John Paul II Institute
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The Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at
The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution ...
is a satellite session of the
John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences The John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences is a Roman Catholic pontifical institute of theological studies on marriage and family with affiliated campuses around the world. History In 1981, Pope John P ...
. Prior to September 2017, it was a satellite session of the central session at the Lateran University in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. The institute is devoted to the study of the truth about the human person in all of its dimensions: theological, philosophical, anthropological, and cosmological-scientific. The institute views that it centers its study of the person in the community that is the original cell of human society: marriage and family.


History

At the conclusion of the 1980 Synod of Bishops devoted to the family, the Synod Fathers called for the creation of theological centers devoted to the study of the Church's teaching on marriage and the family. Accordingly,
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
responded to the Synod with the establishment of the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and the Pontifical Council for the Family. The institute's establishment was to be announced at the Holy Father's Wednesday audience on May 13, 1981. Because of the attempted assassination, the institute's Apostolic Constitution, ''Magnum Matrimonii Sacramentum'', was instead given on October 7, 1982, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. On that occasion the institute was entrusted in a special way to the care of the most
Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...
under her title
Our Lady of Fatima Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulato ...
. The Washington session was founded in 1988 at the request of then-
Archbishop of Washington The Archdiocese of Washington is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. Its territorial remit encompasses the District of Columbia and the counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, P ...
Cardinal James Hickey and Virgil C. Dechant, who was then Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.


Location

The institute is located in McGivney Hall on the campus of Catholic University in the Brookland section of
Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
. It was previously housed at the nearby
Dominican House of Studies The Dominican House of Studies is a Catholic institution in Washington, DC, housing both the Priory of the Immaculate Conception, a community of the Province of St. Joseph of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and the Pontifical Faculty of the I ...
, and later at McCormick Pavilion.


Governance

Despite its name and location, the institute is juridically separate from Catholic University. It falls under the authority of the Grand Chancellor and president at the Roman session of the institute, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia and Monsignor Philippe Bordeyne, respectively. Locally, it is governed by a Vice-Chancellor, who is always the
archbishop of Washington The Archdiocese of Washington is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. Its territorial remit encompasses the District of Columbia and the counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, P ...
, and a vice-president, currently
Carl A. Anderson Carl Albert Anderson (born February 27, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the thirteenth Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus from October 2000 until his retirement in February 2021. Anderson is the vice president of the Washi ...
.


Academics

The Washington session offers programs leading to the pontifical degrees of Doctor and
Licentiate of Sacred Theology Licentiate in Sacred Theology ( la, Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus; abbreviated STL) is the second of three ecclesiastical degrees in theology (the first being the Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology and the third being the Doctorate in Sacred Theol ...
with special emphasis in marriage and family studies. It also confers the degrees of
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in Theology and Master of Theological Studies, both also specialized in marriage and family. In 2007, the institute began offering an additional track for the M.T.S. degree focusing on biotechnology and ethics.


Nature and Purpose

Cultural issues are central for the work of the institute. The institute considers the study of culture, in particular the culture of modernity as developed in America, to be an integral part of the clarification of fundamental theological concepts. The institute engages this cultural study in light of the history of the Church and Christian thought, with special attention to the writings of the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
and Pope John Paul II. The aim of such study is to generate a “
culture of life A culture of life describes a way of life based on the belief that human life at all stages from conception through natural death is sacred. It opposes the destruction of human life at any stage, including abortion, euthanasia, capital punish ...
”: a culture whose members “see life in its deeper meaning, its beauty and its invitation to freedom and responsibility”; “who do not presume to take possession of reality, but instead accept it as a gift, discovering in all things the reflection of the Creator and seeing in every person his living image” (
Evangelium vitae ''Evangelium vitae'' () translated in English to "The Gospel of Life", is a papal encyclical promulgated on 25 March 1995 by Pope John Paul II. It deals with issues pertaining to the sanctity of human life, including murder, abortion, euthanas ...
, 83).


Publishing

The institute is home to the North American edition of the theological journal ''
Communio ''Communio'' is a federation of theological journals, founded in 1972 by Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Walter Kasper, Marc Ouellet, Louis Bouyer, and others. ''Communio'', now published in fifteen editions (including ...
''. The institute's former dean and provost, David L. Schindler (1943-2022), served as editor-in-chief of the journal, and many other faculty members serve on its editorial board and are frequent contributors. The faculty also joined that of the worldwide Institute to contribute to a 2006 collection of essays entitled ''The Way of Love'' reflecting on Pope Benedict XVI's first
encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from ...
, ''
Deus caritas est ''Deus caritas est'' ( en, "God is Love"), subtitled ''De Christiano Amore'' (''Of Christian Love''), is a 2005 encyclical, the first written by Pope Benedict XVI, in large part derived from writings by his late predecessor, Pope John Paul I ...
''.


References


External links


JPII Institute - Washington
- official site
Communio International Catholic Review
- official site {{John Paul II Catholic University of America Pope John Paul II Pontifical universities