The History and Mission of the Jegen Center
From 1961 until 1995 Mundelein Center for Religious Education (which became the Loyola Center) filled the need for media materials in religious education. In 1995 the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago generously donated the materials to the Archdiocesan Office for Catechesis (now the Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry). When we received the collections, they consisted of books, videos, audio-tapes, filmstrips, 16mm films, slides, reel-to-reel tapes and posters. ACTA Foundation gave a generous grant to be able to update the collection. At that time we increased the number of videos and added CDRom reference materials. Since then, we have sent the 16mm films, filmstrips, slides, audio-tapes and reel-to-reel tapes to the Archdiocesan Archives. We currently replace the videos with DVDs and have increased the CD collection.
With the move in December, 2009 to the Meyer Center at 3525 South Lake Parke Avenue, Chicago, we weeded out the materials that were not being used or that had a copyright date prior to the year 2000. At present the Jegen Center houses more than 3000 books, 1200 videos, 300 DVDs, and 200 CDs, available for use in parish and school programs of religious education and formation on all levels.
The Jegen Center Mission is simple: to share innovative, doctrinally sound, and varied tools and techniques to support catechesis for a lifetime of learning.