Congregation for Catholic Education

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The Congregation for Catholic Education (in Seminaries and Institutes of Study) [Congregationis de Institutione Catholica quo ordo studiorum in Facultatibus Iuris Canonici innovatur] is the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for: (1) seminaries (except those regulated by the Congregations for the Evangelization of Peoples and for the Oriental Churches) and houses of formation of religious and secular institutes; (2) universities, faculties, institutes and higher schools of study, either ecclesial or civil dependent on ecclesial persons; and (3) schools and educational institutes depending on ecclesiastical authorities.

Pope Sixtus V created the forerunner of the Congregation in 1588, with the Constitution Immensa, to oversee the University of Rome La Sapienza and other notable universities of the time, including Bologna, Paris and Salamanca. Pope Leo XII, in 1824, created the Congregatio studiorum for educational institutions in the Papal States which, in 1870, began to oversee Catholic universities. Pope Saint Pius X confirmed this responsibility in 1908 and Pope Benedict XV erected in 1915 the section for seminaries (which existed within the Consistorial Congregation), joined to it the Congregatio studiorum, and called it Congregatio de Seminariis et Studiorum Universitatibus. In 1967, Pope Paul VI renamed it Sacra Congregatio pro institutione Catholica. The present name "Congregation for Catholic Education (in Seminaries and Institutes of Study)" derives from Pope John Paul's 1988 encyclical entitled Pastor Bonus. The congregation conducts apostolic visits to Catholic institutions and receives bishops during their quinquennial visits ad limina apostolorum, nominates rectors and the erects seminaries.