The idea for CREDO grew out of the existing informal community that had developed around the past conferences on Economics and Catholic Social Thought  sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute located at the University of Chicago.  Over five years, a large group of economists and other thinkers had been involved and shown interest in these conferences, with a somewhat smaller core of regular participants.  The goal was to institutionalize this community in the hopes that it would grow and increase its outreach.  CREDO was established as a loose email list in the spring of 2013, and officially incorporated and founded in the summer of 2013.