Dominicans open new intellectual headquarters

DC Dominicans Dedicate New $18M Academic Center

A weekend of events on April 18th and 19th will inaugurate the new Academic Center and Theological Library of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies.

Washington, DC April 9, 2009 - With the ambitious construction project at the Dominican House of Studies in support of the formation of a new generation of Dominicans and theologians, the Province of St. Joseph has answered the call from Rome for religious orders to continue to be faithful to the roots of their charism and founding principles with renewed vigor.

The new Academic Center and Theological Library

This new center of learning comes with an ambitious mission: to reinvigorate the intellectual life of the Church in the English-speaking world and to make the Catholic community a more compelling partner in dialogue with society at large.

In the words of Fr. Steven Boguslawski, O.P., president of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (PFIC): There is a renewed mission of the PFIC faculty that focuses upon an "open-Thomism", a dialogue with contemporary as well as historical theology. We are building upon the sure foundations entrusted to us; what we develop now is inextricably linked to our past. The brilliance of Aquinas was to appropriate the truth by critical engagement with philosophy, Sacred Scripture, as well as theological and patristic sources. The renewed challenge is to similarly appropriate his methodology in a contemporary frame of reference. It must also be said that Dominicans were founded for service to the Church, "especially her mission to evangelize through preaching and teaching. That remains our primary focus: service to the Word in the midst of the world."

Fr. Boguslawski continues: "The expansion to new facilities has been paralleled by a dramatic expansion of the corps of Dominican and non-Dominican professors. These scholars received their training at an array of prestigious universities: Oxford, École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris), Drew University, the University of Fribourg (Fribourg, Switzerland), the Australian Catholic University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome), just to name a few. More Dominicans are scheduled to arrive in the years ahead, being specially trained for service in Washington. The building expansion and the increase in full-time faculty are aimed at serving the academic and ecclesial communities of metro-Washington, as well as our Province, the US Church and the English-speaking Catholic world at large. Our renewed emphasis upon Thomism, evangelization and the dialogue between faith and contemporary culture set us apart."

The Province of St. Joseph aims to guarantee for another century or more the immense treasure of Dominican preaching, doctrine, and moral instruction. The bricks and mortar of the new Dominican House of Studies are apt instruments for bringing together a faculty with a clerical and lay student body, the sum of whose efforts will ultimately be capable of doing for the English-speaking world what, to cite one example, the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, whose theology department is run by the Dominicans, has done for the European community.

The Dominican House of Studies will be a center of solid research and mastery of the Thomistic tradition in a way that enables fruitful engagement with contemporary culture, both within and without the Church, and the tackling of all the vital questions that need urgent addressing end-of-life issues, globalization and the war on terror, consumerism, sexual morality and family life, the challenge of faith in a secular culture.

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Press Information

The media are invited to interview leading Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph as follows: Saturday, April 18 from 1:00pm-2:00 pm and Sunday, April 19 at 1:00-2:00 pm

Please meet interviewees on the 1st Floor of the Theological Library at the Dominican House of Studies (directions below), or by appointment.

For more information, or to schedule phone interview(s), please contact THOMAS PETERS or JEFF GRABOSKY.

Phone: 202-495-3877 or 202-495-3828
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Address: The Dominican House of Studies, 487 Michigan Ave, NE, Washington DC 20017