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.

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 

B​ecome part of an active network of leaders committed to integrating the teachings of the Church within their professional and civic lives. Applications will reopen in Spring 2025 for the 2025-2026 First-Year Fellowships.

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Why Leonine?

A FULLY-INTEGRATED CATHOLIC LIFE

“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.

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.

WASHINGTON, DC

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NEW YORK CITY

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LOS ANGELES

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CHICAGO

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DALLAS – LAUNCHING 2025

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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