1. The seventh annual conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists (SCS2024) was held at Mundelein Seminary (Univ. of St Mary of the Lake), on June 7-9 and was a great success.  120 people attended, including 23 student members of SCS.  Those figures represent increases from last year of 13% and 53% respectively.  

The videos  of the conference are viewable HERE on this website. One can also go directly to the SCS YouTube Channel.  Aside from the fact that the talks are quite interesting and well worth watching, you can help SCS become more visible by viewing these videos and telling others about them.   

The theme of the conference was “Critical Issues at the Intersection of Science and Faith.” There were talks on a wide variety of topics, including “Does Evolution Lead to God?”, “Neuroscience and Free Will”, “Are Minds Machines?”, several talks by computer scientists about AI, and much more.

2. The fourth St. Albert Initiative on Science and the Catholic Faith (SAI2024) was held on Feb 2, 2022, at New Orleans Seminary in New Orleans.  Well over 200 high school students, teachers, and parents attended.  The fifth St. Albert Initiative will be held on Thursday, March 6, 2025, in Louisville, KY. 

3. The second annual conference of the Spanish Chapter of SCS (Sociedad Científicos Católicos de España) was held in Madrid from Friday, September 14 to Sunday, September 16, at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. There were talks on a wide variety of topics where science, philosophy, and theology meet, including Artificial Intelligence, gene editing, transhumanism, ecology and sustainability, the problem of consciousness, the relation of mind and brain, intelligent extraterrestrial life, evolution, and much else.  There were also two panel discussions, and other events.  VIDEOS of the conference talks (which are in Spanish) can be viewed HERE. 

4. The Spanish Chapter of SCS won the 2023 “Religión en Libertad ” award in the Science and Faith category. The prestigious awards are given by the Foundation for the New Evangelization (Fundación Nueva Evangelización para el siglo XXI). See HERE for an account of the award in Spanish (scroll down to number 8).   Particularly encouraging were the words of the deputy director of Religion en Libertad: “The SCS Spanish chapter is one of the best things that has happened in the Spanish Church in the last 10 years.”  

5. SCS held its first-ever fund-raising drive in the 2023-4 academic year and ended up with over $44,000 in donations.  These were augmented by a gift of $25,000 for matching funds.  

6. SCS had twenty-five College Chapters at the beginning of 2024 and another six Chapters have formed or are in the process of formation.  In the 2023-4 academic year SCS College Chapters had about 50 events, which drew a total of about 3,000 attendees. 

7.  In the 2023-4 academic year, another eight articles were posted on the SCS website.  The total number of articles is now up to 40. 

8.  The number of scientists and science students who have joined SCS now stands at over 2,300.