The CCMMP Society
An intellectual community for everyone who shares the eleven premises about the human person — academics, clinicians, formators, parents, bishops, students.
Why the Society exists
The Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person was written for two audiences: academics building a Catholic account of the person, and clinicians practicing inside that account.
Parents, godparents, bishops, religious, formators, students, teachers, and lay readers around the world are now an audience of the CCMMP too. The interest is universal, and it should be — should a parent wait until their child needs a therapist to pay attention to the principles that shape a human person?
The CCMMP Society is the group for everyone who reads, contributes to, supports, and promotes the CCMMP. Some members want to help the model evolve and expand to a wider variety of audiences. That work is what the Society makes possible.
The eleven premises the Society holds in common
The CCMMP is built on eleven premises about the human person — three theological, eight philosophical and psychological. Members can disagree about much of what follows from them. They share these starting points.
Theological
- 01Created
Every person is made in the image of God and carries the dignity that comes with that origin.
- 02Fallen
Sin reaches into every faculty of the person — disorder and suffering are real, and they are not the whole story.
- 03Redeemed
Christ has opened the way to healing, sanctification through the Holy Spirit, and union with the Father.
Philosophical & psychological
- 04Personal unity
Body and soul are one substance — sex, development across the lifespan, and the integration of faculties are all expressions of that unity.
- 05Fulfilled through vocation
Each person is called in three ways: to personal goodness, to a committed state of life, and to work in the world.
- 06Fulfilled in virtue
Cardinal, theological, and intellectual virtues are not refinements on a finished person — they are how the person reaches the ends she was made for.
- 07Interpersonally relational
Family, friendship, community, and relationship with God are constitutive of personhood, not accessories to it.
- 08Sensory-perceptual-cognitive
The five senses, memory, imagination, and the evaluative power are how a person makes contact with reality.
- 09Emotional
Emotions are good, and they are trainable — how a person handles them belongs to the work of virtue.
- 10Rational
Intellect — the capacity for truth, for beauty, for knowledge of multiple kinds — is essential to what the person is.
- 11Volitional and free
The will is real, freedom is real, and moral responsibility follows from both.
Who belongs
These are roles inside the Society, not a hierarchy. Most members fit more than one.
- Academic
Faculty, graduates, doctoral students, and independent scholars whose research, teaching, or writing draws on the framework. DMU faculty and alumni are heavily represented but not exclusive.
- Clinical
Licensed psychologists, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, and physicians whose practice is shaped by the framework. Spiritual directors and Catholic coaches working in the accompaniment ecosystem count too.
- Formator
Seminary formators, novice masters, Catholic school teachers, homeschool curriculum designers, and DMU’s continuing-education leaders. The vocation is structured formation.
- Endorser
Bishops and other ecclesial authorities who publicly affirm the work in their jurisdiction. Endorsement is a pastoral act, not a dues-paying membership.
- Author
Contributors to the CCMMP textbooks, parent guides, Catholic curriculum, and social media supporting the model.
- Householder
Parents, grandparents, godparents, and adult guardians forming the persons in their care. The Catholic tradition treats the household as the first school of virtue. The Society does the same.
- Affiliate
Students, lay readers, and supporters without a defined professional or familial role in the framework who want in. Affiliates pay no dues — the tier is the natural starting point for members in their twenties.
Governance
The Society lives operationally under Divine Mercy University and exists as a distinct intellectual community. President: Fr. Charles Sikorsky, L.C., ex officio as DMU President.
An editorial board of academic members, confirmed annually, sets direction for Presence+. A rotating conference committee plans the annual gathering. Endorsing bishops form a council whose role is pastoral rather than canonical.
The Society has no voting members and is not a representative body in any canonical sense. Decisions are made by the President in consultation with the editorial board and the DMU board of trustees.
Multilingual expansion
The Society is universal in principle. In practice it expands by language as members organize.
English and Spanish run in parallel from launch — Presence+ publishes in both, and the conference offers limited Spanish sessions. Portuguese and Italian come next, with translation grants funding the work that gets them there. After that the order depends on which members step forward.
The Society pays for translation. We do not gatekeep localization to professional translators — a serious lay member with the language and the willingness is enough to start a body of work.
Join the work
Three paid tiers — Member, Scholar, Patron — support the Society and unlock the full editorial life of Presence+, Schola, the annual conference, and the Society Shop.