The Tertio Millennio Seminar
Kraków, Poland
July 7th – 26th 2025
Applications for the 2025 Tertio Millennio Seminar are open until Friday, April 11th, 2025
The Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society was founded in 1992 by Michael Novak, Rocco Buttiglione, Father Richard John Neuhaus, Father Maciej Zieba, OP, and George Weigel to deepen the dialogue on Catholic social doctrine between North American students and students from the new democracies of central and eastern Europe.
The annual seminar in Kraków, Poland, is built around an intense study of John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, supplemented by wider readings from the Church’s social magisterium and contemporary essays on relevant topics. Following the lead of Centesimus Annus, the seminar explores the “free society” as composed of three interlocking systems: a democratic polity, a free economy, and a vibrant public moral culture. With Pope John Paul II, we lay the greatest stress on the third system, the moral-cultural system, taking up such issues as religious freedom, ecumenism, Christian-Jewish dialogue, and the “culture of life.”
Each year’s seminar class includes 10–12 North American students and 20–25 students from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, and other new democracies. While the North American contingent is usually composed of graduate students and young professionals, accomplished juniors and seniors working on bachelor’s degrees relevant to the purposes of the seminar may also apply. The program is conducted in English.
For Alumni
If you want to be included in our alumni correspondence and receive information on alumni events, please email Helen Schlueter ([email protected]) with your name, contact information, and TMS class year.
