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The Institute for Human Ecology (IHE) at The Catholic University of America is the nation’s leading academic institute committed to identifying the economic, cultural, and social conditions vital for human flourishing.
Drawing on the Catholic intellectual tradition, the mission of the IHE is to educate students, sponsor multidisciplinary research, advise Church leadership, and organize symposia, conferences, and lectures for the academy and the public square. IHE programs challenge the materialistic and reductionist worldviews of institutions, policy-makers, and opinion-formers that stand in the way of prosperity and human dignity.
Human ecology is the answer to a specific problem: disconnection from reality. This problem was identified by Pope Leo XIII, in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum and has been reiterated by every pope since Saint John Paul II. It continues to be a problem to this day. We are so disconnected that the very word “reality” poses a major challenge to many academics.
Modern science, in the sense that the word is usually understood, draws its inferences from the empirically observable. The danger, however, is that the scientific reliance on data becomes reductionist, leading to a constricted understanding of human beings. In the past, social theorists such as Karl Marx, have embraced this materialistic, deterministic view of humanity – with lethal consequences for millions of people. Other social theorists, such as Max Weber, have rejected this analysis, arguing that economic and social activity cannot be divorced from the universal human quest for meaning. But determinism continues to haunt political and economic debate across the spectrum – a reflection of the failure of secularism to grapple with the concepts of beauty and truth that alone can satisfy our desire for meaning.
The Church, by contrast, has observed what secular theorists fail to see – that there is a natural ecology that we cannot violate with impunity. If we understand this, it should not be hard to see that humanity, as part of this natural order, has its own ecology as well, and this human ecology requires a flourishing of human dignity that encompasses marriage, the family, freedom of belief, private property rights, the dignity of labor, and an incorruptible system of justice.
Human ecology, then, is vital because it enables us to broaden our horizons, studying the human person scientifically, but without deliberately excluding the insights of philosophy and theology that connect us to reality.
Quamquam Pluries
Encyclical by Pope Leo XIII on devotion to Saint Joseph
15 August 1889
In truth, the dignity of the Mother of God is so lofty that naught created can rank above it. But as Joseph has been united to the Blessed Virgin by the ties of marriage, it may not be doubted that he approached nearer than any to the eminent dignity by which the Mother of God surpasses so nobly all created natures. For marriage is the most intimate of all unions which from its essence imparts a community of gifts between those that by it are joined together.”
“Thus in giving Joseph the Blessed Virgin as spouse, God appointed him to be not only her life’s companion, the witness of her maidenhood, the protector of her honour, but also, by virtue of the conjugal tie, a participator in her sublime dignity. And Joseph shines among all mankind by the most august dignity, since by divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and reputed as His father among men. Hence it came about that the Word of God was humbly subject to Joseph, that He obeyed him, and that He rendered to him all those offices that children are bound to render to their parents. From this two-fold dignity flowed the obligation which nature lays upon the head of families, so that Joseph became the guardian, the administrator, and the legal defender of the divine house whose chief he was. And during the whole course of his life he fulfilled those charges and those duties. He set himself to protect with a mighty love and a daily solicitude his spouse and the Divine Infant; regularly by his work he earned what was necessary for the one and the other for nourishment and clothing; he guarded from death the Child threatened by a monarch’s jealousy, and found for Him a refuge; in the miseries of the journey and in the bitternesses of exile he was ever the companion, the assistance, and the upholder of the Virgin and of Jesus. Now the divine house which Joseph ruled with the authority of a father, contained within its limits the scarce-born Church.
From the same fact that the most holy Virgin is the mother of Jesus Christ is she the mother of all Christians whom she bore on Mount Calvary amid the supreme throes of the Redemption; Jesus Christ is, in a manner, the first-born of Christians, who by the adoption and Redemption are his brothers. And for such reasons the Blessed Patriarch looks upon the multitude of Christians who make up the Church as confided specially to his trust – this limitless family spread over the earth, over which, because he is the spouse of Mary and the Father of Jesus Christ he holds, as it were, a paternal authority. It is, then, natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection, he should now cover with the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend the Church of Jesus Christ.”
Prayer to Saint Joseph promulgated by Pope Leo XIII:
To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction, and having implored the help of thy thrice holy Spouse, we now, with hearts filled with confidence, earnestly beg thee also to take us under thy protection. By that charity wherewith thou wert united to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by that fatherly love with which thou didst cherish the Child Jesus, we beseech thee and we humbly pray that thou wilt look down with gracious eye upon that inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by His blood, and wilt succor us in our need by thy power and strength.
Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen off-spring of Jesus Christ. Keep from us, O most loving Father, all blight of error and corruption. Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness. And even as of old thou didst rescue the Child Jesus from the peril of His life, so now defend God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Shield us ever under thy patronage, that, following thine example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting bliss in Heaven. Amen.
As an institution proudly devoted to Catholic truth and the uplifting of the family, we turn regularly to our heavenly family for aid and inspiration. In addition to our primary patron, Saint Joseph, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, the IHE has the following secondary patrons:
The IHE’s programs have patron saints who serve as models for the formation we endeavor to imbue and powerful intercessors for our staff and students in times of need. They are:
Saint John Henry Newman, patron of our Undergrad Program. As a tutor and cleric at Oxford, Saint John Henry had a profound pastoral influence on the undergraduate population, urging them in his Parochial and Plain Sermons to pursue purity of heart, integrity of mind, and intimacy with Christ above all things.
Saint Josephine Bakhita, patroness of the M.A. in Human Rights Program. Born in Sudan in 1869, Saint Josephine was kidnapped at the age of seven and sold into slavery. She was sold several times, eventually becoming a nanny for an Italian family. Josephine gained her freedom and became a Canossion Sister, where she spent her life preparing missionary sisters to work in Africa and exemplified Christian charity. When asked what she would do if she could meet her captors, she replied: “If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today.”We also seek the intercession of Saints John the Baptist, Paul, Catherine of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, Scholastica, Benedict (ora et labora), Margaret of Castello, Joan of Arc, Thomas More, Kateri Tekakwitha, Zelie Martin, and Louis Martin.
The IHE esteems Pope Leo XIII. An early champion of Catholic social doctrine and the beauty of tradition, Pope Leo XIII granted the founding charter to The Catholic University of America in 1887, urging the University to “give to the Republic her best citizens.”
The fleur-de-lis (lily flower), which appears on the coat
of arms of Pope Leo XIII, who issued the charter for The Catholic University of America, traditionally represents the Holy Trinity as well as the Blessed Virgin Mary. (It was, for instance, featured on the coat of arms of Saint Joan of Arc.) The lily is also the ancient symbol of Saint Joseph, the patron of the Institute for Human Ecology. The twelve stars bring to mind Mary’s crown of twelve stars (“on her head a crown of twelve stars”) (Revelation 12:1).
The twelve stars bring to mind Mary’s crown of twelve stars (“on her head a crown of twelve stars”) (Revelation 12:1), the twelve Apostles, and the twelve Schools at The Catholic University of America. Additionally, the stars symbolize the light radiated by God, as described, for example, in the Psalms,“in your light we see light” (36:10), and by Dante in the last line of Paradiso, “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
