The mission of the Seton Center for Church-Related Nonprofit Corporations is to provide independent, scholarly applied legal research on issues of strategic importance for the long-term viability of religiously affiliated nonprofit corporations, primarily, but not exclusively, Roman Catholic affiliated charitable corporations.

The Center will convene the best legal scholars, canonists, ethicists, executive leadership, and professional educators in health, education, and social service disciplines, including accreditation and public policy, to analyze strategic issues challenging church-related, and particularly Roman Catholic, charitable corporations. The research will lead to publications in professional journals and also provide the basis for “suggested practices” that preserve the Catholic identity of the corporations as they operate in a pluralist environment. Eschewing advocacy, the Center will produce research that explores all relevant perspectives and literature addressing the issues being studied.

The Center additionally will serve as a civil law resource for church-related nonprofit organizations, providing consultants, hosting conferences and study groups, conducting research, and publishing policy papers and scholarly articles in professional journals on questions of civil law as they affect religiously affiliated nonprofit corporations.