Bringing Divine Mercy to the Catholic University of America

Divine Mercy University will relocate to the campus of the Catholic University of America in the summer of 2027. Father Charles Sikorsky, the university's president, made the announcement on August 12th, naming O'Boyle Hall — the current home of Catholic University's school of psychology — as the site now under renovation to receive the incoming institution.

The move is not a departure from an existing relationship so much as a consolidation of one already underway. As Father Sikorsky noted, Divine Mercy students already have access to Catholic University's clinical facilities: 'Students at Divine Mercy currently have the ability to work in Catholic University's Clinic.' The relocation to O'Boyle Hall, he said, 'will be a continuing and development in this relationship.'

What the move means institutionally

Divine Mercy University was founded on the conviction that sound psychological training and Catholic anthropology are not parallel tracks but a single integrated mission. That conviction finds a natural home at Catholic University of America, which holds a pontifical charter and serves as the only institution of higher education established by the U.S. Catholic bishops.

Sharing a campus with Catholic University's own psychology school means that Divine Mercy's graduate programs in counseling and psychology will operate in proximity to faculty, clinical resources, and an academic culture oriented by the same anthropological commitments. The clinical arrangement already in place — giving Divine Mercy students supervised hours at Catholic University's clinic — gives concrete shape to what 'integration' looks like on the ground: not a curriculum with theology electives appended, but shared formation spaces where training and practice reinforce each other.

The Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person, the integrative anthropological framework that grounds Divine Mercy's academic programs, holds that the human person is a unity of body and soul whose growth toward flourishing cannot be separated from the moral and spiritual dimensions of that growth.[^1] A campus context where that conviction is institutionally legible — rather than something each faculty member must argue for individually against a secular departmental default — changes the daily texture of formation for students and supervisors alike.

O'Boyle Hall and the renovation timeline

O'Boyle Hall sits within Catholic University's existing academic footprint, already organized around the behavioral and social sciences. Renovation is underway, and the summer 2027 target gives both institutions roughly a year to complete the physical transition. No enrollment disruption was announced; the implication of Father Sikorsky's remarks is that the transition is being planned as a continuation, not an interruption, of Divine Mercy's academic operations.

The choice of O'Boyle Hall carries its own significance. Cardinal Patrick O'Boyle, for whom the building is named, served as the first Archbishop of Washington and was a consistent advocate for Catholic institutional presence in American public life. Housing a graduate program explicitly committed to faith-integrated mental health training in that space connects the physical move to a longer story about what Catholic institutions are for.

A model for Catholic psychology education

The question of how to train mental health professionals within a coherent Catholic anthropology has occupied Catholic higher education for decades, with most programs navigating it through elective theology courses or optional spiritual direction rather than through integrated formation. Divine Mercy University's model treats the integration as structural: the CCMMP framework, developed by Paul Vitz, William Nordling, and Craig Steven Titus, provides the anthropological architecture within which clinical competencies are taught and practiced.[^1]

What the Catholic University move adds to that model is institutional density. Graduate students in counseling develop their clinical intuitions not only through coursework and supervision but through the full ecology of a training environment: who their peers are, what conversations happen in hallways, which questions are treated as serious. A campus where Catholic anthropology is the common grammar of multiple programs — rather than the distinctive property of one — makes that ecology more coherent.

Father Sikorsky's announcement did not frame the move as a merger or an absorption. Divine Mercy University retains its identity and its mission. What changes is the address, and with it the range of shared resources, the depth of the clinical partnership, and the institutional visibility of faith-integrated psychological training within American Catholic higher education.

For prospective students

Students considering Divine Mercy University's graduate programs in counseling and psychology should expect no change to admissions timelines or program structures as a result of the announced move. The summer 2027 relocation gives incoming cohorts beginning in fall 2026 one academic year at the current location before the transition to O'Boyle Hall. Prospective students interested in clinical training that takes Catholic anthropology seriously as a formative — not merely decorative — framework will find in the Catholic University campus a context that reinforces rather than merely tolerates that commitment.

The clinical access already available through Catholic University's clinic means that some of what the 2027 move formalizes is already operative. Students currently training in that clinical environment are, in effect, already participating in the integrated model the relocated campus will institutionalize.

References

[^1]: Paul C. Vitz, William Nordling, and Craig Steven Titus, A Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person: Integration of Psychology and Mental Health Practice (Sterling, VA: Divine Mercy University Press, 2020).