The Cardinal Foley Scholarship Fund supports education and living expenses of students from the Global South in Master and Postgraduate programmes in communication.

The fund is named in memory of Cardinal John Patrick Foley, former president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, honouring his enduring commitment to building the Church's competence in her communication involvement.

The scholarship fund addresses the need for adequate professional formation for those who will be responsible for the future development of the Church's mission in the field of communication. 

The objectives of the Cardinal Foley Scholarship Fund are to:

• qualify Africans and Asians who will have the capacity to provide proper formation for future Church communicators in local training institutes, communication (and theology) faculties and major seminaries;
• broaden the base of qualified priests, deacons, religious and lay people who are competent to further develop the communication ministry of the local churches. The fund especially supports the development of potential future national or regional communication coordinators.

The scholarship fund is coordinated and administered by CAMECO. The screening committee, which awards the scholarships, is currently composed of representatives of the:

• Dicastery for Communications,
• missio Aachen, 
• Institute of Missiology 
• USCCB Catholic Communication Campaign, 
• Renovabis.

Since 2012, 101 students received a Cardinal Foley Scholarship.

Priests, religious, permanent deacons and lay people, men and women, supported by their bishop and/or religious superior, and with a proven capacity (including practical experience) and interest in working in communications. The application needs to be presented by the respective Church authority. Applications sent by candidates themselves cannot be considered.

The application should be done entirely in digital format. No handwritten application will be accepted. You have to use the application form you find on our website. The budget should be filled-in using the Excel sheet which also must be downloaded from our website.

Graduate and postgraduate programmes in (pastoral) communications – both in southern continents and in Europe/North America. However, applicants are encouraged to seek adequate and relevant study opportunities close to home, and half of the scholarships are foreseen for post-graduate courses at universities in Africa, Asia or Oceania. Basic training (undergraduate studies) in communications cannot be supported and needs to be completed in the region of origin before submission of an application.

• Proven capacity and interest of the candidate towards working in communications – including basic (academic) training in the region of origin, and experience in working in and through media.
• Committed support from the local bishop or from the superior of any order/congregation of which the candidate is a member – and a confirmation from the Bishops’ Conference (and, if applicable, from the national communication coordinator) that the candidate’s further training will be of benefit to the local Church.
• A clear perspective of the candidate’s future task(s).
• A mutual (local Church and candidate) commitment to involve the candidate in the communication ministry for at least five years.
• There is no age limit for applicants. Preference will however be given to candidates that are able to use and further develop the obtained skills and knowledge for longer terms in their work for the local church – in leadership positions.
• We do not accept applications that have been written wholly or partially with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence tools (such as ChatGPT or Gemini). Applicants may use AI only for grammar correction, and any such use must be clearly stated, as applications will be reviewed using AI-detection tools. Please, note that using AI to draft content often results in similar responses, which limits our ability to understand each applicant’s unique perspective and may affect their chances of being selected.

The Screening Committee aims at a good balance of candidates, in terms of geographical origin, gender, and lay and priests/religious. It expects the selected candidates to achieve a high standard in their courses.

For further questions, please contact: scholarship@cameco.org

The amount of the scholarship grant will be determined according to the study fees of the university chosen, to reasonable adequate living costs, and to a fixed sum for expenses directly connected with studies.

For those selected, the screening committee will approve support for the entire duration of the academic programme to be attended.
Travel expenses to and from the place of study, pocket money as well as exceptionally high study fees and living costs are not financed by the Foley Fund. When applying for the scholarship, the candidate must verify that these expenses are covered by her/his diocese or congregation, or through their own resources.
The bursaries are paid in yearly instalments. Before a next instalment can be transferred, the candidates must present a progress report of their studies, giving evidence of the grades achieved, as well as presenting a statement from their tutor or professor.

Due to financial restrictions, the Cardinal Foley Scholarship Fund can only support scholarships of amounts between 5.000 and 15.000 EUR. The scholarship holder must provide a detailed and reasonable budget. Therefore, please consider choosing an institution within your own country or continent to keep costs low and reasonable. Such programs are likely already available and may also offer greater cultural awareness and relevance to your context.

A scholarship can be cancelled before its date of expiration, if serious violations of the conditions under which the scholarship has been granted have occurred.

Here you find the application form:

Here you find the budget form to add to your application:

Here you find a summary of the guidelines: