How do the three Catholic schools of the GTU differ? What makes the DSPT specifically Dominican?
Each school is characterized, to varying degrees, by the charism and heritage of the religious order by which it was founded and the particular theological traditions of those orders. The Order of Preachers was founded by the Spaniard St. Dominic de Guzman in 1215 to combat the heresy known as Albigensianism, which flourished especially in southern France and northern Italy. Like the Franciscans, who were founded six years earlier, the Dominicans were mendicants or “begging friars.” From its earliest years, the Dominican Order established its communities in towns and cities where major universities were located so that the friars could be actively engaged in the intellectual and cultural discussions of the age. As Pope Benedict XVI has noted, “New questions made for lively discussions in the universities, which arose at the end of the 12th century. Friars and Preachers did not hesitate to assume this commitment as well and, as students and professors, they entered the most famous unive
