Center for Catholic Studies Attains $72K Grant

Michael Sean Winters aims to increase SHU’s recognition to match its accomplishments

Sacred Heart University’s Center for Catholic Studies (CCS) has received a $72,000 grant from the Owsley Brown II Family Foundation to fund a fellowship that will promote SHU’s excellence as a premier Catholic university rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition and inspired by Vatican II and increase its recognition around the world.

The CCS supports the innovative and cutting-edge programming, teaching and scholarship reflected in SHU’s mission and its commitment to global education relevant to people’s lives and the world in which they live.

The center has hired Michael Sean Winters as the CCS fellow. A renowned journalist for the National Catholic Reporter, he will be responsible for developing external relationships with Catholic Church representatives and Catholic studies and theology departments at colleges and universities around the world.

“The Catholic Church, through the visionary efforts of Pope Francis in Laudato Si,’ has a tremendous opportunity to bring people together to improve the health of our suffering planet,” said Christina Lee Brown of the Owsley Brown II Family Foundation. “Michael Sean and Sacred Heart University are working to be a part of the solution and to convene many caring people under a shared vision and deep moral purpose. We are deeply grateful for their commitment to this timely work.”

Michelle Loris, director of the CCS, said she is excited to have someone as dynamic as Winters as the center’s fellow and she is looking forward to developing new opportunities for the CCS with Winters. “We could have no better fellow than Michael Sean. His incredible knowledge and abilities and his extensive networks of relationships makes him an exceptional fellow for the center.”

Winters believes Sacred Heart demonstrates expertise that deserves to be recognized beyond its community. One of his goals is to bring attention to the University’s work on a national and international scale by, for example, sending student and faculty representatives to more forums across the globe to participate and provide input. 

Winters said he was drawn to Sacred Heart because the community is willing to learn and be virtuous. He was at SHU when Cardinal Joseph Tobin visited earlier this year, and Winters was impressed by the turnout. “A good number of students were there in the middle of the afternoon. That does not happen at other universities,” he said. “There is clearly some great work going on at Sacred Heart.”

SHU is a relatively new university, Winters said, and he is looking forward to helping it achieve the recognition that bigger and older Catholic institutions around the world receive.