A Catholic University is a private university run by the Catholic Church or by Catholic organizations like religious institutes. Those with closer ties to the Holy See are called pontifical universities.
By definition, Canon Law states that "A catholic school is understood to be one which is under control of the competent ecclesiastical authority or of a public ecclesiastical juridical person, or one which in a written document is acknowledged as catholic by the ecclesiastical authority" (Can. 803). Although some schools are deemed "catholic" because of its identity and a great number of students enrolled are Catholics, it is also stipulated in Canon Law that "No school, even if it is in fact catholic, may bear the title 'catholic school' except by the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority" (Can. 803 ยง3).
According to the census of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, the total number of Catholic universities and higher education institutions around the world is 1,358. The Catholic religious order with the highest number of universities around the world is the Society of Jesus with 114.
Read more about Catholic University: List of Catholic Universities, Academic Ranking of Catholic Universities
Famous quotes containing the words catholic and/or university:
“You do not mean by mystery what a Catholic does. You mean an interesting uncertainty: the uncertainty ceasing interest ceases also.... But a Catholic by mystery means an incomprehensible certainty: without certainty, without formulation there is no interest;... the clearer the formulation the greater the interest.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“I had a classmate who fitted for college by the lamps of a lighthouse, which was more light, we think, than the University afforded.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)