The COR IESU Academy was created by its founding members to provide access to the great Catholic intellectual tradition. It will also be an opportunity to discover the Christian tradition as it is lived today in the town of PARAY-LE-MONIAL, where the apparitions of the Sacred Heart took place nearly 400 years ago.

PARAY-LE-MONIAL has the capacity to become a recognized place for the intellectual and human formation of young people engaged in various fields of study on the faculties of Catholic universities in the United States and around the world.

To this end, the COR IESU Academy is a centre of learning, dialogue and cultural exchange. The main mission of the academy is to organise undergraduate and graduate study programmes in collaboration with Catholic universities from all over the world (including the USA). These programmes take the form of courses, academic conferences and seminars designed in partnership with institutions of higher learning, in order to transform the city of PARAY-LE-MONIAL and its region into a "classroom". The result would be a series of academic programmes that would allow university students and professors to enter the rich religious, cultural, historical, economic, political, social, literary, scientific and artistic heritage of the region.

The COR IESU Academy is in a unique position to work with Catholic and possibly non-Catholic universities and institutes. The latter will take advantage of the various resources of PARAY-LE-MONIAL, the department of SAONE-ET-LOIRE and the BOURGOGNE-FRANCHE-COMTE region, by establishing a network of contacts with universities, institutes of higher education, cultural and religious associations, economic bodies, political organisations, scientific and medical institutions, the local diocese and other religious communities, without this list being limitative.

These resources, together with the region's intrinsic multicultural links in Europe and the Mediterranean world, would enable the COR IESU Academy to offer opportunities to build "bridges of understanding" and promote learning links between students and teachers from diverse political, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.

The COR IESU Academy also exists to promote dialogue and cultural exchange, organising regular conferences, intellectual and professional training programmes with the city, the department and the diocese for the inhabitants of PARAY-LE- MONIAL and the surrounding region throughout the year.

The present preamble forms an integral part of the present statutes.