(ZENIT News / Rome, 06.06.2024).- The Augustinian Institute, founded in 2005 in Denver, Colorado, as an apostolate of evangelization, has launched a new project: the acquisition of a 100-hectare complex that will function as a center of evangelization, formation and spirituality for many Catholics.
This has surprised even the neighbors of the newly acquired compound, who were unaware of the activities that took place in the former facilities of the aerospace company Boeing, which until recently was a leadership center of that organization and now belongs to the Augustinian Institute.
Tim Gray, director of the Augustine Institute, has pointed out that the location of this new complex is of crucial importance, since there are more than 20 million Catholics living in St. Louis and they can easily travel to the site. In addition, he mentioned that this site is a crossroads and he aspires for it to become “a crossroads for the renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States.”
Regarding the financing of the project, the spokesperson informed that the funds come from the income generated by the graduate school’s tuition, sales of its curriculum, books and materials, and subscriptions to its Catholic content streaming service, FORMED, which is present in more than half of the parishes in the United States and has close to 1.7 million subscribers.
Given the great growth that this Institute has experienced in recent years, it was necessary to expand and establish this new location for the online platforms and as a campus for the theology students at the Institute.
The move to this new location is expected to begin classes in the fall of 2024, and enrollment is anticipated to increase by 200% to 300% over the next few years.
The campus will also serve for conferences and retreats, so an estimated 10,000 people will visit the site each year.
Gray has stressed that the goal is to support evangelization in parishes and Catholic schools, providing them with tools to form children, youth and adults, fulfilling the work of mercy of teaching the unlearned. Gray concluded, “We want to help them better serve their people so they can renew their parishes and their schools. It’s a positive, close, but independent relationship.»
In an April 23 statement, St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski expressed confidence that “the Augustinian Institute will transform this property into the main center for the New Evangelization in the United States.”
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