Catholic home study program based in Virginia diocese marks 20th year

Published: 2003-11-26

LEESBURG, Va. (CNS) -- Catholic Distance University in the Arlington Diocese helps provide Catholic men and women the credentials they need "to present and defend the true Catholic faith," U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley said Nov. 22. "You don't need to convince me of the value of distance Catholic education," Archbishop Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said at a dinner in Leesburg to mark the 20th anniversary of the home study program. The university also helps form young people in the faith at a time when the church has a need for catechists, he said, because of a declining number of clergy and religious, fewer Catholic schools and dissent from "authentic Catholic teaching" by some theologians in "institutions which bear the name Catholic." The archbishop was the principal celebrant of an anniversary Mass for the university, which is based in Hamilton.

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