If it is November, it is Gala time! Since the first Gala was celebrated more than 30 years ago, we look forward to planning and celebrating the only event of the year that brings together many faces of a growing ecclesial family who form a community of faith inspired by the mission of Catholic Distance University to communicate the mind and heart of the Church in a digital world. We are graduates, faculty, administration, trustees and officers, Advisory Board members, bishops, benefactors, higher education leaders, collaborators, guests, pastors, priests, and honorees.
The 2019 Gala will be especially memorable as we reflect on the Church’s mission of the New Evangelization and how CDU embodies that mission in her identity as the first and only online Catholic university.
Our guiding vision is Pope Francis’ document, The Joy of the Gospel, published in 2013 at the conclusion of the Year of Faith. As Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Holy Father’s personal representative to the United States and 2019 recipient of the Founders Award, CDU’s highest honor, reminds us, the Holy Father has a dream of a Missionary Church that goes out into the world to foster an encounter with the love of Jesus Christ. The encounter with Jesus Christ is the work of the Church and the mission of CDU through theological education and adult faith formation programs that form disciples with hearts that seek an encounter with Jesus Christ.
The Diocese of Brooklyn will be honored with the Queenship of Mary award.
This new award celebrates the role of our Lady as catechist to the Apostles and
Patroness of CDU. Her Feast Day, August 22, celebrates Mary as Queen of
heaven and earth and was the day when CDU opened her doors to the world
in 1983.
CDU has worked with the Diocese of Brooklyn for more than 10 years
providing online education in English and Spanish to catechists and parish
volunteers. More recently through its Holy Spirit Institute, CDU provides
academic courses, degrees, and certificates in English and Spanish to educate
qualified leaders who serve in leadership positions as directors of religious
education, Catholic school teachers, and permanent deacons. The Diocese of
Brooklyn under the leadership of Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is the 5th largest
diocese in the United States, the only totally urban diocese in the Church,
and one of the most diverse with Masses offered every Sunday in 46 languages.
