Tom Catena
2025 Annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture
“Hope and Healing” with Tom Catena
A 2025–2026 Notre Dame Forum event
“I wanted to go to college, do my four years, get out, and start making a bunch of money,” Catena told a capacity crowd on Wednesday, November 12, at the Institute for Social Concerns’ 2025 Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Distinguished Catholic Social Tradition Lecture held in the Eck Center Auditorium. “So what did I do? I went to school for the rest of my life, and I don’t make anything.”
A cradle Catholic, Catena learned about mission work from a group of evangelical Christians on campus while he was still a student. Sensing a call to the mission field, Catena turned down his job offer and went back to school to become a medical missionary.
Dr. Catena has now been practicing in Gidel in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan for 17 years. The region has been an area of active conflict since the mid-1980s, and Catena is the only surgeon for the surrounding population of more than three million people. Catena credits his Catholic faith for his work, and says he is inspired by St. Francis of Assisi. He is known by locals as “Dr. Tom” and is widely respected by the population. In 2017, he was awarded the second annual Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. He is chair of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.
Dr. Catena was introduced by Donald Zimmer, MD, emergency medical specialist with Beacon Health System in South Bend.
Co-sponsors
Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, Center for Health Sciences Advising, College of Arts and Letters, College of Science, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, Department of Africana Studies, Department of Biological Sciences, Department of Theology, Eck Institute for Global Health, Keough School of Global Affairs, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Hillebrand Center for Compassionate Care in Medicine, Pulte Institute for Global Development, Office of the President