Science Center for History since 1888
Following the Görres lecture on “Science in the Vatican: The founding of the Görres Society 150 years ago and its Roman Institute”, Gudrun Sailer of Vatican News interviewed the speaker and produced a radio programme entitled “Catholic research thrives on competition”.
On Thursday, 11 June, from 6 p.m., the Roman Institute of the Görres Society will celebrate its annual summer festival in San Giovanni a Porta Latina (Via di Porta Latina 17). It will begin with Holy Mass in the church, followed by a cheerful picnic in the monastery garden of the Rosminians, directly on the Aurelian city wall. Who wants to participate is kindly asked to contact - for the picknick -
The Görres Institute’s illustrated annual report for 2025 is now available in print. It covers our activities and staff news and will be sent to our friends by post. Anyone who would also like to receive a printed copy in future can contact
Stephan Wahle, a professor of liturgy from Paderborn, Christian Hümpfner and Sebastian Pietsch visited, amongst other places, the Institute, Father Augustinus Sander and Cardinal Kurt Koch in Rome. One reason for the visit was the study published by Herder Verlag, edited by Christian Hümpfner in collaboration with Peter Schallenberg and Stephan Wahle, on “Ecumenical Impulses for a Church with a Future”. The contributions are based on a comparative survey of Catholics, Protestants and members of free churches in Fulda.
Martin Grobauer, formerly a scholarship holder, successfully defended his doctoral thesis in theology at the University of Munich on 3 March. His thesis, entitled “The Devil in theological discourse: A systematic-theological examination in light of recent approaches”, was supervised by Prof. Dr Bertram Stubenrauch. Congratulations!
My name is Simeon Hemminger; I am a student of Protestant Theology in Tübingen. I am currently spending a semester abroad in Rome, and it was through the Roman Institute of the Görres Society, based there, that I first became aware of your Society. My main areas of focus within the Society will be history and philosophy, and I look forward to meeting the other members of the Roman Institute.
With his oral examination on 9 March, Chemnitz scholarship recipient Rev. Sebastian Grünbaum earned his doctorate in theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis (USA). The topic of his thesis, supervised by Dr Gerhard Bode, was ‘Studies in the reception of the Council of Trent in 16th-century Lutheranism as seen in the Eucharistic theology of Martin Chemnitz's Examen Concilii Tridentini’.
From 20 to 25 November 2026, the Roman Institute of the Görres Society is organising its fifth sponsors' trip to Rome. The occasion is the 25th International Festival of Church Music.
You are cordially invited to participate. If you are interested, please contact
The Roman Institute has, at the end of 2025, with 277 members continuously increased its membership share of the entire Görres Society within 14 years from 2.47 % to now 9.37 %, although the membership of the entire Görres Society is growing again (2021: 2.806; 2022: 2.840; 2023: 2.871; 2024: 2.908; 2025: 2.955). The strongest section of the Görres Society in terms of numbers is History. Most of the new members of the Roman Institute also join this section.
Ciro Amato (Naples, 1974) has a degree in clinical psychology and studies topics related to the history of natural medicine, with a particular focus on Saint Hildegard of Bingen. He obtained a PhD from the University of Naples Federico II, thanks to which he acquired scientific research methods, including in law; he also has a degree in law.
Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft
