the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development until Sept. 1 of this year.

Father Donohue honored Cardinal Czerny’s advancement of the Catholic Church’s commitment to integral human development and accompanying those who live on the margins.

“Cardinal Czerny’s extraordinary commitment to justice, compassion, human dignity, and care for creation has inspired people around the world,” he said.

“His witness reminds us that authentic sustainability is never solely about environmental stewardship. It is also about accompanying those who suffer, defending the dignity of every person, and building a future that leaves no one behind.”

Father Donohue said the university wanted someone who would exemplify the values of courage, moral leadership, service and the interwoven commitment between ecological care and human dignity.

“This medal is more than an award,” Father Donohue said. “It reflects an understanding that the challenges facing our world today are profoundly interconnected. Environmental degradation, poverty, displacement, inequity, and human suffering cannot be addressed in isolation.”

Father Donohue added that the call to sustainability finds deep roots in the Augustinian tradition, calling people toward care for creation, justice and solidarity with the vulnerable.

“That is why naming the medal for Pope Leo XIV carries such profound significance for us,” he said.

The Holy Father, a 1977 Villanova alumnus whose commitment to care for creation and those in greatest need are highlighted in his recent apostolic letter ‘Dilexi Te’ and in themes of the Jubilee Year of St. Francis of Assisi.

“His witness reminds us that leadership must be grounded in faith, informed by ethics, attentive to the needs of those on the margins, and committed to flourishing all of God’s creation,” Father Donohue added.

The award and conference follow the five-week Season of Creation, an ecumenical celebration that Pope Francis launched during his papacy and Pope Leo XIV has continued, running between Sept. 1 and Oct. 4.

Villanova also announced the award on Pope Leo’s 71st birthday.

“We can say in a way that on his birthday is the pope who gives us a gift, rather than the other way around, with the Medal on Sustainability,” said Alessandro Gisotti, editorial vice director of the Dicastery for Communication.

“It feels especially meaningful to be gathered here on this day celebrating his vision on a key topic like sustainability, a commitment that for Robert Prevost begins with the university where he once studied mathematics.”

The Villanova University International Sustainability Conference, with its theme “Responding to the Cries of the Earth and the Poor,” will span topics from faith to ecology, from migration to technology and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Manuela Priesemuth, a business management professor and the faculty director for business ethics and social responsibility at Villanova, said that the conference will focus on building dialogue and collaboration across geographic and academic boundaries to address the world’s problems.

“It was purposefully designed to bring together diverse voices and perspectives from leaders around the world to really discuss some of the most urgent and most challenging problems that we’re currently facing, which includes issues surrounding environmental sustainability, ethics, social justice, human development, business and economics, technology, and public policy,” she said.

The award and conference not only further expand Villanova and Philadelphia’s footprint on the global Catholic Church. They spotlight the Church’s longtime call not only to foster both the Earth’s ecology and empower the world’s under-resourced people, but to stimulate action to uphold human dignity.

“As both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV have reminded us, care for creation and care for one another are inseparable responsibilities,” Father Donohue said. “We are called not only with concern, but with action, solidarity, and hope.”