CMCU (EN)
THE CARDINAL MARTINO CENTRE
For Liberal Arts, Politics & Culture
Eo mens est imago Dei, quo capax Dei est et particeps esse potest
—St. Augustine
MISSION: Founded on the principles of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, and in consistent accord with the social teaching of the Church, The Cardinal Martino Centre for Liberal Arts, Politics & Culture will guide and assist students to rediscover and reflect upon what Pope Francis calls the “ethical and social importance of human dignity, which is the root of liberty and justice.” Students will engage the relationship between happiness and wisdom, the meaning of personal identity, will, love and ethical action, justice and divine omnipotence, politics, economics and the virtues, articulating the role of the Catholic faith as spiritual midwife to them.
VISION: The Centre, whose primary role is to facilitate a unique and culturally prescient study abroad experience for a variety of Catholic institutions, is the bedrock initiative for the Cardinal Martino Catholic University (CMCU).
CMCU intends to be a comprehensive 4 year university within 3-5 years. It is our vision that within this timeframe both the University and the Centre’s study abroad program will function conjointly, thereby deepening and securing CMCU’s efforts in the global Catholic community.
TIMETABLE 2016: The Centre envisions hosting, commencing Fall 2016, undergraduate students from a variety of traditional Catholic liberal arts colleges and universities in need of a comprehensive, innovative and faithfully Catholic venue for study abroad experience. The mission is especially directed towards offering a formative experience of the traditional political, social and liberal arts teaching of the Church—and in its native soil—to those normally unable to take advantage of such opportunities.
The Centre’s study abroad program is an effort to inculcate in its students—effectively, internationally and ecumenically—the inherent dignity of life and its wide-reaching repercussions both academically and pragmatically.
The Cardinal Martino Centre 2016-2017 Offers:
- One or two semester cycles
- A variety of internship placements for selected students through Dignitatis Humanae Institute
- The Cities of God and Man Roundtable: this is a notable speaker series on Catholic social and political teaching, including current ecclesial events. It will be offered to students on a bi-weekly basis.
- A comprehensive and tradition cycle of philosophy, theology, politics, literature, history and language courses taught by faithful academics and with an overarching view towards the dignity of the human person as it stands historically and in modernity.
- Specialized lectures complementing the Catholic wisdom and traditional ethos of Italy.
- Daily Mass
- Opportunities for pilgrimage and spiritual retreat
- An idyllic campus location, a former monastery set in the scenic Italian countryside with easy access to a number of important religious and cultural sites.
- Additional staff or faculty from home institutions are welcome to accompany students
- Course accreditation, acceptance of course credits, must proceed through the student’s home institution.
COST: As a non-profit institute and in view of its mission, the Centre at CMCU offers its campus site and resources with a view towards including a broad range of students who would not normally have study abroad opportunities. Fees will be limited to covering use of the facility, professorial costs and board. CMCU seeks and accepts donations from our invited institutions with a view towards the continued success of our program.
CASE FOR CMCU: The ever-present social and political upheaval of Catholic values more than makes the case for the timeliness of the Cardinal Martino Catholic University. Our university’s namesake not only crafted and distilled the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church which generations rely upon in daily life, but Cardinal Raffaele Martino has tirelessly worked towards the proactive realization of these values in the political and ecclesiastical arenas. The surging advocacy for gay marriage, the disregard for, and even hostility towards, the intrinsic intelligibility of the familial unit through abortion, euthanasia and contraception—all on demand—have created what philosopher Jacques Maritain anticipated to be a “homicidal civilization”. Any propaedeutic for change and recovery requires a two-fold process of education and evangelization. CMCU will creatively and responsively teach younger generations the always timely and applicable wisdom of Catholicism, and provide them with the opportunities (e.g., internships, workplace experience, lectures) to see this knowledge acted out in the public sphere, thereby encouraging their future participation in the recovery of our universal human dignity.
FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES:
- With a view towards Ex Corde Ecclessiae, the University seeks to build a strong relationship between Ecclesial approval and lay governance. The program will draw upon the wealth of experience within the Italian community and Church leaders while also open to an international context in terms of development and outreach.
- The University seeks the approval of the local Ordinary to designate the institution as “Catholic”, and will need to grant, a “mandatum” certifying those teaching Catholic Theology as qualified to do so. There is no requirement that the local Ordinary be involved in the daily administration of the institution, its finances or its curriculum.
- The Board of Trustees, governing body and affiliated persons will be recognized as Catholic leaders in politics, administration, and business and will also uphold an appreciation for the inherent necessity of a classic Catholic Liberal arts foundation. This form of visible leadership is essential to the effective evangelization of our mission and, in particular, the global advocacy of human dignity.
- The Cardinal Martino Center for Liberal Arts, Politics and Culture will provide a selection of the fundamental courses acceptable to any faithfully Catholic core curriculum.
- The Cardinal Martino Catholic College will seek to establish itself within 3-5 years as a 4 year liberal arts, fully accredited, degree-granting University. It will establish a core curriculum of the liberal arts, including theology, philosophy, history, literature, mathematics, natural science and politics. The underlying emphasis on the curriculum will revolve around the universal dimension of human dignity, particular in its political context, order and implications. The liberal arts in this respect are the ideal foundation for career-oriented and pre-professional studies.
- CMCU will, from the outset, provide a close-knit student & teacher fellowship through directed studies, roundtable lectures, tours and pilgrimages. Encouraging this fellowship, in and beyond the classroom, is an essential prerequisite to the recovery of the Catholic experience of family and community and will provide the intellectual, moral and spiritual fortification to resist the hedonistic temptations of the secularizing culture. The success of the institution rests on the teachers, staff and trustees as visible, guiding role-models.
- CMCU, when situated as a 4 year degree-granting institution, will seek scholarship and financial aid to ensure that the students selected to attend are given every opportunity to complete their degrees and excel. Scholarship funds will require a consistent and widespread fundraising effort to ensure annual operations.
- The institution will support and encourage the attendance of daily Mass and provide the beauty and splendor of both the Novus Ordo and the Tridentine Rite.
“Confident in the power of Christ’s saving truth to change hearts and minds that are open to the workings of grace the Holy Father prays that the witness of those associated with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute will bear abundant fruit.”
—H E Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone