Jim Moroney III
Homiletics Institute
University of Dallas
The Homiletics Institute at the University of Dallas (UD) is a partnership among the Diocese of Dallas, The Catholic Foundation of Dallas, and UD. The purpose of the Institute is to help improve preaching initially in the Diocese of Dallas and eventually to Catholic Dioceses throughout the United States.
Last summer, UD surveyed a very large percentage of the parishioners in the Diocese of Dallas and received over 3,000 completed surveys. Through this survey, two things were established: homilies are very important to over 85% of parishioners in the Dallas Diocese; parishioners gave an average grade of C+ to the homilies preached in their parishes. These two data points validated our concern that parishioners deeply desire to hear a good homily each Sunday and most of them were not getting one. It was proposed that a Homiletics Institute be established for the purpose of improving preaching in the Dallas Diocese.
With the support of Bishop Burns, The Catholic Foundation and the President and the Provost at UD, a campaign to raise $7.5 million was begun. To date, $3.9 million has been raised from the Campaign Committee and donors at large. The next phase of the campaign is to reach out to 80-100 Catholics in the Dallas Diocese who have been generous donors to Catholic causes in the past.
Small events are taking place at the parish level. An official announcement about the campaign will be announced to the Diocese this fall. The target is to raise the full $7.5 million by the end of the year.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed with UD which contains language describing the governance of the Institute and accountability milestones for the Institute. Also, a job description for the position of Director of the Institute has been agreed to with UD and is now posted.
We hope the Director of the Institute can be hired by the end of this year and that the programming for the Institute can be developed and be put in place by the spring of 2021.
Once the Institute is up and running, the focus will be on attracting priests from the Dallas Diocese who want instruction in how to improve the quality of their preaching.
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Jim Moroney is the Proprietor of Sixmilebridge Vineyards in Paso Robles, California. From September of 2013 to May of 2018, Jim served as chairman, president and CEO of A.H. Belo Corporation. From 2001 until 2018, Jim was Publisher and CEO of The Dallas Morning News.
He served on the A. H. Belo Board from 2013 until 2019.
Moroney was president and general manager of KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In January 1997, he was promoted to president of Belo’s Television Group, assuming responsibility for all of Belo’s television stations in 15 markets across the U.S. In June 1998, he was named executive vice president of Belo, with responsibility for finance, treasury and investor relations. From 1999 until 2001, Moroney served as the founding president of Belo Interactive, Inc. which assumed digital responsibility for all of Belo’s television stations and newspapers.
He currently serves on boards of The Associated Press, the State Fair of Texas, the Advisory Board of the College of Communications at the University of Texas and the Bishop’s Finance Council of the Diocese of Dallas.
In 2004, Editor & Publisher selected Moroney as Publisher of the Year for his accomplishments at The Dallas Morning News. In 2012, he received the Frank W. Mayborn Award from The Texas Daily Newspaper Association for Community Leadership.
Moroney has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.
Moroney and his wife Barbara have five children: Sean, Meagan, Kyle, and twins Callie and Jenny.
