Welcome to the Garaventa Center | University of Portland

Welcome to the Garaventa Center

Here's to another great year together!

Thank you for making the 2023/24 event year a successful one. What a joy it was to host an enriching array of talks and events to feed the mind and spirit.

While we are busy planning the 2024/25 event season, please explore our Archives to watch recordings of past events. And check out The Saint John's Bible at UP, our portal to experience the transcendent beauty of this hand-illuminated masterpiece.

Looking forward to seeing you next year!

Faith. Imagination. Grace. Reason.

Our ongoing vision at the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life & American Culture is to entice people from all walks of life to come together and collaborate in novel and compelling ways to shed light and explore grace in this bruised, blessed world.  

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 2023-2024 Event Highlights

Click on images below to enjoy videorecordings of these events, or visit our Archives for links to some of our all-time greatest hits!


Pope Francis

Pope Francis

"Let us ask the Lord, each of us, for eyes that know how to see beyond appearance; ears that know how to listen to cries, whispers, and also silence; hands able to support, embrace and minister. Most of all, let us ask for a great and merciful heart that desires the good and salvation of all. "

Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day

"We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community."

St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila

"It is love alone that gives worth to all things."

Elizabeth Jennings

Elizabeth Jennings

"Many people judge a religion by its art, and why indeed shouldn't they?"

G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton

"The traveller sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see."