May 13, 2013
Five U.S. Catholic cardinals and 650 guests gathered in Washington, D.C., Friday, May 10, for the 24th American Cardinals Dinner, held at the Washington Hilton. Nearly $1.7 million was raised at the dinner, a fundraising event for scholarships for The Catholic University of America.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, and John Garvey, President of The Catholic University of America, served as co-hosts for the dinner.
Prior to the dinner, Cardinal Wuerl was the principal celebrant and homilist at a 4 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. Visiting cardinals, bishops, and clergy concelebrated the Mass.
Three cardinals who currently serve as archbishops of U.S. dioceses and as members of the CUA Board of Trustees were at the Mass and dinner: Cardinal Wuerl; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York; and Cardinal Seán O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Boston. They were joined by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, and Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, and Most. Rev. Allen Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, were also among the honored guests. To read the biographies of these individuals, click here .
"I am grateful to all the donors who contributed to this scholarship fundraiser and to Cardinal Donald Wuerl for his commitment and leadership in this important endeavor," said President Garvey. "The sum we raised is the second largest in the 24-year history of the American Cardinals Dinner. The proceeds will enable us to help many students from throughout the United States to attend our university."
Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced Friday night that next year's American Cardinals Dinner will be held April 25 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Each year a different diocese or archdiocese hosts the black-tie event; this was the fourth time the dinner was held in Washington (the first dinner in 1989, the fifth dinner in 1994, and the 17th dinner in 2006). In recent years the dinner has been held in such cities as Phoenix, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco, and Chicago. Before Friday's dinner, the annual event had raised $28 million to support scholarships for Catholic University students.
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Founded in 1887 and located in the heart of Washington, D.C., The Catholic University of America is unique as the national university of the Catholic Church in America. The only U.S. university established by the nation's Catholic bishops, CUA marked a special chapter in its distinguished history on April 17, 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI addressed Catholic educators from around the nation on campus. The University opened as a graduate research institution; undergraduate programs were introduced in 1904. Today the private and coeducational campus has approximately 6,800 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in 13 schools of architecture and planning, arts and sciences, business and economics, canon law, engineering, law, library and information science, music, nursing, philosophy, professional studies, social service, and theology and religious studies.