Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron celebrated the successful launch of his recently created Wonder Conference.

“Friends, Word on Fire’s inaugural Wonder Conference was terrific!” Barron said in a Jan. 14 tweet. “My thanks to all who attended, our brilliant speakers, the Word on Fire Institute Fellows and the entire Word on Fire staff. I’m already looking forward to Wonder Conference 2024.” 

The inaugural gathering was hosted by Barron’s Word on Fire Institute and was held Jan. 13 and 14 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas, according to Our Sunday Visitor. 

More than 1,000 clergy members, religious and laypeople attended the event. In-person seating was limited and all of the allotted tickets sold out, so organizers set up live streaming as an option to accommodate more people.

The Wonder Conference was created as a way to address the often-brought-up disconnect between religious belief and science. It also was meant to provide an opportunity to discuss how the Catholic Church represents the unity of faith and reason. Pew Research shows that nearly six out of 10 U.S. adults (59% of those surveyed) believe that science and religion often conflict with one another, according to Our Sunday Visitor.

Specialists in physics, philosophy, technology, theology and history were among those at the conference. Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, president of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith and the Spitzer Center; Jennifer Wiseman, senior astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center; and Karin Oberg, professor of astronomy at Harvard University were some of the experts who attended. 

The Word on Fire Institute is part of the Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, a program Barron started in 2000.