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The Redemptor Hominis Center (RHC)
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About the NameThe theological foundation for the work of the Center is summarized by its name. Redemptor Hominis refers to Christ as the center of human history, as emphasized by Pope John Paul II in his first Encyclical of the same name. All priestly formation is aimed at readying men for configuration to Christ so that they can be "apt instruments" for mediating the grace merited by Christ's redeeming passion, death and resurrection. The Center’s holistic approach acknowledges each person as a unity of body and soul, made in the image and likeness of God, with an eternal destiny. The Center particularly relies on the anthropology elucidated by St. Thomas Aquinas. Within this Thomistic framework, health in the body is recognized as a disposition or aptitude to actuate the operations of the soul. Health of the composite being, the individual seminarian, consists in a healthy body and soul, each prepared to engage in the ministerial acts of a priest.