Catholic university coming to Valley

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
July 19, 2007

The University of the Incarnate Word, a school based in San Antonio, Texas, will be founding a Catholic university in the Phoenix Diocese.

The campus will bring “authentically Catholic higher education to Arizona,” said Fr. Bud Pelletier, the diocesan liaison for the project.

Work on bringing Incarnate Word to the Phoenix area began a year ago last April, when the city of Goodyear sent out requests for proposals to liberal arts universities.

Incarnate Word was selected as one of four schools to present its proposal to the city last October.

“We made a presentation and were instantly asked to come out to Goodyear,” said Cyndi Porter, project coordinator for the university.

She explained that the university — which will have Incarnate Word’s name, but be independent of the San Antonio campus — will come to Goodyear in phases.

The first phase includes building an admissions office and offering adult education classes in a host of disciplines, including marketing, management, information systems and human resources.

Classes will begin Aug. 21 at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear.

The second phase will be the building of Incarnate Word’s actual campus. The university and the city have agreed on allocating 30 acres of land for that purpose north of Goodyear’s new city center.

According to the agreement, Incarnate Word will have five years to produce a fully functional university.

Porter said fundraising will begin in the fall and expects to break ground in two to three years.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted welcomes the new university with “high hopes.”

“Pope John Paul II spoke of a Catholic university as coming from the ‘heart of the Church’ and serving a key role in her mission of evangelization,” the bishop said. “The pursuit of the truth in all fields of learning coincides and complements the mission of the diocese in searching for the truth and handing on the truth of Christ’s Revelation.”

Porter said the university would never have come to Goodyear without the bishop’s invitation and approval.

“That was the last piece of this,” she said. “Our plan is to incorporate the diocese in things like our campus ministry office.”

Fr. Pelletier outlined some requirements the bishop had before giving his blessing to the project.

Firstly was that in the fields of theology and morality, the university only employ professors who have sworn an oath to teach what the Church teaches.

Secondly, the bishop wanted a university that “is not Catholic in name only,” Fr. Pelletier said, and “that they have a living faith on campus.”

The bishop also had no desire to sit on the university’s board of directors.

“He has a responsibility as a bishop to bring the authentic Catholic faith to his people,” Fr. Pelletier explained. “As a board member he would be giving up that responsibility.”

Finally, the diocese made clear it was not interested in owning or operating the university, especially because the diocese wouldn’t be able to fund it.

“We will certainly assist them to understand fundraising in the diocese, but we don’t have a check to give them,” Fr. Pelletier said.

Even though the university will be independent of the diocese, both parties agree that the relationship will be close, and could become even closer as the years progress.

“I hope to be in regular communication with the students and staff, supportive of them in their Catholic identity and mission, and helping them to begin and grow in their peronsal faith and in the important mission of Catholic education,” the bishop said.