Faith and love receive most of the attention in discussions about what makes the Catholic university unique. A theme of hope in a recent pastoral letter by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin on the Catholic health care ministry, if applied to education, may provide another perspective on what makes, or could make, the Catholic university distinctive. This article first summarizes Bernardin's thinking about hope in the context of Catholic health care. Second, reference is made to what seems unique about hope in the Catholic tradition, and what hope can mean for Catholics today. The next section applies this understanding of hope to what we mean by a Catholic university, with the focus on undergraduate education. The last section begins to explore some practical implications of affirming hope as part of what makes a Catholic university distinctive.