San Damiano College for the Trades

Higher education in the US is broken—it burdens students with large debts, gives them little or no human formation, inculcates vice rather than virtue, and prepares students to be cogs in the modern capitalist system. Instead of focusing on high-quality tangible goods, education today often promotes the anti-personal dynasty of digital relativism. 

Our society requires not merely cogs in the machine of middle-management, nor mindless gears in the machine of industry but rather humans who bring dignity to the work of their hands.  San Damiano College trains men principally in character, preparing them to bring dignity, purpose, and attentive craftsmanship to their work.  As the world become more digitized, economies will shift toward the manual tasks only humans can achieve, and the absence of good men in these fields will be even more keenly felt.

Even in the Catholic Church, the riches of our intellectual and liturgical tradition, as they apply to human work, are little known. As in the days of St Francis,  Christ is calling to us, “Go, rebuild my Church, for as you can see it is falling into ruin.”

Something needed to be done. We built San Damiano College for the Trades.