Launched in the summer of 2018, the Philadelphia Catholic Scholars Program is an initiative that seeks to introduce young men to the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Through ten days living in seminary dorms, attending daily Mass and prayer, and daily seminar classes, participants are invited into the great conversation of the Western tradition.
During the program, students engage the great minds of the Catholic theological and philosophical tradition, gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and their faith while drawing nearer to our Lord through both prayer and study.
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Why?
We have been surprised that several people, though excited about the PCSP, have asked us, “Why did you start this?” The short answer is “Why not?”
The longer answer is that we are interested in combatting the regrettable trend of young people leaving the faith. Too many Catholics abandon their faith because of its (supposed) “conflict with science” or its general insignificance in their lives. This is a terrible tragedy.
During the PCSP, young men learn not only the profound sophistication of Catholic thought, but also its profound significance for their lives. Engaging the faith intellectually and spiritually is not, however, presented as a duty, but as an opportunity. The great minds that students meet during the PCSP excite us and invite us to engage more deeply and more seriously.
More than this, too many of us find ourselves occupying too small of a world. Absent meeting the great texts of the past, we find our horizons limited by social media and contemporary thought. While these things are not bad, in themselves, they present a world so much narrower and less interesting than what is at our fingertips if we just open the great books and explore the vast tradition that the Church has preserved for us. Students emerge from the PCSP occupying a “large room,” finding themselves in a world much grander and more exciting than the one to which they may have been accustomed.
Ultimately, our goal is to invite young men into the “great and glorious” kingdom of literature, philosophy, and theology and to help them see the important connection between their intellectual and spiritual lives. We seek to cultivate a “smart Catholicism.”
“Do not be conformed
to this world, but
be transformed by the
renewing of your mind.”
