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The Catholic University of America, founded in 1887 by the U.S. Catholic bishops with the support of Pope Leo XIII, is the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States. Established as a graduate research center, the University began offering undergraduate education in 1904 and today is home to 12 schools and 21 research facilities. Catholic University is the only American university with ecclesiastical faculties granting canonical degrees in three disciplines.
University Motto: Deus Lux Mea Est. "God is My Light."
Academic Colors: Gold and white
Athletic Colors: Red and black
Accreditation: The Middle States Commission on Higher Education
Religious Affiliation: Catholic
Mission
As the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States, founded and sponsored by the bishops of the country with the approval of the Holy See, The Catholic University of America is committed to being a comprehensive Catholic and American institution of higher learning, faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ as handed on by the Church.
Dedicated to advancing the dialogue between faith and reason, The Catholic University of America seeks to discover and impart the truth through excellence in teaching and research, all in service to the Church, the nation, and the world.
Campus
Location: Washington, D.C.
Address: 620 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20064
Acres: 176
Major buildings: 50
Library volumes: 1.4 million
Students
Undergraduate: 2,929
Graduate: 2,130
Faculty
Full-Time: 377
Part-Time: 416
Full-time, with doctoral or terminal degrees: 83.8%
Full-time who teach undergraduates: 89.1%
Alumni
Living alumni: 90,000+
Alumni Location
Maryland: 22.12%
Virginia: 15.62%
Washington, D.C.: 7.44%
New York: 7.28%
Pennsylvania: 6.11%
New Jersey: 5.54%
Note: Alumni live in all 50 states and 130 foreign countries.
Geographic Reach
National
South Atlantic: 16.6%
South Central: 3.62%
Middle Atlantic: 53.76%
New England: 7.12%
North Central: 4.65%
Pacific and Mountain: 4.42%
International
Global students: 8.5%
Foreign countries represented: 46
Note: Figures on this page are current as of October 2019.
Athletics
NCAA Conference Memberships
The Cardinals compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III’s Landmark Conference and, in football, the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), as well as the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference (MARC) in rowing. The University is home to 25 varsity intercollegiate teams.
Women’s Varsity Sports
Basketball
Cross Country
Field Hockey
Golf
Lacrosse
Rowing
Soccer
Softball
Swimming and Diving
Tennis
Track and Field (indoor)
Track and Field (outdoor)
Volleyball
Men's Varsity Sports
Baseball
Basketball
Cross Country
Football
Golf
Lacrosse
Rowing
Soccer
Swimming and Diving
Tennis
Track and Field (indoor)
Track and Field (outdoor)
A Brief History of Catholic University
A Papal Charter
Established as a papally chartered graduate and research center, The Catholic University of America officially opened as an institution of higher education on Nov. 13, 1889.
The first discussion about a national Catholic university came up at a meeting of U.S. bishops — the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866. On Jan. 26, 1885, a committee appointed by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore chose the name The Catholic University of America.
New York and Philadelphia were considered as possible sites for the university, but the nation's capital, with its national symbolism and importance as a political center, ultimately was selected. Land was purchased adjacent to the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, which had been built for Civil War veterans. On April 10, 1887, Pope Leo XIII sent a letter to Cardinal James Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore, giving his formal approval for the founding of The Catholic University of America, and in 1887 the University was incorporated in the District of Columbia on 66 acres of land.
On May 24, 1888, the cornerstone for Caldwell Hall was laid with President Grover Cleveland as well as members of Congress and the U.S. Cabinet in attendance, and on March 7, 1889, Pope Leo XIII formally established Catholic University with his apostolic letter Magni Nobis Gaudii.
Bishop John J. Keane of Richmond, Va., was appointed rector of the fledgling institution, and when the University first opened for classes in November 1889, the curriculum consisted of lectures in mental and moral philosophy, English literature, the sacred scriptures, and the various branches of theology. At the end of the second term, lectures on canon law were added.
A New Type of University
At the time, the modern American university was still in its infancy. The Johns Hopkins University in 1876 had been the first in the country to dedicate itself not only to the preservation of learning and teaching, as American institutions had been doing since the establishment of Harvard College on an English model in 1636, but also to the advancement of knowledge through research in the manner of the Prussian universities of the 19th century. Very soon the conduct of research and the training of graduate students to carry it out became the hallmarks of university status. By developing in this pattern, Catholic University became the principal channel through which the modern university movement entered the American Catholic community. In 1900, Catholic University was among the 14 institutions offering instruction for the doctorate that formed the Association of American Universities, a group of leading research institutions. In 1904 undergraduate programs were added to the offerings of the University.
Catholic University Today
Today the private and coeducational university — committed to being a comprehensive Catholic and American institution of higher learning — has approximately 5,059 students – about 2,929 undergraduates and 2,130 graduate students — enrolled in 12 schools of architecture and planning, arts and sciences, business and economics, canon law, engineering, law, professional studies, music-drama-art, nursing, philosophy, social service, and theology and religious studies. All of the schools offer graduate degrees and/or professional degrees. Students choose from among more than 70 bachelor's programs, more than 100 master's programs and more than 60 doctoral programs.
The University continues to be the flagship Catholic educational institution in the United States and to maintain its unique status as the bishops' university. Under the bylaws of the University's Board of Trustees, the archbishop of Washington is ex officio the chancellor of the University. He serves as a liaison between the University and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as between the University and the Holy See. In addition, the Board of Trustees' bylaws stipulate that of the 48 elected members of the board, 24 are clerics, of whom at least 18 are members of the U.S. bishops' conference.
Catholic University is one of only three universities in the United States to have hosted the Pope on its campus and it is the only one to have done so three times — Pope John Paul II in 1979, Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, and Pope Francis in 2015. In the first two visits, the pontiff used the occasion of his visit to address educational leaders gathered from around the United States. In 2015, the Pope celebrated Mass on the East Portico of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in front of a congregation of 30,000 people gathered on the Catholic University Mall.
Since its founding, the University has been led by 15 presidents (earlier known as rectors). The current president, John Garvey, has been at the helm of the university since July 1, 2010.
Aims of the University
The Catholic University of America is a community of scholars, both faculty and students, set apart to discover, preserve and impart the truth in all its forms, with particular reference to the needs and opportunities of the nation.
As a university, it is essentially a free and autonomous center of study and an agency serving the needs of human society. It welcomes the collaboration of all scholars of good will who, through the process of study and reflection, contribute to these aims in an atmosphere of academic competence where freedom is fostered and where the only constraint upon truth is truth itself.
As a Catholic university, it desires to cultivate and impart an understanding of the Christian faith within the context of all forms of human inquiry and values. It seeks to ensure, in an institutional manner, the proper intellectual and academic witness to Christian inspiration in individuals and in the community, and to provide a place for continuing reflection, in the light of Christian faith, upon the growing treasure of human knowledge.
As a member of the American academic community, it accepts the standards and procedures of American institutions and seeks to achieve distinction within the academic world.
Faithful to the Christian message as it comes through the Church and faithful to its own national traditions, The Catholic University of America has unique responsibilities to be of service to Christian thought and education in the Catholic community as well as to serve the nation and the world.
Goals of the University
The Catholic University of America was founded in the name of the Catholic Church in the United States by Pope Leo XIII and the bishops of this country as a national institution of learning. Given its origins and the historic role of its ecclesiastical faculties, this University has a responsibility to the Church in the United States that is special to it: It is called to be an intellectual center of highest quality, where the relation between revealed truth and human truth can be examined in depth and with authority. It seeks, moreover, to do this in the light of the American experience. It is for this reason that, from its inception, the University has enjoyed a unique relationship with the Holy See and the entire Catholic community.
Established as a center for graduate study, The Catholic University of America has evolved into a modern American university, committed not only to graduate but also to undergraduate and professional education and to the cultivation of the arts. At every level, the University is dedicated to the advancement of learning and particularly to the development of knowledge in the light of Christian revelation, convinced that faith is consistent with reason and that theology and other religious studies themselves profit from the broader context of critical inquiry, experimentation and reflection.
The University aims at achieving and maintaining in higher education a leading place among Catholic and other privately endowed, research-oriented institutions of comparable size, purpose and tradition. In particular, it seeks to maintain a position of special excellence in the fields of theology, philosophy and canon law.
The Catholic University of America gives primacy to scholarship and scientific research and to the training of future scholars through its graduate programs, not only in order to advance scientific work but also because it recognizes that undergraduate and professional education of high quality also demands the presence of a faculty that combines teaching and professional activity with fundamental scholarship.
The University seeks the advancement of knowledge within a context of liberal studies, a context which reflects both its concern for the whole person and the distinctive wisdom to which it is heir as a Catholic institution. This dimension of learning is reflected particularly in its undergraduate programs where religious studies and philosophy are regarded as integral to curricula that include requirements in the arts and humanities, language and literature, and the natural and social sciences. Through its professional programs, the University seeks to educate men and women who can represent their respective professions with distinction and who are formed by the learning and values inherent in its academic and Catholic traditions.
In selecting disciplines or fields of specialization to be supported at an advanced level of study and research, the University accords priority to religious and philosophical studies and to those programs which advance the Catholic tradition of humanistic learning and which serve the contemporary and future needs of society and the Church. In supporting particular programs the University takes into account the present and potential quality of programs, making an effort to maintain present academic strengths, especially when these are not represented elsewhere.
The University recognizes that its distinctive character ultimately depends on the intellectual and moral quality of its members. To create an environment that is intellectually stimulating and characterized by the generosity and mutual support required for collegial life and personal growth, the University seeks men and women who are not only professionally competent but who also can contribute to its Catholic, moral and cultural milieu. The University seeks to preserve its tradition of collegial governance, fostering a climate within which all members of the University community have sufficient opportunities to influence deliberation and choice.
Though a research and teaching institution, the University recognizes that it is part of a larger community to which it has certain obligations consistent with its character. Its presence in the nation’s capital and its unique relationship with the Catholic Church in America provide it with opportunities for influencing the resolution of the crucial issues of our time. In providing information and criteria by which public policy is shaped and measured, the University seeks to be of special service to the nation. Similarly, it seeks to be of service to the Church, not only through the preparation of clergy and other leaders for specific roles in the Church, but also through factual investigations and discussions of principles which influence policy. Thus, in dialogue and cooperation with contemporary society, The Catholic University of America sees itself as faithful to the challenge proposed by the Second Vatican Council for institutions of higher learning, namely, to put forth every effort so that "the Christian mind may achieve . . . a public, persistent, and universal presence in the whole enterprise of advancing higher culture" (Gravissimum educationis, n. 10).
Academics
Catholic University has 12 schools:
School of Architecture and Planning
School of Arts and Sciences
Tim and Steph Busch School of Business
School of Canon Law
School of Engineering
Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art
Conway School of Nursing
Metropolitan School of Professional Studies
National Catholic School of Social Service
School of Theology and Religious Studies
University rectors and presidents
Bishop John J. Keane (1887–1896)
Bishop Thomas J. Conaty (1896–1903)
Bishop Denis J. O'Connell (1903–1909)
Bishop Thomas J. Shahan (1909–1927)
Bishop James Hugh Ryan (1928–1935)
Bishop Joseph M. Corrigan (1936–1942)
Bishop Patrick J. McCormick (1943–1953)
Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart (1953–1957)
Bishop William J. McDonald (1957–1967, last Rector)
Clarence C. Walton (1969–1978, first President)
Edmund D. Pellegrino (1978–1982)
William J. Byron (1982–1992)
Bishop David M. O'Connell (1998–2010)
John H. Garvey (2010–present)
