QU Receives Major Financial Boost From Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois

Quincy University has announced a $300,000 investment in the school’s financial recovery fundraising campaign from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. This gift is payable over five years and comes from an endowment established with the Foundation for the People of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.

“We are proud to have within our diocese an educational institution such as Quincy University. We are grateful to the Franciscans for their years of hard work and devotion to higher learning,” said Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, president of the Foundation. “The Endowment is making this pledge to help support the mission of the only Catholic university in this Diocese offering a regular academic program for full-time undergraduate students.”

This gift comes on the heels of a similar gift from the founders of Quincy University, the Franciscan Friars Sacred Heart Province.

“The Diocese of Springfield and the Franciscans from Sacred Heart Province have been blessed to be a part of each other’s lives for 159 years.  Bishop Paprocki and the priests and people of the Diocese of Springfield have now given the Franciscans a new reason to be grateful,” said Father Bill Spencer OFM, provincial minister of the Franciscan Friars Sacred

Heart Province. “Their generous pledge of financial support for Quincy University is not only much-needed but certainly most welcome.  We know that God expresses gratitude better than the best of us, but the Franciscans still need and want to speak our own heartfelt thank you.  God bless the Diocese of Springfield, its Bishop, its Priests and its People!”

The gift is a major step forward in the University’s $7M financial recovery fundraising campaign that began in November 2016. With this investment, the campaign is now nearly 60 precent towards its five-year goal.

“This commitment to QU’s Financial Recovery Initiative is the largest gift from the Diocese of Springfield in the University’s history. I am thrilled and deeply grateful for the support of Bishop Paprocki and his counselors,” said Dr. Robert Gervasi, president of Quincy University. “I have known the Bishop since his arrival in Springfield seven years ago, and as I now leave Quincy, I will cherish the memory of our friendship, among many others, in an even more special way.”

The Foundation for the People of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois was created in 1992 to further the religious, charitable, education and social ministries of the Church of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois and to receive and administer funds for religious, charitable, educational and social purposes for the benefit of the Diocese. The Foundation is a non-profit organization that is legally separate from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.

Founded in 1860 by Franciscan friars, Quincy University (www.quincy.edu) is a Catholic, co-educational, residential university offering undergraduate, graduate, and adult education programs that integrate liberal arts, active learning, practical experience, and Franciscan values. Quincy University’s intercollegiate sports are members of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference for men and women. For more information, please contact the Quincy University Office of Community Relations by calling (217) 228-5275.