Sounds like a few years ago — Oct. 7, 2004, to be exact — Catholic University President David O'Connell got an unusual letter across his desk from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

The two men already knew each other; Cardinal Ratzinger had confirmed his appointment to CUA in 1998 and the two had chatted for an hour back then about "theology and matters of concern in Catholic education," according to the president. In 2003, during another meeting, Father O'Connell invited the cardinal to CUA for a day dedicated to his writings. Cardinal Ratzinger declined because of reasons of health.

Then came the 2004 letter. "The Catholic Church has become increasingly concerned by the contemporary difficulty in finding a common denominator among the moral principles held by all people, which are based on the constitution of the human person and which function as the fundamental criteria for laws affecting the rights and duties of all," it began. Which was Cardinal Ratzinger's way of asking CUA to organize an ecumenical symposium on moral principles everyone can agree on.

The cardinal has asked two other universities elsewhere in the world to also put together similiar symposia but neither were able to do so. But Father O'Connell, with the help of his chief planner, law professor William Wagner, took it on. Four years and $100,000 in organizing costs later, the conference is about ready to begin.

Starting Thursday and lasting throughout the weekend, "A Common Morality for the Global Age," will be held in the Great Room of the university's Pryzbyla Center, is about to take off. About half the speakers are Catholics and the others run the gamut. Information about the gathering is posted on CUA's Web site. Most of you know that Benedict is quite the scholar himself and this kind of confab is really his cup of tea.

The idea behind the gathering is for a pontifical university like CUA to organize a gathering on universally-held moral principles, invite various scholars of different religions and enjoy the repartee. Catholics have a name for such self-evident moral principles: Natural law. The lofty idea behind all this was to foster a "global culture possessing the moral insight to address the world's pressing problems," according to the university.

But why Washington?

"The pope recognizes the attractiveness of the American academic setting," Father O'Connell told me, "and quite frankly, we know our American universities are the best in the world. I think he probably saw that, and that Washington, DC is the most powerful city in the most powerful country in the world."

Last summer, the CUA president sent word to Benedict that the conference was a go. Archbishop William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith — Benedict's old position — responded to say the pope wants copies of all the papers delivered at the conference. He'll get them in a bound volume some time this summer, personally delivered by Father O'Connell in Rome. The university president gets to the Eternal City quite a lot. And he has been a major player in the upcoming papal trip; a few months ago, he and Washington Archbishop Wuerl put together a list of talking points the pope might want to address during his April 15-20 visit.

"He has talked about moral relativism from the beginning of his papacy," Father O'Connell said. "This is something he personally has an interest in, so it is a great opportunity for a university to engage such a significant topic."

Photo courtesy of Catholic University

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times