Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College

The Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College will provide a community of support for newly independent young adults to help them develop a better discernment of how God wants them to develop and apply their personal talents to serve Him in today's society.

This search for how to live “the good life” God intends for each of us will be supported by a community which will bring the fullness of the truth to young adults in a way that is easily accessible, readily available, relevant, practical, and personal.

This community will be both "real" via periodic conferences, training sessions, and other gatherings, and "virtual" through applying technology for online classes, discussion groups, interactive chat, conference calls, and the like. The website of the Institute will be interactive, easy to navigate, and actively monitored to provide real-time response to questions.

A key aspect of the community will be presenting real heroes for young adults to relate to, people who can give them confidence, comfort, and hope. They will learn that people they can respect and identify with are believers who live their lives based on that belief. The community of young adults will be mentored by leaders and experts from various apostolates cooperating together under the umbrella of the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College to address a broad spectrum of the concerns and needs of young adults in light of the challenges they face in today's culture.

We have brought back into publication the award-winning Envoy Magazine, a print and online journal aimed at explaining and defending Catholic responses to the challenges of the world today. In addition, we will publish material in forms suited to our audience.

Problem/need to be addressed by the Envoy Institute:

Young adults are the population most at risk for leaving the Faith as they navigate two dramatic lifestyle transitions to enter into adulthood and integrate into American society:

1. Leaving home to go to college: facing significant intellectual and moral challenges to their values and beliefs
2. Leaving college to enter the workforce: leaving the social support community of their peer

Leadership

Patrick Madrid, a best-selling Catholic author and publisher of Envoy Magazine, is the director of the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College. He is developing a cadre of collaborators to be fellows of the Institute and to contribute actively to the Institute’s programs, publications, conferences, and online activities. The Institute’s Board of Advisors provides a sounding board and strategic direction on an ongoing basis.

Areas to be addressed by the Envoy Institute include the following:

1. The primacy of conscience: “Is it right for me to do whatever I think is best?” (Training in these areas: what is conscience, how does it relate to authority and the Church, how do I form my conscience, etc.)
2. Truth and tolerance; the relationship of the Catholic worldview to various modern worldviews: Moral relativism on campus and in the world (how to logically understand it, what are the assumptions underlying moral relativism, how will it be manifested in arguments and college life, etc.)
3. Faith and reason: “Don’t I have to pick one or the other?” (intellectual maturity, critical thinking skills)
4. Suffering and all the evil I see: “How does this make sense if there’s a loving God?”
5. Catholic social teaching: “What is social justice and how can I serve it?”
6. Moral challenges in today’s culture: “How can I make sense of and know what is right?” (Chastity, gambling, pornography, entertainment, recreation, partying, and all the other cultural artifacts of college life)
7. “All religions are simply ways to reach God—at the core, they’re all the same...right?” (Catholicism’s relation to other religions, God's revelation, Scripture, tradition, salvation history, etc.)
8. Prayer: “So what does God want me to do—and how can He expect me to do it?” (The crux of the problem of despair and hopelessness)
9. “I’m a spiritual person but I don’t need all this organized religion.” (Understanding the sacraments and our need for them, what the Church is and does)
10. Apologetics and catechesis: “How can I know, defend, and explain the Faith?” (for non-Christians, Christians, Catholics)
11. The modern “professionalization” of morality as the domain of medical, legal, and political authorities; i.e. how moral issues are being put into the ‘public square’ and then we’re told that religious perspectives on them must remain private: “Don’t legislate your morality and stop standing in the way of science!” (Pro-life issues, growing bioethical issues, and legal attacks on Catholic morality: the conflict between God and Caesar)