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Catholic scholar says classical learning can help renew America #Catholic ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Catholics should be proud of their contributions to the United States, especially for the intellectual tradition inherited from philosophers, theologians, and saints who contributed to the ideas leading to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, author and Hillsdale College Professor Matthew Mehan told EWTN News leading up to the 250th anniversary of the nation.Mehan is associate dean and professor of government studies at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C. campus. He holds a doctorate in literature from the University of Dallas and recently authored The American Book of Fables, a book for all ages that reflects Mehan’s desire to contribute to national renewal. The fables are set in the American landscape, framed by the Declaration of Independence, and accompanied by historical documents illustrating the country’s history, complexity, and geographical regions. In interviews with EWTN News, the author and scholar said the book grew out of his broader efforts to promote culture renewal through educational reform.“In a sense, it is an unsurprisingly Catholic endeavour of ‘fides et ratio,’” he said. “I wanted something like in church, where there is a papal flag and an American flag, representing faith, morals, love of country, and love of neighbor.” “I’ve always thought that way. I’ve also thought a lot about a combination of those things, with beautiful images and beautiful moral sentiments, and how those come together. So when the semiquinquicentennial was coming up, I thought it would be a great gift to the country.”. Mehan won the America 250 Innovation Prize from the Heritage Foundation for the work.The educator and father of eight said he shares the concerns of many teachers and parents dismayed by the current culture and how education has failed to cultivate virtue, civic pride and responsibility. He and his wife founded a school cooperative in Reston, Virginia that now has 38 participating families. He has also designed curricula for schools across the country. The role of educators is essential, Mehan said, while noting that doctorates are now the equivalent of 19th-century master’s degrees in terms of academic formation. “Catholic academics don’t know their own traditions very well,” he argued. “They know Greek philosophers, and the moderns who reject the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Catholic vision of Western civilization and human nature, and may know the Summa Theologica and St. Augustine. But what they don’t know is the poetical and rhetorical tradition which moves people toward a common vision, which is an indispensable part of good letters and a healthy citizenry.” “And they don’t know the Romans,” he added. Drawing on the classical tradition, Mehan noted that Roman thinkers such as Cicero and Seneca prepared the “good soil,” the intellectual antecedents that inspired America’s founders. “Cicero, for instance, was taught in all seminaries until the 1900s,” while Seneca was praised by St. Jerome, he said. And ideas found in Cicero were the underpinnings of the theory of natural rights that informed later Catholic philosophers. Seneca’s De Clementia, for example, contributed to concepts of constitutional democracy and rights that shaped the American experiment in government. These classical authors, he argues, still have relevance and deserve renewed attention in universities and seminaries. Matthew Mehan is associate dean and professor of government studies at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C. campus. | Photo courtesy of Matthew Megan Asked about the future of Catholic education and how it can play a role in a national renewal, despite the closing of Catholic parishes and schools, Mehan said: “Catholic education is displaying a nascent energy.”“It’s very dynamic and full of people who have reoriented education towards what the Christian humanists of the Catholic tradition understood as their goal, which is to help students have a clean conscience and thus have the most joyful life possible in this life and the next,” he said.For Mehan, moral formation must take precedence over the mere transmission of information. He argues that Catholic education drifted from this mission in the 20th century as it increasingly followed secular models of education.Subjects such as calculus, computer coding, and the sciences are valuable, he said, but they should not be the primary focus of Catholic schools. “If you aim at them, ironically, you won’t get them. If you aim high, you’ll get the high and the low. If you aim for the low, you’ll get nothing. That is why education has collapsed except where the moral life is, ideally, centered around Christ.”Catholics holding doctorates who complain that tenured positions at colleges and universities are scarce should look to K-12 schools to make national renewal a reality, Mehan said.The renewal of Catholic education, and how it can contribute to national renewal, depends on placing Christ at the center and embracing the universal call to holiness emphasized by the Second Vatican Council, he argued. Movements such as Opus Dei and the Neo-catechumenal Way serve as “an enormous engine,” Mehan said, to plant holiness in students and encourage teachers themselves to be saints. It will change “how people teach, how they design curricula, and how they bring forward the richness of the Catholic faith and tradition.” “Actually, I’m very hopeful,” he said.To Catholics who may think of themselves as strangers in the United States, Mehan said, “No, brother, you built this too.” “Your people, your religious tradition, are at home here,” he said. “And you are meant for republican self-government. Augustine’s City of God laid the groundwork, St. Thomas Aquinas built the scaffolding, and St. Thomas More made it shine. American Catholics built this country with sweat, blood, and their arms.” “This is your patrimony too,” he said.
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Catholic scholar says classical learning can help renew America #Catholic ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Catholics should be proud of their contributions to the United States, especially for the intellectual tradition inherited from philosophers, theologians, and saints who contributed to the ideas leading to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, author and Hillsdale College Professor Matthew Mehan told EWTN News leading up to the 250th anniversary of the nation.Mehan is associate dean and professor of government studies at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C. campus. He holds a doctorate in literature from the University of Dallas and recently authored The American Book of Fables, a book for all ages that reflects Mehan’s desire to contribute to national renewal. The fables are set in the American landscape, framed by the Declaration of Independence, and accompanied by historical documents illustrating the country’s history, complexity, and geographical regions. In interviews with EWTN News, the author and scholar said the book grew out of his broader efforts to promote culture renewal through educational reform.“In a sense, it is an unsurprisingly Catholic endeavour of ‘fides et ratio,’” he said. “I wanted something like in church, where there is a papal flag and an American flag, representing faith, morals, love of country, and love of neighbor.” “I’ve always thought that way. I’ve also thought a lot about a combination of those things, with beautiful images and beautiful moral sentiments, and how those come together. So when the semiquinquicentennial was coming up, I thought it would be a great gift to the country.”. Mehan won the America 250 Innovation Prize from the Heritage Foundation for the work.The educator and father of eight said he shares the concerns of many teachers and parents dismayed by the current culture and how education has failed to cultivate virtue, civic pride and responsibility. He and his wife founded a school cooperative in Reston, Virginia that now has 38 participating families. He has also designed curricula for schools across the country. The role of educators is essential, Mehan said, while noting that doctorates are now the equivalent of 19th-century master’s degrees in terms of academic formation. “Catholic academics don’t know their own traditions very well,” he argued. “They know Greek philosophers, and the moderns who reject the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Catholic vision of Western civilization and human nature, and may know the Summa Theologica and St. Augustine. But what they don’t know is the poetical and rhetorical tradition which moves people toward a common vision, which is an indispensable part of good letters and a healthy citizenry.” “And they don’t know the Romans,” he added. Drawing on the classical tradition, Mehan noted that Roman thinkers such as Cicero and Seneca prepared the “good soil,” the intellectual antecedents that inspired America’s founders. “Cicero, for instance, was taught in all seminaries until the 1900s,” while Seneca was praised by St. Jerome, he said. And ideas found in Cicero were the underpinnings of the theory of natural rights that informed later Catholic philosophers. Seneca’s De Clementia, for example, contributed to concepts of constitutional democracy and rights that shaped the American experiment in government. These classical authors, he argues, still have relevance and deserve renewed attention in universities and seminaries. Matthew Mehan is associate dean and professor of government studies at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C. campus. | Photo courtesy of Matthew Megan Asked about the future of Catholic education and how it can play a role in a national renewal, despite the closing of Catholic parishes and schools, Mehan said: “Catholic education is displaying a nascent energy.”“It’s very dynamic and full of people who have reoriented education towards what the Christian humanists of the Catholic tradition understood as their goal, which is to help students have a clean conscience and thus have the most joyful life possible in this life and the next,” he said.For Mehan, moral formation must take precedence over the mere transmission of information. He argues that Catholic education drifted from this mission in the 20th century as it increasingly followed secular models of education.Subjects such as calculus, computer coding, and the sciences are valuable, he said, but they should not be the primary focus of Catholic schools. “If you aim at them, ironically, you won’t get them. If you aim high, you’ll get the high and the low. If you aim for the low, you’ll get nothing. That is why education has collapsed except where the moral life is, ideally, centered around Christ.”Catholics holding doctorates who complain that tenured positions at colleges and universities are scarce should look to K-12 schools to make national renewal a reality, Mehan said.The renewal of Catholic education, and how it can contribute to national renewal, depends on placing Christ at the center and embracing the universal call to holiness emphasized by the Second Vatican Council, he argued. Movements such as Opus Dei and the Neo-catechumenal Way serve as “an enormous engine,” Mehan said, to plant holiness in students and encourage teachers themselves to be saints. It will change “how people teach, how they design curricula, and how they bring forward the richness of the Catholic faith and tradition.” “Actually, I’m very hopeful,” he said.To Catholics who may think of themselves as strangers in the United States, Mehan said, “No, brother, you built this too.” “Your people, your religious tradition, are at home here,” he said. “And you are meant for republican self-government. Augustine’s City of God laid the groundwork, St. Thomas Aquinas built the scaffolding, and St. Thomas More made it shine. American Catholics built this country with sweat, blood, and their arms.” “This is your patrimony too,” he said.

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Author and professor calls on Catholics to revive American culture through faith and classical learning.

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Everything you need to know about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus #Catholic The solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus falls on the Friday after the Corpus Christi octave, which in 2026 is on June 12. What exactly is the meaning behind this feast day? Below are answers to some common questions.Why do Catholics venerate the Sacred Heart of Jesus?“Devoting ourselves to the Sacred Heart is one of the easiest, fastest, and most pleasant ways to grow in holiness,” Father Ambrose Dobrozsi, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, told EWTN News.“Many saints have done many things to grow close to Jesus Christ, but no way is more sure and more pleasing to him than to consecrate ourselves to his Sacred Heart through the Immaculate Heart of his mother,” he added.Where does devotion to the Sacred Heart come from?The story behind the modern iteration of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, however, begins on Dec. 27, 1673, at a monastery belonging to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines) in eastern France.There, a nun named Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque began experiencing visions of the Sacred Heart. Those visions continued for 18 months.During her visions, Sister Margaret Mary learned ways to venerate the Sacred Heart of Christ.These devotions included the concept of a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the creation of the feast of the Sacred Heart after Corpus Christi, and the reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of every month.As with many mystics, many people were skeptical of Sister Margaret Mary’s claims of visions. Her confessor, the then-Father Claude La Colombière, SJ, (now St. Claude La Colombière) believed her, and eventually, the mother superior of her community began to believe as well.The first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated privately at the monastery in 1686.Sister Margaret Mary died in 1690 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on May 13, 1920.Initially, the Vatican was hesitant to declare a feast of the Sacred Heart but did allow the Visitandines to celebrate a Mass special to this day. As the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765.In 1856, after much lobbying by French bishops on behalf of the feast of the Sacred Heart, Pope Pius IX designated the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the entire Latin-rite Church.On May 25, 1899, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the encyclical Annum Sacrum, which consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This encyclical was written after a nun, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, sent two letters to the pope requesting that he consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.Sister Mary of the Divine Heart wrote the letters, she said, after Jesus made the request to her. Pope Leo XIII called this encyclical and the subsequent consecration the “great act” of his papacy.“Finally, there is one motive which we are unwilling to pass over in silence, personal to ourselves it is true, but still good and weighty, which moves us to undertake this celebration. God, the author of every good, not long ago preserved our life by curing us of a dangerous disease,” Leo XIII wrote.“We now wish, by this increase of the honor paid to the Sacred Heart, that the memory of this great mercy should be brought prominently forward, and our gratitude be publicly acknowledged.”But why consecrate the world — or anyone — to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? What does that mean?Pope Leo XIII described the act of consecration as one that will “establish or draw tighter the bonds which naturally connect public affairs with God,” which was especially needed for the world at the turn of the century.“While many see religion as unnecessary in a world with more and more technology and resources, swearing allegiance and consecrating ourselves to Christ the King in his Sacred Heart shows that humanity still needs and longs for a compassionate and all-powerful God,” Dobrozsi, the Cincinnati priest, told EWTN News.“In a society where some live in decadence and prideful luxury while others are destitute, the burning love of Christ’s Sacred Heart reminds us that the fires of his mercy are also fires of justice. And when the culture, and so many of us, feel hopeless that we could ever change after falling to sins of the flesh, the heart of Our Lord beats with powerful love, eternally declaring that true charity has triumphed over sin and death,” he added.These are the promises the Sacred Heart of Jesus made to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque:1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.2. I will give peace in their families.3. I will console them in all their troubles.4. I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.5. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.6. Sinners shall find in my heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.8. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.9. I will bless those places wherein the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.11. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my heart.12. In the excess of the mercy of my heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the first Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: They will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.This story was first published on EWTN News on June 19, 2020, and has been updated.
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Everything you need to know about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus #Catholic The solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus falls on the Friday after the Corpus Christi octave, which in 2026 is on June 12. What exactly is the meaning behind this feast day? Below are answers to some common questions.Why do Catholics venerate the Sacred Heart of Jesus?“Devoting ourselves to the Sacred Heart is one of the easiest, fastest, and most pleasant ways to grow in holiness,” Father Ambrose Dobrozsi, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, told EWTN News.“Many saints have done many things to grow close to Jesus Christ, but no way is more sure and more pleasing to him than to consecrate ourselves to his Sacred Heart through the Immaculate Heart of his mother,” he added.Where does devotion to the Sacred Heart come from?The story behind the modern iteration of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, however, begins on Dec. 27, 1673, at a monastery belonging to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines) in eastern France.There, a nun named Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque began experiencing visions of the Sacred Heart. Those visions continued for 18 months.During her visions, Sister Margaret Mary learned ways to venerate the Sacred Heart of Christ.These devotions included the concept of a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the creation of the feast of the Sacred Heart after Corpus Christi, and the reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of every month.As with many mystics, many people were skeptical of Sister Margaret Mary’s claims of visions. Her confessor, the then-Father Claude La Colombière, SJ, (now St. Claude La Colombière) believed her, and eventually, the mother superior of her community began to believe as well.The first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated privately at the monastery in 1686.Sister Margaret Mary died in 1690 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on May 13, 1920.Initially, the Vatican was hesitant to declare a feast of the Sacred Heart but did allow the Visitandines to celebrate a Mass special to this day. As the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765.In 1856, after much lobbying by French bishops on behalf of the feast of the Sacred Heart, Pope Pius IX designated the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the entire Latin-rite Church.On May 25, 1899, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the encyclical Annum Sacrum, which consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This encyclical was written after a nun, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, sent two letters to the pope requesting that he consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.Sister Mary of the Divine Heart wrote the letters, she said, after Jesus made the request to her. Pope Leo XIII called this encyclical and the subsequent consecration the “great act” of his papacy.“Finally, there is one motive which we are unwilling to pass over in silence, personal to ourselves it is true, but still good and weighty, which moves us to undertake this celebration. God, the author of every good, not long ago preserved our life by curing us of a dangerous disease,” Leo XIII wrote.“We now wish, by this increase of the honor paid to the Sacred Heart, that the memory of this great mercy should be brought prominently forward, and our gratitude be publicly acknowledged.”But why consecrate the world — or anyone — to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? What does that mean?Pope Leo XIII described the act of consecration as one that will “establish or draw tighter the bonds which naturally connect public affairs with God,” which was especially needed for the world at the turn of the century.“While many see religion as unnecessary in a world with more and more technology and resources, swearing allegiance and consecrating ourselves to Christ the King in his Sacred Heart shows that humanity still needs and longs for a compassionate and all-powerful God,” Dobrozsi, the Cincinnati priest, told EWTN News.“In a society where some live in decadence and prideful luxury while others are destitute, the burning love of Christ’s Sacred Heart reminds us that the fires of his mercy are also fires of justice. And when the culture, and so many of us, feel hopeless that we could ever change after falling to sins of the flesh, the heart of Our Lord beats with powerful love, eternally declaring that true charity has triumphed over sin and death,” he added.These are the promises the Sacred Heart of Jesus made to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque:1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.2. I will give peace in their families.3. I will console them in all their troubles.4. I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.5. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.6. Sinners shall find in my heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.8. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.9. I will bless those places wherein the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.11. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my heart.12. In the excess of the mercy of my heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the first Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: They will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.This story was first published on EWTN News on June 19, 2020, and has been updated.

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This year, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on June 12.

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From Budapest to Princeton, Catholic scholars mobilize to reconnect faith and political life #Catholic Catholic political and social thought, one of the foundational intellectual traditions of Western civilization, is poised for renewal as a new international initiative seeks to bring it back into conversation with new generations and decision-makers of tomorrow.CatholicPOST, the Association for the Renewal of Catholic Political and Social Thought, was born from the conviction — shared by a group of European scholars during the COVID-19 lockdowns — that the health crisis had exposed not only the fragility of modern Western societies but also a deeper anthropological confusion threatening their social foundations.That vision took concrete form at the inaugural conference of the association, titled “The Renaissance of Catholic Social Teaching,” held March 9–10 at the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest and attended by international academics and Vatican and Hungarian Catholic Church officials.“COVID was a tragic moment in contemporary history, and it required thinking back again on the basics of social life,” Professor Ferenc Hörcher — a Hungarian professor of political philosophy, historian of ideas, and the association’s president — told EWTN News. “And that is something you can do best on the grounds of the Catholic tradition, pointing back to Aristotle and forward to the social teaching of the Church.”For Hörcher — also director of the Research Institute for Politics and Government at Ludovika — the timing has only gained relevance with the election of Pope Leo XIV, whose choice of name evokes Pope Leo XIII, author of the landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, widely regarded as the founding text of modern Catholic social teaching.Neglected intellectual inheritanceOne of CatholicPOST’s most urgent tasks is to restore Catholic social doctrine to its rightful place in intellectual life and academic discussion — a place it has progressively lost over the past century.Secularization, according to the association’s founders, has pushed Catholic intellectual traditions to the margins of public discourse. Even conservative academic circles, in their view, have often drawn more from Anglo-Saxon traditions with Protestant roots than from Catholic social thought.“Catholicism finds itself in the second row,” Hörcher said, “despite the fact that our modern and postmodern civilization is essentially built on it.”The association presents itself as a scholarly, nonpartisan platform, open not only to Catholics but also to thinkers willing to engage seriously with the tradition.“The Church cannot enter directly into political debate — that is not its mission,” Hörcher said. “But we, as Catholic intellectuals and practitioners in our own professions, can take that on.”Deeper stakesThe initiative of the group, consisting of, among others, American, Swedish, Maltese, and Hungarian scholars, emerges at a moment of mounting polarization across Western societies, as clashes over gender identity, family, bioethics, and the very understanding of the human person grow increasingly confrontational — and, at times, violent.For Hörcher, this is precisely why a recovery of serious Catholic political and social thought matters. CatholicPOST, he said, aims to reconnect contemporary debates with an intellectual tradition capable of addressing questions of philosophical anthropology that go far beyond basic politics.That ambition also helps explain the caliber of thinkers already orbiting the initiative, from French political philosopher Pierre Manent, a leading contemporary thinker on natural law and the moral foundations of political life, to scholars at the University of Notre Dame, home to the natural law tradition developed by John Finnis, and Princeton’s James Madison Program, led by natural law theorist Robert George — a circle Hörcher is set to join for a year as a visiting scholar to Princeton’s Department of Politics.The initiative has also attracted attention in Rome. In his keynote speech at the Budapest conference, Father Avelino Chico, head of office at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presented Catholic social teaching as a living intellectual tradition still evolving in response to the “new things” of each age — from industrial modernity in the time of Rerum Novarum to contemporary social challenges such as artificial intelligence, migration, ecological crisis, and widening inequality.Chico portrayed Pope Leo XIV as continuing that trajectory, seeking to integrate the legacy of Leo XIII and Pope Francis through the lens of integral human development — an approach that takes seriously not only economic realities but also the spiritual, cultural, and political dimensions of human life.Supporting new generationsThe association is already planning a second conference in Kraków, a deliberate choice honoring Poland’s enduring Catholic intellectual tradition and the legacy of St. John Paul II.Registration in the U.S. is also underway, as CatholicPOST has roots in American educational institutions like Christendom College, as a result of its aim to strengthen its international footprint and deepen transatlantic academic ties.For Hörcher, however, the deeper hope is not merely institutional growth but helping provide intellectual substance to what he sees as a broader spiritual movement among younger Westerners rediscovering Christianity. “We hope to give munition,” he said, “intellectual support for those young people.”He sees CatholicPOST as part of a recurring pattern in Catholic history. “Each century brought a revival of Catholic political thought,” he said, citing the neo-scholastic revival of 16th- to 17th-century Spain, the Holy Alliance of the post-Napoleonic Age, the social teaching inaugurated by Leo XIII, and the contribution of Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain to the postwar rise of the human rights framework.“These historical precedents help us envision what a new renaissance might look like — and why it is needed now."
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From Budapest to Princeton, Catholic scholars mobilize to reconnect faith and political life #Catholic Catholic political and social thought, one of the foundational intellectual traditions of Western civilization, is poised for renewal as a new international initiative seeks to bring it back into conversation with new generations and decision-makers of tomorrow.CatholicPOST, the Association for the Renewal of Catholic Political and Social Thought, was born from the conviction — shared by a group of European scholars during the COVID-19 lockdowns — that the health crisis had exposed not only the fragility of modern Western societies but also a deeper anthropological confusion threatening their social foundations.That vision took concrete form at the inaugural conference of the association, titled “The Renaissance of Catholic Social Teaching,” held March 9–10 at the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest and attended by international academics and Vatican and Hungarian Catholic Church officials.“COVID was a tragic moment in contemporary history, and it required thinking back again on the basics of social life,” Professor Ferenc Hörcher — a Hungarian professor of political philosophy, historian of ideas, and the association’s president — told EWTN News. “And that is something you can do best on the grounds of the Catholic tradition, pointing back to Aristotle and forward to the social teaching of the Church.”For Hörcher — also director of the Research Institute for Politics and Government at Ludovika — the timing has only gained relevance with the election of Pope Leo XIV, whose choice of name evokes Pope Leo XIII, author of the landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, widely regarded as the founding text of modern Catholic social teaching.Neglected intellectual inheritanceOne of CatholicPOST’s most urgent tasks is to restore Catholic social doctrine to its rightful place in intellectual life and academic discussion — a place it has progressively lost over the past century.Secularization, according to the association’s founders, has pushed Catholic intellectual traditions to the margins of public discourse. Even conservative academic circles, in their view, have often drawn more from Anglo-Saxon traditions with Protestant roots than from Catholic social thought.“Catholicism finds itself in the second row,” Hörcher said, “despite the fact that our modern and postmodern civilization is essentially built on it.”The association presents itself as a scholarly, nonpartisan platform, open not only to Catholics but also to thinkers willing to engage seriously with the tradition.“The Church cannot enter directly into political debate — that is not its mission,” Hörcher said. “But we, as Catholic intellectuals and practitioners in our own professions, can take that on.”Deeper stakesThe initiative of the group, consisting of, among others, American, Swedish, Maltese, and Hungarian scholars, emerges at a moment of mounting polarization across Western societies, as clashes over gender identity, family, bioethics, and the very understanding of the human person grow increasingly confrontational — and, at times, violent.For Hörcher, this is precisely why a recovery of serious Catholic political and social thought matters. CatholicPOST, he said, aims to reconnect contemporary debates with an intellectual tradition capable of addressing questions of philosophical anthropology that go far beyond basic politics.That ambition also helps explain the caliber of thinkers already orbiting the initiative, from French political philosopher Pierre Manent, a leading contemporary thinker on natural law and the moral foundations of political life, to scholars at the University of Notre Dame, home to the natural law tradition developed by John Finnis, and Princeton’s James Madison Program, led by natural law theorist Robert George — a circle Hörcher is set to join for a year as a visiting scholar to Princeton’s Department of Politics.The initiative has also attracted attention in Rome. In his keynote speech at the Budapest conference, Father Avelino Chico, head of office at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presented Catholic social teaching as a living intellectual tradition still evolving in response to the “new things” of each age — from industrial modernity in the time of Rerum Novarum to contemporary social challenges such as artificial intelligence, migration, ecological crisis, and widening inequality.Chico portrayed Pope Leo XIV as continuing that trajectory, seeking to integrate the legacy of Leo XIII and Pope Francis through the lens of integral human development — an approach that takes seriously not only economic realities but also the spiritual, cultural, and political dimensions of human life.Supporting new generationsThe association is already planning a second conference in Kraków, a deliberate choice honoring Poland’s enduring Catholic intellectual tradition and the legacy of St. John Paul II.Registration in the U.S. is also underway, as CatholicPOST has roots in American educational institutions like Christendom College, as a result of its aim to strengthen its international footprint and deepen transatlantic academic ties.For Hörcher, however, the deeper hope is not merely institutional growth but helping provide intellectual substance to what he sees as a broader spiritual movement among younger Westerners rediscovering Christianity. “We hope to give munition,” he said, “intellectual support for those young people.”He sees CatholicPOST as part of a recurring pattern in Catholic history. “Each century brought a revival of Catholic political thought,” he said, citing the neo-scholastic revival of 16th- to 17th-century Spain, the Holy Alliance of the post-Napoleonic Age, the social teaching inaugurated by Leo XIII, and the contribution of Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain to the postwar rise of the human rights framework.“These historical precedents help us envision what a new renaissance might look like — and why it is needed now."

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CatholicPOST seeks to restore Catholic social doctrine to its rightful place in intellectual life and academic discussion.

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