The decision to create a Catholic University was made at the meeting of the Third Plenary Council of the American bishops in December 1884. This decision was heavily influenced by a gift of $300,000 offered for the purpose of creating a national Catholic university by Mary Gwendoline (known as “Mamie”) Caldwell, a friend of Bishop John Lancaster Spalding. Fortuitously for the US Catholic bishops in favor of creating a national Catholic university, the Pope at this time, Pope Leo XIII who served from 1878 to 1903 and whose statue is pictured here, was very interested in higher education and very receptive to the proposal. So, we can say that the Pope is the official founder of Catholic University!
In 1885 it was decided that Washington, DC would be the location of this new university because the bishops saw it as a common ground – neither north nor south nor west – but as co-founder John Lancaster Spalding put it, “common ground upon which we can all meet to establish a national institution.”
For the broader narrative, click here.