Acton Institute For The Study of Religion and Liberty

Grand Rapids, MI 49503

[From a report by NCRP]

The Institute on Religion and Public Life and the Acton Institute both seek to influence the religious community through seminars, colloquial sponsored research, book projects, newsletters and joumals. They work to instill a stronger appreciation of the morality of capitalism in the U.S. and around the world.

Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute The Acton Institute's central mission is to counter what it sees as "the clergy's disturbing bias against the business community and free enterprise," principally by convening three-day conferences for seminarians and divinity students in order to "introduce them to the moral and ethical basis of free market economies." In 1995, the Institute also launched a national welfare reform initiative to help shape national policy debates, believing that "churches and private individuals and organizations, not the government, can best help change people's lives." Michael Joyce, of the Bradley Foundation, was a featured speaker at the Institute's 1996 conference while Institute staff also participated in activities organized by other conservative foundation grantees, such as the Koch Summer Fellows Program at George Mason University, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and Focus on the Family.