About Us
Our Mission
The mission is simple: To equip Christians to renew culture. Through courses, formation programs, and publications, the Gregory the Great Institute helps believers transform contemporary culture in the light of faith and reason.
Our Vision
The Gregory the Great Institute is a non-profit that equips Christians to renew culture in the light of faith and reason through formation programs, short courses, and research that focuses on Catholic life in Canada.
Our Strategy
Over the next two years we are working toward launching one or more of the following programs: a trade school for Catholic men, certificate and diploma programs in Christian leadership, and a Canadian Catholic Think-Tank.
We are pursuing these goals according to a three phase plan.
1. Seed-funding
Duration: 6 months, starting January 2025:
Goal: We cast a vision for inspiring Catholic culture in Canada, seek seed-funding, and gather a fantastic team of partners, advisors, and staff.
2. Proof of Concepts
Duration: 2 years, launching July 2025
Goal: We launch formation programs, courses, and pursue publications on Canadian Catholicism to test which of the three “big” projected programs gain the most traction.
3. Major Launch
Duration: 25 years, launching July 2027
Goal: We establish one or more major programs that will help inspire and invigorate new growth and apostolic zeal within the Church in Canada.
Phases:
Our Patron
St. Gregory the Great (d. 604) serves as our patron because he taught the West how to love God during times of upheaval.
Gregory was a statesman, a monk, a Pope, a teacher, a patron, and an evangelist. As statesman, he defended Rome and ruled wisely; as a monk, he lived by the Rule of St. Benedict; as Pope, he was a model administrator; as teacher, through his prolific writings he transmitted the legacy of classical learning to the medievals; as patron of the arts, he solidified the Church’s musical traditions; as evangelist, he sent Augustine of Canterbury with the rule of St. Benedict to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England.
In short, Gregory is the model builder of Catholic culture. At the Gregory the Great Institute we too hope to be builders of culture in Canada; we too hope to help strengthen islands of holiness where prayer, friendship, study, beauty and economic vitality can breathe together.
Our crest
Our crest captures the essence of our unique mission to renew culture in Canada.
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Dove - signifies the vivifying power of God’s Holy Spirit
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Cross - communicates the centrality of sacrifice by Christ and for Christ
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Letters - IOIC is a motto taken from Ephesians 1:10 “to restore all things in Christ,” and was also the motto of Pope St. Pius X, another culture-building pope
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Red Shield - a symbol of Christendom’s warriors and scholars, in whose tradition we stand
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Book of Chant - communicates how authentic culture (music and learning) is always the fruit of cult (revealed worship)
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Wheat sheaves - points to the eucharist, the dignity of work, and our mission in the heart of Western Canada