Our story

To promote, support, and disseminate research.

Its purpose is to promote and support all social science research on vocations within society—understood in the broadest sense—and all its components, whether secular or religious institutions.

With this in mind, it works to raise awareness and provide information about the dignity and complementarity of every vocation within civil society and in its service. According to the teaching of the Church, the faithful of Christ are indeed equal in dignity, while having different and complementary vocations:

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From their rebirth in Christ, there exists among all the Christian faithful a true equality regarding dignity and action by which they all cooperate in the building up of the Body of Christ according to each one’s own condition and function. (Cann. 208, Code of Canon Law)

Located in France, the Research Center will conduct international academic research, organize events designed both to advance this research and to disseminate its findings, provide training, and oversee publications. It will thus bring together researchers—men and women, religious and lay—from every continent.

The anthropological dimension of this work could, in the future, lead to a better understanding of lay vocations, which are not “half-vocations” or second-class vocations, but are part of the universal call to holiness, grounded in Baptism—which introduces us into the Trinitarian Communion—and which was forcefully reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council :

Fortified by so many and such powerful means of salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father Himself is perfect. 

Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (21 November 1964), 11.

Pope Francis noted on the concil :

“Each in his or her own way” the Council says. We should not grow discouraged before examples of holiness that appear unattainable. There are some testimonies that may prove helpful and inspiring, but that we are not meant to copy, for that could even lead us astray from the one specific path that the Lord has in mind for us. The important thing is that each believer discern his or her own path, that they bring out the very best of themselves, the most personal gifts that God has placed in their hearts (cf. 1 Cor 12:7), rather than hopelessly trying to imitate something not meant for them. We are all called to be witnesses, but there are many actual ways of bearing witness

—Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (19 March 2018), 11.

At the same time, it is a matter of understanding the specific role of the priesthood and consecrated life, which, together with lay vocations, constitute the three ways in which the faithful of Christ fulfill the call to holiness inscribed in baptism.

The research center will begin its work on the theological foundations of the priesthood in continuity with the Second Vatican Council and firmly rooted in the Great Tradition of the Church Fathers.