This year marks the centenary of the birth of the Austrian Catholic priest and thinker, Ivan Illich, who was born on 4 September 1926.
On this website, we aim to gather a few of his writings as well as to record the memories of a few of those who knew and worked with him.
All suggestions welcome!
See also our special centenary webinar – details below.
Stefan Gigacz
Site editor
Australian Cardijn Institute
In this video, Australian-born writer, Walter “Joe” Broderick remembers his friendship with Ivan Illich.
Michael Fox, Champions of Catholic Social Teaching: Fr. Ivan Illich (Catholics for the Common Good)
2026 marks 100 years since the birth on 4 September 1926 of Ivan Illich, one of the 20th century’s most provocative critics of modern institutions, from schooling to industrial healthcare.
Dr Rose Calabretta, who met Illich as a student participating in his Graduate Course at Fordham University, New York, in 1970, shared her experience with him at our ACI webinar in September 2026.
Dr Rose B. Calabretta, born in New York, is an Idente Missionary and Permanent Researcher of the Idente School. After her Fordham University Bachelors Degree, she received the “Woodrow Wilson” National Award for Erudition, the “Lincoln” Award for Erudition to continue Research in the University of Mexico, and as resident Fulbright and AIIS scholar, she worked as social volunteer in Latin America, India and Pakistan.
She completed her first doctorate, in Sociology, at Fordham University, New York (1980), where she taught for several years, and her second doctorate in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome (1998); from 1984-1999, dedicating her energies to humanistic and inter-faith dialogue with European youth and cultural circles, she served several years as data analyst in the Pontifical Council for Healthcare Apostolate, as Central European Program Director in the International Jacques Maritain Institute, faculty member at the Pontifical Institute Regina Mundi and the International Institute Camillianum for Theology of Healthcare Apostolate.
From 1999 onwards, as Asian Director of the Fernando Rielo Foundation, she taught in the Verapoly Archdiocese of Kerala, India; in Rome for the Masters of Global Development and Social Justice of the RIID and St John´s University; in Manila at the Institute for Consecrated Life in Asia (ICLA) and Ateneo de Manila University.
Frequently visiting China, Japan, Thailand, and India, she also served as Philippine Director of the Idente School, and in Novaliches Diocesan Campus and Youth Ministries. Having presented papers at International Metaphysical Congresses, Asian Philosophical Conferences, and published in scholarly journals, besides co-editing human science works, she is presently resident at the Idente School Rome Headquarters.
