School With a Purpose

To some Roman Catholic bishops, Washington, D.C. seemed like a hotbed of sin and political skulduggery—no fit place to start a school for priests. But when Pope Leo XIII polled the whole U.S. hierarchy to find out where to build a Catholic University of America, wicked Washington won in a walk.

There were 40 priests in the first class in 1889. Today, after 59 years, coed "C.U."* stands out in scholarship among the 167 U.S. Catholic universities and colleges the way Notre Dame stands out in sports. Its enrollment is bulging: 4,182 students in winter, an even more influential summer school of 3,000 priests, nuns and teachers from all over the U.S. Last week the rector announced a $1,250,000 expansion of the 142-acre C.U. campus.

A Lot of Cash. By putting the emphasis on teaching teachers, Catholic University spread its spirit and methods to the education of almost every U.S. Catholic boy & girl. It was the first Catholic graduate school in the U.S., is still the only one authorized to teach canon law. And it has other claims to Catholic fame: it is the only Catholic college where all orders meet (the others are run by particular orders), and the only one subsidized by an annual hat-passing in every U.S. diocese (1947 take: more than $800,000). The' Pope authorized this collection in 1910 after a C.U. treasurer, a good Catholic but a bad businessman, jeopardized the university's credit in bad investments.

Catholic University is also the only U.S. university whose rector must be approved by the Pope. Last May, Pope Pius XII confirmed the Rt. Rev. Msgr: Patrick J. McCormick, 67, for his second five-year term. The tall, austere priest has taught at C.U. for 37 years.

A Lot of Converts. To Rector McCormick, the purpose of education is to teach students what life is all about—and at Catholic University, most answers have religious roots. Every Catholic undergraduate must take eight religion courses; even non-Catholics are required to take four. Says the registrar: "We have an awful lot of converts."

Since the war, philosophy has been No. 1 on the undergraduate hit parade (top lecturer: the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen). But C.U.'s most famed department is speech & drama (TIME, July 7, 1947), whose professional-looking amateur theatricals have found a backstairs to Broadway for such productions as Lute Song, The Song of Bernadette and Sing Out, Sweet Land!