The Catholic University of America is a pontifical and national university of the Catholic Church in the United States, founded in 1887 by the American Catholic bishops under a charter from Pope Leo XIII. Located in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C., adjacent to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, it offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs including canon law and theology. It is sponsored jointly by the U.S. bishops rather than being a subordinate office of any one diocese or conference.