Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have forcefully addressed the growth of secularism as an ideology that removes God from the exploration of the meaning of life. Both popes have eloquently expressed the need to understand the spiritual and moral dimension of humanity - the 'new humanism' - as the necessary framework to study the meaning of it all.

That is the centerpiece of Benedict XVI's addresses, the 'new humanism', much like the 'personalism' of John Paul II. It is the focus on man as an essentially spiritual and moral being before considering anything else he does. It is reclaiming 'being' before 'acting', restoring order after the Enlightenment stripped society of religiously informed voices.

The denial of God is an urgent issue spanning longer than the past two papacies but absorbing both. At the World Meeting of Families in Valencia July 8, 2006, Pope Benedict addressed the gathered bishops of Spain. "Continue dauntlessly to proclaim that prescinding from God, acting as if he did not exist or relegating faith to the purely private sphere, undermines the truth about man and compromises the future of culture and society," he told them. "Lifting one's gaze to the living God, the guarantor of our freedom and of truth, is a premise for arriving at a new humanity."

With modern culture denying the existence of natural law and doubting Church teaching and tradition about the human person, the prevailing questions are: How sure are we of what we know? And what is knowledge?

STOQ exists to answer these questions. Conferences, workshops and seminars are offered to present and deepen the true relationship between the Catholic tradition and science. The Church fully respects the competence of science to explain the world, while understanding that it provides partial knowledge of a much deeper mystery of creation and providence. Science is a way of exploring that mystery and serving the cause of human dignity.

Through our work and communications, STOQ International intends to reach those who influence science, academia, public policy and public opinion, to dispel myths about creation and evolution, faith and reason, and provide a source of ongoing information on news and issues.