CULTIVATING CATHOLIC PROFESSIONALS FOR VIRTUOUS LEADERSHIP

Through a competitive application process, Leonine Fellows are chosen from the emerging generation of promising leaders in the public and private sectors. During a year-long program of intellectual and spiritual seriousness, the Leonine Forum educates these men and women in the core tenets of the Social Teaching of the Church and its practical application. Fellows join a larger community of Leonine Alumni and leaders committed to integrating those teachings within their professional and civic lives.  

OUR MISSION: To cultivate an emerging generation of virtuous leaders and empower them to form fully-integrated lives of faith in order to apply the Social Teachings of the Church within their professional and civic lives.

WHAT DO WE DO? We provide high achieving people with serious intellectual and spiritual formation from the heart of the Church, and the practical tools, resources, and network to act upon that formation to transform the culture.

WHY DO WE EXIST? Leonine exists because the future of the Church in America and our country depend on engaging a vibrant core of emerging lay Catholic leaders committed to living out the Gospel within their families, communities, and professions.

HOW DO WE DO IT? Leonine Fellows are chosen through a competitive process from the emerging generation of promising leaders and potential decision-makers in the public and private sectors. During the first year, Leonine Fellows commit to a 10-month intellectually and spiritually rigorous fellowship and are introduced to important thinkers, institutions, peers, and information resources. Leonine Fellows join an active network of Alumni with ongoing opportunities to be formed and to serve as virtuous leaders, at both a local and national level.

Join over 1,000 Leonine Fellows across the country 

Applications are now open for the 2025-2026 First-Year Fellowships in Chicago, New York City, and Washington DC.
Deadline August 1, 2025

Apply Today

Applications are now open for the 2026 First-Year Fellowships in Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles.
Deadline November 14, 2025.

DALLAS – LAUNCHING 2025

The Leonine Forum is thrilled to announce that we are launching a new city chapter in Dallas in 2025. Newly selected Leonine Fellows will join their peers in Washington DC, Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles in embarking on the First-Year Fellowship. You can learn more about it elsewhere on our website, or view the FAQ below. Please use the website contact form with any additional questions.

FAQ

What does it cost?
Thanks to the generosity of our benefactors, there is no required cost to participate in the Leonine Forum. You will, however, have an opportunity to donate to help defray the substantial costs of the Forum.

Do I have to be Catholic in order to apply?
No. The Leonine Forum exists to equip the emerging generation of leaders in the core tenets of the Catholic Church’s social teachings. While our curriculum is intentionally rooted in the Catholic faith and intellectual tradition, we are open to Fellows of various faith backgrounds interested in understanding the Catholic Church more deeply.

Who should write my letter of recommendation?
The ideal letter of recommendation comes from a respected source who can speak to your professional achievement and personal character. Another current applicant should not be a recommender.

Does my recommender have to be Catholic?
No. Your recommender does not need to be Catholic, as long as he or she can speak well to your professional achievements and personal character.
What does the application entail?
Applications consist of a cover letter, resume, 1-3 letters of recommendation, and a brief video to be uploaded by each applicant.

Will you accept late applications?
No.

How often are the Sessions?
First-Year Fellows will meet ten times over the course of 2026 (approximately once per month).

What is the format for the Sessions?
The basic format for each Session includes Mass, Lecture and Q&A, Dinner & Discussion with Fellows.

Do I have to make it to every session?
Priority will be given to applicants who intend in good faith to make it to at least 80% of the events (missing no more than two). The Leonine Forum is built on the community of Fellows, and when one is missing, the whole group feels it.

Is there homework?
Yes. In the month leading up to each Session, Fellows will be given a packet of reading material (40-80 pages) selected by the Faculty Leaders to read in advance. Tolle Lege!

What if I don’t do the reading?
God will know.

Are there other events for Leonine Fellows beyond the First-Year sessions?
Yes, Leonine Fellows join a large local community and an active national network of Alumni with ongoing opportunities to be formed and to serve as virtuous leaders.

I’m interested in bringing a regional chapter of the Leonine Forum to my area. What do I do
Let us know by contacting us here.

I still have more questions, what do I do?
Contact us here.

Can my spouse and I apply for the same Leonine cohort?
When spouses apply in the same year, they are accepted or declined together.  In the former instance, the cohort cap increases to accommodate spouses’ joint participation in the Leonine Forum.

DENVER – LAUNCHING 2025

The Leonine Forum is thrilled to announce that we are launching a new city chapter in Denver in 2025. Newly selected Leonine Fellows will join their peers in Washington DC, Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles in embarking on the First-Year Fellowship. You can learn more about it elsewhere on our website, or view the FAQ below. Please use the website contact form with any additional questions.

FAQ

What does it cost?
Thanks to the generosity of our benefactors, there is no required cost to participate in the Leonine Forum. You will, however, have an opportunity to donate to help defray the substantial costs of the Forum.

Do I have to be Catholic in order to apply?
No. The Leonine Forum exists to equip the emerging generation of leaders in the core tenets of the Catholic Church’s social teachings. While our curriculum is intentionally rooted in the Catholic faith and intellectual tradition, we are open to Fellows of various faith backgrounds interested in understanding the Catholic Church more deeply.

Who should write my letter of recommendation?
The ideal letter of recommendation comes from a respected source who can speak to your professional achievement and personal character. Another current applicant should not be a recommender.

Does my recommender have to be Catholic?
No. Your recommender does not need to be Catholic, as long as he or she can speak well to your professional achievements and personal character.
What does the application entail?
Applications consist of a cover letter, resume, 1-3 letters of recommendation, and a brief video to be uploaded by each applicant.

Will you accept late applications?
No.

How often are the Sessions?
First-Year Fellows will meet ten times over the course of 2026 (approximately once per month).

What is the format for the Sessions?
The basic format for each Session includes Mass, Lecture and Q&A, Dinner & Discussion with Fellows.

Do I have to make it to every session?
Priority will be given to applicants who intend in good faith to make it to at least 80% of the events (missing no more than two). The Leonine Forum is built on the community of Fellows, and when one is missing, the whole group feels it.

Is there homework?
Yes. In the month leading up to each Session, Fellows will be given a packet of reading material (40-80 pages) selected by the Faculty Leaders to read in advance. Tolle Lege!

What if I don’t do the reading?
God will know.

Are there other events for Leonine Fellows beyond the First-Year sessions?
Yes, Leonine Fellows join a large local community and an active national network of Alumni with ongoing opportunities to be formed and to serve as virtuous leaders.

I’m interested in bringing a regional chapter of the Leonine Forum to my area. What do I do
Let us know by contacting us here.

I still have more questions, what do I do?
Contact us here.

Can my spouse and I apply for the same Leonine cohort?
When spouses apply in the same year, they are accepted or declined together.  In the former instance, the cohort cap increases to accommodate spouses’ joint participation in the Leonine Forum.

WASHINGTON, DC

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NEW YORK CITY

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LOS ANGELES

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CHICAGO

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CULTIVATING CATHOLIC PROFESSIONALS FOR VIRTUOUS LEADERSHIP

Through a competitive application process, Leonine Fellows are chosen from the emerging generation of promising leaders in the public and private sectors. During a year-long program of intellectual and spiritual seriousness, the Leonine Forum educates these men and women in the core tenets of the Social Teaching of the Church and its practical application. Fellows join a larger community of Leonine Alumni and leaders committed to integrating those teachings within their professional and civic lives.  

OUR MISSION: To cultivate an emerging generation of virtuous leaders and empower them to form fully-integrated lives of faith in order to apply the Social Teachings of the Church within their professional and civic lives.

WHAT DO WE DO? We provide high achieving people with serious intellectual and spiritual formation from the heart of the Church, and the practical tools, resources, and network to act upon that formation to transform the culture.

WHY DO WE EXIST? Leonine exists because the future of the Church in America and our country depend on engaging a vibrant core of emerging lay Catholic leaders committed to living out the Gospel within their families, communities, and professions.

HOW DO WE DO IT? Leonine Fellows are chosen through a competitive process from the emerging generation of promising leaders and potential decision-makers in the public and private sectors. During the first year, Leonine Fellows commit to a 10-month intellectually and spiritually rigorous fellowship and are introduced to important thinkers, institutions, peers, and information resources. Leonine Fellows join an active network of Alumni with ongoing opportunities to be formed and to serve as virtuous leaders, at both a local and national level.

Why Leonine?

A FULLY-INTEGRATED CATHOLIC LIFE

Intellectual Formation

In monthly sessions led by Catholic thought leaders from around the country, Leonine Fellows grapple with some of the most important questions at the intersection of faith and public life.

Spiritual Development

Living a fully-integrated Catholic life is an activity not only of the mind, but also of the body and spirit. Accordingly, Leonine Fellows will have the chance to supplement these intellectual endeavors with opportunities for Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, confession, and spiritual direction.

Cultural Engagement

Leonine Fellows have opportunities to engage with the broader culture as informed and articulate advocates through civic engagement, service work, and employment and networking opportunities.

Community Service

Leonine Fellows and Alumni serve the Leonine Forum network with their time, talent and treasure following their First Year Fellowship.

“When Attila the Hun entered Italy in 452 and began to sack and burn cities on his way to Rome, the panicked population, emperor and senate, begged him to go to persuade ferocious marauder to spare the eternal city. Saint Leo the Great courageously took up the charge, met with Attila, and persuaded him to turn around. …Like no pope before him, he raised the prestige of the Church.

He is perhaps most famous, however, for his sermons, especially those on the Lord’s incarnation. …He dedicated all of his enormous talents to describe not just the love of God in choosing to become one of us, but how each of us is called to allow Christ to take up his abode within us through prayer and the sacraments.”

–Fr. Roger Landry

WHY LEONINE?

The Leonine Forum derives its name and inspiration from Saint Leo the Great — who famously persuaded Attila the Hun from sacking Rome — and Pope Leo XIII, progenitor of Catholic Social Teaching and the New Evangelization.

“The gestation of the Church being born today — the Church of the New Evangelization — began in 1878, when Pope Leo XIII was elected. Leo XIII only planted the seeds. But the seeds he sowed — in Catholic biblical studies, in the renewal of Catholic philosophy and theology studies, in creating the social doctrine of the Church, and opening the Church to modern historical studies — eventually bore fruit.”

–George Weigel

OUR PROCESS

Leonine Fellows have the opportunity to develop a fully-integrated professional persona, and enter into a community of like-minded professionals equally committed to the cause of reintroducing the tenets of the Social Teachings of the Church into the political, policy, legal, business, and cultural activities of society.

SELECT

Fellows through a competitive process. Leonine Fellows are chosen from the emerging generation of promising leaders and potential decision-makers in the public and private sectors.

EDUCATE

Fellows in the foundational principles of the Social Teachings of the Church and its practical application within their professional and civic lives.

INTRODUCE

Fellows  to important thinkers, institutions, and information resources.

GUIDE

Fellows in the development of a professional persona fully consistent with a sound interior life.

CONNECT

Fellows to a community of other faithful, promising leaders around the country.

ENGAGE

Fellows with the broader culture as informed and articulate advocates through civic engagement, service work, and employment and networking opportunities.

PROGRAM DETAILS

INTELLECTUAL FORMATION

During the first semester of the program, Fellows engage with a curriculum that emphasizes primary Church documents, practical secondary analyses, and gain an intellectual foundation on topics including: Faith and Reason, Christian Anthropology, the Principles of Catholic Social Teaching, Charity and Truth, Justice and Mercy, and Catholicism and the American Experiment.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

During the second semester, Fellows explore how core Social Teachings of the Church relate to their professional and civic lives, including topics such as entrepreneurship, business, finance, culture and the arts, poverty, economics, immigration, ecology, public policy and civic engagement, bioethics, health care, religious liberty, and more.

Spiritual Development

Fellows have the chance to supplement intellectual endeavors with regular opportunities for Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, confession, spiritual direction and Days of Recollection.

Community Service

Leonine Fellows serve the Leonine Forum network with their time, talent and treasure following their First Year Fellowship.

Alumni Events

Fellows join a national community of over 1000 Fellows, and have regular opportunities to participate in local Leonine alumni events – including happy hours, retreats, lectures, picnics, roundtable discussions and exclusive access to premier seminars, dinners, pilgrimages, national conferences and more.

TESTIMONIES

“The Leonine Forum is at the cutting edge of the New Evangelization, bringing the best of Catholic social thought and doctrine to bear on a turbulent period in our national history.”

GEORGE WEIGEL • ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER

“The Leonine Forum helped show me how to see timeless truths in many of the great and small events happening around us. There’s really no other program like it.”

ALEC TORRES • 2016 LEONINE FELLOW

“The Leonine Forum is a much-needed program to help the most talented young Catholic professionals build the most solid foundation in their lives for virtuous leadership.”

LEONARD LEO • LEONINE FORUM BOARD MEMBER