A History of Christendom College
Born from a Love for the Catholic Tradition.
Christendom Campus: 1982
A History of Christendom College – Born from a Love for the Catholic Tradition
Christendom College is a unique educational institution. Its purpose of imparting an authentic Christian education with emphasis on preparing the laity for their apostolic duties in modern society, distinguishes it from the majority of colleges existing today. The story of how the College came to be is no less unique.
December 1965 brought the close of the Second Vatican Council. Many in the Church were using the Council to promote all manner of heterodox teaching. September 1966: enter Triumph magazine, a plucky Catholic monthly of uncompromising orthodoxy. Founded by L. Brent Bozell and Frederick Wilhelmsen of the University of Dallas, Triumph sought to fill the need for a truly Catholic magazine of opinion in the United States. Its editorial policy placed emphasis on bringing Christ’s message to bear on the public order. Triumph counted among its contributors some of the finest Catholic intellectuals of the time: men like Sir Arnold Lunn, Charles Cardinal Journet, and Christopher Dawson. It was a journal of considerable intellectual acumen and moxie.
In 1973, recent convert Warren H. Carroll, holding a Columbia University Ph.D. in history, became a contributor to Triumph magazine. That same year Dr. Carroll took charge of the Christian Commonwealth Institute (CCI), an educational program held in Spain. The Institute, as well as Triumph magazine and a speaker’s bureau were sponsored by an umbrella organization, the Society for the Christian Commonwealth (SCC). Held at San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the Institute offered students a chance to study and experience the achievement of Christian culture first-hand. The palace of Escorial was a perfect setting for this kind of study. Built during the reign of Philip II, the complex included, in addition to the palace and monastery, a college, a royal mausoleum, a basilica, and a small town. It embodied the triumphant Catholic culture of 16th century Spain.
Those attending the CCI learned the joys of living as the Spanish do, with a siesta each afternoon and plenty of time for leisurely reflection. Once a week students went on day trips to nearby sites of interest, such as the town of Avila and the ‘Valley of the Fallen.’ Surrounded by this living Catholic culture, students received instruction in philosophy, Theology, and other disciplines from a Catholic perspective. Teachers came from all parts of Europe and America, many being contributors to Triumph. Along with their growth in wisdom and culture, students were encouraged to grow spiritually. Spiritual direction from a priest/faculty member, daily Mass, and weekly Benediction were all available.
These programs were held for six consecutive summers at El Escorial and out of these programs came many of the prime movers of Christendom College. There were about thirty students in each of the summer programs, with no more than 150 total for the whole six-year period. Most of them were young – college aged or in their late twenties. Three of the College’s first five founding faculty had attended one of these programs and future Christendom College President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell and his wife, Cathy, also were participants.
The CCI, under Dr. Carroll’s direction, held weekend institutes and forums in the States, as well, which consisted of lectures on Catholic history, politics, Theology, and philosophy. These forums were held at various parishes, and were promoted through Triumph and by word of mouth. One of the promoters of these weekend institutes was a man named Jack Ames, from Richmond, Virginia. Then-President of Virginia Right to Life (VRTL), Mr. Thomas McFadden, had met Mr. Ames at one of the VRTL meetings and Mr. McFadden encouraged Mr. Ames to form a chapter of VRTL in Richmond. Mr. Ames agreed, but only on condition that Mr. McFadden attend a CCI weekend in Hampton, Virginia.
At that weekend forum held in 1974, Mr. McFadden met Dr. Carroll, who was one of the presenters, and he encouraged Dr. Carroll to think about holding one of these forums in the Northern Virginia area, where Mr. McFadden believed there would be a bigger attendance. The forum, which was then held at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, and organized by Thomas and Olivia McFadden, ended up playing a crucial part in the founding of Christendom, for it was at that weekend forum where Dr. Carroll met many of the people who would end up being involved in the founding of the College, including two of the first Board members, Dr. Onalee McGraw and Dr. Sean O’Reilly.
The forum was so successful that the participants did not want it to end. As a result, Dr. Carroll set up a plan whereby he would give the participants a reading list and return to St. John’s once a month to lead discussions of the books. These monthly meetings were, again, so successful that everyone wanted more. Mr. McFadden, who knew that fellow parishioner Mr. William Dougherty was the administrator of a facility in Front Royal, Virginia, owned by the AFL-CIO, decided to organize a week-long “Family Institute” out in Front Royal. Mr. Dougherty generously agreed to let them use the facilities for free.
In the Summer of 1975, the McFaddens organized the first week long “Family Institute,” at the AFL-CIO property in Front Royal. Approximately 50 people attended – many of whom became the first families and supporters of Christendom College. Mrs. Anne Carroll, Dr. Carroll’s wife, organized educational and playful activities for the children during the day and the parents attended the lectures by Dr. Carroll, William Marshner, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, and others. The families stayed in the Quad, ate in the Regina Coeli building, and attended lectures and Mass in what is now St. Kilian’s Café.
At that “Family Institute” in 1975, publisher of Triumph, L. Brent Bozell, Jr., announced that the magazine was so deeply in debt that it couldn’t pay its printer and was ceasing publication. Although discouraged by this news, Dr. Carroll wanted to continue to keep the Christian Commonwealth Institute afloat, and continued to hold weekend seminars and forums.
The “Family Institute” was held, again in Front Royal, in the summer of 1976, with most of the same families attending. It was at this summer program in 1976 that Dr. Carroll announced his intention to found a Catholic college. The initial decision and plan to establish a college bearing the hallowed name of Christendom, with all its teaching based on the Catholic view of the universe, providing a liberal arts education equal in quality to any in the country, was Dr. Carroll’s alone. It was not the product of a committee, nor even of the creators of Triumph and the Society of the Christian Commonwealth.
He told the participants about some donors who had expressed interest in helping. Everyone was very excited about this new venture and the possibility of having an authentic Catholic college for their children to attend. It was at this “Family Institute” where Dr. Carroll began assembling the first Board of Directors for the non-existent Christendom Educational Corporation. As the last event of the week-long Institute, everyone took part in an outside rosary procession in honor of Our Lady of Fatima. Dr. Carroll told the group that the intention of that rosary that night was that they would find a site for Christendom College. Under the circumstances this seemed like a pipe dream to the group, but Dr. Carroll’s faith and sincerity were so powerful, everyone was compelled to go along with it.
Now that the plan for the College existed, Dr. Carroll desperately needed financial backing. He appealed to former Triumph subscribers and those who had attended the program in Spain. Then Miss Regina Graham of Maryland, a former CCI student, sent $5,000, as did, Mr. James Mooney of Ohio and Dr. Edgar Hull of Louisiana. Two others, Mr. John McCarty of Massachusetts, and Michael Sullivan of Maryland, also sent in generous donations at a crucial time.
Convinced by these and other donations that he had enough support, Dr. Carroll began looking for teachers. Using the contacts he had developed while working for Triumph and the CCI, he gathered four more members for his founding team: Kristin Popik Burns, Raymund P. O’Herron, Jeffrey A. Mirus, and William H. Marshner.
Dr. Carroll knew Kristin Burns (then Kristin Popik) from the Institute in Spain where she had taught philosophy for two years. Burns was a student of Prof. Frederick Wilhelmsen, one of Triumph’s founders, at the University of Dallas where he taught philosophy. After graduating from Dallas, Miss Popik received her Master’s degree in philosophy from Niagara University. Soon after, Dr. Carroll invited her to head the philosophy department at Christendom, and serve as the first Dean of Women. Later, she went on to receive her Ph.D. from the University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome, the first woman to be so honored.
Mr. Raymund O’Herron was the second member of the founding team. He met Dr. Carroll at a weekend forum sponsored by the SCC in February of 1975. In November of that same year, the two met again at another weekend forum where they had a chance to talk more. In January 1976, O'Herron expressed an interest to Dr. Carroll in teaching philosophy at a Catholic college. Dr. Carroll said he was going to start a college and asked O'Herron if he'd be interested in teaching. Warren Carroll’s wife, Anne, opened Seton high school in 1975, and then moved the school to Manassas, VA, in 1976, at which time O’Herron was given a position teaching there while assisting Dr. Carroll in setting up the college. When the college openend, O'Herron became Dean of Men and professor of philosophy.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Mirus, an historian educated at Princeton, was teaching at Pembroke State University in 1975. Dr. Carroll knew of him from Triumph, for which the latter had occasionally written. Frustrated with the lack of solid Catholic scholarship, Dr. Mirus began the quarterly journal, Faith and Reason, to provide a forum for the work of orthodox scholars in all fields. Dr. Carroll sent Dr. Mirus a prospectus on the College. Mirus thoroughly reviewed the plan and sent back his suggestions, and Dr. Carroll was impressed enough to ask Mirus to join the Board of Directors of the Corporation which was to launch the College – and, in time, a full-fledged publications apostolate as well. Mirus accepted and was later given a teaching position.
Dr. William Marshner was the last of the founding five. Dr. Carroll knew him from Triumph, where Dr. Marshner had been an assistant editor. Prior to this, he had done language studies at Yale and had attended the first CCI in Spain. In the Summer of 1973, Dr. Marshner went to work for the Catholic weekly, The Wanderer. Here, also, the two worked together. Carroll worked with The Wanderer setting up Wanderer Forum Weekends. Dr. Marshner was among the lecturers who regularly spoke at these functions. In 1975, Dr. Marshner went to the University of Dallas to do graduate work in philosophy under Dr. Wilhelmsen, but a shake-up in the administration made him decide to switch to Theology. After extensive study in that field, he was made head of the Theology Department at Christendom.
Christendom’s opening in 1977 was preceded by anxiety, prayers, and hope.
On September 3, 1976, the Christendom Educational Corporation was incorporated as a non-profit corporation under Virginia law, with Dr. Warren Carroll, Mrs. Anne Carroll, Dr. Onalee McGraw, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, and Dr. Sean O’Reilly as Directors. In November of 1976, it was announced that the College’s first campus would be on the property of St. Francis of Assisi parish in Triangle, Virginia. The first formal meeting of the Board of Trustees took place on January 29, 1977, at the home of the William and Onalee McGraw, in Virginia, where Onalee McGraw was unanimously elected first Chairwoman of the Board. On January 31, the Internal Revenue Service certified Christendom College as a tax exempt organization under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Recruitment for the College began and as of March 10, 1977, the Admissions Office had 19 students who had either made a commitment to enroll in September or were strongly leaning toward such a commitment, with 55 other prospective students who had expressed an interest in attending. The first student to be accepted to Christendom was Peter M. Westhoff from Colorado.
At the Board of Trustees meeting on May 21, 1977, Dr. Carroll reported that $52,000 (of the $80,000 that was estimated to be needed in order to open the College in September) had been raised to date and that revenues of over $115,000 were expected during the first academic year, and that the projected fundraising target for the upcoming year would be $100,000.
On August 1, 1977, the College’s lease of the St. Francis of Assisi campus began. The location in St. Francis of Assisi parish hall was not ideal because it lacked kitchen facilities and dormitories. The problem of the lack of dormitory space was remedied through the use of a local apartment complex, located three miles from the school. Transportation between the school and the dormitories was arranged through the use of a local elementary school bus.
The absence of a kitchen was remedied by construction. Mr. William Smyth, an early supporter of Christendom and former participant in the week-long Family Institutes who later joined the Board of Directors, quickly went to work and by opening day, the school had a functioning kitchen, in which Shirley Carosi, a parish volunteer, was the cook.
On September 11, the first students arrived on campus, with orientation on September 12, and registration on September 13. Bishop Thomas Welsh offered the opening year Mass on September 12 and blessed the building.
The school’s first day of class was on September 14, 1977 – the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. There were 26 students. Dr. Carroll had always said that he only needed 25 students to begin, so God seemed to have answered his prayers, plus one. There were five full-time professors (mentioned earlier), three part-time instructors (Theresa Gallagher, Dr. Sean O'Reilly, and Anthony Fussa), and two staff members – Sr. John Eudes, O.P., as librarian, and the cook, Shirley Carosi.
If any members of the first Christendom classes were expecting luxurious accommodations, they certainly did not find them. What they found, however, was something much better, something unique: a liberal arts education of high academic quality that was thoroughly, and unashamedly, Catholic.
The first 26 students were: Patricia Brady, Brian Broggi, Timothy Brown, Judy Bushong, Charles Buxton, Maria Cianflone, Joseph D’Ambrosio, Loretta Davison, Chris Foeckler, Daniel Foeckler, Bob Hambleton, Joe Hambleton, Patrick Hartnett, Eddie Henderson, Sheila Hobbs, Richard Kephart, Gerard Longtin, Peter Scheetz, Joseph Skube, Laura Spooner, Joseph Stuart, Mary Stuart, Ed Sullivan, Peter Westhoff, Alfred Leo White, and Christopher Zak.
In the Summer of 1978, the College realized that it would be unable to reach the quota of 40 students which were needed for financial stability. Through the assistance of Mr. George Bridgman of Minnesota, who ended up contributing $41,000 over the succeeding years, and with the aid of other donors, the school managed to survive on but 38 students.
With the lease expiring at St. Francis parish after the second year, Dr. Carroll and other members of the faculty began searching for a new location. Mr. Raymund O’Herron headed the search. The College wanted to stay in the Diocese of Arlington because it had the strong support of then-Bishop Thomas J. Welsh from its beginning. Moreover, it was through Bishop Welsh that Father Cornelius O’Brien, who was involved and aware of the College from its inception, became the first Chaplain.
Working with Mr. O’Herron, the real estate agency finally found a location – the AFL-CIO training camp in Front Royal, the same one where the Family Institutes were held in the Summers of 1975 and 1976. But the price seemed out of reach.
When Bishop Thomas Welsh heard how well this land and its buildings would meet the College’s needs, he made a telephone call to his friend, the highly respected retired Cardinal Archbishop O’Boyle of Washington. It happened that Cardinal O’Boyle was an old friend of George Meany, the President of the AFL-CIO and a faithful Catholic. Cardinal O’Boyle called Mr. Meany to put in a good word for Christendom College and to let him know that Christendom was a deserving Catholic undertaking and that he hoped Mr. Meany would lower the price to make it more affordable. And Mr. Meany lowered the price, by more than one-third, to $275,000. The required down payment of $75,000, although reasonable, also seemed out of reach. By unremitting effort, the College was able to raise $30,000 from its Board of Trustees, $35,000 from the De Rance Foundation, of the late Mr. Harry John, and $10,000 from readers of Christendom’s quarterly journal, Faith & Reason.
But the College was still left with the hefty mortgage, and no bank would risk loaning that amount of money to such an unstable organization. Mr. William Carrigan, a former Triumph donor, who had known and loved St. Padre Pio in Italy during the Second World War came to the rescue. In Dr. Carroll’s presence, he took out his checkbook and wrote out a check for the entire amount of the mortgage that made the land and the buildings the College’s. Without him and without what he did that day, Christendom College would not exist today. The deed for the campus bears George Meany’s signature. It was one of his last official acts as President of the AFL-CIO. The College closed on the property on April 6, 1979.
Over the years, Mr. Carrigan continued to loan the College large amounts of money for essential construction that no bank would risk on the College. When he died on November 30, 2000, he released the College from its debt to him. Our Lady of Fatima answered the prayers of those “Family Institute” attendees so many years before, and found them their property!
When the school opened in 1979, it was a totally new setting. The primary difference, however, was that the dormitories were on the school campus, which facilitated more student involvement in activities and the building of friendships. The new campus came complete with a pool, shuffleboard courts, an athletic field, dormitories, buildings which could be used for a library and a chapel, and the main building – an old hunting lodge – which was used for classes, dining, administrative, and entertainment purposes. Bishop Thomas Welsh offered the opening year Mass on the new campus on September 9, with concelebrants Fr. James Schall, S.J., Fr. Charles Ryan, Chaplain Fr. Cornelius O’Brien, Fr. John Munlie, and Msgr. Richard Burke.
The College held its first Commencement Exercises in May of 1980, where two graduates received their Bachelor of Arts degrees from Board Chairman Dr. Andrew Pepin – Miss Mary Stuart and Mr. Alfred Leo White – while Arlington Bishop Thomas J. Welsh delivered the Commencement Address.
In the Summer of 1979, the College purchased a private home across the street, and named it St. Teresa Hall, which was used for overflow space. Shortly thereafter, St. Augustine Hall – another private residence across the road – was purchased.
In the Fall, the College had 70 students enrolled. This was significant because the College was then able to raise academic standards and still maintain a substantial enrollment. That same academic year, there began a long effort on the part of the College to acquire and move to the Scaleby Estate, owned by Kenneth Gilpin – an estate which would have provided an opportunity for less expensive long-term development. By the first day of Summer in 1981, a student crew had been organized to go into Scaleby to make it ready for the 1981-82 academic year.
The crew worked the entire summer moving into Scaleby, in anticipation of local zoning approval for use of the 200-acred estate as a school. In what appeared to be one of the most unfortunate moments in the College’s short history, however, local opposition prevented the desired approval and the College was unable to open the 1981-82 academic year at the new location. But Dr. Carroll saw these interferences as blessings in disguise, for many immediate improvements to the property would have been required, which would have put a strain on the College’s limited finances.
Since it was now too late to begin any building projects for the Fall of 1981 in Front Royal, nine mobile homes were placed on the former soccer field: six for the women, one for Father Edward Berbusse, S.J. – the school’s first resident chaplain – and two for recreation. The men continued to live in Madonna Hall, affectionately called “The Quad.” In 1983, the College completed its first building project – a dormitory named St. Edmund Campion Hall – which was built under the supervision of Mr. Richard Seelbach, then-Director of Finance and Development.
The College's enrollment continued to grow, and in 1985, Dr. Carroll decided to step back from his position as President of the College, and focus solely on teaching history. Carroll remained on the faculty, serving as the Chairman of the History Department until his retirement at age 70 in 2002. He would continue to come to campus and present public lectures over the course of the next 6 years, as well as attend the College's annual St. Patrick's Day festivities where he would faithfully and enthusiastically read the “Irish Proclamation of 1916.” Additionally, Dr. Carroll remained a member of the Board of Directors and played an active role in helping to guide the College through the years. Dr. Carroll died on July 17, 2011, after a number of years of dealing with the effects of numerous strokes, and was buried on July 26, 2011, in a grave overlooking the Shenandoah River, behind the College's Regina Coeli Hall.
Dr. Damian Fedoryka, who had been involved in other institutions of higher learning, was chosen to be Carroll's succesor. During his seven years as President, Fedoryka achieved a number of great accomplishments. It was during his presidency that the College retired nearly $600,000 in debt without disrupting the growth and development of the College; constructed two dormitories, a library wing, and a chapel extension without adding any new debt; doubled the size of the campus through acquisition of the Foxes’ Earth property; publicized our College in the highest circles in the Vatican through several trips to Rome and personal audiences with Blessed Pope John Paul II; and guided the College to full accreditation by SACS in 1987.
Dr. Timothy O'Donnell became the College's third President in 1992. Dr. O’Donnell was the first layman to receive both his licentiate and doctoral degrees in Ascetical and Mystical Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. Concerned about the state of Catholic higher education in America, Dr. O’Donnell came to Christendom in 1985 as a professor, where he taught history and Theology, and served as the College's Vice President of Student Affairs.
Just prior to Dr. O’Donnell’s ascent to President, he had led a pilgrimage to Rome, in which Dr. Carroll participated. Near the end of the trip, the pilgrims were granted a private audience with the Holy Father, now-Blessed Pope John Paul II. The Vicar of Christ smiled upon Dr. Carroll and the group, and after Dr. O’Donnell introduced Dr. Carroll as the founder of Christendom College to the Holy Father, the Pope said to Dr. Carroll, “Christendom College has done a great work for the Church.”
Since 1992, under Dr. O’Donnell’s administration, the College has increased the number of buildings on campus to eighteen. The St. Lawrence Commons was built in 1994; the Chapel of Christ the King and St. Francis Hall men’s dormitory in 1995; the Regina Coeli Renovation in 1996; St. Benedict Hall in 1997; Crusader Memorial Gymnasium in 1998; St. Catherine of Siena Hall in 2000; the St. John the Evangelist Library in 2004; and the renovation of the old library into the Student Center and St. Kilian's Cafe in 2005.
In 1997, Christendom acquired the Notre Dame Institute and began offering Master of Arts degrees in Theological Studies, as well as both the Basic and Advanced Apostolic Catechetical Diplomas.
The Notre Dame Institute had been founded in 1969 in Middleburg, Virginia, by the Sisters of Notre Dame in Chardon, Ohio, and Msgr. Eugene Kevane, then Dean of the School of Education at the Catholic University of America. Originally, its purpose was to train religious sisters from various communities to teach Catholic doctrine to other teachers. In 1971, John Cardinal Wright, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, established the Notre Dame Institute as an official catechetical institute recognized and authorized by the Holy See. In 1982, the Bishop of Arlington entrusted the Institute with the educational training and pastoral formation of candidates for the permanent diaconate. In June 1994, the Institute relocated to its present facility in Alexandria, Virginia. Upon the recommendation of the Boards of both the Notre Dame Institute and Christendom College, the two institutions merged on February 1, 1997. The Notre Dame Institute became the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College.
During the first 15 years of Dr. O’Donnell’s tenure (1992-2007), the student enrollment increased 264% (144 to 524 including the graduate school), total financial assets increased 440%, and total plant costs increased 397%. As of July, 2011 – at the time of the death of the College’s founder, Dr. Warren Carroll – the College continues to do well, with an undergraduate student body of over 400 and over 100 graduate students enrolled. There are over 2600 alumni of the College, with 1483 of them having earned degrees. Additionally, there are 300 alumna-to-alumnus marriages and over 100 vocations to the priesthood or religious life (63 priests and 43 religious sisters and brothers).
Christendom has not been restored, and only God knows how much time must pass before it can be and will be. But Christendom College is here to stay, God willing. Through thirty-four years, it has survived every danger, both external and internal, and been justified above all by the responsive gratitude of its students and the special impact made by their knowledge and devotion and delight in their Faith and all that it means, wherever they go and whatever they do. For Christendom College, thirty-four years is only a beginning.