Asked what Catholicism contributes to democracy, most would answer that the Church supports democratic government insofar as it advances the common good — the right to life, religious liberty, the integrity of the family, and care for the poor and the migrant. This is true, but only in part. Thinkers such as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Robert Bellarmine, among other lights of the Church, also defended what we now call constitutional self-governance as a good in its own right — indeed, as a necessary condition for securing the very principles named above.

The St. Catherine of Siena Forum for Democracy seeks to renew this tradition within the Catholic Church in the constitutional democracies of the West, through education, partnership, and support for Catholic leadership, charities, schools, and laity.