Delegates from 35 countries convened in Bali, Indonesia, for the 11th International Congress of Scholas Chairs, a three-day gathering that closed on September 6. Scholas Occurrentes and United in Diversity jointly organized the event, which brought together more than 200 participants spanning academia, religious life, politics, entrepreneurship, and youth advocacy.
The congress honored two milestones connected to Southeast Asia: the second anniversary of Pope Francis’s apostolic journey to the region and the signing of the Istiqlal Interreligious Declaration. Reflection on the encyclical Magnifica humanitas shaped much of the substantive discussion throughout the three days.
Technology and the Human Person
Artificial intelligence emerged as a central concern across the congress’s seven Dialogue Agoras, plenary sessions, a Youth Forum, experiential workshops, and cross-sector roundtables. Roundtable themes included identity, education and wisdom, mental health, the future of work, democracy and peace, AI governance, and human meaning.
Monsignor Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage, Secretary of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, offered a pointed summary of the Church’s concern: “Artificial Intelligence must liberate, not enslave.” That formulation reflects Catholic social teaching’s consistent insistence that technology must remain ordered to human flourishing rather than reducing persons to instruments of its own expansion.
Ataxia, a 20-year-old Indonesian woman who offered personal testimony at the congress, put the same principle in experiential terms: “Artificial Intelligence has no meaning on its own; it is up to human beings to give it meaning.”, as first reported by the Vatican News
Dialogue Across Divides
The congress employed Scholas Occurrentes’s signature “Agora” methodology, which structures exchange across generational, cultural, and sectoral lines rather than through formal debate. María Paz Jurado, Executive Director of Scholas Occurrentes, guided the organization’s role at the summit. Alaa Murabit, activist and founder of The Voice of Libyan Women, was among the named participants contributing to the dialogue.