

The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square. The thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Universal Doctor of the Church, is our touchstone.
The Thomistic Institute Podcast features the lectures and talks from our conferences, campus chapters events, intellectual retreats, livestream events, and much more.
Founded in 2009, the Thomistic Institute is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.
The Thomistic Institute Podcast features the lectures and talks from our conferences, campus chapters events, intellectual retreats, livestream events, and much more.
Founded in 2009, the Thomistic Institute is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 9, 2023 • 37min
What Future for the Priesthood? | Cardinal Marc Ouellet
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Cardinal Marc Oullet served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America from 2010 to 2023. He was Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada from 2003 to 2010. He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003. He holds licentiates in theology and philosophy, and a doctorate in dogmatic theology.

Jun 8, 2023 • 19min
Priesthood in the Eastern Tradition | Father Mark Morozowich
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Mark Morozowich pursued a vocation to the priesthood in the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma, Ohio. He served in Pittsburgh and in Butler, Pennsylvania before beginning doctoral studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome that yielded a comprehensive study of Holy Thursday Liturgy in Jerusalem and Constantinople from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Centuries. He lectures as an Associate Professor of Liturgy at The Catholic University of America, served as the Associate Dean for Seminary and Ministerial Programs, and is dean of The School of Theology and Religious Studies. His research focuses upon various topics of liturgical history from penitential practices and the liturgical year to divergent issues in Eastern Christian Mysteries.

Jun 8, 2023 • 29min
Blessed Stanley Rother, A New Saintly Priest | Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg has served as bishop for the Diocese of Reno in Nevada since 2021. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in Washington State from 2017 to 2021. He completed a Licentiate degree in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1990. During his 30+ years as a priest, Bishop Mueggenborg has served as parochial vicar and pastor in several parishes and in a variety of ministerial roles, including high school chaplain and teacher, Newman Center chaplain, Director of Clergy and Education, and Vicar for Religious. He also served on the administrative staff of the Pontifical North American College and was adjunct professor at the Gregorian University.

Jun 8, 2023 • 31min
Celibacy and Priestly Life | Father Carter Griffin
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Father Carter Griffin is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. Raised Presbyterian, he converted to Catholicism while attending Princeton University. After graduating in 1994, he served for four years as a line officer in the United States Navy prior to entering the seminary. He attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland for two years of philosophy followed by the North American College in Rome for five years of theology. Father Griffin was ordained to the priesthood in 2004 and served as priest-secretary for three years before beginning doctoral studies in Rome in 2008. After completing his doctorate and serving as the parochial vicar of St. Peter’s parish on Capitol Hill, in 2011 he was appointed Director of Priest Vocations for the Archdiocese of Washington and Vice-Rector of St. John Paul II Seminary, where he now serves as Rector. He is the author of Why Celibacy: Reclaiming the Fatherhood of the Priest, published in 2019 by Emmaus Road.

Jun 7, 2023 • 24min
Women and Men in the Life and Ministry of the Church | Mother Mary Christa Nutt, R.S.M.
Mother Mary Christa Nutt, Superior General of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, discusses the Catholic Church's view on the roles and participation of men and women in the church's life and ministry, emphasizing integral sex complementarity and the unique vocations of women.This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:Mother Mary Christa Nutt serves as superior general of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. She earned a baccalaureate, license of sacred theology, and a doctoral degree in moral theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

Jun 7, 2023 • 31min
Vocational Culture and the Complementarity of States of Life | Doctor John Grabowski
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Dr. Grabowski earned his B.A. in theology at the University of Steubenville and his Ph.D. at Marquette University. For the last thirty years he has been on the faculty of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. where he is currently Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology/ Ethics. He and his wife were appointed to the Pontifical Council for the Family by Pope Benedict XVI in the fall of 2009 where they served as a member couple. He has served two terms as a theological advisor to the U.S.C.C.B. Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family, and Youth and one term as an advisor to the subcommittee which produced the Pastoral Letter Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan (2009). In 2015 he was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as an expert (adiutor) at the Synod of Bishops on the Family.

Jun 7, 2023 • 29min
Trinity, Christology, and the Priesthood | Father Dominic Legge, O.P.
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and an Assistant Professor in systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2007. He practiced law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming a Dominican.

Jun 6, 2023 • 36min
Acts of Religion and the Priesthood | Professor Jennifer Frey
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Jennifer Frey is an associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts. She has published widely on virtue and moral psychology and she has co-edited three volumes on Self-Transcendence and Virtue, Practical Wisdom, and Practical Truth. Her writing has been featured in Breaking Ground, Evangelization and Culture, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today.

Jun 6, 2023 • 29min
The Priesthood in the Church Fathers, Aquinas, and Beyond | Father Andrew Hofer, O.P.
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., is Associate Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. His research appears in Augustinianum, The Journal of the History of Ideas, Nova et Vetera, Pro Ecclesia, Studia Patristica, The Thomist, Vigiliae Christianae, and other journals and volume collections. He is the author of Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford University Press); the editor of Divinization: Becoming Icons of Christ through the Liturgy (Hillenbrand Books); co-author of A Living Sacrifice: Guidance for Men Discerning Religious Life (Vianney Publications), and co-editor of Thomas Aquinas and the Greek Fathers (Sapientia Press) and Thomas Aquinas and the Crisis of Christology (Sapientia Press). He is presently co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Deification and The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons, and he is finishing his book funded by a Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Teacher-Scholar grant, The Word in Our Flesh: The Power of Patristic Preaching.

Jun 6, 2023 • 27min
Vatican II and Contemporary Challenges for the Priesthood | Bishop William Byrne
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Bishop William Byrne has served as the bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts since 2020. He studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, completing his licentiate in sacred theology from Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas(Angelicum) and was ordained on June 25, 1994 by Cardinal James A. Hickey.