Our Mission
The mission of the Loyola Institute for the Study of Catholic Culture and Tradition is to foster and promote the distinctive Catholic identity of Loyola University New Orleans across the curriculum and throughout the university community. With a sense of special responsibility for the intellectual and moral education of the young, the institute seeks to foster the formation of students who are familiar not only with the content of the liberal arts tradition, but also with the extent to which that tradition both illuminates and is illuminated by the Catholic faith. While the institute affirms the varieties of ways in which this may be accomplished in all aspects of the university’s life, it commits itself to the specific task of developing an interdisciplinary approach, which seeks to foster the growth and understanding proper to a mature and reflective Christian mind.
Specifically, the institute will administer resources provided by those interested in fostering its goals to promote the interdisciplinary study of Catholic intellectual, cultural, and moral traditions. To this end, the institute will draw upon the talents and intellectual commitment of the university faculty through sustained dialogue and by supporting those faculty initiatives which further the goals of the institute. The institute will sponsor the development of curricular offerings, extracurricular faculty-student seminars, lectures, research projects, and other initiatives including the development of appropriate library collections. When possible, these courses and other programs sponsored by the institute will be structured so as to be of interest and benefit to a larger audience including, among others, students from Notre Dame Seminary, members of religious congregations, and religious education teachers.