Prospective students must be either rising juniors or seniors and have a strong interest in Catholic social thought, contemporary American politics, and public policy. Students should possess high intellectual ability, maturity, and moral seriousness. Since seminars are taught in a Socratic style, students are expected to engage in friendly but spirited discussion of the assigned texts. Students will be mailed a reader several weeks before the start of the program which they should complete before the program begins. The readings include works by Catholic intellectuals (Orestes Brownson, Msgr. John Ryan, and Rev. Richard John Neuhaus), Catholic politicians (Governor Al Smith, Governor Robert Casey, and Senator Richard Santorum), and Catholic ecclesiastical leaders (Bishop John Caroll, Cardinal Richard Cushing, and Cardinal John O’Connor).

FREE OF CHARGE
Admission to this program is highly selective. As such, it will be offered to selected students free of charge. The Honors College will cover the cost of texts, daily breakfasts and lunches, field trips, and faculty. Students and parents are expected to cover the cost of travel to and from the Belmont House each day. As this program is designed for students who live in the DMV area, it is designed to be a commuter program. No overnight housing will be provided.

In-person session: July 10-13, 2023

Monday, July 10th:

8:00am – 9:00am:	Light Breakfast (Muffins, Juice)
9:00am – 10:00am:	Seminar #1: The Declaration of Independence
10:30am – 11:30am:	Seminar #2: The Constitution of the United States
12:00pm – 1:00pm:	Mass
1:00pm – 2:00pm:	Lunch
2:00pm – 3:30pm:	Guest Lecturer: Robert Destro, Columbus School of Law, CUA
4:00pm – 4:30pm:	Parent Pickup

Tuesday, July 11th:

8:00am – 9:00am:	Light Breakfast (Muffins, Juice)
9:00am – 10:00am:	Seminar #3: Catholicism and Religious Liberty
10:30am – 11:30am:	Seminar #4: Catholic Defenses of Religious Liberty
12:00pm – 1:00pm:	Mass
1:00pm – 2:00pm:	Lunch
2:00pm – 3:30pm:	Guest Lecturer: Nina Shea, Hudson Institute
4:00pm – 7:00pm:	Parent and Student Social Event with Dr. Joseph Wysocki

Wednesday, July 12th:

8:00am – 9:00am:	Light Breakfast (Muffins, Juice)
9:00am – 12:00pm:	Tour of the Heritage Foundation
12:30pm – 1:30pm:	Lunch
1:45pm – 2:45pm:	Seminar #5: Catholic Politicians
3:00pm – 4:00pm:	Seminar #6: The Catholic Commitment to the Pro-Life Cause
4:00pm – 4:30pm:	Parent Pickup

Thursday, July 13th:

8:00am – 9:00am:	Light Breakfast (Muffins, Juice)
9:00am – 10:00am:	Seminar #7: The Quest for Economic Justice
10:30am – 11:30am:	Seminar #8: Papal Reflections on the United States
12:00pm – 1:00pm:	Mass
1:00pm – 2:00pm:	Lunch
2:00pm – 4:00pm:	Tour of Capitol Grounds
4:00pm – 4:30pm:	Parent Pickup

Please fill out the following nomination form. The Honors College will reach out to accepted students with further information.

Robert A. Destro is Professor of Law at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. He has been a member of the CUA Law faculty since 1982, served as Interim Dean from 1999-2001, and as Director of the University’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies from 2017-2019.

President Donald J. Trump nominated him to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment on September 18, 2019. As Assistant Secretary, he led the State Department’s worldwide policy and foreign assistance programs on human rights and democracy issues such as free and fair elections, Internet freedom, and the growth of the surveillance state. His work on labor issues focused on State Department and inter-agency efforts to ensure that business supply chains do not include goods or services produced by slave or forced labor. He also served as the State Department’s Special Representative for Tibetan Issues.

Nina Shea is a Senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute, where she directs the Center for Religious Freedom, an entity she founded. Ms. Shea has been a human rights lawyer for 40 years. She works extensively for the advancement of religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy, as it confronts Islamic extremism, and authoritarian regimes around the world. She advocates on behalf of those persecuted for religious reasons abroad.

She helped launch and lead the coalition to adopt the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. From 1999 until 2012, she served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, appointed seven times by the US House of Representatives. She was also appointed as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations’ main human rights body by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

She authored or co-authored three books on religious persecution and genocide. Her co-authored book, Silenced, on the threat to freedoms posed by Islamic blasphemy and hate speech codes, was published by Oxford University Press. For over a decade, beginning in 2006, she authored or edited four widely publicized reports on extremist doctrine in Saudi state educational materials, testified in Congress about her findings, traveled to Riyadh to discuss them directly with the ministers of Education, Justice and Islamic Affairs, and wrote and spoke publicly on the subject until the texts were finally revised.

For seven years ending in 2005, she helped organize and lead a coalition of churches and religious groups that worked to end a religious war against non-Muslims and dissident Muslims in Sudan. From 2003 until 2018, she wrote about and built coalitions to redirect American aid to persecuted Middle Eastern Christians and Yazidis and played a leading role in pressing for the U.S. designation of genocide against these religious minorities by ISIS, in 2016.

She frequently testifies at Congressional hearings and briefings. Her research and analysis formed the basis of a bill on persecution in Nigeria, introduced into Congress, in 2023. She writes on international religious freedom concerns in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Foreign Affairs, First Things, and other outlets. She organizes strategy working groups, conferences, briefings, and podcasts.

She has briefed American presidents, secretaries of state and other officials on her original research and analysis concerning the plight of Middle Eastern Christians, Nigerian Islamist terror, China’s religious oppression, and other issues. During the Cold War, Shea’s first client before the United Nations was Soviet Nobel Peace Laureate Andrei Sakharov. In a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office, she briefed President Ronald Reagan on religious persecution by Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime. Most recently, she met with Pope Francis to raise the issue of China’s persecuted Church. She was involved in efforts that aided and rescued Christians and others from the Taliban in Afghanistan.