Leading Catholic scholars taught some of the brightest rising stars in American academia last week at the Summer Institute of Catholic Social Thought, co-sponsored by The Society of Catholic Social Scientists (SCSS) and The Cardinal Newman Society’s (CNS) Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education.

Gathered from June 1-5 at The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., an international group of faculty and graduate students from several Catholic, state and other private universities cultivated an authentically Catholic intellectual perspective in teaching and research under the direction of CUA sociology professor Rev. D. Paul Sullins.

“It was a great blessing to see, by the end of the week, scholars who were excited, encouraged and newly empowered to bring the great treasure of Catholic truth to bear in their teaching and research,” Father Sullins said. “My hope is that this experience of the Summer Institute will contribute, in its small way, to developing a new generation of Catholic scholars in the social sciences.”

Joining Father Sullins on the Institute’s faculty were:

- Dr. Andrew Abela, CUA professor of business and economics;

- Dr. Grace Goodell, professor of international development at Johns Hopkins University;

- Dr. Joseph Keckeissen, SDB, professor of economics at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala;

- Dr. Stephen Krason, SCSS president and professor of political science and legal studies at the Franciscan University of Steubenville;

- Dr. William May, professor of moral theology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family;

- Dr. Frank Moncher, director of the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology Program at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences;

- Stephen Mosher, director of the Population Research Institute;

- Dr. Michael Novak, Jewett Scholar in Religion and American Culture at the American Enterprise Institute;

- Rev. Dr. James Schall, SJ, professor of government at Georgetown University;

- Rev. Msgr. Stuart Swetland, vice president for Catholic identity at Mount St. Mary’s University;

- and Dr. William Wagner, director of the Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture and CUA law professor.

The Institute’s curriculum began with an overview of the Church’s social teachings in encyclicals and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. It then explored a vision for genuine and faithful Catholic intellectual life as presented in Ex corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education. Pedagogical and research-oriented areas of the social sciences were also included in the week’s curriculum.

“Throughout the week I could see the lights come on in our participating scholars as that vision began to take hold in a deeper way,” Father Sullins said. “At the heart of this experience was a deep and thoughtful discussion of Catholic truth by our participants, who represented a range of orientations to the Catholic faith and a wide variety of disciplines in the academy, when presented with clear and coherent accounts of what the Church teaches on social questions.”

Plans are currently underway for the next Summer Institute of Catholic Social Thought, to be held June 7-11, 2010.